CHAPTER IV.

THE PASTOR IN HIS RELATIONS TO AUTHORITIES.* FIRST, to ecclesiastical authority, of which the pastor is a partaker. It is his duty to give his aid diligently at the assemblies of his order, to take a serious part in their deliberations, and to contribute, according to his ability, in rendering them serious.

We should beware of discussing the small questions which abound in these assemblies with the amplitude, gravity, and vivacity which belong only to great ones. There is danger, in conferences composed of ecclesiastics, of forming the habit of treating mere nothings with gravity, and of striving about distinctions of words. The esprit de corps is more natural in these assemblies than in any others; and the esprit clérical, a singular thing, finds here the more aliment in proportion as the questions which are discussed are less directly and less seriously religious. We must learn, especially if we are young, how to give place to time; and that very often the conservation of peace is of more value than all the advanta ges which may result from the triumph of our opinion.

Mutual discipline is a delicate matter. In all ecclesiastical constitutions it is laid down as a principle, but I should be happy to know where it is seriously practiced. It extends, in its just idea, from advice and admonition to the most penal, most positive, and most severe measures. But in the majority of ecclesiastical bodies it is never realized, except in that last and severe extremity, in which we may say it has small moral efficacy. I know not how far it may depend on

* See BENGEL: Pensées, ◊ 44. It is inserted in the Appendix, note L, Les Pensées de Bengel, often cited in this course.

the jurés to raise above its actual level the beautiful institution of church visits; but I think that whatever can be done to encourage mutual frankness should be put in requisition both by the pastor who visits a church and by him who governs it. We are all, however, the jurés and others, bound to confer with one another in a charitable and humble spirit as to what may be respectively useful to us, and of what, very often, we ourselves are ignorant, to our great disadvantage, though it is known to all the world besides.

In our relations to the civil or municipal authority, to the state and the community, let us never forget that we are something more than functionaries of the republic, and that we are by no means amenable to the magistrate as to what concerns the essential purpose of our ministry--the teaching of the truth. But let us beware of replacing authority by pride, and let us carefully shun that bad way into which so many ministers fall, of affecting, in their relations to the authority, a spirit of discontent, of censure, and of grumbling. It would be extremely unhappy if the people should learn of us what so many learn from them, disapprobation à priori, the anticipation of blame as to every thing in which power is to be recognized. Servility is not more unworthy of our character than this ridiculous hostility. Besides, our relations to the political authority have nothing of politics. We are, in a certain sense, amenable to the state; but we are not state officers, and the business of the state is not ours. In a time of political fermentation or revolution, we have no other mission than that of tranquillizing the minds of men by proposing to them those great truths which, though they do not nullify worldly interests, at least subordinate all our proceedings to the grand interest of the soul and of eternity.

* The jurés in the established Church of the Canton de Vaud are inspectors appointed by the classes, or pastoral assemblies, to take the oversight of a certain number of parishes, and charged to visit them periodically.-Edit.

I do not mean that the pastor should feign himself ignorant of the occupations, the dangers, the fears, the prospects of the country; but the contests of opinion do not concern him; he has no part to take but that of obedience to the law as long as the law exists, and, in all cases, the part of the country and of national independence. The occasions are very rare on which the pulpit may address citizens as such, and preach to them on the actual duties which pertain to them in this character.

In general, we think we ought to counsel ecclesiastics, especially such as have the care of souls, to hold no place in political or municipal bodies. We have examined this point. elsewhere.

In the administrative part of his functions, the pastor should leave nothing to be desired in respect to exactitude and punctuality. The less of taste he has for those details for which a man of his profession is bound, in fact, to have no taste, the more should he guard himself against either delaying or neglecting any thing; and it is his duty to study carefully, in their letter and in their spirit, all those institutions, all those laws and regulations which have any relation to the exercise of his functions. A pastor who would be useful, though in a spiritual respect only, should have exact knowledge and intimate acquaintance with his country, his people, and whatever, even in a material point of view, is important to the welfare of society and each of the classes which compose it.

Something might be added in relation to the laws, to the execution of which the pastor should lend his influence, and to the measures which he should use to that end.

APPENDIX.

NOTE A, page 25.

The Nature of the Priest's Office.

"THE priesthood, it is true, is accomplished on earth, but is, never. theless, justly placed in the rank of celestial things. In fact, no man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor created power, but the Paraclete himself, has instituted this office, and chosen beings yet living in the flesh to fulfill the ministry of angels. Hence, the priest, regarding himself as established in heaven, even among the superior powers there, ought to be as pure as they. The economy which preceded that of grace was doubtless venerable and full of holy dread: Let us bring before our minds those precious stones on the priest's breastplate and shoulders; that mitre, that tunic, those golden plates, that holy of holies, that profound silence in the inner temple. And yet, comparing all these things with those of the Gospel, their glory is effaced-they appear mean. When you contemplate the Lord him. self immolated and lying before you, the priest bent over the victim, and praying for all, and all sprinkled with most precious blood, believe ye that ye are yet among men? believe ye that ye are on the earth? Are ye not borne away suddenly to heaven? and then, away from every carnal thought, behold ye not heavenly things directly, and in their pureness? Who, unless he be profoundly insensate, can disregard so awful a mystery? And know ye not that no soul of man could ever bear the fire of this sacrifice; that it would devour all who should approach it, unless God himself should intervene with the powerful support of his grace? Represent to yourselves the man