new aspect, that of a memorial or symbol. Jesus Christ does not recommend the keeping of the Sabbath any more than fasting; He supposes both. The utility of these exercises would be overbalanced, would be absorbed, by the sentiment of self-righteousness, if it should mingle itself with our exercises: But, can not we separate the use from the abuse which corrupts it? We can oppose scarcely any thing to these practices, except the idea of Christian liberty; but in what respect does liberty suffer by an action entirely free? and if there is, int fasting, an appearance of humility which deceives, may there not be, in the suppression of fasting, a liberty which equally deceives?

We now see these things only through the abuse which has been made of them in the Romish Church; but is it through this medium that we ought to look at them? I admit that Massillon, in his sermon on fasting, presents this practice, and recommends it precisely in the sense in which St. Paul condemns it. We must avoid too special prescriptions, which destroy liberty; but liberty has been given to us in order to better obedience.

If it be admitted that bodily exercise, supposing it to be free and gratuitous, is generally useful, and even necessary to Christians, it were superfluous to insist much on its utility to pastors. It is, we may add, unnecessary, in any case, to inflict sufferings on ourselves; but we may refuse ourselves lawful enjoyments-even those simple enjoyments, the habitual privation of which would constitute a real injury, and be incompatible with our health.

We ought to remember, in a general way, that the body weighs us down; that by it we are connected with and belong to inert matter; that it is a weight we must throw overboard in order to save the ship. We must not forget that the body is likewise a slave who would be the master: The Christian should treat it with severity. But it is not an intermittent fast which we need; it is a continual fast, one of

'

every day, of the whole life. True fasting, the true askèse,* should be applied to the appetites of the mind as well as of the body. Curiosity, ambition, external activity, the desire of influence, the thirst for power, all these appetites, all these attractions, which would turn us out of our course, that is to say, in reality, make us change our course, are very strong and very difficult to vanquish. It is only love, and a holy enthusiasm for our profession, which can carry us through.

* Elsewhere M. Vinet wrote ascèse. See page 99.-Edit.

PART SECOND

RELATIVE OR SOCIAL LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

SOCIAL LIFE IN GENERAL.

WE are not now to treat of pastoral life in the direct and actual sense. We are to consider it in its relations to general society, regarded, however, from the stand-point and in the concerns of the ministry: not the office now, but only the duties.

In this view, however, it is the beginning, the nearer boundary of the ministry. The pastoral impress should show itself in these general relations. If the conduct of the pastor, in these general relations, does not announce him as pastor, it should at least correspond to this character. If we do not recognize him as a pastor, we should at least have no surprise on learning that he is one. Let this be his rule and measure.

It is important for a minister to keep a watch over himself in these social relations. He is a city set upon a hill. In the eyes of the world, he is the representative of Christian ideas, and the majority judge of Christianity by his example.* This, perhaps, will not excuse them, but it involves him in a high responsibility.

* "The people of this world," says Massillon, "regard our life as the reality and the just abatement to which they must adhere." (A passage already cited, page 69.)

The minister is the official Christian; he is a symbolic man. He is so at all times. Those, then, who are not tempted to judge of Christianity by him, will judge him by the Christianity he preaches. In reality, these two things are not alternatives; they both exist. We shall be judged by Christianity, and Christianity by us. We shall not think ourselves obliged to do better, or to be more useful than the pastor; and, on the other hand, we require him to be as perfect as his doctrine. We expect him to be the same when we see and when we hear him. And every one knows very well what he ought to be, for every one knows what a Christian ought to be. And if every one applied to himself the rule which he applies to the pastor, every one would be a model. Men are apt to frame the most exquisite morality as the measure of what is due from their neighbors, and the most relaxed morality as the measure of what is due from themselves. From these two perils the pastor would be tempted to despair, if he did not seek strength from a higher source than the world and himself. The world does more than judge; it binds the pastor to a certain mode of life. Its claims seem to be contradictory. It would seem to require the pastor to be perfect, and to be, at the same time, like other men. * But we may be certain that it knows what the pastor may and ought to be. It is difficult to the minister, as well as to the Christian, to be agreeable to every one; and we should never forget the Scripture, "Woe to you when all men shall speak well of you!"-Luke, vi., 26. But it is possible for him to render himself approved of every one. He may say to the world with St. Paul, "We are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences." -2 Cor., v., 11. In one sense he must seek this approbation : "A pastor," says St. Paul, "must have a good report of those who are without" (1 Tim., iii., 7); with

* Isaiah, xxx., 10; Matt., xi., 27. "We have piped unto you, and you have not danced; we have mourned, and you have not lamented."

stronger reason, doubtless, of those who are in the Church. Thus the approbation of the world, as to all that of which the world can judge, is a thing which the minister must seek, and which he may obtain.

It is at once useful and encouraging to a minister to bear this in mind, while prescribing it to himself as an end and as a supreme rule, "to render himself approved of God" (2 Tim., ii., 15), and while he is preparing himself to say to the world, when it condemns him for what it does not understand, "With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you, or of man's judgment of man" (1 Cor., iv., 3); "If I seek to please men, I shall not be the servant of Christ."—Gal., i., 10. If severe consistency is honored even in evil, much more will it be in good. The condemnation of the world for our acts of fidelity never hurts us, never exposes us to contempt. There is a glory in this reproach, while all worldly complaisance or concession weakens, in every sense, our ministry, and draws reproach upon us.

Let us now see what are the principal traits under which the minister ought to exhibit himself in the general relations of society.

§ 1. Gravity.

This quality makes a part of the relative life. "A bishop must be grave." -1 Tim., iii., 2. This, as St. Paul says, is one of the first things; it is the first, as the world says. Our translators employ the words grave and gravity to render,

Kóoμos (1 Tim., iii., 2), translated by Luther, sittig; by De Wette, anstændig; and by the English, of good behavior. Zeuvós (1 Tim., iii., 11, in speaking of the pastor's wife), translated by Luther and De Wette, ehrbar; and by the English, grave.

Zeμvórns (Tit., xi., 7), translated by Luther, ehrbarkeit; by De Wette, würde; and by the English, gravity.