GENERAL ACTIVITY.

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belonging to this class: He may say many things most pertinent to their state at the inquirers' meeting, where he will be sure to find them as long as it is proper that they should attend it: But this time may be short; and, moreover, they will need instruction, which would be out of place at the meeting for inquiry. The advantages to the new converts, from the general influence and character of the season of special interest, are of the highest value; but they do not supersede the necessity for specific counsels and admonitions which they are prepared to appreciate, and which, on their tender and susceptible souls, may stamp an impression of sacredness and spirituality, of wisdom and prudence, of zeal and devotedness, which may be constantly reappearing throughout their whole career of sanctification to guard them against excesses and errors, and secure to them a symmetrical and complete development of the Christian life and character.

In yet another mode will the pastor's care be now employed The evangelic life, both in the pastor and the flock, is, if we may so speak, a Christ-life—a life which, through an infinite sacrifice, entering into our fallen humanity, seeks its renewal in all individuals of the race whom its influence reaches And as it is a life of the reason and the spirit-a life of intelligent love-a life of moral freedom, that guides itself, not by instinct or blind impulse, but by laws, ordinances, and arrangements of wisdom and prudence (Eph., i., 8), it has in this flock a system of action, a scheme or settled mode of operation; and that mode is one which prescribes to the entire flock a variety of labors and exertions, according to their respective measures of ability. To this flock, including their pastor, the words of St. Paul (Rom., xii., 6, 7, 8) are applicable: "Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering or he that teacheth, on teaching or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth,

let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness." This flock, in a word, is a company of souls whom the Lord has gathered to himself as so many instruments through which his own mighty life of recovering and saving virtue may flow forth into the world, into the parts nearest in the first place, and then more remotely. And now that they have received a new and fresh baptism of the divine influence, what movements of it must there be from within themselves outward upon others who are round about them? The pastor is over..seer and director of these movements, and in them all his activity, directly or indirectly, reveals itself, controlling, correcting, animating, restraining, regulating all, according as particular needs and exigences may require,in the exercise of that authority and control which pertain to his office as pastor. This flock, with their pastor, as, at the same time, ruler and chief worker, is an organized association, endued with power from above, which it is exerting in various forms and through all its officers and members, for the increase of itself and of the Church, by acquisitions from the world: It is, in short, a true Christian and apostolical system of agency for recovering and saving mankind in active and energetic operation; all the parts fulfilling their proper functions, and contributing to the efficiency and influence of the whole. Many conferences are held, many plans are devised, many works are carried on, all having the same purpose, the furtherance of the Gospel, the diffusion of the Christian life and spirit, and all under the superintendence and direction of the pastor.

We have thus delineated what appears to us to be in general (not universally, nor without variations, according to circumstances, in every case) a suitable course as to the care of souls, in its application, first, to a state of special declension, and then to a state of special interest in the religious life of the flock Now this latter state is but the true, the normal

STABILITY.

329 state of the flock-a state in which the flock should remain, advancing more and more, exerting itself more and more to the last; and it can not but be that the pastor, if he retains his just state and position, should be always seeking to keep his flock in theirs, and to this end always exercising appropriately the care of souls: He will not vary his pastoral activity on the principle that a change, another declension, is, as a matter of course, to take place; he will rather proceed on the opposite principle, so arranging his plans, so pursuing his measures, so adapting his modes of influence and operation, direct and indirect-in a word, so ordering and exercising the work of the ministry in all its parts as to make it instrumental, if possible, of perpetuating and promoting the existing state of his flock. And as, from time to time, he strives to renew, to consolidate (Bɛbaíav noiet̃olat) his vocation as a pastor, so he will have recourse to means for confirming, establishing his flock in that grace, that spiritual prosperity in which it now finds itself: In order to this, he will probably appoint days for special prayer and fasting, and will devote much thought and time to self-preparation for the proper observance of them : He will not allow himself to look forward to another declension, except to pray and strive against it, and, by every means he can legitimately use, to prevent its occurrence, to render its occurrence a moral impossibility: He will feel that a declension would be an iniquity, an enormity; that it can not come but by means of sin; that Heaven is against it; that if it does come, a curse will come with it; and that if its futurition does, indeed, enter into the divine plan, it does so only because, according to that plan, one evil thing shall be punished by another, in order to prevent greater evil on the whole.]

PART FOURTH.

ADMINISTRATIVE OR OFFICIAL LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

DISCIPLINE.*

THIS word is almost without meaning in our ecclesiastical institutions, or, rather, in the character which the times have given them. Discipline is to ecclesiastical order what police is to civil order; but the citizen, whether he will or not, is subject to the law: Not thus with a member of the Church; and since the law of the Church has no longer the sanction of opinion, we may say that it is law no longer. The execution of disciplinary penalties has no longer a civil guarantee or external consequences. Thus the external sanction supplies nothing to the internal; in a word, discipline has nothing to rest upon. Nothing of discipline remains except what the pastor, as an individual, exercises, and what others, as individuals, are willing to accept; and we must, indeed, allow, that what little remains in these circumstances of complete freedom from compulsion is excellent in proportion as it is small.

We can not but call the attention of ministers to a peril, of which some among them have no suspicion. The remonstrances or reproofs which are a part of pastoral discipline are much more easily dispensed to the poor and the *See BENGEL: Pensées, ◊ 36.

weak than to the rich and great. We are tempted to bear heavily on some that we may press lightly on others. This is not equal. And the pastor is worthy of his mission only when he makes his authority to be felt alike by all souls, which to him are no more than souls. We must not hence conclude, however, that no difference should be observed as to manner and form. The same means have a different influence, according to the persons to which they are applied, and, with the design of maintaining equality, we may treat souls with much inequality.

The

Excommunication, properly speaking, can have no place in a Church which is strictly the Church of every one. communicants themselves are the only judges. They must take care for themselves that they do not eat and drink condemnation to themselves at the table of Jesus Christ. When the Church belongs to the state, and when the severities of discipline are by general consent dispensed with, we can not dream of exercising it, at least of restoring it in its essential character, which is possible only in another state of things. The duty of the pastor is both to debar from the Lord's Supper, by private representations, the persons whom he may judge unprepared to partake of this sacred repast without danger, and to admonish them collectively from the high place of the pulpit. The same rule, and no other, applies to the officials.