APPENDIX. 367 the faults of this mode of worship many times multiplied. What could compensate the Church for the loss of all that benefit which she has received and is to receive from the exercise of the gift of prayer in public, on the part of holy men filled with faith and the Holy Ghost, and furnished by him specifically for the performance of this important part of divine service? We add, thirdly, that if free prayer be imperfect, the door to perfection is open to it; whereas the Liturgy must not be changed, while the need of a change in some things is, by many who use it, admitted and deplored. The character of free prayer will vary, of course, with the various gifts and graces of ministers, and the various measures of aid afforded them by the Spirit at the time of prayer, and there may, of course, be instances in which the faults of performance will be unusually great; but not to insist that the reading of the Liturgy may vary with the reader's gifts, so that, in some instances, the faults of performance may be almost equivalent to faults in the Liturgy itself, the absolute uniformity of liturgical worship may be more hurtful, as we believe it to be in fact, than all the faults which are incidental to the other mode, and which, we should not forget, may, to a great extent, be corrected by general proficiency in piety, and by suitable pains directed particularly to that end. It is inconsistent with the idea of free prayer to be directly studious as to either expression, or order, or thought at the time of offering it; but there is a way of making proficiency in the exercise of this gift, and a minister who neglects the cultivation of it disregards the charge of the apostle (1 Tim., iv., 15), in regard, at least, to one part of his work, and one of no inferior importance. We have not meant to say, we do not think, that the spirit of life and liberty in prayer can make no use of forms. In its full realization, it is indeed above all forms; but in its inferior spheres it may sometimes serve itself of forms with great advantage; and in such a Liturgy as that, for example, which is used by Episcopalians, the best extant, it may, occasionally at least, find itself much more in its proper element than in free prayer itself, as it is too often performed. In conclusion, let us say that while we have no desire that litur gical worship should be abolished; while we suppose it probable that worship in the Christian Church, on the whole, is better than it would be if this mode of worship formed no part of it, we can not but lament that any denomination which prefers this mode should not combine free prayer with it, and give its ministers some degree of liberty in regard to it: And that, on the other hand, we greatly regret to see, in the denominations in which free prayer has been conscientiously preferred, any dissatisfaction with it on account of the faults which are incidental to it, and any appearance of a desire to introduce forms. NOTE K, p. 231. On the Use of the Catechism. "DECLENSION in the Christian faith has had no more direct cause, no more evident symptom, than the absolute substitution of the Catechism for the Bible in the religious instruction of children: And the revival of Christianity in Protestant countries has, on the whole, been produced and characterized by the preference given to the Bible above the Catechism, not to the exclusion of the Catechism, but limiting it to its only reasonable use, which is to supply the reader of the Bible with a summary of biblical truth. When the Bible shall have its place in the religious instruction of children, there must needs be a revision of the Catechism; and he only will perform this office well who shall have taught Christianity first from the Bible: And we think we may guarantee that this kind of manual will then be conceived and prepared differently from the best of those which have been hitherto in use. But what is of the greatest urgency, is to bring those poor children to the fountain, and also to let them drink at it, who, until now, have had administered unto them drop by drop, as if it were a medical potion, the water of life, which, by its passage through such long and old tubes of human manufacture, has been rendered insipid, and has even become corrupt. "After it shall be discovered that many Catechisms which have been authorized and consecrated by long use were made in violation of APPENDIX. 369 logic and common sense, presenting the Christian doctrines in an incoherent state, which destroyed their true meaning, and in a state of contradiction, wherein some are made to annul others; in brief, after Catechisms shall have been made as good as possible, it will be no less necessary to remove them from the place which they have usurped, and to make holy Scripture the chief Catechism. But it does not hence follow that we are to put the Bible into the hands of children; this would be neither useful nor proper. And the idea has hence occurred of extracting textually every thing which it is necessary to know in order to be a Christian; that is, to extract from the Bible whatever is intelligible to a child. This, in fact, is the plan on which this divine Book has been conceived: It is a river, we are told, in which an elephant may swim, and a ford which a child may cross without drowning. The question is not whether we shall swim or walk, but whether we shall get across; and the child must cross as well as the adult. Now, to become a Christian, or, according to the expression of the Gospel, to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we must return to infancy-we must become a child. I admit that the infancy must be à voluntary one, and that it is only as such that it is of any value or utility; even a child himself is not a true Christian until he has ceased to be a child in the proper sense of the word; he must become one of choice and of reason; but it is nevertheless true that, in order to become a Christian, we must accept the verities of the Bible in the sense and in the simplicity in which a child apprehends them."-A. VIÑET: Article sur L'Histoire Sainte, extraite de le Bible, par M. MOREL. NOTE L, page 339. Thoughts of Bengel upon the Exercise of the Ministry. Taken from his Life by Burk: Pamphlet published by M. Vinet in 1842. I. "A PASTOR should be divinely assured in respect to his occupation-that is to say, his vocation to the ministry of reconciliation, as well as in respect to the truths which he preaches; he should be able to produce the certificate of his spiritual birth; he should be firmly resolved to promote the glory of God; to live for Christ, and to serve him; to gain heaven for himself, and for many others with him. II. "A pastor should give himself entirely up to his work; should throw himself bravely into the midst of the conflict; and, whatever may happen, should never allow himself to be cast down. In order to this, he must consider: 1. "That the third Sunday after Trinity has never passed without having given occasion for joy in heaven over a sinner gained by the preaching of the Gospel; and that this single grain of wheat, even after a long delay, is for him who gathers it a rare refreshment. 2. "That crosses in life help us to know ourselves better, humble us before God, and make us pray with greater fervor for the manifestation of that Spirit, before whom doubt is silent and quieted. 3. "That those who have received, who believe, who publish the message of grace, have no less need than others of the patience of God. How long has he to wait before they produce any thing in conformity with his will? How much wisdom from him is necessary in order to extract any thing good from so much weakness and so much impurity? And shall they themselves be impatient? 4. "That it is not the pastor's fault if he be born in a disastrous time in which it is very difficult to do good; in a time when injustice having trampled upon the weak, and devoured the substance of the poor, it is no wonder if his preaching remains without fruit; in a time when authority itself, though recognizing the evil, hardly takes the trouble to remedy it, and sees, without dismay, the great crushing the weak. 5. "That God (Ezek., ix., 4) set a mark upon the foreheads of all those who deplored the prevalence of public sins, that they might prevent the chastisement which was coming. 6. "That a pastor is strengthened by what others achieve for the kingdom of God, when he humbly rejoices over the good which has been done without him. He thus makes the works of others his own, while he escapes the danger of self-complacency. 7. "That even when souls are not positively gained by truly evan APPENDIX. 371 gelical preaching, they are, nevertheless, somewhat softened and prepared by the clear knowledge of spiritual things. H. Franeke testified, after long experience, that the parishioners of a courageous pastor are always in the end more tractable and gentle. "When God grants a richer harvest to a pastor, it does not always follow that this pastor is more acceptable to him than others. Surgeons have various instruments: some they use daily, others very rarely, and only for particular cases: They do not prefer one of these instruments to the others. It is only the last stroke of the axe which fells the tree; but if one man gives fifty strokes, another thirty, a last only two, who can tell which of the wood-cutters has been most useful, and which blow most contributed to prostrate the tree? It is thus in regard to the work which is accomplished in souls. III. "A pastor should be like the hen who takes her chickens under her wings, and sometimes even lets them mount upon her back. We can not force confidence and freedom; charity alone can call them forth Friendly intercourse often does more good than much reasoning and many sermons. When heated by the sun, the traveler spontaneously unbuttons his coat. A single pigeon that voluntarily enters the pigeon-house, is worth more than a great number which have been forced to enter. It would be well for all if the habit of familiarly asking questions and friendly conversation prevailed. I believe that this might be successful even with the unconverted. IV. "The pastor should not altogether avoid intercourse with the people of the world; but he should guard himself against partaking of their sins. By bearing witness, in our familiar intercourse, to the same truths which we solemnly teach from the pulpit, the mind receives more impression than it allows us to perceive. Many of the seeds we sow are lost, but still something remains. When it snows, and the ground is wet, the snow, as it falls, seems to be absorbed into the earth; but, by constant falling, it forms,in the end, a white covering: sparge, sparge, quam potes. V. "There is reason to be concerned about a pastor when he does not seek the company of true Christians. His occupation degenerates by degrees into a common trade; and there are many who ex |