IN ORDINARY TIMES.

67 to measure the extent, the pulpit becomes a theatre, a stage for his vanity. This word seems hard; and yet, in examining ourselves, we find it is often only too just. At the close of triumphant orations the pastor may receive praises; at each praise a reproach will resound in his heart. Happy for him if he preferred to these praises the silent respect of one faithful soul, that has listened to him in retirement, and whose heart he has touched! a victory how much greater than to have excited a fruitless admiration!

Self-love is our most terrible enemy, because it is our nearest. Every one covets praise; but there is a strong self-love that has no bound, which is vanity; as there is also a feeble self-love which is moderate. We baptize the latter with the name of modesty. This is not a virtue, it is a natural quality, a simple mark of good sense. There is a great distance between modesty and humility: True humility is a miracle. A supernatural grace is necessary to impart it to a minister. Nothing but love can remove self-love from the throne of his heart. Love is an ardent, passionate preoccupation, which withdraws from every thing that is not allied to itself, from blame and from praise alike. Conversion essentially consists in love. We must love the flock in order to preach to it well.

There is one form of self-love which manifests itself more in the ministry than in any other profession: it is the love of authority. The pastor in his parish is the only one of his class; he is called to command. In public, at least, no one may dispute with him; he has the monopoly of the word. Often he has to do with the poor, who show a great respect for him because they are more or less dependent on him. This habit of command, so easily formed, narrows and falsifies his view, and alienates those who can not sacrifice their tastes to his. Chrysostom has developed with admirable force the dangers of self-love in the ministry.*

CHRYSOSTOM: De Sacerdotio, p. 270, 281, 287, lib. v., 1, 4, 7, 8.

The danger of self-love is greater with the Protestant than with the Catholic, who speaks much less. It is difficult for the Protestant minister not to give himself up in some measure to the idea of being a good orator. At all events, a good preacher is a good orator. And in seeking perfection for its own sake, it is very difficult not to seek to please, were it only one's self. This leads us to regard in the ideas which are presented only a neutral substratum, which has no value except from the form which is given to them.

12. Internal conflicts between Faith and Doubt (in German, Anfechtungen) perhaps more frequent and more profound with the pastor than with the private Christian, and in the midst of which he must pursue the work of the ministry. Doubt, as a psychological fact, has been little studied. There is philosophical doubt, and the doubt of ignorance; we have nothing to do with these. But are there only these? Is there not a state in which the best proofs leave us in doubt? The intellectual proofs are present, but the soul is not convinced. Christian assurance is a different thing from the assurance of the understanding. Doubt is a negative state, a state of temptation through which all have passed. When life is feeble, faith is feeble. Faith increases life, but life sustains faith. Faith is a vision; when it is not so, it descends to the rank of believing. Faith is one thing, but it has its degrees; and if, in such a situation, one might retire, withdraw himself, interrupt works which all imply faith, he would not be so unhappy; but he can not; he must always preach. Every one may find himself in the state into which Richard Baxter fell, and perceive himself all at once in an absolute void, where every thing vanishes, not excepting fundamental beliefs. This state is frightful. To come out of it, we must stir up ourselves to try anew all the powers of the spirit in fervent prayer.

Gregory Nazianzen expresses himself thus: "In every spiritual function the rule is, to neglect personal interest for that of others."

13. Internal Humiliation on perceiving in ourselves the Man at so great a distance from the Preacher.-Has not the most faithful man sometimes become weak, and felt himself reproved by these words: "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, and to take my covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee?"-Ps. 1., 16, 17.

14. The agonizing Thought, that one bears in his Hands the Destinies of so many Souls, and that he exercises a Ministry which kills, if it does not give Life.—It kills, in aggravating the condemnation of those who might, but do not profit by it. Thus it is with a faithful ministry. As to him who exercises it without fidelity, and whose life does not correspond to his word, it kills in another manner.* And this thought, that the scandals we give are the greatest of all, and that the least unfaithfulness in us has the gravest consequences, is enough to frighten us, and make us say, "Lord, send by whom thou wilt send." Let us hear Massillon: "The Gospel, to the greater part of the people, is the life of the priests of which they are witnesses." And this will always be so in the bosom of Protestantism. "They regard the public ministry as a stage designed for the exhibition of the great maxims which are beyond the reach of human weakness; but they regard our life, as the reality, and the true standard to which they should conform." And further, "We are pillars of the sanctuary, which, if overthrown and cast about in public places, become stones of stumbling to passengers."†

15. The most deplorable case is when these wounds, which

"Par fois li communal clergié,

Voi-je malement engignie,

Icil font le siècle mescroire."

La Bible Guyot (Troizième Siècle).

+ MASSILLON: Discours sur l'excellence du Sacerdoce. First Reflec

tion, near the end.

the consolations of God alone should heal, become healed by habit, and by a false resignation—a case which too often occurs. As it has been said, "repeated repentance wears out the soul," and puts it, so to speak, out of humor with itself. All these troubles are painful, but there are many of them which it is more hurtful to avoid than grievous to submit to; and all need to be foreseen, and, as it were, tasted beforehand.

To this enumeration, perhaps incomplete, and of which no trait, perhaps, is presented strongly enough, we may with confidence oppose, as a compensation, the following advantages:

Religion, which is the most excellent thing, and the whole concern of man, is the minister's office and duty for all days and all hours; that which mingles itself with the life of other men constitutes his life.

He lives in the midst of the loftiest and sublimest ideas, and of occupations of the highest utility.

He is called to do nothing but good; nothing obliges him, nothing entices him to do evil.

He occupies no rank in the social hierarchy, belongs to no class, but serves as a bond to all; representing in himself better than any other, the ideal unity of society. The minister, it is true, is not so well situated in this respect as the unmarried priest. But yet he may have this privilege when he wishes it.

This life, unless circumstances are very unfavorable, is the most proper realization of the ideal of a happy life. It has a great regularity, a sort of uniform calm, where, perhaps, is to be found the true place of earthly happiness. The predilection of poets and romancers for the character of a country pastor is not without foundation. All this is true only on the supposition that the pastor is faithful, and filled with the spirit of his profession. If he has this spirit, all is counterbalanced, corrected, transformed; and it suffices him,, with* Allusion to a passage from Corinne, book x., c. v.-Editor.

ADVANTAGES OF THE MINISTRY.

71

out minutely weighing the inconveniences and advantages, to make one reflection : Jesus Christ assigns to his ministers painful trials, internal and external, to the end that they may sympathize with their flock, and know, from their own heart, the seduction of sin, the infirmities of the flesh, and the manner in which the Lord sustains and supports all those who trust in him.* So that, in a certain degree, one may transfer to the minister what has been said of Jesus Christ: "We have not a high-priest who can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all things tempted as we are."—Heb., iv., 15.

In short, the word of God, directly or indirectly, blesses culiarly his labors and his estate.

pe

It declares (remark the gradation) that "those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." -Dan., xii., 3.

In promising to the immediate ministers of Jesus Christ that, in the renovation of all things, "they shall sit upon thrones, to judge the twelve tribes of Israel," it presents to their successors proportional honors and rewards. — Matt., xix., 28.

It so honors and blesses the ministry, that even to those who aid it special promises are given : "He who receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward."-Matt., x., 41.

§ 7. Call to the Evangelical Ministry.

But the advantages of the present life which we have mentioned, and the promises of the life to come to which we have referred, will be, the first wholly deceptive, the second without effect, for the minister who becomes one without a call to the ministry. We must put a call into the balance as a * JOHN NEWTON: Cardiphonia, vol. iii., p. 12.