want of adequate instruction, they sometimes undervalue the importance of the ordinance, or conceive that their obligations to honour it are suspended at pleasure. The true view is, that its observance is both "a duty and a privilege." Information is therefore to be imparted to them at this critical period of their spiritual course, in order that its favourable opportunity may not be postponed. Faithful pastors, watching over their infant church-members, and, after due inspection, beholding signs of Christian character when they arrive at years of discretion, might preserve them from many temptations and spiritual losses, by instructing them in the duty and privilege of publicly professing themselves, without delay, to be on the Lord's side.

Such are some of the methods in which the Presbyterian Church expresses her care over the children and youth within her bounds.

Our present measures of education are in precise accordance with the sound doctrines of our standards in regard to the training of the young, and need the influence of our Church principles to give them due favour with our people. The religious institutions of learning, established under the authority of the General Assembly, are cooperating in the accomplishment of the Church's great work. All these institutions are identical in aim with the ordinances of God's house, are evangelical and covenant-loving in their nature, lawful in their plans, and full of hope for the fulfilment of the promise, "I will be a God to thee and to thy children after thee, in their generations."

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ARTICLE XII.

AN EDUCATED MINISTRY A NECESSITY.*

BY THE REV. HENRY STEELE CLARKE, D.D., OF PHILADELPHIA.

2 Cor. 5: 18.-" The ministry of reconciliation."

THE most important ministry on earth is this. No office is higher, none more dignified; if properly discharged, none more laborious. Episcopus," said Polidonis, as quoted by Baxter, "est nomen quod plus oneris quam honoris significat." No office is more responsible, none requires more careful preparation or more special qualifications. To be at fault, or to err in this, may involve consequences as fearful as they are irretrievable. We do not wonder that an apostle should exclaim, "Who is sufficient for these things!" or utter a most solemn charge to one about to assume its responsibilities. No office, moreover, is fraught with grander results. It is a ministry of reconciliation. It is a ministry by which reconciliation and the terms of it,

Preached in the ordinary course of ministerial preparation, at the Central Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, in behalf of the Board of Education, November, 1856, and now published by request.

between God and our fallen race, are proclaimed; through which the world is given to understand that God waits to bless it in every possible manner, for the sake of his glorious and adorable Son. Abrogate the office-let there be no longer such ministry in any form— cancel its appointment, and you could not do worse for the welfare and happiness of man.

We have said the most important ministry on earth is this. Nor do we think that you can reasonably demur, if we go farther than this and indorse (which we do) the saying of Calvin,* that "Not even is the light of the sun and its heat-not even is meat and drink so necessary for the support and cherishing of life, as is the maintenance of the ministry of the Gospel Church on earth." If religion itself is of any importance, then is this office; for no system of religion, not even the best, can be established, or grow, or be insured against desperate corruption, except it be perpetually taught and enjoined by a permanent and competent ministry.

But, we do not detain you here. We have come, this morning, not to magnify our office in this special direction. It does not need that we do it. An admission of the importance of the ministry (which admission, we are persuaded, you will not refuse) is a virtual confession that its ranks should be filled, nor filled merely. It is not an office to which men are to be promoted, without any reference to qualifications. It is not the place for a novice, for the man who has had no culture or training preparatory to it. Not filled merely, then, but filled by such as are sensible of its responsibilities, and disciplined by study, as well as by grace, for its varied and arduous duties. The time is past when a few grains, a mere smattering of theological lore, with a certain fluency of speech, can be deemed a sufficient warrant for a man, however religious, to step from the field, or countinghouse, or shop, or any of the honourable though secular walks of life, into the pulpit. The times demand an educated ministry. The demand is reasonable. If you will have the work of the ministry accomplished, the whole work of it-if you will have it not slighted, or partially effected, but done, you must have for your ministers men who have enjoyed means of intellectual improvement. Now, in saying this, we do not ignore the value and necessity of spiritual qualifications for this work. These we confess. They are indispensable. For any to assume such position, while not in actual or fancied possession of these, would be to verify the oft-repeated line,

"Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread."

But, then, these alone are not enough. These alone were never enough, except in the solitary instance of twelve men, who were endowed with supernatural gifts. That they are not-however readily we admit, that they are the minister's brightest ornament-such they

* Institutes, B. iv, ch. iii.

are, brilliant talents, broad erudition, opulence and station, are the glory of the poet, and the philosopher, and statesman, but nothing so adorns or adds to the effectiveness of the ministry of Christ as spiritual endowments. While we confess this, we insist that alone they do not suffice. We have intimated that the times demand more. The nature of the work itself concurs with this demand, making it more and more imperious. And more than these must be had, if you will have the object of the ministry gained. To establish this, and in establishing to certify to you THE NECESSITY OF AN EDUCATED MINISTRY, is all that can be done in the present discourse.

It is worth while, perhaps, at the outset, to meet an objection one sometimes encounters, deduced from the fact, that the earliest teachers of religion were men of little learning. It is sufficient to reply to this, sufficient to set it aside, that they were chosen by our Lord himself; that during his entire ministry they were always under his supervision and instruction. Soon after the ascension, one of the greatest minds the world has produced was associated in a supernatural manner with them. The Apostles and their immediate successors were endowed in an extraordinary mode, and to an extraordinary degree, for the great work to which they were summoned. In the infancy of the Christian Church, before time had been given for appropriate intellectual and spiritual cultivation, the teachers of Christianity were supernaturally qualified for their work. And when the Gospel, having begun its course, went beyond the limits of Judea, it was announced mainly by men scattered abroad by the violence of persecution-the original leaders, divinely ordained and assisted, directing still the general movement. The infancy of the Church passed, and her early defenders and teachers laid in their graves, the need of educated and commanding minds began more and more to be felt. It was this felt need which secured to her, during the first three or four hundred years of the Christian era, that there was no lack of tolerably educated men for the holy office. The inference therefore drawn from the character of the twelve, as illiterate, is unwarranted. It were quite as fair to argue that because the clergy of the tenth century,-of the time denominated the iron age, were not only, as is justly charged, corrupt and superstitious and flagitious, but "illiterate, stupid, ignorant," therefore ignorance and stupidity are pardonable in those who now claim to be called to this great and glorious work, especially as purity of heart and life are admitted, on every side, to be essential. Were men taught directly from heaven, we grant there would be no need of human teaching. Only let them be inspired, only let them be filled with the divine afflatus, as were Prophets and Apostles, and they may safely reject all further tuition; they may look down with contempt, sovereign and sublime, upon all learning of the schools. There is no need to toil through long and weary years for that mental furniture others have required to earn in the way of ministerial preparation. Such may go at a step, vaulting over all obstacles, to the chief and brightest

station in the Church. They at once take rank with Apostles, and from the start, in their qualifications, eclipse the oldest and most laborious of the uninspired. But alas! for our theory, the days of inspiration are over. Only dishonest men now claim such gift-only fools fancy they possess it. Not thus, but otherwise are men intellectually qualified for the most important ministry on earth. It is left to them to acquire little by little what they need to know; to glean from this field and from that; to sit at the feet of this master and of that, in order to possess themselves of the fullest qualifications. That this is true-and so we open direct discussion of our subjectthat such qualifications as education furnishes are necessary, we think will be clear to you if you keep in mind the special object and work of the ministry. The most comprehensive view of it is given by St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians (4 : 7-16), " And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Observe here what prominence is given to a work,-"perfecting of the saints,' 'edifying the body of Christ," shielding against false doctrine-requiring most careful intellectual training.

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They hold an inadequate view of the work of the ministry, who suppose that its only or chief work is to secure the conversion of men. This error is not too often exposed. The work of the ministry is one of edification also of such as are already converted. But to do either, to convert or edify, requires certain qualifications imparted by education. For enlightenment of mind and conviction of the judgment precede conversion. And as to edifying, it is impossible, except one is competent to instruct. View the matter how we will, we cannot infer that a pious inclination and desire to do good-that these alone afford sufficient warrant to any to undertake the duties of a so important office. There must be more than these. There must be mental culture and information, gained through toilsome processes. Not even a high degree of spirituality can atone for the absence of them. To conceive the all-sufficiency of grace to supersede the importance of general knowledge, would be to allow that a child, under the influence of grace, is as fitted for the Christian ministry as an intelligent adult under the same degree of heavenly influence. If, then, this knowledge is not to be despised, "it will follow," as President Edwards has said, "that the means of obtaining it are not to be neglected, viz., study; and that this is of great use in order to a preparation for publicly instructing others. And though having the heart full of the powerful influences of the Spirit of God may, at some time, enable persons to speak profitably, yea, very excellently, without study, yet this will not warrant us needlessly to cast ourselves down from the pinnacle of the temple, de

pending upon it, that the angel of the Lord will bear us up, and keep us from dashing our foot against a stone, when there is another way to go down, though it be not so quick." (Works, Vol. I, p. 559.)

It should never be forgotten, that the ministry is by eminence a teaching office. The opinion entertained by the scholarly and profound and pious Erasmus, is simply just, when he declares of the minister, that" He is then in the very height of his dignity, when, from the pulpit, he feeds the Lord's flock with sacred doctrine." He is also at the height of his usefulness there. That may be affirmed of preaching, which can be said of no other part of ministerial labour. Neither parochial visitations, nor the administration of sacraments-in fine, nothing is invested with equal importance. "Public and continual preaching of God's word," said Grindal, in his famous remonstrance against the restraints imposed by his queen upon preachers in his time, "public and continued preaching of God's word, is the ordinary means and instrument of the salvation of mankind."* We discover also in the words of one greater than Grindal, though he wore no lordly title-in the sentiment of the most illustrious of apostles we find that which convinces us that he entertained no mean idea of the dignity and importance of the ministry as a teaching office. "For Christ," says he, "sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. For after that, in the wisdom. of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." We have, therefore, no hesitation in repeating what we have already affirmed, and which we believe you will not question, that the ministry is eminently a teaching office. To how great an extent is the business of religious instruction carried on by it! One design, and the chief, of it, is to be a medium for the announcement of most important truths --of truths momentous as the world to come. It claims to be, not the world's oracle, but the world's instructor, in those things which the world most needs to know. It professes to open the meaning of the sacred Scriptures, and to expound the doctrines taught therein. It is established not for the utterance of mere human fancies and conceits, but for the purpose of discoursing of whatever pertains to man's highest welfare. It is appointed, not with the object of commanding the attention to the speculations of worldly wisdom, but for this end, viz., the unfolding to mortal apprehension the wondrous scheme of redemption, revealing its Author, its necessity, the means of its accomplishment, its blessed and final results, and for this, the justifying of the ways of God to man. It is established, for the purpose of reproving the world, of rebuking it, of exhorting it with all long-suffering and doctrine. It is intended, that it shall enlighten by its teachings, move by expostulations, convince by reasonings, and, while directly compassing results spiritual, to be indirectly one of the great reforming forces in the social state. And thus, or however we view it, we soon see, that in order to even tolerable success in it, no slight and

*Neale's Hist. of Puritans, Vol. I, p. 143.