and students the social element should enter. There should be an intimacy of acquaintance, a readiness on the one hand to ask, and on the other hand to give, counsel and help, that is unknown in lower and secular schools. There are other types of influence — the purely and severely intellectual, the mandatory and arrogant—but they do not belong to an institution for the training of pastors, where the inner impulse to all duty is the spirit of Christ. I would make this institution a training-school in Christian love, for it is this alone that can make the work of the ministry successful. Such a spirit as this can be maintained only by constant efforts and expedients, on the part of professors and students alike. The Professor's house

and study should be not unknown to the student. There is a social culture and tact which is of the greatest value to the pastor, and for lack of which many able men fail to retain their influence over their churches. The student who comes from obscure surroundings has often had but the smallest opportunity to acquire this proper knowledge of the world. Anything that will make it easier for professors to invite students to their homes, and to introduce them to their families, will be of inestimable benefit. For the average student, away from his own home, and associating constantly with men like himself, there are temptations to a disregard of the conventional proprieties, which will be greatly lessened by insight into pleasant household life from time to time through his course of study. The monotony of an unvarying routine will be informed with a new life and spirit by reason of the change. There is much that the Christian men and women of our city churches may do, in this way, for our coming ministry. But the chief responsibility, so far as it is a responsibility at all, must rest upon the members of the Faculty. Their power and opportunity are limited,— but these might be greatly increased, if the provision of Professor's houses could bring them close together, and thus enable them easily to combine their efforts. The glimpses of home-life and of pleasant society thus rendered possible, would repay a large expenditure, by furnishing a needed preparation for the sudden entrance into social relations with his church, which so often forms the ordeal of the young minister.

This leads me to say that the proper place for the Theological Seminary is the large city, for there these influences of association are most varied and strong. Mr. Herbert Spencer, among his many half-truths and perversions of the truth, has suggested one thought which none will be disposed to deny, namely, that other things being equal, the rapidity and degree of intellectual progress is proportioned to the variety of environment. It is indeed the old truth in new dress - Experience is the best teacher. The young man who is thrust into a variety of positions, and is compelled to adapt himself to them as they come, will have a command of his resources and an education of his powers, such as cannot belong to the mere novice. For this reason the Theological Seminary ought to be where the currents of life are strong, and where much can be seen of things and of men. The country village will do for the Academy, but the College belongs to the town, and the Theological Seminary to the city. Let the boy be secluded, while his habits and principles are still forming; but, when he has got his growth, let him see something of the world in which he is to live and struggle. The knowledge he thus acquires will prepare him for the conflicts that are before him in the

future. Particularly is it desirable that the young man who is to be a leader of Christ's people should, by personal acquaintance with well-organized and thoroughly aggressive churches, and by personal observation of excellent examples of preaching, be stimulated to emulate their virtues in the instruction and pastoral care of his own flock. I count this knowledge of Christian life in a large city as one of the social influences which most tend to broaden the mind and heart of the young preacher.

This room, with its church-like appointments, witnesses that there is a yet deeper need in Seminary life than the social one which I have mentioned. It is well to provide the means of intercourse with society - but it is beyond all account more essential to provide means of intercourse with God. In the secluded life of the Seminary there will always be temptations to an abstract intellectualism. They need to be counteracted continually by devotion and by religious work. Mrs. Stowe once remarked that the theological students that she had seen were the most irreverent of men. It was, I think, the misjudgment of an acute observer, inferring more than was just, from the freedom of students' disputations with each other. Yet here is a danger, against which we need continually to guard. Familiarity with even sacred things, unqualified by the spirit of prayer and of Christian effort for others, tends ever to contempt. And therefore I would regard prayer as a regular part of Seminary work. As the apostles gave themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word, so the theological student should give himself to prayer and to the study of the word. Indeed, Luther's old maxim is true: “Bene orasse est bene studuisse,”—true praying is true studying. Coleridge could call prayer the intensest exercise of the human understanding, and it is certain that, without it, there can be no valuable exercise of the human understanding upon any theme with which the preacher or pastor has to deal.

I count the meeting for prayer in which professors and students gather on a common level at noon of every day, and the regular service with which the exercises of every afternoon are closed, as an essential part of our Seminary training. Here the student may learn that his teachers are something more than teachers,- that they have hearts throbbing with the same emotion of love to Christ which he himself feels within him. And here the professor may see an aspect of his pupil's life which he had not suspected before, and may more wisely and more sympathetically adapt his instruction to individual needs. But above all, the drawing near to the Father of all, and to Jesus. Christ the head of the church, through the Holy Spirit, in order that we may offer to him our worship and supplicate forgiveness and favor for ourselves and for mankind, is an essential to Seminary life. I make no doubt. that from this room, with its prayers and its words of Christian experience and exhortation, will be dated the most lasting and valuable of the influences of this institution. Here may the presence of God evermore abide! Here may Christ manifest himself as Savior and Lord! Here may the Holy Spirit. sanctify and energize the souls of those who are to preach to men of sin and of salvation!

Thus I have sketched the essentials and the appurtenances of a properly organized Theological Seminary. The ideal is surely not too high,-all that I have indicated, so far as material aids are concerned, has been already

provided in Seminaries of other denominations. To put our own Seminary in possession of the means to realize the plan I have laid before you would require indeed a large sum of money. But God has been so good to us in the past, and we so confidently trust that this is his own cause, that we cannot doubt that we shall see everything that has been sketched to-day, provided for by his good Providence. Such an institution as this is one of the most permanent things on earth. Directly connected as it is with the hopes and progress of the kingdom of God, remembered as it is daily in the prayers of God's elect, he that gives to it, gives to God, and puts his hand to a work that is sure to triumph. The friend who has given to us this beautiful and commodious building will have not only the comfort of knowing that he has linked himself and his name inseparably with the ever progressing cause of ministerial education, but for generations to come what he has done will be a stimulus and incitement to others to lay down like precious gifts at the feet of Jesus our Lord. With all the other generous benefactions which have fallen to us for Library and for endowments, even while so many wants are yet unsupplied, it rouses within me something of a prophetic spirit. I rejoice in it most of all because it is a foregleam of the dawn, a sign of the coming of that final day when "the rebuke of God's people "the poverty and weakness and contempt under which his cause has suffered - shall be taken away, and the riches of the world shall be poured into the treasury of the Redeemer. May God hasten the day! And as a means of furthering this end, we now proceed in solemn prayer to dedicate this structure to the glory of God and to the special work of training his ministers. With the offering, let us dedicate ourselves. May he generously deign to accept us and our gift, and to use both for the furtherance and triumph of his everlasting kingdom. "For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen!"

XXVIII.

TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP.*

It is a pleasant thing, on my first visit to Hamilton, to meet with so cordial a welcome. I am one of the sons of that wilful daughter of yours who, thirty-five years ago, ran away from home and set up a family of her own. These matches often turn out better than was expected. England is getting to be proud of America, and Hamilton to be proud of Rochester. And today, in view of all I see about me—this lovely country, this noble structure, these evidences of comprehensive and far-sighted liberality - I can truly say that Rochester is proud of Hamilton, and is glad to trace back the stream of her history to this sacred eminence, and through this to another that commands us both, namely, to "Sion hill" and

"Siloa's brook that flowed

Fast by the oracle of God."

In dedicating this new and beautiful building, the first question one might well ask is: What is it for? I am not content with the obvious and common-place answer, that it is designed to provide facilities for the education of ministers or preachers or pastors of our churches. That is all true-so true that it fails to make any great impression upon us. There is one aspect of our common work which has failed to receive sufficient recognition, and which I would emphasize to-day. Without questioning any of the other ends which are to be sought and attained here, I wish to speak of Training for Leadership in the church of Christ, as an end which of itself and by itself justifies all that has been given and all that has been done in the erection of this noble hall, and in the founding and support of this whole congeries of institutions. My first proposition is, that the church must have leaders. It is a necessity of nature. She will have them whether she wants them or not. Love of power is an instinct of human nature - - an innocent and proper instinct. Men seek to acquire power over others, and ought to seek it, for how else can they better the world? Christ had this love of power, and Satan was very artful in appealing to it when he offered him all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them. The evil lay, not in seeking power, but in seeking it at times and in ways opposed to the will of the Father. So the Christian is not to give up his will, but to have more will; not to be devoid of ambition, but to have a holy ambition; not to renounce power, but to seek power and use power for God. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not." But then, "Covet earnestly the best gifts"— gifts of government and leadership, among the rest. Christ is the great Leader, Captain, Shepherd. We may well desire to be shepherds,

*An address delivered at the dedication of the Theological Hall, Hamilton, N. Y., June 16, 1886.

captains, leaders, under him. And so the New Testament recognizes men who are "over" others in the Lord, praises the elders that "rule well," gives to pastors the title of "bishops" or "overseers," and exhorts the churches to "submit" to them and to "follow" them.

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Now I am as good a Congregationalist in church government as any of you, and if it were necessary I could put in as many qualifications of this doctrine as any of you could. We have only one Master," and "all we are brethren." While the government of the church as respects the divine source of the authority is an absolute monarchy, as respects the ascertainment and interpretation of God's will it is an absolute democracy. No man therefore has any business to lord it over God's heritage. Jesus says: "I am among you as one that serveth;" "he that would be chief among you, let him be your servant." Preeminence is to be preeminence only in service. But nothing of all this is inconsistent with leadership in the church of Christ, for this leadership is nothing but moral suasion, the natural influence of strong character and sagacious planning, the irresistible force of the mind and heart and will which the Holy Spirit has informed and energized. You cannot prevent such leadership, even among the Plymouth Brethren, with all their fear that church organizations will become machines and that pastors will become bishops. Human nature craves human leadership. It never will be satisfied with an abstract and distant God to worship. It must have a kingdom with a Son of man for King, and an army in which the chosen representatives of this Son of man are lieutenants and leaders. So we are bidden to seek out and set apart men for this sacred service, and it will be a great day for the church when she feels her need of men like Paul and Augustine and Luther and Wesley, and prays mightily to God to raise up a multitude of such to be leaders of his people.

They

My second proposition is, that these leaders must be trained. If men are to be leaders, then they must be able to lead. They must themselves be in advance of those who are to follow. Of course I believe in natural gifts and endowments. Blood is thicker than water. The sons of ministers, other things being equal, make better ministers than their fathers were. belong in the ministry, and I claim them for the Lord Jesus. I have no sympathy with the idea that the church must take up with what is left, after law and medicine and mining and journalism have had their pick. Pray God that more able and enthusiastic and persuasive and faithful men may be born. But it is not enough to be born. Nature is something, but nurture is something more. These men who are to go before their fellows in knowledge and zeal, in enterprise and devotion, must be trained for their work. Birth did a great deal for Paul, but he never would have been the apostle to the Gentiles, if he had not had the Rabbinic schools, and Gamaliel for a teacher. Knowledge of the world, variety of environment, contact with broad minds, social culture, all these go to make up the difference between a Peter and a Paul.

I insist upon it that men can be trained for leadership,—that is, natural gifts can be improved. Confidence may be aquired, methods can be taught. There is a great deal of training for leadership outside the schools. Leadership is in large part a matter of will, of determination, of habit, of example. The young man sees others bravely striding to the front, and he says: "By