of union with Christ, as you well know, has been the centre and burden of my teaching. I bring you to it once more at this critical moment of your lives, when like the king of Babylon, you stand at the parting of the ways. In that truth lies the solution of all mysteries, the answer to all perplexities, the overcoming strength for all conflicts, and specially for the conflict with yourselves. You desire to know how you may attain this self-mastery? The answer is: “They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts." Christ has himself conquered, and he waits to make you partakers of his victory. By faith receive him, and you shall be more than conquerors through him that loved you. Only the Son of God, joining his almighty wisdom and strength to yours, can enable you to subdue yourselves. But he is able to save, unto the uttermost, all them that come to God through him.

My dear brethren, we have loved you, and have followed your course with the deepest interest, until now. But love itself prompts us, as we look on toward your future, to reiterate this one precept, that you prepare for work outside of you, by work in your own souls. The life that is before you is but a little thing, and soon over. It may be a mere beating of the air, with nothing done, at the end of it. There may be less of purity and strength at the end, than at the beginning; less of thought and of power, both in preaching and in life. Or, it may be the constantly widening battle-field and victory of a constantly stronger combatant - a combatant more believing, more successful, more humble-as the years pass on. And beginnings make endings. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. Beginning in your own heart and mastering that for Christ, then carrying your victorious arms into the small field of your first service and winning that also for your Redeemer, you shall be preparing for yet wider conflicts and wider responsibilities. For though beginnings make endings, they are not themselves the endings. These last are beyond the sphere of sense and time. There, he who has been faithful over a few things shall be ruler over many things, and they who have mastered self and the world shall be advanced to positions of high responsibility in God's great empire. There are bad endings and good endings. In the case of every one of you, may God prevent the former; may he grant the latter! Preaching Christ's gospel, may you save both yourselves and those who hear you! And may you have the evidence and pledge of this final victory, in the present daily and hourly conquest of yourselves!

1881:

MENTAL QUALITIES REQUISITE TO THE PASTOR.

BRETHREN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS :- Some years ago there was placed upon the Index Prohibitorius at Rome, a book which bore this title: "The Priesthood a Chronic Disorder of the Human Race." It was.a skeptical book. It protested against churches, because they so easily became machines; against pastors, because they so easily became bishops. And yet the refutation of the book was in its title. When the priesthood was called a chronic

1881: MENTAL QUALITIES REQUISITE TO THE PASTOR. 567

disorder of the human race, it was confessed that there is an instinct in humanity which prompts it to seek religious guidance. The inference should have been that a wise and benevolent God will somewhere provide a supply for this need in a true ministry of his word.

You go out to-night to meet this crying want of humanity, and you go believing that God calls you. We share this confidence with you. We are glad that so many churches are to receive as pastors men so good and true as you have proved yourselves to be. We have done what we can for you, and in many respects you are well furnished for your work. But there is a training which books can never give. There are good gifts which teachers can never impart. And this suggests the subject of my brief parting address: - The mental qualities requisite to the highest success in the pastorate. Notice that I speak of qualities requisite, not for success in preaching only, but for success in the whole work of influencing men, whether in public or in private. Notice that I do not say "requisite to success," but "requisite to the highest success. You must not be discouraged if you seem to yourselves to be almost lacking in one or another of these qualities. Notice that I do not say "spiritual qualities," but "mental qualities." I speak of those only which at least in some degree belong to you by nature, and which it is quite in your power to cultivate. Indeed, to a thoughtful mind, one of the chief attractions of the pastorate is the stimulus it furnishes to the very characteristics of mind and heart which I am about to mention. The very work of the pastor for others draws out all parts of his own nature, and makes him a living example of well-rounded and developed manhood. The pastor is a shepherd, and the business of a shepherd is to care for the flock. He is to care for them by being a teacher and example of the truth. Now one of the most important of the mental qualities required for this work is frankness. The minister of the gospel should not be a man of concealments or evasions. In his preaching he should think right, and then he should say out what he thinks. He should be open-minded to receive truth, and then he should be open-minded to communicate it. No human creature is more despised by discerning men than the trimmer, or the man of policy, in the pastorate. They feel that converse with the things of eternity ought to give him strong convictions, boldness of utterance, freedom from the trammels of party. He should be willing to tell men their faults, if need be. He is to "reprove, rebuke, exhort," as well as to invite and comfort. If you have the Spirit of Christ, and exercise a wise moderation, you can do this without repelling those whom you seek to influence. They will respect the man who deals squarely with them. Be sure that in your private intercourse with your church there be nothing underhanded. Abhor all wirepulling and indirection. Have good ends, and go straight at them. No toadying, and no mock humility. Let no man despise your youth. Take responsibility. Stand forth, and do your work. None but a manly religion is worth the having. You wish to cultivate the open and sincere spirit in others. Show them an example of noble Christian frankness in yourselves. But there can be a frankness that is oppressive and discouraging. It is not the fault-finding tendency, which I would have you cultivate. Add to your frankness, therefore, as the second quality of mind requisite to the highest pastoral success, a hopefulness of spirit. The best men tire at last

of minute and incessant criticism. We are saved by hope, and we must try to put hope into those we teach. You are not to be prophets of lamentation, nor is it your main business to denounce. Many a man's failure in the ministry has been due to the fact that he had no confidence in the Christian character of his hearers. He has dealt with them as if they were reprobates, instead of taking it for granted that they were subjects of God's grace-imperfect indeed, but still on the whole intending, when they know God's will, to do it. Such dark views with regard to the condition of the church are often born of an arrogant and self-righteous spirit. Paul took for granted that the Corinthians were saints, and in beginning his epistles he called them so. And Paul was not only a gentleman, but a Christian. If you would make men better, you must recognize the good which God has wrought in them already. Praise your people, then, more than you blame them. Show, in public and in private, that you appreciate what they do for you and for the cause. Tell them, not only of their failings, but of their excellencies of character, as Paul did. Speak, not only of needs, but of possibilities. Set over against the depth of sin the infinite riches of the believer in Christ. In practical matters, take a cheerful view of the situation. Joy wins more hearts then tears ever did. A mournful and ascetic Christianity belies its very name. Go to your work, then, confident that you will win. Be hopeful men,- or, if you are by nature despondent, keep your despondency to yourselves, as a weakness and a sin. Be careful not to utter your moodiness and your fears, for utterance reacts upon the spirit that prompted it and makes it more intense. Since it is Christ and no human leader whom you follow, be persuaded that he will lead you to conquest. We can believe all things, because Christ is our hope.

And yet it is possible for a pastor to be frank and hopeful, while at the same time he is hard. Frankness and hopefulness may make him rash. A driving energy is quite consistent with an unfeeling self-will. As the third quality of mind requisite to the highest pastoral success, therefore, I would urge you to add to your frankness and hopefulness, a true sympathy. I do not mean a maudlin sentimentality; I do not mean an unctuous graciousness; I do not mean a quivering sensibility. The sympathy to be cultivated must be calm. There should be a certain dignity and sobriety in it. It should be a hearty, manly fellow-feeling, that shows itself in helpful words and helpful deeds. Who can estimate the power of it, in a pastor! To be the true friend of all his flock, to have compassion for the erring, interest in the poor, a smile for the children, a word in season for the weary, a tear for the bereaved - this is the pastor's mission; this will so knit him to his church, that separation will seem like death. True sympathy can never be put on ; it is an inward grace, a virtue of the heart. A kind natural disposition is much; but the tenderness of soul which Christ gives to the penitent and saved sinner is more. No merely natural sympathy is equal to the demands of your work, my brethren. Paul never could have so longed after his converts, except, as he himself says, "in the heart of Jesus Christ." Joined to Christ, as he was, he was capable of entering into other's griefs and needs, as he never could have done without. Unostentatious, yet untiring, his love passed all selfish bounds; he will love them the more, the less he be loved. And this is the first question which your people will ask of you,

namely, "Has he a Christian heart in him? Does he love Christ, and love his people? Has he the instinct of the shepherd, to support the weak, comfort the sorrowing, seek the lost?" May our Lord give you this power of sympathy, and enable you to comfort others with the comfort with which you yourselves are comforted of God.

And now these remarks must come to a close. I trust you have seen the inner connection of them. I have been speaking of mental gifts- frankness, hopefulness, sympathy. I have been urging you to be open, cheerful, warm of spirit. You have doubtless recognized that these natural gifts are but the obverse human side of those lofty graces of the Holy Spirit which the Apostle to the Gentiles has joined forever in triple union, namely, faith, hope, and love. And so we have indicated the true source of these human excellencies of character. Faith will give us frankness; hope will give us cheerfulness; love will give us sympathy. Remember the divine Author of them, and look to him. You may easily have your natural frankness turned to suspicious reticence; your youthful cheer darkened into fearful forebodings; your ready sympathies chilled into hardness of heart,—and all this by the misapprehensions and disappointments and hostilities of life. You need a higher and more constant source of supply than the inspirations of your own hearts. Such a supply you have in the omnipotent Spirit of Christ,- for the faith, hope and love which he imparts abide forever.

We expect you to be a class of preachers. You have shown that you have tastes and gifts in this direction. But remember that you are called to be pastors also, and accept this last word of exhortation in which we urge you to seek from God, and to cultivate by effort of your own, the frankness, hopefulness and sympathy needful to the best success. As you have the source of these qualities in the Spirit, so you have the model of them in Christ — the frankest, most hopeful, most sympathetic, of all shepherds of the sheep. Follow Christ's example. Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost shall make you overseers, to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. To this work we now dismiss you. May you so perform it, as to reflect honor upon this training school of Christian pastors! May you so perform it, to the very end, that when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive, at his hands, a reward more welcome than any earthly praise - the crown of glory that never fades away!

1882: ADAPTATION.

BRETHREN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS :- It is something to have finished your course in this Seminary. It argues industry, persistence, capacity. We congratulate you. But it is something more, at the end of life to say, "I have finished my course," and to look back upon the battle fought and the victory won. What is the relation between the work of the Seminary and the work of life? It is the relation between science and art, between principles and practice. Here you have learned the theory of religion,-

there you are to carry out the theory, and to apply it. It is vain to say that the preacher can get along without theology. He needs a knowledge of theology more than the lawyer needs knowledge of law, or the physician needs knowledge of medicine. For theology is nothing more than the connected exhibition of the facts of God's word. An infidel lecturer has recently said that the Aurora Borealis is beautiful, but that it is a poor light to grow corn by. God's truth, however, is not a shifting Aurora, but a steady sunlight, and no corn can be grown without sunshine. You have been getting possession of this truth, or rather, it has been getting possession of you. The great doctrines of man's guilt and ruin, and of God's free grace in Christ, have assumed new meaning and dignity as you have studied them. They have moulded your characters. You have seen their power in others. Now you go to test this truth in a larger field, and in a more independent way. Your success will depend, in great part, upon your skill in turning the abstract into the concrete, and in applying it to living minds and hearts. My parting counsel to you is that you study adaptation.

A minister of the last generation was once asked by a youthful preacher how he should overcome his excessive timidity in presence of his congregation. The older advised his younger brother to think of his audience as a lot of cabbages planted in rows before him. It is a good illustration of the impersonal quality attributed to the preaching of that day. God was conceived to be the only speaker- the only agent. Ministers and people alike were but so many cabbages. We protest against this ignoring of the intellects and wills of men,-it leaves to God no moral realm in which to work. We urge on the contrary, as essential to the preacher's success, the recognition of varieties among his auditors, and his duty to feed each one with food convenient for him. Milk for babes, meat for the full-grown, - to each his portion in due season. He that winneth souls is wise, and his wisdom largely consists in bringing out of his store things new or old, according to the special needs of his hearers. There is a sense, of course, in which Christ is the one and only need of the soul. But in him is an infinite fullness, all the treasures of wisdom. He is to be presented in all his offices, in all his relations, as the friend of the poor, the comforter of the sorrowing, the children's teacher, the refuge of the doubting, the forgiver of sin, the guide through life, the hope of heaven. All human institutions are to be brought under Christ's control. His gospel touches life everywhere, and is to be applied to its regulation and uplifting. As in public worship, by a process of synthesis, the minister is to gather together all the wants and woes of his congregation, and present them before God in prayer, so in his preaching, by a reverse process of analysis, he should bring the truth of God to bear by turns upon every relation of life, yes, even upon the spiritual condition of each individual soul. He is a physician of souls, and if he be a true one, he will recognize the fact that no two cases under his care are just alike, that no one treatment will do for all the maladies which sin brings in its train, that each patient presents a new and peculiar opportunity for the exercise of his healing art.

Allowing, then, the need of adaptation in preaching, how shall we secure it? It seems to me that much can be learned from a study of Christ's own methods. Never in all the world was there such illustration of the "word