Part II: The Pastor and The Church

Chapter VIII
The Call to the Individual Church

How does a pastor get into the individual pastorate? This question is variously answered, according to our ecclesiastical conceptions.

The relation between the pastor and the church is no ordinary relation like that of a secular employer and employee. It is sacred because [it is] Divine. According to the New Testament Paul felt himself called to particular places for special work. “The Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” (Acts 13:2). “They (Paul and Silas) assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not, etc.” (Acts 16:7–10). In this passage Paul was inclined to turn Eastward with the Gospel, but the Spirit drove him Westward and with his vision of the Macedonian in Troas he was convinced that God was calling him to Europe to preach the Gospel.

“Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:9–11). From these scriptural references showing how God called Paul to work in certain places it is easy to infer that God still calls His ministers to particular places, for specific service.

In Catholic lands the priests are furnished by the parishes and mostly paid from state revenues, as in Spain, Italy, France, and South America. In the Church of England, either the crown, bishops or archbishop, or deans, or colleges, or rich privates, appoint the ministry over the local congregation. In the Protestant churches of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and other coun- tries, external appointment is largely the rule. In the United States among the Episcopal and the Methodist (North and South), Wesleyan, and kindred denominations, the conferences appoint pastors. But among Presbyterians, Congregationalists Christians (Campbellites), and the Baptists, the local churches call their own pastors.

The only apparent advantage of the Episcopal, or external, system of providing pastors is the prevention of so many vacant pulpits for so many months in the year, and of so many idle preachers. The disadvantages far outweigh these advantages, and beside, the Episcopal system is undoubtedly not scriptural.

Then is the method of selecting pastors by the local churches scriptural? In Acts 1:26, Matthias was elected as Judas’ successor by the whole body of Christians in Jerusalem. In Acts 6:1–6 the first deacons of the Jerusalem church were undoubtedly selected by the church at large. “Look ye out seven men, etc.” The “ye” means the members of the church. Hence we have the apostolic authority for the churches selecting its deacons. In Acts 14:23, it is said that elders (presbuteroi), or pastors, were elected in all the churches at the close of Paul’s first missionary journey. The Greek word for “appoint” means to select by “stretching out the hand,” as held by the commentators [Henry] Alford, [ John Peter] Lange, [ John] Alexander, [Albert] Barnes. [Horatio Blach] Hackett and [Augustus] Neander deny that this passage gives the mode of selecting pastors, though Neander says concerning the election of pastors: “As in the institution of deacon the apostles left the choice to the communities themselves, and as the same was the case of the deputies, etc., (2 Cor 8:19) we might argue that a similar course would be pursued in filling other offices of the church.”¹

But on the other hand, Titus 1:5 has been used by the advocates of the Episcopal form of church government to substantiate their views: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and appoint elders in every city.” Titus is evidently the subject of the verb appoint, according to the original language. But how did he appoint? Paul left Titus on the Island of Crete to complete the organization of the churches constituted during his evangelistic visit. Titus helped the churches by instruction and by commending them to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There is not a line in Eusebius or any other early church historian showing that any external authority appointed pastors over local churches in the apostolic or subapostolic ages.

Should a preacher seek a church by personal application? Never. If he felt so led by the Spirit he might have an influential friend to recommend his name favorably, but never anything more. The church should always take the initiative in forming pastoral relations.

How Should a Church Proceed to Call?

1. Not by inviting several preachers to occupy the pulpit as candidates for the position. Modern pastoral candidating is a flagrant shame on the churches that practice congregational administration.
2. The church should seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in prayer before a single external step is taken. Thus did the Jerusalem church in the selection of Matthias as Judas’ successor (Acts 1:15–26).
3. Then let the church appoint a competent committee of wise, consecrated men and suggest to the church a man—not several men at a time, but only one.
4. Then let the church pray concerning the calling of this man and if led by the Spirit to feel that he is the man, vote for him; if not, vote against him. Usually I should say that this committee and the deacons should so canvass the feeling and judgment of the church as virtually to know whether or not the man is acceptable before the public vote. This however, is not always feasible or possible.

What Kind of Men Should Churches Call?

Not simply the most eloquent preachers (popularly speaking). The day of spread-eagle oratory in the pulpit is past.

Not at all the “wily drawing preacher” with sensational messages.

The man who knows some of the Bible and can preach it as God’s word.

The man who knows how to live among the people a spiritual life, as one of the people, associate with them, love them, lead them to Christ and higher consecration.

The Pastor’s Motive in Entering a New Pastorate

1. Not for financial reasons. The charge of the world that “preachers preach for money” must be proved by the preachers themselves to be a falsehood. Undoubtedly it is a bare falsehood. The writer knows many distinguishing pastors who have declined churches offering them twice their present salaries, or even more.
2. Not simply for social or educational reasons. Yet the preacher must be true to his family, educate his children, and promote the highest welfare of his loved ones.
3. The true pastor’s one burning purpose is to go where he can best glorify his Savior in winning souls, in developing the highest Christian living, and bringing in the kingdom of God on earth.
4. In prayer every pastor contemplating a change of field should settle the question of change with this ultimate motive regnant in his heart.

May a Preacher Accept a Non-Unanimous Call?

Usually it is not advisable to do so. But if the minority has no special reason for opposing the man called and the opposition is not personal, a small minority should not prevent him from accepting such a call.

As to Salary

1. Let not the pastor show anxiety over the salary as if that was the chief motive with him.
2. Yet each pastor on entering a new pastorate should have a definite understanding with the church as to the amount of salary to be received. We must have business in religion as well as religion in business.
3. This should be the rule. Of course the pastor must deal with others on business principles. He is expected to pay his debts like other men. But how can he do so unless the church deals with him on business principles?

Chapter IX
The Pastor as God’s Messenger²

The pastor’s chief function is that of a preacher. In Greek the word preacher means “one who heralds another’s message.” So the pastor is God’s messenger, the herald of the heavenly King with a special message for this lost world. It is not absolutely necessary for the preacher to be a great thinker like Jonathan Edwards and Joseph Parker, or a splendid orator like Chryso- stom, Robert Hall or Richard Fuller.

What is the Pastor’s Message to Men?

1. Not the world’s great literature. We dissent from Washington Glad- den who thinks it permissible for the pastor to discourse on the great authors on Sunday evenings. It is not only permissible but commendable for the pas- tor to master the great authors and illustrate great truths from literature. But no great author should furnish him with his message.
2. Not history. During the Russo-Japanese war some pastors preached on the battles and incidents of the war on Sunday evenings. This is not the best policy for the pulpit. Illustrations from modern history are attractive and effective and should often be used by the pastor.
3. Nor philosophy. Neither Aristotle, Plato, nor Socrates, Kant, Comte, nor Hegel should furnish a young preacher with his message. We heard a young preacher, from a distant state preach at our State Convention, weaving into his sermon the choicest literature of the world and the various systems of philosophy. The three thousand people went away that night hungry for the gospel.
4. Nor theology as a system. The physician should not discuss anatomy and chemistry to a dying man but should give him a remedy, which a knowledge of these sciences have provided. The people need the results of our theological thinking but not the theological system itself. The writer knew a preacher who preached on the holiness of God, giving an abstract theological discussion, in a series of revival services. The people whom he wishes to reach were unaffected.
5. But the preacher’s message is the Bible, nothing but the Bible, and all the Bible. Paul in 2 Timothy 4:1–2, said to that young preacher “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ . . . preach the word.” The Apostle could not have made this charge more solemn. Timothy was put under oath to preach the word
   Did Paul himself practice this precept? Listen to him exclaim, “I have not shunned to delcare unto you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Benjamin Franklin, as the special ambassador from the thirteen colonies during the Revolutionary war delivered in Paris a great message, the message of his country. But the preacher has a far greater message to the struggling world. Oh! how this world is dying for the lack of God’s word! There is no soul saved without it. According to John 8:32 the truth makes men free. Ac- cording to 1 Peter 1:23 men are born again by the living word. “Men live not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). In 1 Peter 2:2 the apostle speaks of the “milk of the word.”
   A young preacher in a college town was in trouble about his message. His father wrote to him; “preach the word of God and you are safe, for I dare say they don’t know much about that.” The young college pastor was afraid to quote from English literature, ancient mythology, or from the modern sciences, fearing that he would be trapped by the professors specializing in these departments The father’s counsel was wise. They all need the Bible and many scholarly men know but little of it.
6. Preach Jesus as Savior and Lord. Philip preached Jesus to the Afri- can chamberlain (Acts 8:35). Christ is the center of the Old and New Testa- ment promises. As the sun is the center of our solar system, so Christ is the center of the great Christian system of truth. Dr. W. J. Dawson, England, was summoned from college to see his sister die. Her last words to her preacher brother were, “Preach Christ, preach Christ preach Christ.”
7. To specify further the preacher’s message is “Christ and Him Crucified.” This is the core of his message. Paul, the scholar and logician wrote to the Corinthian church, responding to philosophy, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). Again the apostle shouts “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world” (Gal 6:14).
   Archimedes, the Greek mathematician said: “Give me a suitable fulcrum and a lever long enough and I will lift the earth.” God’s love is that fulcrum and the cross is the lever by which the preacher, under God, lifts the world to Christ.

To preach the cross means to preach:

1. Sin and God’s wrath. See Romans 1:18ff. As President King has recently emphasized in his Theology and the Social Conciousness, the sense of sin must be deepened in modern thinking and living.
2. That the law and its penalty must be preached. Paul emphasized this. See his Epistles to the Galatians and Romans.
3. Man’s lost condition and the need of Divine Regeneration. The whole New Testament empahsizes this truth. It was preached with success by Edwards, Whitefield, and a thousand others.
4. The consecration of Christians to service and sacrifice (Matt 16:24; Romans 12:1). Christ expects the Christian to devote himself to the salvation and service of mankind. Paul exhorted his readers to do the same.
5. It means to preach the Holy Spirit and his work upon the sinner and in the believer. According to Philippians 2:7–13, the cross means Christ’s exaltation. But according to Acts 2:33, his exaltation meant the coming of the Holy Spirit. Peter said at Pentecost: “Whereupon being at the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promises of the Holy Spirit, he has shed forth this, which ye see and hear.”

Now the preaching of the cross implies also the preaching of the resurrection of Christ. See 1 Corinthians 15:1–4. The cross as Paul saw it, means, not a dead Christ, but the living Son of God and the mighty Savior of men. A missionary to the Indians first preached to prove the existence of God, and the Red Man went on his way unchanged. He then exhorted them to moral living, preaching against lying, stealing, killing, etc. Still the tribe rejected Christianity. At last he told the story of the cross, the whole tribe was moved and hundreds saved. A young preacher after hearing Mr. Moody said: “I don’t preach the blood.” “What do you preach?” “I preach on the great moral issues of the day, better moral living and higher culture.” “Have you any con- versions?”“No.”The great preacher replied, “then stop preaching moral essays and go to preaching the cross.” Here lies the secret of Mr. Moody’s success as an evangelist. So the modern pastor must preach the word, preach Christ, and above all, preach the cross.

Chapter X
The Pastor as the Church Leader³

What the general is to the army the pastor is to the church. As the ori- ental shepherd goes before his sheep and leads them into green pastures, so the pastor goes before the people to lead them into green pastures of spiritual development. In Hebrews 13:7, 17, and 24, three times pastors are said to “have the rule over” the individual Christian, or over the church. The word “rule over” literally means “go before,” then comes to mean “rule, command, have authority over;” also “control in counsel, lead in influence.” In Hebrews 13:17, the apostle counsels, “Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves.” This is a plain statement declaring the pastor’s authority over the church.

Preachers Have Led in all World-Wide Religious Movements

It was a preacher, John the Baptist who caught the ears of Israel and announced the coming of the Savior King (Matt 3, Luke 3). It was a preacher, Jesus of Nazareth, who organized the apostles, and founded the church, first proclaimed the nature, subjects, growth, permanency, and consummation of the kingdom. A preacher, Peter, filled with the Spirit, led the spiritual forces on Pentecost and three thousand souls were saved in one day. It was a preacher, Phillip the evangelist, who heard the Spirit’s call and crossed the limits of Judea to give the Gospel to Samaria. When God was ready to sweep Christianity out to the nations in world-wide evangelism, He called and used a preacher, Paul.

When the chains of Catholicism were to be broken in the Middle Ages He used a preacher, Wycliffe and Knox, Huss and Savonarola, Luther and Melanchthon, Zwingli and Calvin, to release the forces of Christianity from the thraldom of Rome.

In modern times to wake dormant Christendom and undertake a world-wide mission movement, preachers, Carey, Morrison, Judson, Livingston, and others, have been used of God. To inaugurate the colossal system of modern colleges preachers like Luther Rice, Samuel Wait, Francis Wayland, R.C. Burleson, and others, were mainly instrumental. Preachers even led in establishing Yale, Harvard, and other non-sectarian colleges and universities.

Not all these prominent preachers were pastors, but most of them had been, and a thousand faithful, loyal pastors lent a helping hand to push this movement for the glory of God.

In What to Lead

1. In consecration. The twelve apostles, Paul, and Barnabas seemed to expect others to follow their example. Peter said of elders in the church, “be examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:3). Paul said to the church of Thessalonica that he “make himself an ensample to the church” (2 Thess 3:9). The most eloquent sermon you can ever preach will be your example to unselfish consecration.
2. Lead in organization. Every department of the church’s work is under the pastor more or less. Let the pastor be a Nehemiah and organize the shattered forces to build the walls of Zion by getting each man, woman, and child in the church to do his part. “England expects every man to do his duty”, shouted Lord Nelson at Trafalgar. Nelson did his duty, organized his men, and led in the charge against the foe. His men did theirs and victory crowned the day. Wesley’s motto was, “All at it and always at it.” This is a good motto for the modern pastor.
3. Lead them to spiritual evangelistic power. Lead your people to see their real mission on earth and show them the the joy of winning souls to Christ. Our greatest pastors have ever done this, [C. H.] Spurgeon, A. J. Gor- don, Chapman (before becoming an evangelist), L. G. Broughton, Courtland Meyers, George W. Truett, and a thousand others.
4. Lead your church to undertake world-wide missions. Scores of Southern Baptist churches, and of other denominations, are supporting each a missionary on the foreign field, because the pastor “believed and therefore spoke,” and it was done. Every true pastor has had a vision of God, of himself as His ambassador and last but not least, of the world as God’s field to be won and tilled for His glory.
5. Lead your church into the denominational spirit. Each church is independent but according to the New Testament it is also interdependent on every other church. Let the churches in the country district, town, or city, feel that it is a part of the great state work, and its efforts will be many times doubled to do something of the greatest of all earth’s enterprises, the win- ning of the world to the feet of God. In each local church should circulate the blood of the common faith, the common hope, and the common ambition to give the gospel to all the world.

How Should a Pastor Lead His Church?

1. Not as a dictator. “Neither as lording it over God’s heritage” (1 Peter 5:3). Not even ancient Rome would tolerate dictators, or modern Russians. The Czar has to live under guard much of his time. The pastor is not the head of a monarchy but a spiritual republic.
2. Rule in love. Love your people into loving you, then you can lead them into all that is right and best. It is said by old soldiers that general Lee loved his men so that they would attempt anything he commanded. All great pastors have loved their people into mighty achievement for God.
3. Lead in service. “He that will be greatest among you shall be servant of all.” Xenophon said of Cyrus head of his famous Ten Thousand, “He knew how to be ruled as well as to rule.” He tells us that Cyrus used to wield the shovel and help his privates throw up mud fortifications. What an example for pastors who are God’s real leaders!

Qualifications of Good Pastoral Leaders

1. Be a man. J. B. Hawthorne once said, “Before God can make a preacher he must have a man; God cannot make a preacher out of a thing.” The pastor must be a manly man if he would constrain his church to follow him.
2. Be a courageous man. Have convictions of your own but be careful not to be opinionated and dogmatic. Be sure you are right and then go ahead. If the church does not at first follow you, be calm and patient. Leave the results to God.
   Sam Jones once said to a group of preachers: “If God calls some of you fellows to preach He did it to keep you out of mischief, for you can’t preach a lick, and besides that, some of you are afraid of your shadows.” Such pastors cannot lead a church to great things for God and righteousness.
3. Be impartial and non-factional. Have no favorites. Treat all alike so far as possible. This is a mark of consummate generalship in pastors.
   Be willing to sink yourself out of sight. The pastor who is ever dreaming of promotion or a place of ease and money is not the man to lead the church to service and sacrifice. [ John] Wesley, F. W. Robertson, [C. H.] Spurgeon, and scores of others, are examples of altruistic devotion among preachers.

Chapter XI
The Pastor and His Deacons

Much of the trouble which pastors have is caused directly or indirectly by the pastor failing to understand accurately his relation to his deacons. Either the deacons caused the trouble by their stubbornness, or else the pastor does not know how to manage his deacons.

Origin and Purpose of the Diaconate

Before considering the relation of pastor and deacon let us glance at the origin and purpose of this second office in the church. In Acts 6:1–6, we doubtless have the origin of the diaconate. Foreign born widows were over-looked in the daily ministrations in Jerusalem, and so factions arose in the Jerusalem church between native and foreign born Jews. The apostles, on hearing of the complaint, led by the Holy Spirit, called a mass meeting of the church and suggested that the church “elect” (the Greek word having this meaning) seven men to look after this business. The church did as the apostles suggested and the apostles approved and ordained them with prayer and the laying on of hands.

Some New Testament scholars deny that this is the origin of the diaconate, but most of them admit it, though the noun deacon does not occur. The noun deacon does occur in Philippians 1:1 and 1 Timothy 3:8f.

The purpose of the New Testament deacon is said to be to “serve tables” (Acts 6:2). Primarily this refers to providing for the poor and helpless. It is only by custom that deacons have come to officiate at the Lord’s Supper and manage the finances of the church. The New Testament is silent on these matters. The two offices are differentiated thus: the pastor is responsible for the spiritual matters of the church, the deacons for its material affairs. The apostles laid down this work that they might give themselves continuously to prayer and the ministration of the word.

Another phase of the diaconate which finds a basis in Acts 6:1–6 is that the deacon is the pastor’s helper. The seven were to help the Apostles in doing the work of the church which was too great for the Apostles alone. So deacons are helpers to the pastors in doing the work which they could not do alone.

Relation Between the Pastor and Deacons

1. There are four classes of deacons with whom most pastors have to reckon—the bossing deacon, the kicking deacon, the do-nothing deacon, and the New Testament deacon. In most churches there are usually representa- tives of the first three classes, and happy for the pastor, generally some of the New Testament kind. Dr. J. B. Gambrell advises how to handle the unruly do-nothing deacon in his celebrated utterance on “Shooting the Deacons.” Though it is a matter on which the New Testament is silent it has proved a good policy in many churches to shoot unwise deacons annually. The church should see to it that consecrated, wise, progressive men are elected to fill this office. An old man in western North Carolina was going to mill with a rock in one end of his sack of corn. The preacher on meeting him asked him why he did not throw out the rock and divide his corn in the middle of the sack. The mountaineer replied, “Dad did it this way.” Men of this type do not usu- ally make the best deacons.
2. Neither the pastor nor the deacons should start into rule the other. Although the pastor is the ruler of the church in a Christian democratic sense, yet he must not lord it over his deacons. They are to him what the president’s cabinet is to him, an advisory board, and often they can suggest things that are best for the pastor to follow, especially if the pastor is a young man. Nor should the deacons assume a position of dictators to the pastor. We have known pastors who were afraid to preach on certain subjects without the permission of their deacons, or to suggest any new things, however small, without first consulting their deacons
   This incident illustrates the control of the pastor by the deacons. The pastor was entering upon a new pastorate. The deacons met him and told him he must not preach on gambling, because Brother Jones speculated in cotton futures and bets on horse racing; that he must not preach against the liquor business, because Brother Smith has capital in this business; nor must he preach on card playing and dancing because the leading members of the choir do both. “What then shall I preach?” exclaimed the preacher in despair. “Put it on the Mormons, put it on the Mormons, there is not one in a thousand miles of here,” replied the deacons. The pastor must not be put in shackles by his deacons. He is God’s man and as such must be free to preach God’s Book as he sees it.
3. Let there be perfect understanding at the beginning of your pastorate that you expect the deacons to be sympathetic and co-operative in all your plans; that you are open to suggestions for enlarging and advancing the work and welfare of the church. Perhaps, you had better mildly give them to understand that the church has made you pastor and them deacons.
4. Preach occasionally (or have a visiting brother do so, or have it discussed at district meetings, when your deacons are present, on the duties and qualifications of deacons as laid down in Acts 6:1–6, 1 Timothy 3:8–13). A good way to do this is first to preach on the pastor’s duty to the church, then the church’s duty to the pastor, and last, the deacons’ duty to the pastor and the church and the world. This must be done with tact and under the Spirit’s guidance.
5. Have [a] deacons meeting at least once a month, if you have a large church; if very large, oftenor. Open those meetings with prayer and make them spiritual as well as business like. Talk freely. Let the deacons all express themselves on the general condition of the church and its work and have them make suggestions. Refer to the bossing and kicking deacon as far as reason and common sense make it possible. Let them think they are leading you but you lead them all unconsciously to themselves. Happy is the pastor with great plans who can make his deacons feel they are running the church, but who himself is really holding the helm for God and souls and humanity.

Chapter XII
The Pastor and the Mid Week Service⁴

In Roman Catholic churches, especially in the large cities, there is a service of worship almost every day in the week. In many Anglican and Episcopal churches this is the rule.

Among Protestants and Baptists there is usually one mid week service, variously called the prayer service, the prayer meeting, the mid week services, etc.

The Need of This Mid Week Service

1. This service can promote the spiritual progress of the church. Some man has called a prayer meeting the spiritual thermometer of the church. It may not be exactly the thermometer, or index, of a church’s spirituality, but surely a properly conducted prayer meeting always increases the spiritual life of the church. If a church needs spirituality then it needs the mid week prayer service.
2. This service is the means of grace to the individual Christian. None of us can receive enough grace on Sunday to supply him with conquering power over sin for a whole week. The prayer meeting is the spiritual blacksmith shop, on the half way ground from Sunday to Sunday, where we all may get out broken down spiritual wagons repaired and then go on rejoicing on the heavenward road.
3. It gives Christians an opportunity for social intercourse. In the great congregations on Sunday often this brotherly greeting is impossible. Christians should know each other here as well as hereafter. We should know each other better down here than is usually the case in most of the churches. The prayer meeting is a good place to grasp each other’s hand, learn each other’s struggles, and to cultivate that beautiful spirit which the Psalmist described when he wrote, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” (Ps 133:1).
4. It gives the pastor an opportunity to come into closer touch with the spiritual men and women of his church. This has a twofold advantage: it warms the pastor’s spiritual life and gives him new forces to utilize in his church work. It was at a prayer meeting on the banks of the river near Philippi that Paul met Lydia and other worshipping women. Lydia, the first convert in Europe, became a valuable assistant to Paul and threw open the doors of her house for the preaching of the gospel. What a blessing to all the world has been that prayer meeting on the banks of the little river in Macedonia!

How to Conduct a Prayer Meeting

I. Some Things That Kill a Prayer Meeting

1. Long prayers. Some brethren think they are heard for their “much speaking,” Jesus to the contrary. The long winded brother must be cut off. Let the pastor emphasize short prayers. Let him set the example himself. True prayer is talking to God for a particular blessing, or thanking Him for definite blessings received. When the pastor calls on Brother Long-wind let him say, “Brother will please lead us in a very short prayer.” There is a story told of a good old brother who used to pray long prayers in his family worship. One night all the boys went to sleep while the old brother was pray- ing. Presently one of them awoke and asked where he was. Another rubbing his eyes replied, “The children of Israel are just crossing the Red Sea.” The other said, “Well he is just half through,” and dropped his head for another nap. Those long prayers are not suitable for the production of fervency and the spiritual life of a modern prayer meeting.
2. Long Speeches. The prayer meeting is every body’s meeting, and if one brother talks very long he is monopolizing the times of others. Moreover long speeches filled with nothing but air are tasteless and unsatisfactory. Instead of feeding they cool off the spiritual fires of good men women.
3. Cranky people who make themselves prominent in the prayer meeting will spoil its spiritual life. The pastor must manage such people and not let them monopolize the time of others.
4. Formal unspiritual singing. As a rule we should have no regular choir for the music on prayer meeting nights. Let somebody lead, but let the whole congregation as nearly as possible join in soulful singing of spiritual hymns.

II. Things That Help to Make a Good Prayer Meeting

1. Begin and close on time. This is the rule. If you are in the midst of a specially good service, if souls are being saved, or the meeting naturally runs itself, you may continue the meeting with profit. But this should not be the rule. Many people would attend the prayer meeting, people that are very busy, if they knew they could leave at a certain time.
2. Have good soul stirring spiritual singing. Nothing, except good preaching and fervent praying, so lifts our souls heavenward as does the hearty singing of good old hymns of grace and consecration.
3. Let prayer be the chief feature of the prayer meeting, except on rare occasions when you may have something particular connected with the church life to present. Many short prayers, and some longer ones occasionally, increase the spiritual flow of the prayer meeting.
4. As nearly as possible have variety in each service. Change from singing to praying, from Scripture reading to Scripture quotations, from general speaking to testifying, etc. “Variety is the spice of life,” and it is also the spice of a good prayer meetings and contributes much to their attractiveness and power.
5. Have new programs each meeting. Of course these programs should not be cut and dried. But the pastor should see to it that there is a general topic to consider and have some definite arrangements, at least in his own mind, if not previous understanding with certain brothers that a certain course is to be followed in the meeting. Sometimes the prayer meetings may be a Scripture reading meeting, again a promise meeting, again an experience meeting, etc. There are scores of lines of thought productive of spiritual life and power which the pastor may mark out for different meetings of the mid week service.

Who Should Lead

1. The pastor should direct the prayer meeting all the time. He need not lead every particular meeting. He may ask some deacon or other brother, occasionally some visiting brother, to read the Scriptures and lead the meeting. But let the pastor keep his hand on the prayer meeting as the engineer keeps his hand on the throttle of his engine. The pastor is the spiritual leader of the church and should be either the direct or indirect leader in every regular mid week prayer service.
2. The pastor must not preach a sermon in the prayer meeting. It is a meeting for everybody and any brother or sister should have a chance to talk in this meeting. Sermonizing in the prayer meeting has killed many mid week service.

Chapter XIII
The Pastor and the Sunday School⁵

All the great works on pastoral theology neglect the Sunday School in their treatment. Van Ooesterzee, Vinet, Plumer, Fairbairn, and Shedd, either simply mention or do not mention at all the Sunday School. No department of religious work is claiming more attention than the Sunday School. There are more lectures made, more specialists trained, and more new books written, for the Sunday School than for any other single department of modern church work.

I. The Origin of the Sunday School

The modern Sunday School was founded by Robert Raikes the Editor and the proprietor of the Glouceser Journal, July 1780, in Gloucester, England. The first Sunday School was composed of poor children from the streets who gathered in a private house in a manufacturing part of the city and were taught by four women paid by Mr. Rakes a shilling a day. In this school children were taught reading mainly and a few elementary facts about religion. The school had a morning and afternoon session.

The first Sunday School in America was organized at Pawtuckett, Rhode Island, by Samuel Slater for poor ignorant children who gathered about his mill. The first Baptist Sunday School in America was that of the Broadway Church, Baltimore, Md., organized in l802. The first Baptist Sunday School in Texas was organized by Thos. G. Pilgrim, a deacon from New York at San Filepe on the Brazos in 1827.

But was Raikes’ school the first real Sunday School? [H. C.] Trumbull traces the Sunday School back to the Jewish Synagogue school founded nearly five centuries before Christ.⁶ This was a Bible school taught on the Sabbath with many features like a modern Sunday School. Jesus as a boy and youth attended this Sabbath School and as a man still attended it (Luke 4:16). When He gave the great commission (Matt 28:18–20) He put special emphasize upon teaching. In recognition of this the Sunday School has al- ways been a teaching department of the church.

The apostles seemed to have adopted the synagogue Bible School as a prominent feature in Christianity. In Acts 17:1–3, for three successive Sabbaths Paul met the Jews in the synagogue at Thessalonica and discussed with them the promises of the Old Testament about the death and resurrection of the Messiah. In Acts 17:10–12, he worshipped with the Bereans on the Sabbath. In Acts 17:17 he went into the synagogue at Athens and there taught. In Acts 18:1–11, he reasoned with the people out of the Scriptures every Sabbath. In Acts 19:1–10, he undertook in Ephesus to do the same thing but had to forsake the synagogue school on account of the opposition of the Jews. He then began to teach in the school of Tyrannus and continued there two years.

The Alexandrian Catechetical was a Bible School and perpetuated the teaching forces of Christianity. Baron Bunson says, “The apostolic church made the school the connecting link between herself and the world.” Clement, Origen, and others, were great Christian teachers in this school in the second and third centuries. In the fourth century the influence of the church was so great because of her schools that Emperor Julian, the Apostate determined to place all the schools of the Empire under the authority of the state. [ John] Broadus takes the position that the preaching of the first, second, and third centuries was more like teaching than preaching.⁷ The word homily (from which the word homiletics is derived) meaning conversation, suggest this idea as the form of early preaching.

[Henry Charles] Lea regards the decline of Bible school work the cause of the decline of spiritual life and of Catholic corruption in the middle ages.⁸ On the other hand Philip Schaff speaks of the Waldenses as well versed in the Scriptures and as a “lay community of Bible readers.”⁹

After the Protestant Reformation in Germany and England, Scot- land and Switzerland Bible study was revived. Soon after this Robert Raikes started his school in Gloucester, and soon after this the various denominations began Sunday School work and thus Bible study became a prominent feature in the Sunday School.

II. The Relation of the Sunday School to the Church

1. It is not a separate institution. Raikes’ school was separate from the church, but the denominational Sunday Schools were early developed and the true Sunday School is under the auspices of a local church.
2. The Sunday School should be under the management of the church. Though the Sunday School superintendent and teachers may nominate the various officers in the Sunday School, yet it is the prerogative of the church to elect all Sunday School officers. This principle is forgotten in many of our churches and the consequences are often fatal to the proper teaching of the Bible.
3. The church should encourage and pray for the Sunday School. Deacons should feel as much interest in the Sunday School as in the church conference. The Sunday School should be subordinate and loyal to the church. The church is the one Divine institution with Divine authority for the doing of religious work, and the Sunday School should gladly bow to its authority and work for the church’s highest success.

III. The Pastor’s Relation to the Sunday School

1. He is the pastor of the Sunday School as well as of the church. This logically follows. If the pastor is pastor of the whole church and the Sunday School is a part of the church work, then the pastor of the church is also the pastor of the Sunday School.
2. Then the pastor is the real superintendent behind the nominal superintendent. The superintendent and the pastor should be on the best of terms. The superintendent should be an intelligent, loving, tactful administrator, a man of convictions of his own but also docile with respect to his pastor. The pastor should not give advice to the superintendent but should by tactful interviews get him to lead in methods productive of the greatest results.
3. The pastor is a recruiting office in the Sunday School. Whereever he finds a child or youth or older person not in the Sunday School he should strive to enlist such as members of his school.
4. He may or may not teach a class in the Sunday School. If he can teach and loves teaching and it does not diminish his pulpit powers, by all means the pastor should teach a class. But if he does become the teaching of a particular class he must not lose sight of the fact that he is pastor of the whole Sunday School.
5. The pastor should maintain a most intimate relation with his teachers. By all means have teachers’ meetings and perhaps a Sunday School normal course. In these teachers’ meetings the pastor can accomplish much by instructing and leading his teachers.

IV. The Mission of the Sunday School

What we have said of the pastor’s relation to the Sunday School grows out of the mission of the Sunday School. What is that mission?

1. Primarily, it is a school for the study of the Bible. Webster’s definition is: “A school held on Sunday for the study of the Bible and religious instruction.” Dr. [B. W.] Spilman’s definition is: “A meeting for religious worship in which teaching is the central idea.” Dr. [H. M.] Hamill defines it thus: “The Christian church engaged in teaching and studying the Holy Bible.” [H. C.] Trumbull gives the following definition: “An agency of the church by which the Word of God is taught interlocutorilly or catechetically, to children and other learners . . . under separate teachers.” Thus we see that all these difinitions imply that Bible study is the prime purpose of the Sunday School.
2. It is a character building institution. Xavier once said: “Give me the children till seven years of age, and any one may take them afterwards.” Modern psychology has almost conclusively demonstrated that the first seven years of a child’s life determines his future character. Impressions made on his nerves, brain, and conscience in those first seven years decide the mold of character. Then how significant is the mission of the Sunday School!
3. It should be an evangelistic force, winning every boy and girl to Christ. Statistics show that over eighty-seven percent of all converts now come from the Sunday School classes.
4. The Sunday School should and does develop stalwart Christian character and does train workers in the kingdom of service. If it teaches the Bible, and shapes character in Christ by winning souls to Him, it must also train workers and develop spiritual strength.

V. The Bible in the Sunday School

The Bible is the one text book of the Sunday School. It is God’s revealed will to man concerning redemption, salvation, life, and eternity. How are we to teach the Bible in the Sunday School?

1. Our interdenominational Sunday School lessons are very objectionable as a method of Bible study for two reasons:
   First, they are not arranged in any system, either chronological or logical.
   Second, They give all grades of age and culture the same lesson to study. The Sunday School will never achieve its highests mission until it adopts graded lessons in its Bible study, just as we have graded our courses of study in the public schools, academies, Colleges, and universities. Age and culture combined should be the standard of this grading. If the International Committee would get out courses covering several years of study, or if each denomination or state would get out similar graded courses, it would give Bible study a charm it has never yet possessed. Many efforts at this construction of graded Sunday School courses are being made now, and we trust in the near future we shall have satisfactory graded sources for all our Sunday School.
2. This would necessitate Sunday School normals for the training of Sunday School teachers and possibly this would in some cases demand paid Sunday School teachers. We do not say that this would be necessary, nor do we contend that it would be desirous to have paid Sunday School teachers. Yet in the future it may be a necessity, just as it has become necessary to pay pastors stipulated salaries.
3. This grading of the Sunday School with different courses would doubtless be productive of real study of the Bible. According to the present system we have but little real study of the Bible. With the graded system we could issue certificates and promote the pupils from one grade to the next. This would stimulate study and would be productive of much good.

VI. The Teachers in the Sunday School

This is the problem of all problems in the modern Sunday School. The weakest point in our modern Sunday School system has been the lack of competent teachers. There are four things indispensable in good teacher:

1. A fair knowledge of the Bible. Our public schools, colleges, and universities require their teachers to know the subjects which they are to teach. Why should not the Sunday School teacher be required to have a good working knowledge of his subject, the Bible?
2. A good knowledge of child nature. A good teacher must know the laws psychology, that is how knowledge reaches the head and heart and becomes character and life. Many who know their subjects cannot teach because they do not know how knowledge is received.
3. A fair knowledge of pedagogy, or the best methods of imparting knowledge. The teacher, in short, must know what he is to teach, whom he is teaching, and how to teach it.
4. A good teacher must have love for Christ and souls and be filled with the Holy Spirit. The teacher in the Sunday School is dealing specially with spiritual matters and must, therefore, above all things else, be spiritually minded.

In view of these facts it seems that Sunday School normals and departments for Sunday School Teacher-training in all our colleges and seminaries are as essential as normals for training teachers for the public schools. If you cannot have Sunday School normals everyone ought to have a teachers’ class. To have a successful teachers’ class:

First, teach it yourself and study so as to have something to teach your teachers.

Second, have a definite course of study, in addition to the regular Sunday School lesson. For instance, you might teach your teachers’ class in the life of Christ, the life of Paul, and an outline of Old Testament history, outline of New Testament history, the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Paul, and other courses. That is, study something systematically.

Third, give a special course on how to teach. If you are not able to do it yourself get some specialist to do so for your class of Sunday School teachers. However, every pastor ought to be able to do so himself (See 1 Tim 3:3).

Fourth, make the teachers’ meeting spiritual, free, easy, but let it be on a plane of dignity.

Dr. Mullins has this significant sentence on the need of better equipped Sunday School teachers: “the supreme lack of the present day Sunday School is the lack of a sufficient number of equipped teachers. The chief teacher of the teachers and trainer of the trainers of the Sunday School is the pastor.”

VII. Evangelization in the Sunday School

The winning of the souls of the young in the Sunday School should be one of its highest aims. This will be achieved,

1. By the pastor’s keeping this purpose before the Sunday School in his talks to the Sunday School and also in his sermons. Any pastor who fails to address his Sunday School occasionally with a burning heart message and who in the pulpit fails to magnify the mission of the Sunday School is miss- ing the greatest opportunity of his pastorate.
2. See that spiritual teachers are elected to teach in the Sunday School, especially in classes of boys and girls from eight to thirteen years old.
3. In your teachers’ meetings emphasize soul winning. Let the teachers speak freely about the unsaved of their classes and have special prayers for them.
4. Then have evangelistic days in the Sunday School, or decision day as Sunday School specialists call them. For further treatment of this subject see Torrey, “How to Promote and Conduct a Successful Revival”, pages 76–93. In Iowa on one Sunday in 1900 one hundred and. seventy two schools ob- served decision day and reported 3,476 conversions in the Sunday School. In Philadelphia recently three hundred schools observed decision day and 5,000 were converted that day. How observe this day?
   • Do not announce it publically in the Sunday School. Dur- ing the week before speak to the parents, deacons, officers, and teachers of the Sunday School and ask them to pray for conversions next Sunday.
   • On Saturday afternoon, or Saturday night, have a spiritual teachers’ meeting, getting the teachers to pray for individuals lost in their classes. Lay upon your teachers’ hearts the worth of the souls of their pupils.
   • Have your teachers to lay aside the regular lessons for that day, unless it can be turned to practical evangelistic ends. At any rate, have them talk to their pupils on sin and its awful results, on Christ the only Savior, and urge the lost to be saved at once.
   • After closing the teaching session a few minutes early, have two or three great evangelistic songs and then preach a fifteen minute loving sermon urging the lost to be saved this very hour by turning from sin to Christ. Dr. Broughton, Atlanta, Ga.,¹⁰ says: “It is an easy thing to have a revival in our church. We have the folks and they are in our Sunday School. We have enough unsaved folks in our Sunday School to run a revival service a month and not exhaust our material.”

Why Have Evangelistic Services in the Sunday School?

1. For the sake of the large number of souls that are to be saved. Eighty- seven percent of modern converts come from the Sunday School.
2. Because it is easier to reach them at this age than at any other time. Only a small percent of those that pass the twentieth year are ever saved.
3. Evangelization in the Sunday School will tend to quicken the evan- gelistic and missionary spirit in the whole church.
4. Because every boy and girl saved in the Sunday School may and can mean a new force to win other souls to Christ. John Wanamake a great Sunday School man, once said: “A man converted is a unit, a child converted is a multiplication table.” If you save the gray haired sinner you save only one soul. If you save the bright boy you save a life that may mean thousands of souls. In the protracted meeting in which Robert Moffatt as a small boy was converted he was the only convert and his pastor felt that his meeting was a failure, but the tremendous work of Moffatt on the mission field afterward in winning the lost shows how significant is the winning of a young boy to Christ.

VIII. Sunday School Libraries

By all means have as large a library as possible. Cicero once said, “Books are food to the youth.” Over the entrance to the library in Thebes was this motto: “Medicine for the Soul.” None but God can compute the power of good books.

J. V. Hall, a converted drunkard, wrote the Sinner’s Friend. It has been translated into twenty languages and over one thousand of the vilest sinners have been led to Christ by reading this. William Reid wrote The Blood of Jesus which has led thousands to Christ. Hon. C. G. Edwards, late Lieutenant Govenor of Illinois, was saved by reading this book and afterwards gave thirty thousand dollars to Shurtleff College. In Iowa a Colporteur gave The Blood of Jesus to a boy who took it home. He was converted and all the family. The neighbors read it and were converted and a church was organized. General A. T. Hawthorne was converted by reading the same book. Dr. Geo. C. Lorimer was converted by reading a tract and he became one of America’s greatest pulpit orators. Richard Baxter wrote his Call to the Unconverted. Philip Doddridge read it, was converted, and became one of the world’s greatest preachers. Doddridge wrote The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. William Wilberforce read it, was saved and became the Christian statesman who broke up the traffic of African slavery. Wilberforce wrote A Practical View of Christianity which led Lege Richmond to Christ. Lege Richmond wrote his Dairyman’s Daughter, five million copies of which have been circulated and resulted in the salvation of thousands of souls—it is estimated at least a hundred thousand.

William Carey in his shoe shop read Cook’s Voyages and studied his rude maps which inspired his young soul with love for the lost world and led him to inaugurate the modern world-wide missionary movement. [Adoniram] Judson read [Claudius] Buchanan’s Star in the East, and by it was led to be a missionary.

Some Suggestions As to The Kind of Books in the Library

1. Have only good books in the Sunday School library, none of questionable teachings or morals.
2. Have plenty of books of travel and adventure.
3. Have plenty of biographies, especially of great philanthropists, preachers, and missionaries.
4. Have a few books on general and church history, especially a brief history of your denomination.
5. Have books which help in Bible study: Lives of Christ, Lives of Paul, Biblical Geography and history, a harmony of the Gospels, Bible dictionaries and concordances.
6. Have a few religious novels.

IX. Sunday School Rooms

All modern buildings must have convenience for the Sunday School if it is to achieve its highest mission.

1. There should be a separate apartment for the primary department. This can be secured in various ways according to the size of the church and the demand of the primary department.
2. Every modern church building costing over three thousand ($3,000.00) should have six to ten, or more, teaching rooms according to the demand of the local Sunday School. No teacher can hold the attention of his class without isolation from all classes around.
3. The supreme mission of the Sunday School depends on the proper equipment as to rooms.
4. The supreme mission of the Sunday School demands this outlay, even if it should entail a tremendous expense. Are not souls, character, and spiritual living more valuable than the greatest expense that could be entailed in these matters?

X. Young Men in the Sunday School

It is now the general rule for boys of 17 or 18 years of age to begin to drift out of the Sunday School. They have outgrown it. Is this right? We suggest:

1. That the pastor make it a prime teaching in the pulpit and in the Sunday School that the Sunday School exists not only for children but for men, the strongest and bravest.
2. Have a first class, friendly, manly, sacrificing teacher for a young men’s class. If a lady teaches young men (which is usually not best) she must be tactful and gifted in administration as well as a skilful teacher and sympathetic friend.
3. In this class let the young men do original work—assign them outside reading and personal investigation on subjects of interest to them.Let the young men’s classes have their own organization. You may call it the Baraca, or you may select your own name. The Baraca idea is excellent. Have distinct courses of study on a lofty scale. Let the class elect its own officers, president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and teacher (with the approval of the church).
4. Above all let such classes have committees on which every member of the class shall be appointed. There may be a library committee to suggest books for general reading in the class; a visiting committee to look after the sick members; a recruiting committee to enlist new members; a missionary committee to arrange for missionary programs occasionally; perhaps, a prohibition committee, and even other committees according to local needs. The point is young men must have something to do, or they will quit the Sunday School.

XI. Older Men and Women in the Sunday School

By all means let the older people from thirty to eighty, or older, feel that the Sunday School is a spiritual school in which they can feast on the Word of God. Let them have their special classes with special organization if feasible. Dr. Green, Washington City, has 600 to 800 pupils in the adult department of his Sunday School. He has made a specialty of this department—he has preached it, talked it, prayed for it, and brought it to pass. But he has about 2,500 pupils in his whole Sunday School. So you see he has not neglected the other departments but has succeeded in the older people’s department.

XII. The Home Department

The most of our modern churches should have home department’s in the Sunday School, because

1. It helps some, invalids, mothers, servants, and others, to study God’s word, who could not otherwise do so systematically.
2. It gives an opportunity to develop some idle church members.
3. It often recovers back sliders. It gives the pastor information as to his people and increases his influence.
4. It increases the regular Sunday School and church attendance.

XIII. The Cradle Roll

Most of our largest churches today should have a cradle roll department, because,

1. It enlists the parent’s sympathy and respect for the Sunday School and church, even though they may not be members. An old Scotch divine once said to a young preacher, “Remember the shortest road to the parent’s heart is by way of the child.”
2. It reaches the child at the right time. The Catholics, Episcopalians, and Methodists have always emphasized the importance of the little child. It is time that all Christians should do the same.
3. Have a separate organization for this department.

Chapter XIV
The Pastor and His Young People¹¹

The Sunday School is not the only organization to be used by the pastor in dealing with the young.

As early as 1815, in Germany there seems to have been started a Young men’s Christian Association. But nothing came of it, so the founding of the Young Men’s Christian Association is usually referred to George Williams who founded the first Association in London. One of the last acts of Queen Victoria was to knight this good man in appreciation of his service to young men. In many cities the Young Men’s Christian Associations have gymnasiums, reading rooms and libraries, educational clubs, and lecture courses, as well as Bible classes. There are between 6,000 and 7,000 Young Men’s Christian Associations in all parts of the world. Modern pastors can reach a certain class of young men through these associations whom they could scarcely ever reach through any other channel.

In 1881, in Portland, Maine, the first society of Christian Endeavor was organized by a Congregational pastor in a Congregational church. There are now in the world over 25,000 Christian Endeavor societies representing 30 different denominations.

Out of the Christian Endeavor Society grew the Methodist Epworth League which has over 18,000 chapters (societies) and over 1,000,000 members. While the Christian Endeavor is interdenominational, the Epworth [League] is strictly denominational.

The Protestant Episcopal church of the United States has its Brotherhood of St. Andrew, organized in 1890, and now numbering 1,500 chapters. This brotherhood is strictly sectarian as none but Episcopalians can be members. It took its name from John 1:40–42, and its leading motive is to do personal work among young men.

The Free Church of Scotland has its young peoples’ Guilds, founded in 1897. There is a National Guild coterminus with the church in Scotland. This is composed of local Guilds from all parts of the country. Its purpose is “Promoting spiritual and intellectual life of young men.”

In 1889, the first convention of the Baptist Young People was organized at the regular Nebraska State convention. In 1891, the American Baptist Publication Society called a conference of friends to this work in Philadelphia, which conference recommended an organization of a National Baptist Young People’s Union. This was organized July 8, 1891, in Chicago. Now there are local Baptist Young People’s Unions in all the states of the Union and State Conventions in almost all the states.

The Relation of the B.Y.P.U. to the Church

1. It must be emphasized that the Young People’s Union is not a separate organization, but is a sub-organization inside the church.
2. Therefore the church should lend it a helping hand and cheering words.
3. The Union should always cooperate with the church in all its work.

The Pastor’s Relation to the B.Y.P.U.

1. As pastor he is its real head.
2. He should meet with his B.Y.P.U. as often as possible. He should not assume the position of dictator to the B.Y.P.U. any more than he does to other departments of his church work.
3. The wise pastor will use his B.Y.P.U. for accomplishing the various work of the church, evangelistic, missionary, the visiting of the sick, etc.

The Work of the B.Y.P.U.

1. The main work of the B.Y.P.U. hitherto has been educational. That is, it has tried to awaken the young people in our Baptist churches to an inter- est in Bible study, soul winning, and world-wide evangelization. Though this phase of the B.Y.P.U. work is not so important now yet it will always remain a significant phase of the B.Y.P.U. work.
2. The B.Y.P.U. has also been an evangelistic power. In the B.Y.P.U. many young people have been trained to feel the worth of a soul and to become successful personal workers in their church revivals. The story of the young lady who won her young gentleman friend to Christ on the way home from church might be multiplied many times over from the records of our modern B.Y.P.U.
3. To some extent the B.Y.P.U. has been missionary. The Missionary spirit is growing in this Young People’s organization. This is prominent in the B.Y.P.U. State Convention of Texas. Under the spiritual power of great preachers, at nearly every one of our state conventions, young men and young women dedicate themselves to the foreign missionary enterprise.
4. The B.Y.P.U. also has as its aim the cultivation and consecration of the social life of our Baptist young people. Young people, like sheep, are gre- garious animals. They will associate with one another for diverse purposes. Why should not the wise pastor consecrate this social power and talent to Christ?

The Organization of the Local B.Y.P.U.

In all our larger churches the pastor should have two unions, Junior and Senior. The former is composed of boys and girls from nine to sixteen (thereabout). The pastor should see to it that a cultured, practical, consecrated woman be made president, while all the other offices should be given to the boys and girls. By all means the members of this union should have something to do.

The senior union is composed of all young men and women of the church over sixteen or seventeen. How can the Senior union be made successful?

1. Elect an influential, consecrated young man (sometimes a youthful middle aged man) as president. Much depends on the leader of young people.
2. Wisely select three vice-presidents and have a program committee, social committee, membership committee, library committee, missionary committee, and sometimes other committees. Always select stayed, energetic chairmen.
3. Have regular courses of Bible study and if possible have some good practical work to do all the time.

Chapter XV
The Pastor and Women’s Work¹²

Woman has received the greatest blessings from Christianity and she in turn has been its greatest friend and advocate. She administered to the Savior while on earth and to his apostles and church after His ascension. See Luke 7:36–50; 8:1–3; 10:38–40; John 12:1–8; 21:2; 20:11–19; Acts 1:14; 9:26ff; 16:14–15; 18:26; Romans 16:1–6, 12, 15; Philippians 4:3. Woman not only gave us by birth the incarnate Son of God but with her own hands, voice, and money helped to establish the kingdom in Christ’s day; yea, Paul found “Laborers in the gospel” among the women. All down the ages women have been first in devotion to Christ and to his church, many of them in the first century sealing their faith with their blood.

What Can Women Do?

1. They are not to preach (1 Cor 14:24, 35; 1 Tim 2:12). According to most exegetes the apostle forbids the public proclamation of the gospel by women. Gladden, in The Christian Pastor, following some New Testament specialists, claims that Paul is here dealing with specific environment and now these heathen practices and customs have passed away women may preach from the pulpit like men. The Quakers, Methodists, Sanctifications, and a few others, allow their women to preach. We are reminded of a story of Boswell and Johnson. Johnson had been to hear a woman preach and Bo- swell asked him how he liked her preaching. Johnson replied that he always thought of a hen’s trying to crow when he thought of a woman’s trying to preach: “the hen might crow but could not do it well.” At any rate Paul seems to have felt that their was a certain unfitness for women to preach.
2. Pastors should emphasize the home as the true sphere of woman’s usefulness. First, as a wife. God gave Eve to Adam to be “a helpmeet” for him. We are told by English etymologists that the word wife is thought to be derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word which means to weave. Possibly the early Anglo-Saxon word was thus used because woman wove the fabrics of the home. But in a far higher sense she weaves the destiny of her husband and the children. She is pre-eminently the weaver.
   Again, especially as a mother. Samuel had a good mother who gave him to the Lord when he was a small child. John the Baptist likewise and Jesus and Timothy and thousands of others have had good mothers who at birth consecrated them to the Lord, so far as they could. When Timothy Dwight, once president of Yale, was asked the secret of his success he replied, “I had the right mother.” It seems not to be accidental but providential that Moses’ mother should be called to care for the little boy taken by the princess from the river bank. That the mother should train him is part of the Divine plan. Pastors should often preach on home religion and family prayers and show the women that it lies in their power to make godly spiritual homes. There are not many instances where consecrated wives need fail in leading their husbands to Christ.
3. Impress your women that the Sunday School is a broad field of un- speakable usefulness for them. They make the best religious teachers because they are sympathetic, loving, earnest, and zealous, and so can influence the young as teachers. Especially are women fitted to be teachers in the primary, intermediate, and home department.
4. As soul winners women may be specially useful. All pastors should train their most devoted women for this greatest of all human service. We have known many good women who scarcely ever failed to land with the gospel net the soul after which they went. Pastors should organize and train a large group of women fitted for this service and thus utilize their highest power in fishing for the souls of the lost.
5. As trained nurses. Women are especially adapted both by nature and grace to nurse the sick and soothe the dying. The names of Dorothy Dix of New York, Florence Nightingale, and Clara Barton (who has recently gone to her reward in the good old age of 91) are famous the world over as nurses of soldiers on the fields of battle. Florence Nightingale was loved by the soldiers in the Crimean camp as perhaps no other philanthropist has ever been loved by suffering men. It is said that the soldiers in the camp would drag their heads off the pillows that the shadow of the good woman might rest upon them, or if impossible to have her shadow reach them, would throw kisses at it on the wall. Clara Barton made herself famous in caring for the suffering and dying soldiers in the Spanish-American and other late wars. There is a great demand now for more trained nurses, not because there are more wars and so more dying soldiers to nurse, but because there are so many more hospitals and since medicine and surgery are so fully fitted to deal with almost every form of human disease. The skillful surgeon must be supplemented by the trained nurse.
6. As charity workers. Some think that Phoebe was a deaconess, ac- cording to Romans 16:2, and that Paul provided for deaconesses in 1 Timothy 3:11. It is probable that the Greek word in this passage should be translated female deacons and not “wives.” If this be true the apostle felt that deaconesses were as necessary in the early churches as deacons. However this may be, in post-apostolic churches there were evidently deaconesses, for the church fathers refer to them. They were usually widows, who had been married once or maidens. The custom to have deaconesses ceased in the 6th century in the Latin Church, in the 12th century in the Greek church.
   The church of Rome allowed the position of deaconesses to disappear, but in 1617 the order of the daughters of Charity (official title being, “Daughters of Christian Love”) was founded by St. Vincent de Paul and Madam Louise Morillac le Gras a widow. The purpose of this order was the visitation and care of the sick. This order has been perpetuated in the Catholic church in every land. Sisters of Charity are conspicious not only for their well known uniform but also for their loving Christian service.
   The Church of England and the protestant Episcopal church in the United States have also revived the order of deaconesses. The Methodists also have them in modern times. Even some Congregationalists have them but not in the official sense. Pastors can profitably use consecrated, sympathetic women for visiting the sick and the poor, and for raising funds for orphanages and other charitable institutions.
7. Mission work. All pastors should organize their women (as many as will be thus organized) into missionary Unions or societies. They should give them courses of Bible study on the principals of missions and the various mission fields of the world. Then the pastor should give his women some- thing practical to do along the line of missionary endeavor.
   The Women’s Missionary Union of the South was organized in 1888, in Richmond, Va. In the first seventeen years of their history they raised over one million dollars for missionary purposes, not counting hundreds of missionary boxes sent to missionaries on the frontier. Our organized Women’s Missionary Societies of the Southern Baptist Convention are now giving $115,000.00 annually. In North Carolina the Women’s Missionary Union of that state supports two missionaries, T. C. Brittian and wife, who are called the Yates Memorial Missionaries.
   The Women’s Missionary Society may be made a productive field for growing missionary recruits. Many a young woman will be impressed to go out as a missionary to some foreign land because of the work done by a faithful Women’s Missionary Society. In large churches it is better to have the young unmarried women organized into a special Missionary Society for them.

Chapter XVI
The Pastor as a Visitor¹³

The pastor has not completed his work when he has finished his sermon on the Lord’s day. Preaching the word is but the broadcast sowing of the truth, while pastoral visitation tills the soil of the heart and brings to fruitage the seed sown on the Lord’s day. As Dr. W. M. Taylor of New York said to the New Haven Seminary students, “You will make a great mistake, if you underestimate the visitation of your people. The pulpit is your throne, no doubt, but then a throne is stable as it rests on the affections of the people, and to get their affections you must visit them in their dwellings.”

I. The Time to Visit.

The time to visit is usually in the afternoon, though occasionally morning visits are necessary. The pastor had better spend his mornings in the study and his afternoons in visiting the homes of his flock. Every pastor should put in at least four solid afternoons in pastoral visitation. If your church is large you will need more time for visitation. Besides this regular afternoon visitation the pastor may easily and profitably spend at least an hour each morning (occasionally more) in the stores and shops and offices talking with the men and thus winning their good will and getting into their affections. Ordinarily the pastor should not visit on Mondays or Saturdays except in cases of sickness. The pastor needs Monday to rest from Sunday’s strain, the house keepers need Saturday to prepare for Sunday. Of course, student pastors will often have to do their regular pastoral visiting on Saturdays and Mondays, but in these instances the people understand why it is necessary.

II. The Nature of the Pastoral Visit.

1. It is not a purely social call. The pastor must not approach his people as a social caller. He cannot afford to identify.
   Be sunny and hopeful and joyful in the chamber of the sick. Lead them to forget their pains if possible. If the patient is very sick and liable to die, lead him to introduce the subject of death. Be cautious in dealing with the unsaved dying. Do not let them know you think they are bound to die soon, unless this be your only chance to arouse them and reach their souls. Help the physician, stay in close touch with the family. Be ready to serve in any way. Make yourself free and easy and a ready servant in the sick room.
2. The bereaved. When death visits any home represented in your membership be sure to visit the bereaved at once, pray with them, read the Bible with them, and lead them to trust in the bright promises of God’s Word. A well known pastor once married a rich young couple neither of whom was a Christian. At the close of the wedding festivities the pastor invited the young couple to visit his church. They never came. As the years went by their little boy became very sick and was at the point of death. The pastor saw his opportunity, visited the home every day, served the young father and mother in every possible way. When death claimed his own he buried the little child, comforted the broken hearted father and mother, then invited them to come to his church again. They never came. A few years later the same experience was repeated in the loss of their little girl. On leaving the grave, after comforting the sad father and mother, the pastor again invited the stricken pair to come to his church. They came, heard the gospel of grace and comfort, were saved, and began to life beautiful lives of consecration.
3. The calamity stricken. Visit those with reverses in business, and especially the homes of those whose sons or daughters may have disappointed loving parents. In any ordinary pastorate the pastor will have many occasions to take a broken hearted father or mother by the hand and seek to cheer them with the promises of God.
4. The indifferent and the backslider. Lay upon their hearts your own heart of love and friendship. Show them God’s love for them and their obligation to love and serve such a gracious Heavenly Father. It is good to read the Bible and pray with this class. Get at the cause of their indifference or backsliding. Help them remove it by bringing in the promises of the Bible and showing them the obligation of redeemed men to live good, consecrated lives.
5. The skeptic. Do not leave him out. If possible in ordinary social relations win his heart and confidence. Then show him Christ and in your own life the duty the Christian life. Do not ever argue with him publicly. Show him privately from the Word of God how illogical are his objections to Christ and Christianity. Many a skeptic has been led to Christ and made a great leader in the onward movements of Christianity.
6. Those under conviction for sin. If a man or woman, boy or girl asks for prayer on Sunday the pastor should follow up this interest in person by a visit to the home. Read the Bible and pray with such a one. Often the pastor has his greatest opportunity to lead a soul to Christ in wise pastoral visiting after the public preaching has produced conviction in the heart.
7. The new convert especially. Do not neglect the little lambs of the flock. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my lambs” ( John 21:17). Our Lord says to every pastor, “Feed my lambs.” At this point more pastors fail than at almost any other point. At this point the wreck of Christian living is often begun. The pastor should give his new converts somethings to do at once in the church work. These new converts love the pastor and if he shows himself a true friend in these early years of Christian experience, he can lead them to be faithful Christians. Help them study the Bible. Teach them to pray and show them how they can serve their fellowman in a thousand ways.
8. By all means visit the poor. They are always with us as Jesus said ( John 12:8). Visit the poor of your own church. They are often sensitive. The pastor should be at home with them. Be free and easy in their home circle although it may not be comparable to your own or that of your rich members. Do not neglect your rich members, but be sure to give the gospel to the poor. Also visit the poor in the neighborhood of your church whether they are members or not. Many of them are without the gospel and also need material help. This visitation of the poor is also a means of evangelization. Through reaching the bodies of the poor we often reach their souls. This was Jesus’ method. Let it be the modern pastor’s method.

Chapter XVII
The Pastor and Pulpit AdministratIon¹⁴

There are two extremes in worship, the purely liturgical form of the Catholics and Episcopalians and that of the Quakers who have no form. Neither is altogether the correct mode of worship. To get at the truth we ask

I. What is the Prime Purpose of Worship?

1. It is not primarily to give instruction. The didactic design of pub- lic worship is not to be minimized, but it is not the primary purpose. The preacher ought to tell his people facts and truths which the most of them do not know, but to instruct the church attendants is not the main object of worship. Hence, if the intellectual essay is the main feature of the service, it is in vain.
2. It is not entertaining. The preacher who makes his sermon and prayers the minor features of the service and the operatic musical performances the chief attraction will be a failure as a pulpit administrator. We would not forbid good singing by trained soloists, but the pastor should only have spiritual music rendered by such musical specialists.
3. The main purpose of worship is to get a fresh consciousness of God’s presence, to get a new vision of the Father and the Son and to feel the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. “Where two or three are gathered together there am I in the midst of you,” Jesus promised. (Matthew 18:20) The prime purpose of worship is to realize the Divine presence so as to lift the soul into the highest fellowship with God.
   The old Scotch sister who did not like her pastor, when asked why she went to church at every service, replied, “I do not go to church to meet my pastor but to meet my Savior and commune with Him.” This is the key note of all true worship. We worship to seek God, Christ, and the Spirit better, to make more real our fellowship with God in Christ through the Spirit. Hence all didactic and entertaining elements in the service are to be made subordinate and instrumental in the bringing about of this higher spiritual fellowship.

II. The Pastor’s Preparation for Pulpit Administration

1. He must have an adequate conception of the prime purpose of pulpit administration as set forth above.
2. He must be conscious of his responsibility as the Divinely appointed leader in bringing the congregation into this adoring fellowship with God.
3. He must pray much and never enter his pulpit service until he is in conscious fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit. The old Scotch preacher failed to appear in the pulpit at the usual time for service. When one of the deacons went to his private room to see what was the matter, he heard the old preacher praying, “I will not go except Thou go with me.” This should be the attitude of every preacher in the few hours preceding his pulpit administration. That preacher is guilty of sacrilege who goes into the pulpit not in conscious fellowship with God and in the power of the Spirit. John the Revelator was “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s day, and likewise should the modern pastor be “in the Spirit” as he enters his pulpit to lead the people in spiritual worship.
4. Have a definite program well planned and thoroughly pondered. However, it should not be a cut and dried program. The pastor should be open to the impressions of the Spirit, but at the same time in a general way he should be able to see the whole service from beginning to end. This will tend to keep the Sunday services out of the old ruts so disastrous to real spiritual worship.
5. Boil down and abbreviate all public statements and announcements. Do not take up ten minutes in making the week’s announcements. Let everything move in ease, not in stiffness. If possible have no abrupt breaks in the services.
6. Try to train your leading members to meet you in a prayer service for ten minutes before the regular congregational worship. Spurgeon worked thus rule to great profit in his Metropolitan Tabernacle. Our own beloved Geo. W. Truett has led his people to practise the same method of holding spiritual prayer meetings just before the regular services. These little prayer meetings bring the preacher closer to the throne and send him forth to the congregation with a live coal of spiritual power on his lips. They also give the congregation a nucleus of men and women whose souls are saturated with the Spirit of prayer and worship from the beginning of the regular service.

III. Some Features of the Public Service to be Emphasized

1. Let the pastor have his choir under control. A worldly, purposeless choir will cool the spiritual fervor of the warmest sermon and curb the spiritual power of the whole service. The chorister may know more about music than the pastor but the pastor knows better what hymns will produce the effect that will harmonize best with his purpose in that specific service. So the pastor should select his hymns, or at least indicate to the chorister the nature of hymns and so have the music harmonize with the sermon in bringing the spiritual flow of the meeting to a climax.
2. Have congregational singing. This was the rule in Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle. Our brethren who have gone abroad tell us that the most soul stirring scenes of their lives were those in Spurgeon’s great church where from five to seven thousand voices joined in singing the grand old hymns of grace. The Welsh Revival a few years ago was accelerated by congregational spiritual singing. In fact, singing, testifying, and praying were the three main features of this famous revival. Ira D. Sankey used to lead congregational singing in the Moody revivals and Mr. Alexander did the same for years in the Torrey evangelistic campaigns. There seems to be a tendency in modern times to let the choir to do the singing for the congregation. This tendency if unchecked will rob our churches of spiritual worship. Let all the people sing and praise God for His goodness.
3. The preacher’s attitude in the pulpit. He should be dignified and solemn, but bright and joyful. When seated in the pulpit he should never assume the shape of the figure four. When on the floor he should stand straight with hands hanging freely by his side unless they easily find something to hold or rest upon.
4. Reading the Scripture in the pulpit. The preacher should carefully practise the reading of that selection of God’s Word which he purposes to read before his congregation. Even if the passage is very familiar he should read it over carefully and get into the spirit of its teachings. Know its meaning and read it with such expression that the people can see the truth to be taught. Good reading of the Bible before the congregation is first rate exegesis. Be natural and do not assume the dramatic tones of the actor in the reading of the Holy Scripture.
5. Pulpit prayers. Victor Hugo once said, “The value of prayer depends on the amount of thinking put into it.” This is certainly true of pulpit prayers. Let the pastor think through the general heads of his prayer. Let him saturate his soul with its central thoughts. Then forget the audience and talk with God, thus leading the congregation to lift the heart in thanksgiving and supplication. Dr. A. E. Owen of Virginia used to say: “I never think I am really praying until I forget that nobody is listening but God.” The pastor should strive to realize this spirit in his pulpit prayers.
6. Delivery. In delivery of the sermon be natural and easy in posture, gestures, and general manner. Avoid ruts and repetitions. Mr. Spurgeon used to be fond of quoting,
   Nothing in my hands I bring,
   Simply to Thy Cross I cling.
   One night as he ascended his pulpit he found a piece of paper on which was written anonymously, “We are sufficiently informed as to the vacuity of your hands.” Mr. Spurgeon ceased quoting his familiar lines for a long time. Every preacher should avoid personal idiosyncrasies and literary repetitions in the pulpit.
7. As to administration of the ordinances of baptism the following points should be emphasized
   • Let God’s word speak on the subject, design, and form of baptism on each occasion. The pastor need not preach or comment on this occasion. The proper administration of the ordinance is the most eloquent preacher. Good selections for reading are Matthew 3; Acts 8; Romans 6; etc.
   • 4. Have solemnity in the audience and impress the candidates that the scene is that of a burial. Have no laughing, and keep little boys and girls quiet and out of the way.
   • Be sure to instruct the candidate and satisfy your mind that he or she is a fit person for baptism. Great caution should be used by the pastor in the case of very young children.
   • Have young lady candidates to weight their dresses or robes so that the administration may be performed “decently and in order.”
   • Instruct the candidates how to behave in the water to breathe regularly until the close of the ceremony then holing the breath, to stand with the feet firm on the bottom and the head held back a little, yielding the whole person to the movements of the administrator.
   • Baptize slowly and with ease. It does not represent a real burial if the pastor dashes the candidate into the water.
   • Keep officious deacons out of the way. If the number of candidates be large the pastor will need one or two deacons to help him. Let the pastor select whom he needs and let no one else be conspicious in the administration of the ordinance.
8. As to Administering the Lord’s Supper
   • Let the pastor preside with gravity and grace on this solemn occasion.
   • Break the bread quietly and quickly.
   • Make the prayer accompanying this ordinance short, pointed, and spiritual, thus leading the worshippers to behold the sacrificed Lamb slain for the sins of the world.
   • If it is possible have the individual communion service for the wine. This is surely the safest way to take the wine. But it is not at all necessary and no hard feelings should be engendered by the pastor’s stickling for an innovation if the church opposes it.

Chapter XVIII
The Pastor at the Funeral and the Wedding¹⁵

The funeral custom is borrowed from the heathens. The Greeks and Romans especially used to deliver funeral orations over their dead. Every college bred pastor remembers the funeral oration of Lysias in Greek. Mark Antony delivered the funeral oration over Julius Caesar.

The Nature of the Christian Funeral Service

1. The panegyric oration on the virtues and successes of the dead should not be delivered as a Christian funeral. This is not the spirit of Christianity and there is not an example or a commandment in the Bible to warrant such eulogistic orations over our dead. In some parts of the country it used to be (and still is the custom in some quarters) the custom to preach funeral ser- mons over those who have been dead one, two, three or more years.
   Occasionally, if the deceased is a conspicuously consecrated Christian and universally loved and trusted; a talk or talks emphasizing his main virtues and chief work will be in place and will help the living to nobler lives. The writer has conducted funeral services over such Christian characters whose lives could be urged as examples to influence the living to greater service and consecration.
2. The nature of this service.
   • The funeral service is not for the dead but for the living, therefore, the pastor should use the occasion to turn the hearts of the living to Christ and Christian service.
   • It is usually well for the pastor to read a suitable selection (or several short selections) from the Scriptures. Portions of 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4, John 14, 2 Corinthians 5, Romans 8, Psalm 16, Job 19, and many others, are peculiarly fitted for the funeral service.
   • Let the prayers be tender and comforting. Pray for the heart- broken and lead them by petition to Him who comforts with all comfort.
   • Usually it is best to have two or three hymns of soft music and sweet Christian sentiment on death, hope and heaven.
3. If the services are held at the home or in the church let the services at the grave be brief, consisting of only a few words of consolation, a prayer and a benediction.
4. The pastor dealing with the sorrow stricken family. To touch the shattered chords of bereaved hearts and to make the music of peace, submission, and consolation in the soul thus saddened requires the highest skill under heaven. Put your soul into the situation and be a real friend and sympathizer. “Weep with those that weep” (Romans 12:15).
5. Often this occasion gives the pastor his greatest opportunity to lead souls to Christ. You can often read the hearts, alienated to Christ prior to the entrance of death into the home, now mellowed by the touch of sorrow. Every great pastor has almost untold numbers of cases where he can thus be instrumental in leading souls to Christ.

The Pastor At The Wedding.

1. Let the pastor emphasize the sanctity of the marriage relation, that marriage is a Divine institution, and its ties are really formed in heaven.
2. Be thoroughly familiar with your ceremony.
3. Be calm and deliberate, and dignified.
4. Let your prayer accompanying the ceremony be short.
5. If the couple are Christians be sure to lead them in your prayer to think of Christian living and the obligation to spiritual service. If they are not Christians, then sagaciously draw their attention to the duty of starting their married life as Christians and making their home a Christian home from the beginning of their marital career.
6. Follow up the ceremony with most intimate religious relations, if it is possible. The pastor who marries the man and woman is usually their ideal preacher. Therefore, the pastor should use his influence for God and for their spiritual welfare.

1. Carroll Note: “Church History, Vol. 1, page 189” [Augustus Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol 1, trans. by Joseph Torry 11^th Amer. ed. (Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1872), 189.] ↩︎
2. Collateral Reading: Vinet, pages 189–224; Gladden, pages 107–128; Plumer, Chapter 15; Mabie, Meaning and Message of the Cross ↩︎
3. Collateral Reading: Baptist Quarterly, Vol. 5, 408. (Pastoral Authority); Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 314f (Training for Leadership). ↩︎
4. Collateral Reading: Gladden, Chapter 10; John F. Cowan, New Life in the Old Prayer Meeting. ↩︎
5. Collateral Reading: Gladden, Chapter 9; Hatcher, The Pastor and the Sunday School; Brumbaugh, The Making of a Teacher; Trumbull, Yale Lectures on Sunday School; Vincent, The Modern Sunday School; Encyclopedia Brittanica, Article Catechumen; Baptist Review and Expositor, April 1904; Green, The Twentieth Century Sunday School; The New Schaff- Herzog, Article Sunday School; For other literature on Sunday School see the Introduction. ↩︎
6. Carroll Note: “Yale Lectures on the Sunday School.” ↩︎
7. Carroll Note: “History of Preaching.” [ John A. Broadus, Lectures on the History of Preaching (New York: Sheldon & Company, 1876).] ↩︎
8. Carroll Note: “History of the Inquisition.” [Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain (New York: the MacMillan Company, 1907)]. ↩︎
9. Carroll Note: “Creeds of Christendom 1, 566.” ↩︎
10. Carroll Note: “Now of London, England” ↩︎
11. Collateral Reading: Gladden, Chapter 14 (Good, Except that it omits the B.Y.P.U.);
    F. G. Creassy, The Church and Young Men; Vedder, History of the Baptists, pages 266–268. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Art. Young People’s Socities. ↩︎
12. Collateral Reading: Gladden, Chapter 13; New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Art.
    Women’s Work in the Church. ↩︎
13. Collateral Reading: Gladden, Chapter 7; Vinet, Pastoral Theology, 247–250; Plumer, Chapter 23–25 ↩︎
14. Collateral Reading: Gladden, pages 134–155; Dargan, Ecclesiology, pages 555–571; Vinet, pages 178–183. A. S. Hay, Public Worship for Non-liturgical Worshippers. ↩︎
15. Collateral Reading: Gladden, 170–171; 192–194; Vinet, page 188. ↩︎