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nature, and hence the impossibility of transcending his character. And the spiritualist, who pronounces him imperfect, and claims a superior excellence for himself or for some modern seer who professes to open heaven to man, is in reality fulfilling the revelation he affects to condemn ; for he is personating one of the false teachers mentioned in Christian prophecy, "who should arise and deceive many, bringing in damnable heresies; even denying the the Lord that bought them."

But where is the deficiency of Christianity? No believer in it has ever complained that it is insufficient for his soul's trust. It has shown itself sufficient, when rightly applied, to cure every moral disorder to which man by temptation and weakness is subject. It is sufficient to reach, elevate and redeem every human soul; to reconcile all things to God, by guiding the hopes and affections of the race to that which is holy and righteous. It is a perfect and satisfying religion, revealing the love and goodness of our heavenly Father, the duty and destiny of man, giving us in Christ the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of his person." It is greater than the law, for the law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. Skepticism and a worldly philosophy, cannot weaken its strong hold upon mankind, nor supercede its necessity. It is adapted to man in his highest and most glorious estate; as it is also in his most abject and degraded condition. It is a message of glad tidings to him while in this world of sin; it comes to seek and to save the lost, to regenerate the sinful heart, and "to give eternal life to every one that believeth."

ART. XXIII.

Ministerial Culture and Theological Schools.

THERE is a vast difference between magnifying an office, and magnifying any occupant of that office. The office may be a permanent institution, something which

belongs to the essential order and progress of society, the stability of good government, and the coming, throughout the habitable earth, of the kingdom of God. Hence, in a moment of rapturous thought, Paul said, “I magnify mine office." He did not magnify self; and it is an admirable trait in his character, that while he abased himself in his merely personal relations, and was one of the humblest of men, he manfully put forth the highest views of his office, and claimed for the grace of God therein the best appreciation.

He himself was a monument of divine grace. All that he was in his best moods and noblest powers, he was "by the grace of God;" but a still nobler and more complete exhibition of that grace was given in the institution of the "Ministry of Reconciliation." When he speaks of that ministry-its importance, its claims, its relations to the church and the world, his bowed head is lifted up, and out of his dark Hebrew eyes shines a fire kindred with that lightning to which Jesus likened the suddenness of his coming.

And well might Paul magnify his office. However looked upon, it is noble and sublime. It deals with the most sacred, the most tender, the most permanent interests of man. It has all the elements of moral grandeur, dealing as it does, with the imperishable and the divine; having the noblest themes, the purest aims, the most perfect means, and directing its forces and activities to the most stupendous and magnificent results.

There are two ways of magnifying: one enlarges the appearance beyond the reality; the other brings more clearly into view the real magnitude of objects which are illy appreciated by the unaided eye. Thus spectacles and the microscope enlarge the appearance of things, bringing out the minute or obscure into bolder proportions, thus aiding the eye in the work of discerning. The wonders of the microscope present a vast world for the study of man; and how art aids study, is finely seen when a drop of seemingly pure water is examined by that instrument, and lo! the dew-drop is a peopled globe, and the tiny leaf on which it trembles, is a plain on which myriads of animated creatures roam. Now, there is a microscope to be applied to the office of the ministry, to bring out a thou

sand minute details in reference to its unobserved relations to social progress,-diffusing vitality where it is not imagined to reach, and imparting life where otherwise would be only disease and death. As some of the less prominent facts in the gospel history afford some of the finest and most touching exhibitions of the spirit of Christ, so in the most unobserved of the relations of the Christian ministry to social progress, are to be found some of the most eloquent and affecting evidences of its power and divinity.

But there is another kind of magnifying which the telescope illustrates. That instrument brings within the range of vision the proportion of celestial objects which otherwise would be unobserved. We have no power to send up into space the illuminations which we can use along our streets, or on the shores of the rivers or sea, to bring obscure objects into the field of vision; and therefore we must use something that will be to us the same as an enlargement of the pupil of the eye, to take in more of the light that makes the objects visible which we desire to behold and study. This the telescope performs; and awful is the grandeur of that scene which broadens as the powers of the telescope are increased, till the calm-faced moon becomes a vast volcanic pile, showing the hills and valleys of a wondrous realm. Revelation is a grand telescope. Its perfection is complete. It came, as the apostleship of Paul, not from man, but God; and it is to the race, what culture is to the individual:

"Far into distant worlds it pries,

And brings eternal glories near."

But it is no less true that culture has its relations to the bringing out of the order and beauty of Christianity, than that Christianity affords means of culture. Christianity as an embodiment or collection of truths, principles, promises, doctrines, moralities, is as the eternal heavens, not to be touched or affected by us. We may burn incense, or send up smoke, but their brightness and endurance will be the same; and we may say with the poet, that "the primal duties shine aloft like stars," for they are fixed in the eternal order, and we are to use, not to attempt to affect them. But all that science and scientific art have done to bring the realities of the celestial field within the

sphere of vision, may symbolize what is given to culture to do in respect to the comprehensiveness of Christianity,-to bring out more the greatness of the things of salvation, to unfold their harmony, to pour a freshness of illustration and argument on great truths that have kindled new lights in the soul, when the mind has discerned new meanings in ideas old as man. Like the heavens, Christianity is an inexhaustible field of study and research; and culture finds here its excitements, its aids, its rewards, more sublimely than in any other realm of mental activity. The scribe well instructed unto the kingdom of God, is the man for the times, bringing out things new and old-by freshness of illustration; by adaptability of principles to some novel exigence; by ringing the right stroke for the hour; by giving a new aspect to old things, as a fresh and happy smile from the heart of the old man spreads a youthful beauty over the wrinkled face, and reminds us how he looked when time with him was young.

We

should never be contented with drawing upon the people's accumulated fund of interest in the gospel, but our constant aim should be to add to it-to increase the common treasure, and thus show that we are growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord, by new witnesses of culture and its graces.

In treating of ministerial culture, I have no reference whatever to the past of our denomination; for when Saul was called and made an apostle, our Lord meant no reflection on any deficiency in the fishermen he called from their nets. Those fishermen were better for their time and work than cultured men would have been, or Jesus would not have chosen them; their work educated them; and though they were perceived to be "unlearned and ignoble men," yet they had a boldness which was fortified by wondrous indwellings of God. But when culture was to be met-when the expansiveness of Christianity was to be proved-when it was to be shown as diffusive a power as idolatry, reaching to all the minutiæ of life, then Saul of Tarsus was called, and Christianity had a defender accomplished in the literature of the times, and in the arts of disputation; a mighty logician; a man of broad views; and, by the experience wrought by his conversion, the great apostle of Christianity-inflexible and stern as the

rocky coast of the sea, when impetuous passion or wily policy would invade the domain of principle, but yielding, considerate, compromising, where duty would allow.

"Nor number, nor example, with him wrought

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single."

The introduction of such a mind into the ranks of the Christian soldiery was as the presence of Washington amid the forces of that Revolution which marked an epoch in the history of freedom and progress.

It is proper to address the subject of Ministerial Culture to the people, as we do here, because it is only the people who can bring about the ends desired. What they ask, the ministry must be educated to meet; and as it is often said with truth that the ministry is educated to conform to the people's low aims, let the people raise their aims, and the ministry must come up to them. The people must afford the means of appropriate culture; and never let it be forgotten, that the basis of our argument is not any censure on the past, but a commendable foresight for the future; a fair regard for youthful aspiration; and a proper recognition of the fact, that the exigences of the church of the future can only be met by a high regard for ministerial culture, and the use of theological schools in contributing to this end.

I need not speak of the changes which have of late years taken place in reference to the means of general culture coming into rivalry with the pulpit; but I must say, that nothing but culture can now make efficient the administration of the gospel, so as to withstand the rivalry which has made old methods of operation ineffectual. Liberal culture is the demand now; and by this I mean liberal in the broadest sense, of the word, based on the fact that there is no department of study that cannot be made contributive to the unfolding, the illustration, and the application of Christian truth. Culture has in view, as I use the word, three things: the acquisition of knowledge from books, men, and the times; the exercise and cultivation of the mental faculties; and the possession of those manly qualities which impart a moral force to intellectual power. I once was opposed to theological schools, and desired that all our efforts should be directed to genVOL. XI. 30

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