THE RISING MINISTRY. 'Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."-Matt. ix. 38. Much concern has been expressed of late respecting our denominational prospects of an efficient Rising Ministry. On a subject of such vital importance to the welfare of the churches, we may be permitted to make a few remarks. Many have been the pamphlets, addresses, or articles in journals, in which the subject has been discussed of late; and all of them will do something, we may hope, towards the end desired. Amongst the last was a stirring article in the "Eclectic," on which the only criticism we remember being inclined to make was, that it attributed, we thought, far too much to ability and attainments in regard to successful preaching; it being notorious that the most powerful and learned minds are, with few exceptions, not to be found among our popular preachers. That acceptableness, and the usefulness consequent thereupon, seem to depend, as a friend once remarked to us, "Rather upon a certain knack than upon the ability of the preacher." It seems clear that amongst both Baptists and Independents there never has been such a general deficiency of applications for admission to the colleges, by young men of superior gifts and promise, as within the last few years. This has led to much and earnest thought and conference amongst those who have endeavoured to benefit the church of Christ by educating its ministers; but as yet the public mind has not generally reached any definite conclusion. We think the fact just mentioned must be regarded as one of the effects of a low state of piety in our churches, and consequently of the self-denial and zeal required to labour in a work so discouraging and so ill-requited as that of the christian ministry amongst Dissenters, and amongst Baptists especially. If a situation in a railroad, shop, or farm be vacant, the applicants are innumerable. Yet innumerable doors are open for the work of the Lord: the fields are white unto harvest, "but the labourers (well-qualified labourers) are few." Jesuits and Puseyites are, indeed, earnestly selfdenying and numerously at work. The apostles of Infidelity and Socinianism, in its different grades, never were more active. They find minds well endowed and resolute for their destructive labours. Men from the higher walks of life will devote themselves to drudgery and toil in the service of hierarchical and sacramental impostures. Oh, how few of our richer men's sons consecrate themselves to the service of the truth itself! One good result must surely follow the calling of public attention to these facts. It will lead our churches to 66 pray earnestly the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." No set of men have laboured with less confidence in human qualifications for the ministry than College Tutors and Committees. They have such constant experience of the uselessness of all their efforts, except as aids to gifts already possessed, that they are rarely ever tempted to forget the divine in the human. But we fear that the churches of Christ have allowed themselves to depend too much on colleges for that which heaven alone can bestow. How rarely do we hear the prayer which stands at the head of this paper! How rarely, if it ascend sometimes in reference to the heathen, is it offered in reference to Britain! And even when it is presented in reference to churches at home, how feeble is the sense of need! Yet it may be confidently asserted that no cause, and especially God's cause, has prospered much or long without efficient leaders. It is a law of Providence. Christianity began its course in obedience to this law. It has flourished, or decayed, or revived again, in obedience to it. God could edify and perfect his saints otherwise, but he has not seen fit to depart, in regard to his church, from one of his great providential laws, that every cause amongst men must depend much on its leaders. He therefore gave at first those marvellous qualifications which gathered rapidly thousands into his churches, and fitted men to govern the churches so collected. Nor can we look for any extensive revival and deepening of true religion now, but in obedience to the same law, and as a consequence of an effusion of really spiritual gifts from the same fountain of light and wisdom. Hence our Lord's command, " Pray ye the Lord of the harvest." If looking to our colleges for ministers has led our churches to look less to God for the gifts without which it were sinful and useless for young men to enter christian colleges at all, then they have used colleges to their injury. We strongly suspect this to be the case; and if so, God will teach us, in the way he is now doing, that gifts for the ministry are his gifts; and that while it is our duty to cultivate them and facilitate their exercise, it is equally our duty to ask them of the only Giver. We hear much of many minor causes for so little of the best talent in our churches being consecrated to the service of the church. We think ourselves that too large a proportion of the more able minds, born and brought up in the midst of Zion, desert her for the world; and that another large proportion of it is wholly indisposed to renounce worldly respectability and prospects in secular life for the comparatively poor and despised service of God. Worldliness and the world are absorbing the talents of the church. Can we conceive a louder call to wrestle with God on behalf of the church in the language of our motto? We may not occupy more space at present. Another occasion may allow room for some of the many thoughts which must crowd any reflective mind on this subject. We only add, that the work of the ministry is evidently becoming intellectually, as well as spiritually, an increasingly difficult one. Even in agricultural communities, and incalculably more so in our manufacturing towns, the people read so much more, and become so much more intelligent than their forefathers, that the christian ministry must, in this respect, keep ahead of their hearers, or be in danger of their open or secret contempt. Pious parents, who are giving their children a better education than they themselves received, should never forget the kind of ministry which will be needed to interest their beloved offspring. F. CLOWES. THE WOMAN THAT WAS "A SINNER." "Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."-Luke vii. 47. The correctness of the interpretation now offered of this verse, will perhaps be more apparent if we endeavour to obtain a graphic view of the whole scene. At all events the attempt need not be fruitless of advantage. Christ was now in the city of Nain, where he had attracted some notice by his miracles, one of which was the raising of a widow's son to life, in the very midst of the funeral procession. A Pharisee, named Simon, invites him to sup at his house. Although no very flattering reception was to be expected from one of that haughty sect, he accepted the invitation, embracing whatever opportunity the occasion might afford of doing good. The scene that occurred was a very remarkable one. The Pharisee treats Christ respectfully; he is, from all that appears, guilty of no breach of ordinary good-breeding towards him. But his behaviour does not go beyond common respectfulness. There was no cordial welcome offered. He did not "make much" of his guest,-did not treat him either as a friend, or as a stranger of dignity. His motive in asking him to come, might have been simple curiosity to see the peasant of Galilee, of whom such wondrous things were said. He did not offer him the hearty kiss of welcome,-did not provide him with the luxury of water for his feet, or of oil for his head. One can imagine there was a good deal of restraint and reserve in the intercourse, on his part, as if he did not quite know what to do with his guest, now he was come. Whilst they were at supper, a woman living in the city came into the room, and took her station behind Jesus, at his feet. The Easterns, at their meals, recline on a couch, on their left side; so that the feet would be accessible from behind. On going to Jesus, she manifests deep emotion, like a person quite overcome by her feelings towards him. She does not wait calmly to hear the conversation, as others coming in might have done. She is constrained to take a more prominent part in the scene. She says nothing; but she weeps, when she looks on Christ, with her copious tears she washes his feet, then wipes them with her own hair, then she pours costly ointment upon them, and kisses them repeatedly. Her silence must have made the scene the more impressive. Her feelings probably did not admit of words, they were clearly such as words could not have expressed. The Pharisee was amazed at this behaviour of the stranger, so different from his own treatment of Christ. It was as if he had made some new discovery about his guest. He did not know much of him; but the woman clearly did. What could make her so excessive in her attentions? Did she think more highly of Christ than he did? Or did her want of education impose less restraint on her behaviour? At all events, it does not seem a becoming thing. If he be a prophet, as is asserted, surely it cannot be right for him to admit such intimacy from a person of her character, "for she is a sinner," her conduct is notorious for its flagrancy. Probably she was known in the city as a woman of abandoned reputation. The Pharisees' abhorrence was great of "publicans and sinners,' "publicans and harlots." No doubt this man's amazement and disgust at the scene before him were profound, nothing perhaps but a Pharisee's regard to external decency kept him from expressing as much to his guest. But Christ knew his thoughts. If his countenance and manner did not betray them, He who "knows what is in man," could read them in their secret recess. Breaking the silence, he said, "Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee," and then, with his permission, he put the case to him, which is to be the key to the different behaviour of the woman and of himself towards Christ, "There were two debtors: one owed ten times as much as the other: the creditor forgives them both; which of them will feel most obliged and grateful to him ?" "No doubt," says the Pharisee, "the one to whom most was forgiven." "Thou hast rightly decided,' says Christ; "and this exactly explains the difference of the treatment I have received from yourself and from her. I do not complain of any incivility on your part; but you have not been extravagant in your attentions; you gave me no kiss, no water, no oil; these you would have offered had you been much moved with regard to your guest. But see this woman with what tokens of grateful reverence and affection has she overwhelmed me! She has done even more than might have been looked for, or than is ordinarily shewn towards guests; she has bathed my feet in her own tears, and wiped them with her own hair; she has kissed even my feet, and done so ever since I came in; and, instead of the usual oil upon my head, she has expended precious ointment on my feet. It must be clear to you that her gratitude is unbounded; 'she loves much;' why? because she is conscious of having received a great blessing from me (for this is not the first time I have met her). You say, 'she is a sinner;' yes, and she knows it, and that is part of the reason why she loves me; she feels herself unworthy to be noticed by me; but I have forgiven her sins: that is the other part of the reason for her love; she is a consciously forgiven sinner. 'Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much,' (not, her sins are forgiven because of her love, but) you may, according to your own admission about the two debtors, judge for yourself that she has had a large debt of guilt remitted, for she acts as if she had; she loves much, that is just what people do (you yourself allow it) who are conscious of having received some large benefit." What had been the precise nature of Christ's previous kindness to her, we are not informed. Some think she had been healed of some disease; or had had a dead relative raised to life (he had healed several in Nain,see ver: 21). That would have been in some sense, a proof of Christ's forgiveness, it would shew that he could confer a favour on the most unworthy. But, in all probability, there was something more; he speaks distinctly of forgiveness, as the blessing that had been communicated. We can easily imagine the facts of the case. She was a sinner, not in the ordinary sense, but the term was fixed on her as a brand of public infamy; she felt her degraded position as an outcast from society; never perhaps did she obtain a friendly look from a fellow-creature's eye. We know how the Pharisees, your "correct people," would move along the street, with the implied command, "stand by thyself, come not near me; for I am holier than thou." At length a person named Jesus comes to the town, and attracts much attention by his teaching and his deeds of power and benevolence: among other things it is reported that a certain widow's son has been raised from the dead, the people flock to see him, and she goes with them. Nothing surprises her more than to find him so full of condescension. He mingles with “publicans and signers," intent on doing them good; strangest of all, he takes notice of her! casts a look of melting pity on the poor creature, and advises her to reform. "But," she might say, "what shall I gain by it? my character is irrecoverably gone, and I must ever remain an object of aversion to the better members of society; none of them will receive me.' "I will receive you," is the reply. "God will receive you; angels and all the good will rejoice in the change; a full pardon is offered you." What an effect would this have on the poor woman! Can we wonder at her affectionate gratitude? "That," says Christ, "is the reason why she loves much; and this, too, is a key to your conduct; 'to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little;' you do not feel indebted for the pardon of sin to me, for you have no deep sense of needing that blessing. In the character of one that can forgive sins, I am of little or no account in your estimation." By way, it would seem, of giving a finish to the impressiveness of the scene, he once more pronounces the sinner's pardon (ver. 48, 50): "And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven; thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." The chief, if not the only, difficulty in the way of this explanation of the passage, lies in the illative particle, rendered "for," in ver. 47. This difficulty, however, will disappear, if we take the word as expressing the reason, not for her forgiveness, but for Christ's statement respecting her; the clause, "for she loved much," seems to be designed as a more precise definition of the word "wherefore" at the beginning of the verse; and it might have been omitted without detriment to the sense, although there would have been a sacrifice of force. The simplicity of our interpretation is an additional recommendation. In this respect it is certainly preferable to that of Neander, for instance, (in his Life of Christ), who says, "The faith of the woman proved itself genuine, because it sprang from, and begat, love; the love from the faith, the faith from the love." There can be little need of dwelling on the practical lessons of the scene, because they stand forth so prominently: such as, the encouragement offered to the most unworthy to apply for the mercy of the Son of God; the extreme difficulty which a person of outwardly blameless life often has in discovering his need of the divine forgiveness; the incapacity of such an one to pronounce sentence on those more ardent manifestations of piety in others, which to him appear to be fanaticism; the possibility of shewing much outward respect to Christ, and yet "loving him little;" the need of a superior illumination, to shew us our own character, and the infinite excellence of Christ as a Saviour. Boxmoor. B. P. P. A BAPTISMAL HYMN. BY THE REV. J. E. GILES. ༥For "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels."-Matt. xvi. 24.-Luke ix. 26. Hast Thou said, exalted Jesus, And, rejoicing, follow Thee. While the liquid tomb surveying, Jesus entered Jordan's wave! Sweet the sign that thus reminds me, Should it rend some fond connexion, When I faint beneath the cross. Fellowship with Him possessing, Wakes the sleepers under ground. Then, baptized in love and glory, Sound it loud from every string. |