"Homo imponit manum, Deus largitur gratiam; sacerdos imponit supplicem “God confers both grace and duty through the same rite, to put us in mind NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY. 1880. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. THE following pages originated in a collection of extracts relating to the ministry. In this way passages were, from time to time, brought together, which seemed to gain consistency and force from juxtaposition and arrangement. Hence arose a conviction that the subject of the ministry has suffered no less than that of the evidences of Christianity from being rarely if ever considered as a whole; and that to such an omission may be attributed many of the contradictory and imperfect notions so prevalent concerning it. Under this impression an attempt has been made to reduce the collected materials into some order as a connected argument, in the hope of showing how many seeming inconsistencies may be reconciled, and sundry popular misconceptions removed. Such an attempt is likely to appear less successful to others than to the person making it. Many of the extracts are, however, so illustrative of one another, that it can hardly be labour in vain to place them within easier reach of being seen together, that thus, by being presented under one view, they DEC 191914 331869 5935 .293 (RECAP) may, though but imperfectly arranged, be brought to bear more effectively upon the same subject than when met with on various occasions and perused separately. References have not been given in every case, but have been supplied as far as possible when the name might add weight to the testimony or sentiment, or enable the reader to obtain further information. The work is to so great a degree made up of extracts, that it seemed desirable not to identify it with an individual, and to avoid any appearance of attempting to derive credit from the labours of others, especially when unacknowledged. It is therefore published anonymously. This method has been more willingly resorted to, because, in treating of a subject of this nature, questions are repeatedly touched upon that can hardly fail of sometimes provoking the challenge, "Who made thee a ruler and a judge?" Who, indeed, can contemplate the duties and responsibilities of the ministry for any purpose save that of self-correction and improvement, without hearing again and again from a still small voice the unanswerable appeal, "Thou that wouldest teach others, teachest thou not thyself?" EDITOR'S PREFACE. THE scope of the book now published is indicated in the brief preface which the author wrote a short time before his death: the argument of the writer is stated mainly by means of extracts taken for the most part from volumes which are almost forgotten in these days, as well as from the books of more modern writers. If there is a disadvantage in this manner of placing a consecutive argument before the reader it is one however which has some compensating advantages. It prevents, indeed, that uniformity of style which is pleasing to the reader, but which assists oftener in soothing than in awakening the attention, and it has the disadvantage of sometimes leading to a repetition of statements, though at the same time by presenting them from different points of view the argument itself attains a greater fullness. Be this, however, as it may, the plan on which the writer proceeded, was one deliberately planned and was dictated by that modesty which was one of the marked features of his character. He thought and was accustomed to say, rightly or wrongly, that statements coming from one who was little known beyond the bounds of his parish, and the circle of clergymen in his immediate neighbourhood, would have less |