Jesus Christ, that he may fulfil all righteousness, bear our iniquities, and drink for us to the dregs that bitter, cursed cup of hell? Be still, thou worm, Jehovah speaks-"I accept the substitute; he is approved unto God." Blessed be God, there is a substitute. God is well pleased with substitution; and what man drawn for hell, if not in awful madness, would quarrel with the law that allows a willing substitute to stand in his stead? 4. Our advertisement offers substitutes for the acceptance of the public. So the Lord Jesus Christ is offered, reader, for your earnest acceptance. Say, will you accept the substitute, or no? Are you prepared in your own person to stand before the artillery of God, or do you bless God there is another to take your place? If the Almighty begin with you, the allowing of one single shot, without any propelling force, to fall on your head would grind you to powder. If you flee not to the Saviour, he will bruise you as grapes in the wine press; yea, you will be a worm on which eternal fire will feed. 5. Connected with the substitutes in the paragraph something is said about the "price." There is also something said about price with respect to Christ as a substitute. In Spain it means a good round sum, more than many can afford; but fear not, thou trembling soul. With respect to Jesus no price could be fixed: he is beyond all price. Who would become a curse for money? Jesus is a substitute without money and without price. "We are justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 6. But in Pontevedra, Spain, you must go to the agency, declare your case, and get the governor to accept the substitute in your name. "Enter into thy closet," or speak to God the great Governor where you sit. Tell him you are drawn for condemnation, that Jesus offers to become your substitute, that substitution is allowed by his own law, and that it has been freely offered by the Lord Jesus; and, as you bow in agony of penitence, ask that the Substitute may be accepted in your name. In Pontevedra the Spaniard finds no difficulty; the agency delights to do it; and at the throne of grace you will find none; there is joy in heaven over one sinner that seeks the Substitute. 7. Now, come. Look at that Spanish substitute going to war, see that serious battle array, hear the awful thunder of those heavy guns: see, the substitute is slain slain for another! About Jesus? Oh, that awful Mount Calvary. That "place of a skull" is the place of war: the sun is hidden by the smoke of the battle. Oh, Jesus, thou, my substitute, wast slain for me. My Lord Jesus, I bless thy holy name! "Jehovah bade his sword awake; Oh, Christ, it woke 'gainst thee! All for my sake, my peace to make; Now sleeps that sword for me." THE The Lost Ministry. "Some evangelists."-Eph. iv. 11. HE Catholic Presbyterian amply justifies its claim to be the classic representative of Presbyterianism in all countries; and when we find in its August number an article on "The Evangelist and his Work," by David C. Marquis, D.D., St. Louis, it shows beyond dispute that the subject of Evangelism is occupying the thoughts of some of the leading men in that church. It is quite time that the subject should be thoroughly discussed, and the church brought to a clear understanding with reference to this, which, by its rarity in connection with church work, we have ventured to call "The Lost Ministry." We must admit that the article in question is, on the whole, one of the fairest and most faithful we have yet seen on the subject, and we heartily sympathise with the writer when he pleads that the office of the evangelist should be recognized as supplementary to that of the pastor; that the one should be complementary to the other instead of, as too often the case, complimentary. But while making this admission, we cannot lose sight of the clerical tone which pervades the article, and must take decided exception, if not to any direct statement, at least to a good many inferences. There can be no doubt but that, in the early church, the two offices of evangelist and pastor were separate and distinct; but many of our brethren, while admitting this, attempt to show that the former has now ceased, as has that of apostles and prophets. Why this should be so we cannot imagine, for the need for it is as great as ever, and while the necessity continues, the office must remain. A few weeks ago a leader amongst the Irish Presbyterians was heard expounding the passage at the top of this paper in the following way :-"Some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.' We have now," said he, "our pastors who have the oversight of the work at home and our evangelists who are missionaries to the heathen." If by the heathen he means the heathen abroad, the interpretation is, at a glance, forced and unallowable, and cannot, certainly, be entertained for a moment. We also remember hearing a leader in one of our colleges declare that the church has had four Evangelists, and now those who preach the gospel are only called so by courtesy. Surely this statement must have been made in entire forgetfulness of many passages in God's word to exactly the contrary effect. But returning to our article: the writer is severe upon those who, in the midst of the enthusiasm and excitement occasioned by the visit of the itinerant evangelist, underrate the slower and more prosaic work of the regular pastor. There are minds which can only think and act in extremes, and while we have many-too many, alas !-who support the purely pastoral office to the jealous exclusion of that of the evangelist, we have others, the more emotional and enthusiastic class, who are equally vehement and exclusive in their advocacy of the evangelistic office. There are many who are so concerned about feeding the sheep, that they complacently look on while the church only keeps up its numbers, or even gradually declines in membership and power because no fresh blood is introduced. It is well said that the existence of the House of Lords is secured by the amount of plebeian blood which is periodically poured into its aristocratic veins; and we are quite sure that no church is safe, nay, is in imminent peril of extinction, which has not at times the fresh zeal and energy of young converts thrown into it. There are, on the other hand, certain persons who form an almost contemptuous estimate of the plodding effort necessary to the building up of a Christian church and character, and applaud the initiatory step as the only one worthy of attention. This is folly, for converts need training as well as saving. It is wise on the part of our government to add yearly many recruits to its various regiments; but it would be superlative madness to compose whole regiments of them. Gambetta in 1870, with all his organization, found that such soldiers cut but a sorry figure before the well-disciplined troops of Germany, against whom they were arrayed. Extremes meet in error; and it becomes an important enquiry if there is not a middle stand-point. For this Dr. Marquis pleads, and in his pleadings we uphold him. Both these extremists must consent to change their ground: on the one hand, the advocates of purely pastoral effort must see the necessity for an evangelistic agency to co-operate with it, and on the other, the adherents of purely evangelistic effort must admit the necessity of pastoral oversight as well. In this way we shall reach that "happy medium" where the work of the church shall be safe. One great fault we have to find with the writer under review is the place he assigns to evangelists. Such expressions as "mere evangelists," are found in his article, and he asks the question if there is "not a place among the official appointments of the church for this narrower ministry." The italics are ours. Now, to our mind, there is no reason either in the office itself, or in its scope, object, or institution, to warrant such an expression concerning it, and we are very much mistaken if this is not the very error which has drawn so many good men and true to that happy-go-lucky, hit-or-miss, care-for-nothing-ornobody kind of ministry. True, the qualifications of an evangelist are not necessarily those of a pastor; but is it not as true that the qualifications for the pastorate are not those suited to the work of evangelism? The very nature of both works determines the point, in the one case unfitting the evangelist for those regular habits of study and thought so necessary to a sustained pastorate, and on the other incapacitating the pastor for that quick and intuitive action so necessary to the success of an evangelist. But, because there is a difference, shall we say there is an inferiority? It is not required that the infantry in our army should display the agility and dexterity necessary to an artilleryman in the limbering and loading of his gun; but for purposes of warfare is the infantry therefore inferior to the artillery, or vice versa? If there is to be a union of forces, and we earnestly hope the day is not far distant, it can only take place by each allowing the other perfect equality. The pastor must not lord it over the evangelist, nor the evangelist esteem himself more highly than he ought. Shall those acting on the offensive not be counted as worthy of honour as those guarding the fort? and shall not those on the defensive be as highly esteemed as the most active brethren engaged in the skirmish? The answer is clear. Indeed, the work of each office so acts and reacts on the other that it is impossible to exalt one at the expense of the other, and it is a matter of supreme difficulty to determine where one ends and the other begins. We agree with our writer, that "every pastor must of necessity be an evangelist"; but we go further, and declare that every evangelist must of necessity, in some measure, be a pastor. It is impossible for a man to exercise the functions of the one office without trespassing upon those of the other; he who feeds the flock must also, in his search for pasture, find some wandering sheep; and he who, like the Master, leaves the ninety and nine to go after that which is lost, must feed those he has found while they are on their journey home. To speak plainly, if an evangelist goes to a town for, say, two months, he must, by the very nature of the case, become a pastor to many during his stay: to deny this is simply to deny a matter of experience. Another statement to which we must take exception is, that the evangelist has "nothing to do with organization "; in other words, that he is to be turned into a mere machine, propelled by others. Now, we affirm again, having experience to confirm us in our statement, that the organizing faculty is one which must be in an evangelist to a very large degree if he is to be successful. Such a man comes to a place having, in the shortest possible time, to do the greatest possible amount of work; and to accomplish this every line must be laid properly, and every possible means used. No stone must be left unturned; but if the man has no organizing power, instead of turning the stones over, he sits down on them, and fixes them all the more firmly in their place. Let the church lay down two principles to guide her, and we think the matter will soon be simple. First, let us admit that the office of the evangelist must be maintained; and secondly, that it must stand upon an equal footing with that of the pastorate. These two principles being acted out, the difficulty vanishes. To prove the first proposition were an easy matter; but when so many abler men have already done so, we will let it go as said, and said, too, with all the weight of authority and scholarship at its back. We have been too long fighting with only one hand, and instead of, like the children of Benjamin, using the left, we have left it out of our reckoning. Neither office needs fear the introduction of the other, for each will be mutually helpful. As the wise man says, "Two are better than one." The office of pastor is not to the church both eyes and spectacles. In the past it has been the eye, and sometimes a capital I, too; but since it is not perfect, the spectacles are required. Two pairs of eyes will see better than one; and if the church is wise it will take the advice of the most eminent oculists, and preserve the sight it has by at once donning the spectacles of the evangelistic office. There is work enough for both, and it is a matter patent to all who have engaged in evangelistic labour, that the most of those influenced by the evangelists are those who in previous years have come under the teaching of either the pastor or Sunday-school teacher, who is the pastor's auxiliary. The evangelist cannot, therefore, on his own showing, dispense with the pastor; nor can the pastor dispense with him; for let him be as good and faithful a man as he may, his people will naturally, from long usage in one particular direction, get into a rut, and out of that groove they will never be brought but by a fresh voice and varied methods of work; besides which, if the pastor does not possess that power which we lately heard described as "the art of precipitating decision," he will be glad of the help of a man who possesses that art in a more than ordinary degree. When we hear of any fears entertained on either side, we are reminded of that old Irish story, which says that the authorities of a village once met in solemn assembly and debated as to which windmill should be removed from the parish, seeing there was not wind enough to drive them both. We are far from defending all those who come before the public under the title of "Evangelist," ancient and noble though it be; indeed, we emphatically dissent from the practice of converted men parading their past vices as a catch cry to gain the popular ear. We can well imagine that the last state of places visited by some such is worse than the first; or as the doctor facetiously remarks," The place which once knew them, knows them no more for ever." Yet even here we think if the matter were fairly examined the church would find herself mainly responsible. The preaching in most of our churches has become overrefined, and the natural tendency is, for those who derive no benefit from the orator's artistic feats, from a recoil of feeling, to run into wild plainness of speech. It is a matter of history as well as of experience that these unbridled agencies have always co-existed with hyper-culture, yea, have been caused by it; and many men who would have been otherwise useful have cut out their own lines, and while professedly bound for the same terminus have run their organisations (save the mark!) in opposition to the churches. We plead that the church should recognise this office; but if the recognition is to place us on a lower footing (I speak as an evangelist) than that occupied by the now-existing ministry, then we decline to be thus recognised. To admit such a distinction would place us in the position of an erratic costermonger at Bradford, who when he took his barrow to be repaired found that the obliging blacksmith had taken off one wheel and put on a smaller one in its place. With a large wheel and a small one he pushes the barrow along the streets daily to the intense amusement of the bystanders, and at a great risk to his stock-in-trade. Such, we think, would be the position of the church with two offices unequally yoked together. The outside world would laugh at our wellmeant efforts, while deploring that we had not more common sense, and the blessing which we seek would probably be lost through the inequality and its consequences. Let us have both wheels of the same size, and we shall thus run sweetly along. It has often been thrown as a taunt in the face of missionary enterprise that when a man fails at home he is sent abroad; and no doubt there is some truth in the statement. Do not let the error be repeated when we are on the look-out for those to be set aside for evangelistic work. It is an effort which might well employ the talents of a Gabriel, and broken-down pastors are not as a rule most suitable for the work. Our best scientists do not think it beneath them to teach the elements of their science to the young, and it is a lovely sight to see hundreds of children gathered in the Royal Institution listening with perfect |