The nature of his studies and the exercise of his functions develop faculties in the minister which, in the different spheres of human life, find an abundant application.

Talleyrand has said that nothing so prepares one for diplomacy as theology.* In fact, the studies of the ministry are more comprehensive than all others; the study of theology is more humanizing than any other, even than that which has social interest and social affairs for its object.

We agree to all this, and we acknowledge that duties may vary with times; but we must make the following reservations:

1. Religion is a speciality. It embraces every thing, it penetrates every thing, but it is not every thing; it is itself. To connect itself usefully with the things of life, it must separate itself from them. Christianity has been in no haste to mix itself with the life of the people, or, where it has done so, it has been dynamically, as a spirit. It should be the same with each individual. He must be well rooted at the centre, to spread his shade over the circumference. Let the minister be first of all occupied with his own affairs; let him be solely a Christian and a minister: As a consequence, his branches will spread out, and his beneficent shade extend itself over all the affairs of society.

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2. There is, in the direct and immediate purpose of the ministry, so much good to be done, that one need not run after indirect good. The minister should seek to give a point of rest to the human family, and this resting-point is religious truth: When humanity shall have found it, then it will march directly to its destination. The minister may honor his mission by conferring external advantages; still, when there are others to do this, let him confine himself to his calling. He may employ himself in agriculture, when it is necessary, also in schools, and in religious music; but, before every thing, he should be about his ministry. Nevertheless, when Eloge du Comte de Reinhard.

*

QUESTION AS TO POLITICS.

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it is his duty to act, as did Oberlin and Felix Neff, by all means let him do it without hesitation!

3. Is it not an advantage for the minister to be compromised in nothing, and to be able to come in as an arbiter in every thing, being, as he will be in that case, personally aloof from every thing? If, on the contrary, he interferes too readily in the things that do not concern his ministry, he will often find himself a judge and a party, and will no longer be able to pronounce so impartially.

4. The danger to religion is great when a minister, as a minister, mixes himself with temporal interests, and gives to religion a kind of authority and competency which is inconsistent with it. What stains will it receive!

Let us touch upon a particular point-politics. Let us distinguish it from patriotism, which, if not a Christian virtue, is at least an affection which Christianity adopts and sanctifies, and a duty to which, as to all others, it lends the force of its teachings: Jesus Christ experienced this affection; Jesus Christ has recognized this sentiment; and St. Paul in like .* Participation in political affairs is neither the only nor the best mark which a citizen can give of his patriotism; it is one among other specialities that we do not think forbidden to Christians, but it is by no means imposed upon them.

manner.

It has seemed desirable to some persons that ministers should engage in politics. I do not think it the part of a pastor; as for one who has no longer the care of souls, and who has become a politician, he changes his career, that is * Romans, ix., 1–5.

+ "Nothing in the interests of humanity,” says M. Naville, “appears to be a greater mistake than to wish to banish from assemblies, from theatres, from debates, and the periodical press, from the spheres where thoughts and sentiments are agitated, the very men whose presence and influence are required to give them a salutary result." -Mémoire sur l'Amour de la Patrie Suisse, p. 98, 99: Genève, 1839. See, also, the work of Dr. BROWN, The Law of Christ respecting civil Obedience, p. 228.

all. It is not for us to judge him; and, in general, we would not condemn him; we must suppose that he has renounced the ministry proper, for which these occupations are far from preparing him. But how can a pastor intermeddle with politics without destroying his success, and even his respectability as a minister?

I do not speak precisely of the presence of pastors in as semblies representing the nation: That does not constitute a political career; but, in general, they are, when there, hardly in their place.* It would not, perhaps, be just to exclude them; but they would do well voluntarily to exclude themselves. There is too great a distance between the political and the pastoral life: Pastors do not acquire, from the exercise of their functions, the kind of spirit which these assemblies demand, nor reciprocally: We should expect to see them preaching there: As to religious questions, which should never be discussed there, there is no need of the presence of ministers in order that they may be well treated: The stains of political discussion are too easily seen on the pastoral robe— ministers can not avoid hearing things there which their profession at the same time urges and forbids them to answer. There is another way, and there are other channels, through which religion may infuse itself into politics.

Politics, in promoting religion, has forced religion to promote politics; but both, in this course, have been corrupted, and the second more than the first. Burnet, who knew how to speak on this subject, has some remarks on the injury which religion does itself by mixing itself with politics (a thing inevitable, I affirm, in the union of Church and State), which I will cite here: "Politics and parties eat out among us not only study and learning, but the only thing which is still more valuable than study and learning; I mean, religious sentiment, and a sincere zeal to obtain results for which the Son

* It is not even seen that the deliberations of ecclesiastical bodies are profitable to them.

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of God was willing to live and die, and to which those who are engaged in his service have promised to consecrate their lives and their labors." In short, let us not condemn beforehand all extension of the ministry, nor undertake to define its limit; we think that, at the exigency of the times, it is susceptible of an indefinite extension; but these times have their signs, which it is necessary to attend to and to understand.*

* Is the ministry, as it is now understood and practiced, restricted within the limits of the primitive ministry?

CHAPTER II.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE MINISTER.

§ 1. General Reflections - Marriage and Celibacy- The Pastor's Wife.

THE Gospel is not silent on this subject : "A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, grave, hospitable, apt to teach; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all decorum; for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things."-1 Tim., iii., 2, 4, 5, 11. "For this cause left I thee, that thou shouldst ordain pastors; if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot, or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to dishonest gain; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, wise, just, holy, temperate.”—Tit., i., 5-8.

These passages suppose the minister to be married, and to be a father of a family; but they do not strictly prescribe marriage to a pastor. If it be said that this is necessary to his being in all things "an example of the believers,”* we reply that it is not necessary to be in this particular state in order to be an example to those who are in it. This supposition would be absurd, and contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, which does not confine us within these literal rules;

* “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."-1 Tim., iv., 12. "In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works.”—Tit., ii., 7.