misunderstanding of pastors. Here is a touchstone for more than one kind of Christianity which is thought to be very pure. As long as we were alone, we thought we were doing good purely from love to it, so that we said within ourselves, terar dum prosim.* But when we have seen others rivaling and surpassing us, and have perceived with consternation that we preferred that good should not be done at all than done by others at the great expense of our vanity; when we are surprised to find ourselves grieved by their blessings, and rejoice at their injudicious measures and their bad success, then we understand whether, in the good which we performed, we most loved the good itself or the glory of performing it. Many ministers have thus made a deeply humiliating discovery, which should have led them to see that the foundation of their Christianity and of their ministry was a deplorable weakness. Perhaps all other causes of disunion among colleagues (encroachments, jealousy of temporal advantages, discord among the families of pastors when the pastors themselves were well-disposed to each other; lastly, difference as to opinion and plan of conduct)—perhaps all these causes of alienation are of small moment compared with that which pertains to professional jealousy. But they must all be recognized, and, with the greatest care, avoided or prevented. We especially recommend frankness at the beginning of collegiate relations. Discontent and vexation may make us frank enough afterward, but to no purpose. Frankness established as a law at the outset, before all collision, will engender mutual confidence, and, better than all other means, prevent unpleasant and unedifying conflicts. The habit of praying for one another in secret with care and particularity will be most appropriate to quench the fire of jealousy and resentment. This is the first of our duties to

one another.†

"Let me be crushed, if I may but be useful."-Edit.

+ I translate here, without comment, some rules given by Claus

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Harms. Some things in them certainly deserve to be remembered. The most minute among them may give important hints.

"Meide den Bekannten von fruherer Zeit." (Avoid the acquaintances of former days.)

"Tritt nicht in das Verhaeltniss des Du und Du." (Form no very familiar associations.)

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Lass dir nicht zu viele Verbindlichkeiten auflegen." (Do not put yourself under too many obligations.)

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Fange nicht mit zu heisser Freundschaft an." (Do not hastily form too warm friendships.)

"Verschaffe dir die klarste Kenntniss von allen Beykommenheiten." (Acquaint yourself most exactly with whatever may aid you.) “Binnen Jahr und Tag nimm keine ehrbliche Veraenderung vor.” (Let some time pass before you make important changes.)

"Gehe nicht auf Verdunkelung deines Collegen aus." (Do not seek to eclipse your colleague.)

Schlage dich nicht zu seiner Gegenparthei." (Do not join yourself to those who are opposed to him.) See the foregoing page. "Nimm Weib, Kinder, und Gesind in acht." (Look well to your wife, children, and servants.)

"Scheue die Billets." (Avoid running up bills.)

“Lieber als Hammer sey dụ Ambos." (Be rather the anvil than the hammer.)—HARMS,' Pastoraltheologie, tome iii., p. 168.

1 The originality of expression in the German often adds to the force of these counsels of Claus Harms. M. Vinet quotes them in German. We have thought it best to give the translation, though it is impossible, in doing so, not to impair their force.

RELATIONS TO AUTHORITIES.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE PASTOR IN HIS RELATIONS TO AUTHORITIES.*

FIRST, to ecclesiastical authority, of which the pastor is a partaker. It is his duty to give his aid diligently at the assemblies of his order, to take a serious part in their deliberations, and to contribute, according to his ability, in rendering them serious.

We should beware of discussing the small questions which abound in these assemblies with the amplitude, gravity, and vivacity which belong only to great ones. There is danger, in conferences composed of ecclesiastics, of forming the habit of treating mere nothings with gravity, and of striving about distinctions of words. The esprit de corps is more natural in these assemblies than in any others; and the esprit clérical, a singular thing, finds here the more aliment in proportion as the questions which are discussed are less directly and -less seriously religious. We must learn, especially if we are young, how to give place to time; and that very often the conservation of peace is of more value than all the advantages which may result from the triumph of our opinion.

Mutual discipline is a delicate matter. In all ecclesiastical constitutions it is laid down as a principle, but I should be happy to know where it is seriously practiced. It extends, in its just idea, from advice and admonition to the most penal, most positive, and most severe measures. But in the majority of ecclesiastical bodies it is never realized, except in that last and severe extremity, in which we may say it has small moral efficacy. I know not how far it may depend on

*See BENGEL: Pensées, § 44. It is inserted in the Appendix, note L, Les Pensées de Bengel, often cited in this course.

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the jurés to raise above its actual level the beautiful institution of church visits; but I think that whatever can be done to encourage mutual frankness should be put in requisition both by the pastor who visits a church and by him who governs it. We are all, however, the jurés and others, bound to confer with one another in a charitable and humble spirit as to what may be respectively useful to us, and of what, very often, we ourselves are ignorant, to our great disadvantage, though it is known to all the world besides.

In our relations to the civil or municipal authority, to the state and the community, let us never forget that we are something more than functionaries of the republic, and that we are by no means amenable to the magistrate as to what concerns the essential purpose of our ministry—the teaching of the truth. But let us beware of replacing authority by pride, and let us carefully shun that bad way into which so many ministers fall, of affecting, in their relations to the authority, a spirit of discontent, of censure, and of grumbling. It would be extremely unhappy if the people should learn of us what so many learn from them, disapprobation à priori, the anticipation of blame as to every thing in which power is to be recognized. Servility is not more unworthy of our character than this ridiculous hostility. Besides, our relations to the political authority have nothing of politics. We are, in a certain sense, amenable to the state; but we are not state officers, and the business of the state is not ours. In a time of political fermentation or revolution, we have no other mission than that of tranquillizing the minds of men by proposing to them those great truths which, though they do not nullify worldly interests, at least subordinate all our proceedings to the grand interest of the soul and of eternity.

*The jurés in the established Church of the Canton de Vaud are inspectors appointed by the classes, or pastoral assemblies, to take the oversight of a certain number of parishes, and charged to visit them periodically.-Edit.

I do not mean that the pastor should feign himself ignorant of the occupations, the dangers, the fears, the prospects of the country; but the contests of opinion do not concern him; he has no part to take but that of obedience to the law as long as the law exists, and, in all cases, the part of the country and of national independence. The occasions are very rare on which the pulpit may address citizens as such, and preach to them on the actual duties which pertain to them in this character.

In general, we think we ought to counsel ecclesiastics, especially such as have the care of souls, to hold no place in political or municipal bodies. We have examined this point elsewhere.

In the administrative part of his functions, the pastor should leave nothing to be desired in respect to exactitude and punctuality. The less of taste he has for those details for which a man of his profession is bound, in fact, to have no taste, the more should he guard himself against either delaying or neglecting any thing; and it is his duty to study carefully, in their letter and in their spirit, all those institutions, all those laws and regulations which have any relation to the exercise of his functions. A pastor who would be useful, though in a spiritual respect only, should have exact knowledge and intimate acquaintance with his country, his people, and whatever, even in a material point of view, is important to the welfare of society and each of the classes which compose it.

Something might be added in relation to the laws, to the execution of which the pastor should lend his influence, and to the measures which he should use to that end.