SECTION THIRD. CARE OF SOULS, OR PASTORAL OVERSIGHT. CHAPTER I. OF THE CARE OF SOULS IN GENERAL. § 1. Its Relations to Preaching. Ground of the Duty of the Care of Souls. In treating successively of the office of the preacher and that of the pastor, we have not meant to say, most assuredly, that preaching was not a pastoral office, and that it did not itself include the care of souls. No more would we say that the care of souls, properly speaking, is substantially distinct. from preaching, since it is through the word that the care of souls is accomplished, and, under one form or another, preaching reappears every where.* We may say, in one sense, that the preacher is to the pastor what a part is to the whole; but, in making of these two offices two parts, which are united to one another in order to make together a whole, we easily perceive differences as well as relations between them. The preacher instructs; the pastor trains up (in German, erziehet). The one acts on the mass, the other on individuals. The one receives and nourishes those who come; the other seeks those also who do not come. We may further add, that the first occupies himself with spiritual interests; the second unites with these, more or less, temporal interests. For the pastor, in the full extent of his employment, and as * See, in the introduction to the Course on Homiletics, what we have said of the word in the Christian religion. conformed to its idea in the example of Christ, is the benefactor of his people.* If the present state of society leaves him less to do, another state may chance to come which will invest him anew with his ancient responsibilities. And But, considering only the moral interests of the parish, he is not completely a pastor, that is to say, a father, if he is only a preacher. What is the pastoral spirit? A spirit of paternity and of solicitude; for this is the spirit of God himself, as the Bible reveals him to us when it shows to men 'the Spirit of the Lord all-gently leading them as one leadeth a beast going down into the valley" (Isaiah, lxiii., 14); when it promises them that they shall "be borne upon the sides and dandled upon the knees" (lxvi., 12); and when God himself says, "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick."-Ezek., -Ezek., xxxiv., 16. If such a charity is beneath us, shall such condescension appear to be beneath God? if he displays it, ought we to exempt ourselves from it? And if this is, indeed, the pastoral spirit, can we think that such a spirit would not find preaching alone too narrow a sphere for it? Now this spirit is formally prescribed, in express precepts and recommendations, when God says to his prophet, "I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their ways" (Jeremiah, vi., 27); and when St. Paul recommends to Timothy, "to be instant in season, out of season."-2 Tim., iv., 2. This spirit is but the spirit of simple believers, when they are believers in truth. Of them we expect that they will be attentive to one another, and warn one another; for the Christian, as St. Cyran says, is but an imperfect priest, or rather a priest commenced, and the priest is a perfect and accomplished Christian.† Besides this, the minister should never * "In all their afflictions he was afflicted."-Isaiah, Ixiii., 9. forget that preaching alone does not accomplish his object: first, because he is the pastor of more than those who constantly come to church; next, because even these have need of a more individual and more intimate treatment.* * The pastor may not content himself with having been to his flock "as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument of music” (Ezek., xxxiii., 32); and, if he does so, he will always have to reproach himself with having "healed the plague of his people slightly."—Jer., vi., 14. It is at last only by the care of souls that he can realize and identify to himself his flock as a flock, and not only as an auditory. "I know my sheep, and am known of mine" (John, x., 14)—he only is the good Shepherd who can thus speak. This is the ideal; we must be striving to reach it. There is a constant proportion between diligence in the care of souls and the life of the parish. So much does all this belong to the essence of Christianity, that wherever there is a revival of it, the care of souls regains its importance. Let us add that it enhances the beauty and enforces the obligation of these functions, that they offer small inducement to self-love and imagination. Here may be seen in their purity the seriousness, the austerity of the ministry. Public preaching is comparatively agreeable and easy: only then can we be sure of our vocation to the ministry, when we are inwardly drawn and constrained to exercise the care of souls. At the present time, especially, we can not but be aware that this work has become more difficult. It is difficult, because of the extent of the parishes; it is, above all, difficult, because it is not as acceptable as it was once. The flocks know our duties well, but their own they know no more; * In Harms' view, public preaching is the least important part of the pastoral office, and, in some respects, that which might be spared with the least disadvantage.-Pastoraltheologie, tome iii., p. 2. Sec further on, chapter ii. and the precept, "Obey them that have the rule over you" (Heb., xiii., 17), is to them without signification; or, to speak more correctly, flocks hardly have an existence any longer. This state of things has its own disadvantages, which it is superfluous to specify; but in these same disadvantages it finds its advantage. It does not abolish, it rather, in some sort, perfects the duty. It makes more than ever necessary love-moral authority, of which love is the principal element, the indispensable condition-discretion, thoughtfulness. To exercise and enforce authority without startling the spirit of independence; here is a problem which simplicity and charity alone can solve. Even in their day, the apostles had to protest that they did not desire to domineer over the Lord's heritage, and that they claimed not the government of souls, except as having to give account of them.-Heb., xiii., 17. Distrust of pastoral ascendency is natural, and, to a certain extent, legitimate. It appears to me a matter for congratulation that, in our day, the pastor can come to his flock, not as preceded and introduced by a foreign authority, but under the sole protection of the pastoral name and the holiness of his undertaking: So that the less he is in favor under one title, the more welcome will he be under the other. § 2. Objections against the Exercise of this Function. Against the exercise of the care of souls certain objections or excuses arise, which we must pass in review.* 1. Want of Taste.-But it is not an affair of taste that we are concerned with; it is an affair of duty: an essential interest, not a detail of abstract perfection. If taste for this part of the ministry is wanting, what kind of taste is there for the other parts? If we have not a call to care for the souls of the flock, one by one, we have not a call to the min*HARMS Pastoralthcologic, tome iii., p. 19. istry. This objection, then, is all-weak or all-powerful-allpowerful because of its very weakness. 2. Want of Time.-What are we to understand by this? Does it mean that we are to apply ourselves to this duty only when we have nothing else to do? I confess I would rather hear the care of souls objected against preaching, than preaching against the care of souls: I would rather one should say to me, My sick, my poor, my scattered sheep require me, and forbid me to give my preaching all the attention which is desirable. This objection assumes the point in question as settled, namely, that we know that the care of souls is second in importance; but who has said this, and how can it be proved? 3. Not acceptable.-This is possible, but be careful that you say this in good earnest. Do not say it after a first and indolent effort. Why, you expect doors to open themselves to you at your mere approach! We are, in general, too hasty in saying that we are not acceptable. There are many more ways of access than we suppose, because there are more necessities, more accessible sides, more occasions than we think of. Our ministry is not so sure to be repelled when it exhibits itself under the form of Christian affection. After all, it is natural that we should not be acceptable. The truth, we all know, is not received with cordiality; and the chief Shepherd, certainly, is not better received by us than we are by others; never will they receive us worse than we have received God. And yet he came to his own."John, i., 11. The servant is not greater than his Lord. Is not patience our duty? Is it not the proof and the exercise of our faith? |