Effect of Ecclesiastical Enactment. 225 of them, did not rightly understand the true position and functions of the Christian eldership; they desired to make the administration of all the ordinances as profitable to the congregation as it was possible to do; and perhaps they were not entirely free themselves from the prejudice that supposes the minister to be invested to some extent with a priestly character-a relic of Romish sentiment which has not even yet died entirely out of the Reformed churches. The reasons now stated account sufficiently for the double fact that the modern elders do not, to the full extent, exercise the rights possessed by those of the apostolic age, and that between the first elder or minister, and his colleagues in the eldership, there is a greater difference now than existed in the lifetime of the apostles. To remove this difference to some extent is possible, and so far as it is possible it ought to be removed. The ecclesiastical enactment most certainly ought never to have been made. It is an instance of the overlegislation, prompted by the best intentions, which usually does not compensate by its advantages for the inconvenience which it occasions. The design was good, namely, to keep unqualified persons from administering the most important ordinances of religion, but the effect in practice is to curtail by statute the rights and functions of an office-bearer of the church, who has his position and duties assigned to him in the Word of God. Good might result if this ecclesiastical enactment were allowed to drop into disuse meanwhile; the expediency of omitting it must come up for consideration when the revision of our standards can be attempted with advantage. No possible harm could result from allowing a ruling elder to join in the act of ordination; nay, it would remove a glaring anomaly in our practice, namely, our saying that "ordination is the act of a presbytery," and then refusing to allow one-half of the members of presbytery to perform the act which belongs to them all. It is worse than an anomaly that the elders of a congregation are not permitted to lay on hands in ordaining a brother to act along with them in the same session or congregational presbytery. No harm can result when the ruling 1 Voetius says, "Nullo Scripturæ apice probabitur, nefas esse, si seniores in confirmatione ministri una manus imponant "-"It cannot be proved by a single fragment of Scripture that it is wrong if elders, in the ordination of a minister, should join in the imposition of hands."-Polit. Eccles. Dr Miller thought it the plainest dictate of common sense that elders should elder executes his commission to "feed the church," by teaching the young in the Sabbath-school, conducting the prayer-meeting, preaching to the people of his district, or even in the public congregation, when the services of a minister cannot be obtained. The apostles of error teach over the country, and preach without stint or limit; why muzzle those who know the truth, and in whose character and doctrinal soundness we have confidence, if it be found that they have time and inclination to devote themselves in some degree to that department of spiritual work? We need not be the least afraid of them preaching too much; the fact is, that the more they preach, it is all the better. Let any one consider what the local preacher and class-leader has done for Methodism, and say whether it would not be an advantage if every Presbyterian elder would act as a preacher and guide to the people in his own district. As to the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, we ought to divest ourselves of the last relic of that old sacramental theory, that the ordinances lose all their influence if not dispensed by the hands of a minister, and admit the fact, that there is no reason why they should be administered by the pastoral elder rather than the ruling elder, except that the former is usually best qualified, when administering the rite, to edify the people at the same time. What mystery is there about these symbolic institutions, that we should believe them to be more efficacious when administered by one of the elders rather than by another? Is such a notion consistent with our own doctrine, that "the sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them or in him that doth administer them"? Are we to perpetuate the absurdity that no spiritual good is conveyed by a sacrament, except it is dispensed by the one among the elders who is better educated than his brethren? Education certainly has its advantages; but we make too much of education if we suppose that the want of it in a church-officer deprives of its validity the ordinance of Christ. Besides, such legislation was unnecessary even for the object which its authors had in view. Had matters been let alone, the practice of the apostolic age, in regard to the eldership, be ordained in the congregation with the laying on of "the hands of the Farochial Presbytery." See Southern Presbyterian Review for Jan. 1861, p. 805. Can the Distance be Diminished? 227 would have become general without any special enactment; the elders endowed with the best gifts for preaching would have preached, and those best able to rule would have ruled, and some would have done both; and thus the church would have enjoyed the best gifts of all its officers, without the necessity of any legislative restriction whatever. Such a division of labour is always more acceptable when it arises. from choice or custom, than when it is enforced by law. Of the 658 gentlemen who sit in the Lower House of Parliament, it may be a fact that not more than one hundred ever attempt to address the House under any circumstances; but nobody would like to see an act passed restricting the speakers in the House of Commons to a hundred, even though it might be alleged on its behalf that it would save the members from the risk of having to listen to a very poor orator occasionally. So a member of the eldership ought not to have his tongue tied by legislation. It should be left to his own good sense when to speak and when to be silent. Even if he were sometimes to speak weakly and out of season, greater calamities might happen. Unnecessary regulations may be repealed or allowed to become obsolete; even popular prejudice may give way to a higher intelligence; but an entire change of circumstances, produced by the moral and intellectual growth of human society, cannot be so lightly set aside. So far as the difference between the pastoral and ruling elders depends on this, it cannot be removed. We find ourselves in a position entirely different from that of Christians in the apostolic age. We cannot recover the supernatural gifts that abounded in the first century, nor go back to the general ignorance that existed when there was not a printed book in the world, and no church member possessed a perfect copy of the Holy Scriptures. The shadow will not go back ten degrees on the dial even if we wished it; the world moves on, and we must move along as the world moves. No church can now dispense with the services of at least one trained elder, and amid the growing intelligence of our times it should not think of doing so. If every elder could be trained, and a number engaged in the service of every congregation, it would do much to solve the difficulty; but this of course is impossible of attainment in ordinary circumstances. In much the greatest number of instances, the majority of elders in the congregation will always consist of untrained men. Here then is a disparity between the trained elder and the others which it is impossible to remove; a disparity in gifts and attainments leads to disparity in labour and remuneration, so that if all ecclesiastical enactments were swept away to-morrow, the obvious disparity in training, in labour, and in honour, would not be sensibly diminished. Our only comfort in the case supposed would be, that in the apostolic age a similar disparity existed, though not perhaps to the same degree. Even then some were worthy of honour, and others of double honour. We conclude with one or two practical suggestions. So far as the existing state of affairs requires a remedy, it lies not in the depression of the minister, but in the elevation of the other elders. Holy Scripture does not limit any church to any particular number of elders; its aim should be to include in its office-bearers as many as possible of its members who possess the scriptural qualifications, and as few as possible of those who do not. Suitable gifts should be more carefully sought after. The church has no right to encroach upon the time that a man requires for his secular affairs, except it is prepared to reimburse him for his loss and give him the wages that his work deserves; in every instance where this is not done, the amount of time and trouble that a man gives to the duties of the office must be left to himself to decide. Many do give it very considerable time, and their disinterested efforts to advance the glory of God and the good of His church are valuable beyond all price. They know well that whatever duties and privileges may be assigned it in theory, the office can rise in public estimation only by hard, honest, faithful work on the part of those who fill it. Let every elder, however humble his position or his gifts, thus labour in proportion to the grace that is given him of God; and if the people from any cause withhold remuneration, they are all the more bound to repay with gratitude, respect, and love, the labours of those who, by Divine appointment, are rulers and teachers in the House of God-the UNTRAINED PASTORS OF THE CHURCH. THOMAS WITHEROW. The Dogma of the Triduum. 229 ART. II.-The Dogma of the Triduum; or, Christ's Three Days' Presence among the Departed. THIRD PAPER. THE THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY. De Descensu Domini Nostri Jesu Christi ad Inferos Libri Quatuor, ab Auctore Doctissimo HUGONE SANFORDO inchoati, opera vero et studio ROBERTI PARKERI ad umbilicum perducti ac jam tandem in lucem editi, &c. Amstelrodami. 1611. Der Petrinische Lehrbegriff: Beiträge zur biblischen Theologie, &c. Von Dr BERNHARD WEISS, &c. [The Petrine System of Doctrine: Contributions to Biblical Theology, &c. By Dr Bernard Weiss, &c.]. Berlin. 1855. The Victory of the Divine Goodness. By T. R. BIRKS, M.A. Second Edition. Rivingtons. 1870. God's Trial by Fire. By WALTER ROWTON, Lecturer. Houlston & Sons. 1870. BEFORE EFORE the second century of its course was run, the Christian Church had initiated a solemn festival, which was consecrated under the graphic designation of the Epiphany. In that institution we recognise one of several means by which it was forward to express the importance attaching to some of the less conspicuously influential incidents in the mission of Christ. The interest which religious conviction. was thus quick to avow in the earliest events in the Redeemer's life, was largely due to the value they were conceived to possess as notes of His manifestation. To the eye of the Eastern communion the significant facts in that connection appeared to be the baptism and the first miracle. On these it looked as indices to the unveiling of the Messianic ministry of Jesus. To the mind of the Western communion, on the other hand, in better unison with its more exclusively Gentile origin, the suggestive occurrence seemed to be the adoration of the Magi. In that, accordingly, it perceived the signal of His presentation to the Gentile world, as it discerned in those three priestsages, obtusely transformed by medieval fancy into so many kings of memorable name, the types of nobler heathen souls. Trained both alike by the prompt instinct of faith to a deep appreciation of various apparently minor incidents in the Messiah's self-revelation, the two great sections of Christendom thus exhibited the feeling which they had in common by methods 1 British and Foreign Evangelical Review, July 1872 and January 1873. |