7. Lastly, ministers should be consistent as to their con- duct. No brightness of talent, no superiority of intel- lect, no extent of knowledge, will ever be a substitute
MINISTER OF THE ALTAR 298 MINISTERIAL EDUCATION
for this. They should not only possess a luminous mind, but set a good example. This will procure dig- nity to themselves, give energy to what they say, and prove a blessing to the circle in which they move. In fine, they shouid be men of prudence and prayer, light and love, zeal and knowledge, courage and humility, humanity' and religion.
See Dr. Smith, Ltcttire on the Sacred Office; Gerard, Pastoral Care ; Macgill, A ddress to Young Ckrf/tjmen ; Massillon, Charges ; Baxter, Reformed Pastor ; Herbert, Countrg Parson ; Burnet. I'liMoral Care ; Dr. Edwards, Preacher; IMason, Slid I, nt imd I'ustor; Brown, Address to Students; Mather, .S7". A/// uml Preacher ; Ostervald, Lectures on the Sacred Ministry; Kobinson, Claude; Doddridge, Lectures on Preaching; Jliller, Letteis on Clerical Manners; Burder, Hints; Ware, Lecture on the Connection of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral Care ; Christ. Examiner ; Plumer, Pastoral Theology ; Tyng, Office and Duty of a ChrUtian Pastor; Bridge, Christian Ministry; Kidder, The Christian Pastorate ; Townsend, Tongue and Sword; Presb. Qu. and Princet. Rev. 1854, p. 38(5, 708; 1859, p. 15, 3GC; Jan. 187.'J, art. vi and vii ; Universalist Qu. Oct. 1872, art. vii; Kitto, Journal, April, 1853, p. 192; Meth. Qu. /?«•. July, 1851, p. 430.— Henderson's Buck, Theol. Diet. s. v. s'ee Ministry.
Minister of the Altar was a title applied in the Church of Homo, since the close of the r2th century, to the pro\ider of pure bread, wine, and water for the mass. The ministranf, as he is called by the clergy, also responds to the prayers and benedictions. Orig- inally a clerk, deacon, or subdcacon was delegated for this position, but now the duty is assigned to boys, ex- cept on unusually solemn aiid festive occasions.
Ministerial Call, a term used to denote that right or authority which a person receives to preach the Gospel. This call is considered as twofold : divine and ecclesiasticcd. , The following things seem essential to a divine call : 1. A holy, blameless life ; 2. An ardent and constant inclination and zeal to do good; 3. Abilities suited to the work : such as knowledge, aptness to teach, courage, etc. ; 4. An opportunity afforded in Providence to be useful. The Methodists hold that no man should seek to enter the ministerial ranks who does not feel es- pecially called to preach the Gospel. They are quite decided on this point. An ecclesiastical call consists in the election which is made of any person to be a pastor. But here those governed by an episcopacy differ from the Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, etc. ; the former believing that the choice and call of a minister rest with tlie sui^crior clergy, or those who have the gift of an ecclesiastical benefice ; the latter teaching that it should rest on the suff"rage of the peo]5le to whom he is to minister. Sec Episcopacy ; Oiujination.
Ministerial Education. It is rather an infer- ence tlian a ilcmonstral)lc historical fact that in the Le- ■\-itical cities of tlic Jews schools were maintained for the instruction of priests and Levites in the knowledge and ceremonies of the law. See Education. It is certain, however, that under Samuel " schools of the projjhets'" were established for the purpose of training men for the high function of moral and spiritual teach- ing. Not less than live such scliools are named in sacred history; one at Xaioth, one at Bethel, one at Jericho, one at Gilgnl, and another at ]\Iount Ephraim, The number of the sons of the prophets was often large, Obadiah hid one hundred of them in a cave to save them from tlie malice of Jezebel, and at the tran.slation of i:iijah (ifty of the sons of the prophets were present to witness the wonderful scene.
At a subsequent period of Jewish hi-story a species of schools came into vogue, known as the ''assemblies of the wise." The Talnuid mentions some twelve of tliese institutions, of which those at Tiberias and Jerusalem were the most celebrated. Nevertheless they were not exclusively for the education of the priests, but also of elders and teachers. When Jesus the Christ ap-
peared among men, no inconsiderable portion of his ministry was employed in the instruction and training of his disciples in a kind of peripatetic school, of which he was the great Teacher, as he went about doing good and explaining the things of the kingdom of (iod. From the Acts and the Epistles it is evident that the apostles imitated their divine Lord in giving personal attention to the instruction of younger disciples designed to suc- ceed them in the holy vocation. As the great Head of the Church had commanded his disciples to " go teach all nations," so Paul, in handing down his apostolical re- sponsibility to the future Church, exhorts Timothy and his successors in this language: "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same com- mit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Tim, ii, 2).
In harmony with such examples and precepts, it is recorded, in the early historj' of the Church, that the apostle John spent his advanced years at E])hesus in qualifying youth for the Christian ministry, that ]\[ark founded a ministerial school at Alexandria, and I'oly- cavp another at Smyrna. Subsequently, similar schools were established at Ca*sarea, in Palestine; at Antioch, Laodicea, Nicomedia, Athens, Edessa, Nisibis in Meso- potamia, Selcucia, Pome, and Carthage. Less distin- guished than these were many episcopal schools con- nected with the prominent dioceses of the ancient Church. In some of the better periods and phases of monasticism conventual schools were established, in which young ecclesiastics were qualified as missionaries and teachers for the tribes and nations to which they were sent forth. Prominent among these were the schools at lona, at Bangor, in Wales, and Armagh, in Ireland. During the medieval period the Waldenses, although few in number and obscure in their seclusion, required all their candidates for the ministry to be dili- gent students, prescribing to them a course of study, and testing them by specific examinations.