2. The appointment of the Jewish prophets was by direct command or inspiration from (Jod, without any ceremonial induction to their sacred office. In this feat- ure the appointment of the holy prophets prefigured the Messianic period, and Christ's own mode of appointing his disciples to their ministry.
3. The most direct, if not the only real analogy of the Old-Testament Scriptures to the Christian custom of ordination to the office of the ministry is found in the ceremony by which, under the command of God, Moses transferred to Joshua a portion of his responsibilities as a leader and guide to the congregation of Israel (see Numb, xxvii, 15-23). In this narrative it may be seen that ]Moses, prior to his departure from the people whom he had been appointed to lead out of Egypt to the land of promise, prayed to the Lord to " set a man over the congregation, , . . that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said unto Jloses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him. . . . And Moses did as the Lord commanded him : and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar tlie priest, and before all the congregation; and he laid his hands ui)on him, and gave liim a charge, as the Lord commanded by the hand of iNIoses." In this transac- tion the office of the Christian pastor, his necessary spir- itual (lualilication, his mode nf appointment, and his duty as an under-she|)herd of Clirist's flock, are beauti- fully prefigured.
II. The Example of Christ and the Prnclice of the Apostolical Church. — 1. In the introduction of the Christian dispensation no exterior act of ordination was practiced by Christ. The calling, appointing, and
ultimate commissioning of the twelve apostles was his personal act, unattended, so far as the inspired record shows, with any symbolical action or ceremony. When it is narrated (Mark iii, 14) that ''he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach," the original word employed is tiroitjTf, signifying he made, in the sense of constituted or appointed. When to the same disciples he declared (John XV, 16), "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that }'e should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain," the word rendered ordained is i^tjKO, I hare set or ap- pointed you. In Luke x, 1, where it is recorded that he "appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face," the Greek word rendered appointed is av't^n^iv, literally signifying he jwinted out or ap- pointed by designation. In all these cases Christ il- lustrated the divine authority which he asserted in his preface to the great and final commission given prior to his ascension: "And Jesus came, and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt, xxviii, 18-20). " He needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man" (John ii, 25). Hence, while he remained on earth as the visible Head of his own Church, he chose and ordained his own ministers in the exercise of his omniscience and kingly power. If it be objected that one of the original twelve apostatized and betrayed him, the proper answer is that ministers of the Lord Jesus are in this melancholy fact admonished of the danger of yielding to tempta- tion and falling into the snare of the devil, notwith- standing the grace imparted in an unquestionably di- vine appointment. Although in other acts the Saviour employed symbolical actions, as when in healing lepers he touched them (]\Iatt. viii, 3; Mark i, 41; Luke v, 13), or when in healing blind men he touched their eyes (Matt, ix, 29), spit on their eyes and put his hands upon them (Mark viii, 23), anointed the eyes of the blind with clay (John ix, 6, 7, 11), and in. curing a deaf man he put his fingers in his ears and touched his tongue (Jlark vii, 33), yet in no case of his ordination of his disciples to their ministerial or apostolic office is it recorded that he laid his hands upon them. Never- theless, in the final period of his earthly sojourn, be- tween his resurrection and ascension, when about to be- stow upon his disciples a higher manifestation of spiritual power, " he breathed on them, and said. Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John xx, 22). By this symbolic action he illustrated the nature of the sjiirifual influence which was to come upon them in its full manifestation at the Pentecost. It was in this connection that he also uttered the words, so often and so grossly perverted, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are re- tained." A literal and materializing construction of the above passage, together with the kindred passages in Matthew relating to the keys, and the power of binding and loosing (]\Iatt. xvi, 19; xviii, 18), became at an early period of the history of the ancient Church a great fountain of error in reference to the office and power of the clergy. That the design of our Lord in employing these strong figures was not to confer upon the disciples a divine prerogative, but rather to impress upon them the responsibility of their office, and their essential need of a constant reliance on the aid of the Holy Ghost to enable them to discharge their duties as ministers of the Gospel, is evident, not only from a just interpretation of the passages themselves, but specially so from the practical illustration of their meaning, given by the actions and teachings of the apostles throughout all their sid)sequent ministrj-. In pursuance of the Saviour's instructions they proceeded,