THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
any time where his next calls should be made. Only in this way can thoroughness, regularity, and impartiality be secured in the visitation of the people. The pastor in these calls should aim to enter into the sympathies of the people, to know their home life, and to win their confidence and affection. Besides this general visitation there should be special calls made upon the sick and the afflicted. The tenderness and the sympathy of Christ as toward the suffering, and the words of promise, of counsel, and of comfort with which the Bible abounds, will suggest to the true pastor how he should minister among the sick and the sorrowing. Such calls should be short and frequent, and the words spoken should be few and careful. Other special calls must be made to reach particular cases of spiritual need. As soon as may be, the pastor should inform himself concerning the spiritual condition of every member of his congregation. His wrork should begin with the officers of the church, to enlist them in active cooperation; then the membership of the church should be roused to prayer and labor; then Christians outside of the church should be urged no longer to delay confessing Christ. By this method of working from the center outward, by the time he comes to seek those who are without Christ (beginning with the thoughtful, then approaching the careless, and then the skeptical), the pastor will find that the way has been prepared for him. There are such varieties of temperament, disposition, character, and condition, that the pastor must break from bondage to himself and to his experience, and learn to judge men in themselves, making large and generous allowances for differences that come of nature or of education, of antecedents or of present circumstances. In order to do this, he must be a many-sided man, always studying in a docile way the endlessly varied manifestatations of human nature. He must be stimulated and sustained in his systematic pastoral work, not by natural personal attractions, but by divine motives. He should school himself to see in each soul a special responsibility, for which he must account to Christ. He should see men, not in the common human way, but as made in the image of God, and as redeemed by the blood of the Son of God. This will make the pastor impartial, and faithful to all; and so his parochial work will not depend upon fitful impulses, but will be sustained by the deepest and divinest principles.
There are special relations which the pastor sustains to the officers of the church and congregation
and to the heads or leaders in the or-
4. Relations ganized work of the parish. The trus-
to Church tees, or those in charge of the secular
Officers and interests of the congregation, may ask
Organiza- counsel of him, and then he should give
tions. it; but he should not interfere with
them, always recognizing the principle that business men should manage the business interests of the parish. The pastor's relations to the spiritual officers of the church should be cordial and confidential. He should not dictate to them, but rather counsel with them, treating them with studied respect and consideration, while maintaining his personal independence. As to the heads or lead-
ers in the organized work of the church, the general rule is, that the pastor should be loyal to their leadership, and should show respect for the positions they have been appointed to occupy. The Sundayschool should be under the care of the spiritual officers of the church, and the same may be said of the choir, or the conductors of the music. But it would be inexcusable egoism in the pastor to demand that the devotional music in the Sunday worship should be adapted only to his individual taste and culture and not rather to the average taste and culture of the whole congregation. The pastor should visit both the choir and the Sunday-school in the spirit of courteous Christian sympathy with the departs ments of church life there represented. There may be within the church organizations for varied Christian work; such as young people's associations, young men's Christian associations, Dorcas or sewing societies, missionary societies, foreign and home; and to the leaders in these organizations the relations of the pastor are always delicate, and sometimes difficult. It is a question how far it is wise to multiply organizations within the church; since the church is itself the divinely appointed organization as against all evil, and for all good. The benevolences of the church constitute an important part of public worship. The pastor should keep himself informed concerning all the aggressive work of the church, so that he can inform his people, and should study methods of reaching their hearts, so as to make them feel the claims of Christ in all departments of his work. They should be taught, not only that giving is worship, but that, under existing conditions, it is doubtful whether there can be true and acceptable worship unless the offerings of the heart and the lips are accompanied, sometimes at least, if not always, by the generous offerings of the hand.
There is a danger in almost every parish, that the people will demand more frequent calls or visits than the pastor can make consistently 5. The with what he owes to his study and Pastor's pulpit. There should be a careful di- Study. vision of time between the claims of the study and the demands for household visitation. Five hours a day at least should be kept sacred for reading, study, and writing. During these hours, besides what is required for the preparations for Sunday, some portion of time should be given to systematic courses of study. The time thus devoted should be protected in all possible ways from unnecessary interruptions. To be a good pastor, a minister must be a good preacher; and the converse is equally true, — to be a good preacher, a minister must be a good pastor. Nothing in the way of activity and zeal can take the place of systematic, close, sustained study; and no amount of study can take the place of systematic house-to-house visitation. The two departments of work, pulpit and parochial, must not conflict, but be proportionate, harmonious, and mutually subsidiary. There should be preparation in the study, not only for preaching, but also for the other parts of public worship. The Scripture reading should be, in spirit and manner, instructive and interesting. The hymns should be selected with