there must always be a general, and Spurgeon is that. Yet allowing for all this, it is simply wonderful how many things he has had in hand, and how well he has done them all. Author, editor, president of a pastors' college, founder of an orphan-school, on hand for any kind of special work, and at the same time drawing a congregation from almost every quarter of London, and caring for his flock as if he had nothing else to do he might well seem to a lazy or a shiftless man something absolutely portentous. ness. There are no doubt limits to what a pasPastoral Many-sided_ tor ought to attempt. One's physical strength, alone, has its limits, not to speak of that more delicate machinery of brain and nerve which can never for any long time be overstrained with impunity. But the danger, as a rule, is not in that direction. Adam Clark's quaint saying is familiar, as to the danger of having "too many irons in the fire." "Poker, tongs, and all," said he, “put them all in." We do not say that, but we may say that there is just about as much danger that the one iron will burn as that the many will; that we can often do one thing better because we have other things to do; that our faculty for work is much more efficient when many-sided than when one-sided; —and that, therefore, the ideal pastor is not the man who simply preaches two sermon's a week with an occasional tea-drinking at the Deacon's. And Many-sided Service. It is because of the pastor's peculiar opportunity in this regard that not alone his personal influence, but the ministry he fulfills, is felt in so many directions. Looking back over the later years of the period whose remarkable history in these studies we have been reviewing, it is impossible not to feel that among agencies for good upon the broad scale the Christian pastorate is first and foremost of all. In what great work of reform have Christian ministers not been the leaders? Who but they have stirred the public mind and shaped public opinion upon questions vitally affecting the interests of education, of morality, as well as of religion? It has not been possible for them to enroll themselves with the world's great benefactors in the sphere of gifts to found institutions of learning or benevolence; but it may well be asked whether the inspiration of such gifts has not been chiefly in the teaching and the personal influence of Christian pastors. The sphere of professional politics, without doubt, lies outside of that of the minister; yet so far as politics means public questions involving principles of good government, and above all involving the general interests of society and the nation, the two spheres are not only contiguous, but they overlap, so that "political preaching" has sometimes been found even a duty for the Christian minister, while in it he has done eminent service, alike as a minister and as a citizen. In lines of literary work, of scientific investigation, of general culture, the minister has made himself a potent factor in the progress of the new age. Often working under difficult conditions; facing prejudices as obdurate as is that "carnal mind" itself which is "enmity against God;" bearing, above all other men, the sorrows, and trials, and doubts, and distresses of humanity, since it is the very purpose of his office to make him, in sympathy and service, the bearer of other men's burdens,his record in history is that of one who is great among men simply by having made himself the servant of all. At this point we conclude the imperfect "Studies" with which we have occupied the reader's attention in the foregoing pages. The aim has been to carry through all that variety of topic and discursiveness of treatment which the plan adopted has made necessary, a single chief truth, in the belief that the whole view as presented will constitute for this truth an effective demonstration. This truth is that the world has been made new in the revival of an old faith. In the Book of Revelation we find the opening era of Chris tianity symbolized in the vision of the rider upon a white horse, going forth, bow in hand, "conquering and to conquer." He is followed by others whose symbol is that of reaction, ordeal, suffering, apparent defeat. In due time the rider upon the white horse again appears upon the scene. Centuries have meanwhile passed away, each with its startling record of warring forces and amazing vicissitude. The kingly rider is now crowned and victorious. In his train are the armies of heaven. His name is " "King of kings and Lord of lords." But his name is also "the Word of God." At what precise stage of that gospel dispensation which opened with such promise of victory, yet has seen such long centuries of vicissitude and delay, we shall place this second appearance of the white horse and his rider, may be a question hard to settle. The studies, however, with which we have occupied the reader are believed to have adduced the proof that the age of a revived primitive Christianity is the age in which the promises of God in the gospel have been most manifestly working toward fulfillment; that as the centuries pass we see steady progress, perhaps accelerating progress, toward results the precise nature of which cannot be foreseen yet which must certainly prove to be the fulfillment, according to the divine meaning of divine promise, of those hopes which in all ages have animated and cheered the Lord's true people. The Old Gospel has given to the world a New Age. To the consummation of this new age, whatever our varying opinions as to the meaning of specific prophecies, we may all look with confident expectation, while each aiming, when the Lord shall come, to be found, each in his place, "watching " and serving. INDEX. Abuses and exactions under papal su- Albigenses, and other anti-papal sects, Angelo, Michael, Grimm's notice of Architecture and art in general in the Bacon, Lord, on the Copernican sys- Baptists and Dr. Featley, 214-217; an- Blanco White, 316, 317. Brothers of the Common Lot, 31. Calvinism and Lutheranism compared, as to extent of prevalence, 51; as to 125; (3) its moral tone, 126; in science, Carlyle, his Puritanism, 123. Charles V., his hostility to the Refor- Church, Rev. R. W., quoted, 1, 2. Colonna, Vittoria, 33. Constantinople, taken by the Turks, 10. Copernicus, his system as opposed by Covenant, the National, how occa- Dante and the new Italian, 6; quoted, Darwinianism and Theology, 130, 131. Denominationalism, defined, 174, 175; Descartes, 295, 296. Eliot, George, religious element in Emerson and the mystics, 265. by what influences determined, 236– Erastianism, 205, 206. Fenelon and Madame Guyon, 260, 261. Frederick, Elector of Saxony, 28. Gregory VII. and Henry IV. of Ger- Gladstone, his description of Chal- Harrison, General, his advice to Crom- Hill, Rowland, 330. Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, 185-186, Independency, origin in England, 202; Knox, John, approves the Thirty-nine Languages and Literature, modern Locke, John, his views of toleration, Marburg, conference at, 61. Milton, his "Christian Doctrine," 126; Montaigne, 295. Mysticism defined, 262; its intellectual Newman, J. H., his connection with Ochino, Bernardino, 33, 292. Odoacer, becomes king on the fall of Oratory, its effect on literature, 112, Oratory, Christian, its service to liter- Paine, 310, 311. Pantheism, 296, 297. Pastor, a representative, 334. Personal element in literature, 109, Personality of God, as an element in Plymouth Brethren, 281, 282. |