Presbyterian minister

“ As long as the ministers of the Presbyterian Church are men of God, recognizing His call to the sacred office of the ministry, and believing that those whom He calls He equips with needed grace and gifts for their work, so long will they be able to lead the congregations to which they minister in worship that shall be at once honoring to God and a help to the spiritual life of the people: when they cease to be such men forms may become, not only expedient, but essential. ”

“ There is less anxiety as to the particular Presbyterian communion to which the object of the Commissioners' choice may belong than that he shall prove himself to be a godly, large-hearted, and zealous minister of the Gospel, catholic in spirit, wise in counsel, prudent in conduct, firm of purpose but conciliatory in manner, and also willing to co-operate heartily with the ministers and laymen of other churches in promoting the religious, educational, and social welfare of the entire community. ”

“ What are ministers for if they ain't to tell people how to get to heaven?"
"Oh, well, it's all right for grown-ups to ask them things, of course. But it isn't respectful for little boys—especially hired boys."
"I don't see why. But anyhow, I s'pose it wouldn't be much use, because if he was a Presbyterian minister he'd say I ought to be a Presbyterian, and if he was a Methodist he'd tell me to be one, too. Look here, Felicity, what IS the difference between them?" ”

“ In a word, the condition of the Presbyterian sects throughout the world was such that a general council of its leading men was highly desirable, provided that there remained in the sects anything worth saving, and they possessed in themselves the power of saving it. For ourselves, we believe that the mutilated fragments of Christian truth still retained by the majority of the Presbyterian laity and by a considerable number of the Presbyterian ministers are well worth saving; but we fear that the Presbyterians themselves will not, or cannot, save them. ”

“ Replies. PRESBYTERIAN OATH.
(Vol. v., p. 274.)
No such oath as that given in page 274. of "N. & Q." is taken by Presbyterian ministers. Immediately previous to the ordination of a minister of the church of Scotland, the Moderator—that is, the member of Presbytery who presides upon the occasion—calls upon him to answer certain questions, acknowledging the Scriptures to be the word of God, the doctrines of the Confession of Faith to be the truth of God; disowning certain doctrinal errors ”

“ One of the interesting consequences of Great Britain's having a Presbyterian Prime Minister is, that under their system of the union of church and state, a Presbyterian will appoint the bishops and archbishops of the Church of England to the vacancies of those offices which occur during his premiership. ”

“ It is now held by all Presbyterian churches that one presbyter in every congregation should have specially committed to him the work of teaching, administering the sacraments, visiting the flock pastorally, and taking oversight, with his fellow elders, of all the interests of the church. To share with the minister such general oversight is not regarded by intelligent and influential laymen as an incongruous or unworthy office ”

“ The second question is, Do all Presbyterian ministers accept the deity of Christ? In answer it may be said that there is little evidence to prove even a few cases of unbelief at this important point. In view of the doctrinal laxity of our age it would not be surprising if some Presbyterian ministers repudiated Christ. Some might even be atheists or communists. Of course they would have been hypocrites and perjurers at their ordination, but this is quite possible, for the Presbyterian ministry would be a very valuable vantage point for a communist. ”

“ According to the Presbyterian theory, the minister in the order of nature, and generally in the order of time, takes precedence of the Church; he does not spring from the Church, but the Church has its root and beginning in him; nor does the origin of his ministerial power rest in the people, his vocation is bestowed upon him directly from above; and this idea of the origin and relation of the Christian ministry we may see worked out in the history of English Presbyterianism. ”

“ Thus, in the more advanced forms of Protestantism, such as the Presbyterian or the Unitarian, the minister is scarcely more than a mere teacher; he has little or no more power to convey commands or intimations from God than any member of his congregation. ”

“ I have noticed that most Presbyterian ministers are more reserved in their manners than those of some other denominations. This is, no doubt, to be attributed to the long course of mental discipline to which they are subjected. They acquire the habit of solitary study till the social feature of their nature is considerably impaired. ”

“ Presbyterians are remarkable for their regard to each other, without respect to distinctions—it is a characteristic of God's people. In the case, then, of raising a colored church, the prevailing opinion seemed to be, an organization of colored people where church government could be committed to, and governed by them, and that without separating from Presbyterian bodies, or alienating themselves from their fellow Christians. ”

“ For while the extravagances into which the sects fell, appearing in various forms one after the other, necessarily offended those who did not belong to them, the Presbyterian preachers, after it came to an open breach in the Assembly, distinctly attacked the Independents from the pulpit; and they were still by far the more powerful. The common people, sure of their faith, desired the Presbyterian forms, stringent church discipline, even excommunication, and rejected toleration. ”

“ The people in the Methodist church have almost no liberty, except the privilege of giving money. The bishops control the presiding elders, and under them the presiding elders control the preachers; and so it is all the way down to the class leaders. They have their head or chief amongst them. They have a human head. The General Conference is the highest authority. So the Presbyterian church has a head in the way of a General Assembly which has the deciding of matters. ”

“ They cannot boast, therefore, that Presbytery was established for its own sake; but they must admit that William would have sanctioned Episcopacy in the Church, if the Bishops and Clergy could have sanctioned the change in the government of the State. Such was the origin of the Presbyterian establishment in 1689, though its advocates affect to believe, that it was owing to the express voice and wish of the nation. ”

“ Presbyterianism in Virginia and the states south of it from colonial days, as well as the recent revival in Kentucky, gave them ground for saying: “We are not the only Presbyterians who view the doctrine of the atonement different from the Confession.”
But the Springfield Presbytery was only a transition stage. These five men might make their independent presbytery the nucleus of a new Presbyterian body, as the Seceders and others had done in Scotland long before, and as the Cumberland Presbyterians were to do a little later; or they might cease to be Presbyterians. ”

“ Each presbytery may send one bishop and one ruling elder to the assembly: each presbytery, having more than twelve ministers, may send two ministers and two ruling elders, and so, in the same proportion, for every twelve ministerial members.
Every Presbyterian church elects its own pastor; but, to secure the whole church against insufficient, erroneous, or immoral men, it is provided that no church shall prosecute any call, without first obtaining leave from the presbytery under whose care that church may be ”

“ The official programme of the work of the council was thus conceived:
“To consider questions of general interest to Presbyterians; to strengthen and protect weak and persecuted churches; to explain and extend the Presbyterian system; and to discuss subjects of church work—evangelization, training of ministers, use of the press, colportage, suppression of intemperance, observance of the Sabbath, systematic beneficence, and the suppression of Romanism and infidelity.” ”

“ He was with the great Leader, through whose divine strength many a poor prodigal has made the grade.
The Presbyterian church has always stood for an educated ministry. The demands it makes of its candidates for ordination are of the highest order, and it is well that this should continue. The system of doctrine taught by it demands thorough preparation for the effort of Presbyterianism has ever been directed to the intellect rather than to the emotions. It believes that men should be educated into the Kingdom rather than persuaded into it. ”

“ By this instrument, the presbytery willed “that this body die, be dissolved and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large,” that every congregation should be independent in the choice and support of its minister and the discipline of its members, and that the Bible alone should be their guide and standard. Ministers are not to be called “Reverend,” are to “obtain license from God to preach the simple Gospel,” and are to be supported by free-will offerings “without a written call or subscription.” ”

“ Farther it was announced that Parliament reserved the question of the amount of toleration to be granted under the new Presbyterial rule to "tender consciences that differ not in fundamentals of Religion." But there was more to come. Selden and the Erastians, and Haselrig, Vane, Marten, with the Independents and Free Opinionists, had been nettled by those parts of the Assembly's Petition which assumed that the whole frame of the Presbyterian Government scheme by the Assembly was jure divino. ”

“ Two years after, the General Assembly, by a sudden and very unexpected movement, passed a vote exscinding, without trial, from the communion of the church, four synods, comprising the most active and decided anti-slavery portions of the church, The reasons alleged were, doctrinal differences and ecclesiastical practices inconsistent with Presbyterianism. By this act about five hundred ministers and sixty thousand members were cut off from the Presbyterian church. ”

“ It must not be supposed that these people are therefore lacking in sincerity and devotion or that they are outside the fold of Christ. But such is the clarity of the Bible in its teaching on God's sovereignty that Presbyterians cannot convince themselves that such people have a sufficient understanding to discharge the responsibilities of an ecclesiastical office. ”

“ The secluded members being Presbyterians to a man, there was at once an enthusiastic recollection of the edicts of the Long Parliament between 1643 and 1648, setting up Presbytery as the national Religion, with a determination to revert in detail to those symbols and forms of the Presbyterian system which the triumph of Independency had set aside during the Commonwealth, and which had been allowed only partially, and side by side with their contraries, in the broad Church-Establishment of the Protectorate. ”

“ Whereas, in the providence of God there are now in the mission a sufficient number of ordained ministers to constitute a Presbytery and as it seems expedient that we, cut off as we are from the privileges and oversight of our respective Presbyteries, should meet together from time to time in a formal public capacity as a judicatory of the Church of Christ to consult for her best interests in this our field of labour ”

“ Bishop Ames all houses of worship belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which a loyal minister who has been appointed by a loyal Bishop of said Church does not officiate. It is a matter of great importance to the Government, in its efforts to restore tranquillity to the community and peace to the nation, that Christian ministers should, by precept and example, support and foster the loyal sentiments of the people. ”

“ After the union of the relief and other secession churches, which resulted in the formation of the united presbyterian church in 1847, he was appointed professor of sacred languages and biblical criticism by the synod of the new denomination, and with John Brown, James Harper, Neil McMichael, and John Eadie formed the staff of the United Presbyterian Hall. ”

“ Such a purpose the Society emphatically disavowed, and insisted that there was no desire on the part of its members to encroach upon the simplicity of Presbyterian worship, but claimed rather the desire to redeem the same from lifelessness and lack of a devotional spirit with which they declared it is so likely to be characterized. So effectively have the fears of those who first uttered their objections been allayed, that the Society is said to comprise in its membership, at the present time, more than one-third of the ordained ministers of the Established Church. ”

“ They therefore began to desert the parish churches, and hold private meetings for worship under the displaced clergy. In our time, no statesman would think of opposing the people in such a course. They would be allowed quietly to raise dissenting meeting-houses for themselves and favourite clergymen, and the peace of the country would not be disturbed. But the reader must have been prepared to see that no such course could then be adopted. The Presbyterian establishment itself had only a few years before sternly put down all external expression of dissent. ”

“ That history is such as need cause no Presbyterian to blush when it is related side by aide with that of any other Church; surely they must be bold souls who would propose to introduce a radical change into the genius of Presbyterianism, or to relinquish principles which have led to such success, for others that have yet to show an equal vitality and vigor.
Our free and untrammeled worship demands from the worshipper his best; it brings him face to face with his God, and forbids him to rest in any mere repetition of a familiar form ”