Pastor

“ Who does not see, that a pastor could in no way so effectually awaken in his church a spirit of benevolent feeling and action, as by exhibiting it in his own person; by rising up, and going forth to the heathen, urging a part of his flock to accompany him, and the rest to sustain him in the field? ”

“ As a guide of my life in the innermost corner of my soul, I am to have the pastor, the priest of my parish, who has just come from the seminary, a shallow boy, almost illiterate, or an aged drunkard, whose only care is to acquire as many fowls and pigs as he can. ”

“ In justice to myself, let me say that I have given this narrative of the closing scenes of my pastoral labors, not, I trust, as a matter of personal vain glory; but that good Christian people in our own land and in other lands may learn from the example of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church how to treat a pastor, whose simple aim has been, with God's help, to do his duty. ”

“ Each man seems to feel that the pastor is talking to him and that the heart that speaks has a care and tenderness for all.
Then he is sociable, approachable to all, from the lowest to the highest, old folks and children, rich and poor, great and small, wise and otherwise—all seem to find in him a ready echo. In view of his power and of his youth, prayer spontaneously rises to God that he may be kept in watching, in humility, in faith and in faithful service. ”

“ Not only the humanity, but the tact and common sense of the Apostle is conspicuous throughout the whole passage, whether we regard the general directions respecting the bearing of the young pastor towards the different sections of his flock, old and young, male and female, or the special rules respecting widows. The sum and substance of it appears to be that the pastor is to have abundance of zeal and to encourage it in others, but he is to take great care that, neither in himself nor in those whom he has to guide, zeal outruns discretion. ”

“ This is the true bond between the pastor and his flock: the true maintainer of discipline, and instrument of restoration. Accordingly, in Catholic countries, we see the priest truly respected, cherished, and obeyed by his flock, however much he may earn the dislike and suspicion of the worldly and unconverted: in Protestant {338} countries we see the pastoral office a nonentity; the shepherd of his flock is virtually a preacher of sermons. ”

“ What I have said with reference to the Sunday-school is also true with reference to the Church. There is an old saying, that "like priest, like people." When a pastor continues for a long period of years in the same pulpit, ministering to the same people, if he has their sympathy, co-operation and assistance the people will become very much like each other in their spiritual character, and all will become more and more like the pastor and his teachings. If he is godly, and consecrated, and upright, his people will become increasingly so. ”

“ I ask you as Christian men and women, as humane, kind-hearted people, to dismiss from your minds all considerations save one,—your pastor's need. I understand that he has six little children. A long, cold winter is before him and his. He is dependent upon you for the comforts of life. In return, he is serving the deepest and most sacred needs of your natures, and in his poverty is leading you to a faith that will enrich you forever. ”

“ O GOD, the Pastor and Governor of all the faithful, mercifully regard Thy servant N., whom Thou hast placed as chief pastor over Thy Church; grant, we beseech Thee, that both by word and example he may edify all those who are under his charge; that, together with the flock committed to his care, he may arrive at life everlasting: through our Lord, etc.
Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory.
O GOD, whose goodness and mercy are unbounded, listen to the prayers we offer Thee in behalf of our suffering brethren, in purgatory. ”

“ It is the pastor's duty to absolve the penitent, declaring the remission of their sin, and re-admitting to the communion of the saints. 12. It is the people's duty to re-admit the absolved to their communion with joy, and to take them as brethren in the Lord. [29] 13. Though every pastor hath a general power to exercise his office in any part of the church, where he shall be truly called to it; yet every pastor hath a special obligation (and consequently a special power) to do it over the flock, of which he hath received the special charge and oversight. ”

“ The pastor, then, is the type of community builder needed in the country. The pastor works with a maximum of sincerity, while sincerity may in preaching be reduced to the lowest terms. He is in constant, intimate, personal contact. The preacher is dealing with theories and ideals not always rooted in local experiences. The pastor lives the life of the people. ”

“ He then opens the service with a short, earnest, eloquent prayer that moves many to tears. No organ is used; the chorister stands near the pastor, and the multitude rises and sings a soul-inspiring hymn. The pastor then reads, with exposition, the Scripture lesson. He announces this morning that he will preach the annual missionary sermon. When he begins preaching, seven thousand pairs of eyes are looking steadfastly upon him. He leads the vast audience step by step as he unfolds to them the word of God. Every hearer’s heart burns within him. ”

“ The pulpit, without doubt, has the highest claim. The pastor is there surrounded by his whole flock, and stands forth before the world as God’s ambassador, the accredited expositor and defender of the Gospel. No private duty can rise to the dignity and responsibility of this great public work, and no plea of pastoral exigencies or pastoral usefulness can excuse an habitual neglect of thorough preparation for the sacred desk. ”

“ And we, by applying the test to the particular doctrines of Christianity, have made ourselves judges in matters yet more beyond our grasp. Undoubtedly faithful and sound preaching is likely, by God's blessing, to produce a harvest: the holy and earnest life of a religious pastor is a yet more powerful sermon: his performance of his weekly duties, his greater watchfulness over the right dispensation of the Sacraments, his more earnest prayers, are also means of promoting God's kingdom. ”

“ The supreme Pastor of the whole flock of Christ, as befits the Catholic and cosmopolitan spirit of the church, may now, as in former days, be chosen solely in view of his capacity, fitness, and personal merits, without any regard to his nationality or race. ”

“ But dependence upon those who are not Christians and who seek to manage the church with worldly motives and in a worldly way, may utterly destroy the spiritual effect of his ministry. The pastor is bound to be the impartial preacher of the truth, and to treat each member of his church as of equal importance with every other. ”

“ He that is no pastor of a particular church, may be a pastor in the universal, obliged as a consecrated person to endeavour its good, by the works of his office, as he hath a particular opportunity and call. ”

“ We may fitly conclude with one more quotation from Cardinal Manning on the sanctifying power of the self-sacrifice which a true pastor practises:— [9]
"The pastoral office is in itself a discipline of perfection. For first of all it is a life of abnegation of self. A pastor has so many obediences to fulfil, as he has souls to serve. ”

“ And wherever the pastor possesses the rare talent of moving the feeling,—of exciting the mind to salutary reflection, as well as merely expounding points of doctrine,—thither will the multitude flock, high and low, rich and poor. ”

“ A true pastor is a man who is not only possessed of a real spiritual gift, but also animated by the very affections of the heart of Christ toward every lamb and sheep of His blood-bought flock.
Yes, we repeat it, "every lamb and sheep." A true pastor is a pastor all over the world. He is one who has a heart, a message, a ministry, for every member of the body of Christ. Not so the elder or bishop. His is a local charge, confined to the locality in which such charge is entrusted. But the pastor's range is the whole Church of God, as the evangelist's range is the wide, wide world. ”

“ Such evangelical Confession and Absolution establishes and maintains the true relation that should exist between an evangelical pastor and the members of his flock. Instead of a mere preacher, a platform orator, he becomes a true spiritual guide, a curate for the cure of souls. ”

“ The Eternal Pastor and Bishop of our souls, in order to continue for all time the life-giving work of His Redemption, determined to build up the Holy Church, wherein, as in the House of the living God, all who believe might be united in the bond of one faith and one charity. ”

“ To be successful the pastor must take an interest in all the members of his congregation; he must sympathize with them, mourn with them when they mourn, rejoice with them when they rejoice, cheer them when they are discouraged, counsel them when they are perplexed. ”

“ But, with all this, life, even in a faithful ministry, is, on its earthly side, rarely other than a disappointment; and the pastor who seeks reward in human applause or in any form of earthly hope, not only thereby excludes the Holy Spirit from his life but is also sure to find unrest and failure as the ultimate result. The rewards of the faithful pastor are from God and are of special magnitude and blessedness. ”

“ I know pastors have an awful lot to do, and they say it is real hard work to preach, but if you could say just a little less to the old folks, and a little more to the young folks, we will help you build up the church and make it a big success. So, I hope, dear pastor, you will let us call you our own, and when you come among us you may be sure we will love you and welcome you as the children’s friend. ”

“ I have been called upon quite unexpectedly, and without any seeking on my own part, to undertake among you one of the most arduous as well as the most responsible duties which it is possible for man to undertake. I have been called upon to preside among you in the things of religion;—to be your teacher, guide, and Priest;—to perform for you all the manifold and indescribable duties which are tributary and belong to the office of a Pastor in the Church of Christ. ”

“ His solicitude for the spiritual prosperity of the church and congregation was not that of a deacon only, but a pastor; on this behalf he constantly wrestled with God in private; and you know, brethren, how solemnly, how earnestly, how affectionately, he pleaded for it in your meetings for social prayer. You know also his readiness, as opportunity allowed, to prove himself a friend, a brother, a father to you all. He was ever disposed to hear, to sympathize, to advise, to aid ”

“ We have talked together about the young Clergyman's secret life, and private life, and his life in (so to speak) non-clerical intercourse with others, and now lastly of his life as it stands related to his immediate leader in the Ministry. In this latter topic we have already touched the great matter which comes now at once before us, the man's work amongst his neighbours as he approaches them in his proper character, as a Pastor. ”

“ The peasants demanded that the gospel should be taught them as a guide in life, and that each community should be permitted to choose its pastor and depose him if he conducted himself improperly. “The pastor thus chosen should teach us the gospel pure and simple, without any addition, doctrine or ordinance of man.” ”

“ Nothing but this consciousness of a Divine call is adequate to inspire for the toils of the pastor’s office and sustain in its trials. Disappointments and discouragements come, in which he must fall back for support and comfort on the great primary fact that he is God’s servant, specially called to that office and that work ”

“ It will be a sacred central point, the living heart of the busy life, to which everything will bear relation. To the Pulpit everything will somehow converge, and from the Pulpit everything will be influenced. As the Pastor moves about amongst his people, he will be gathering incessantly, from all parochial places and seasons, material which will tell upon his sermons; he will be getting to know his people's minds and lives with an intimacy which will give his preaching to them a point which otherwise it could not have. ”

“ And I believe that the earnest pastor, settled in some light and pleasant country charge, will oftentimes, even amid his simple enjoyment of that pleasant life, think that perhaps he would be more in the path of duty, if, while the best years of his life are passing on, he were placed where he might serve his Master in a larger sphere. ”

“ I beg you to understand that I am not taking the part of pastors against congregations any more than I would take the part of our little girl against her pious mother, but what I write is merely to blaze the way, as it were, to a settlement of the question: Whether a pastor is a shepherd set over a congregation by the Almighty, or whether he is a man whom an angry God has delivered into their hands that he may suffer for his sins. ”

“ The pastors that administer the Lord's supper to their particular flocks, are to discern or judge of the fitness of those persons whom they receive newly into their charge, or whom they admit to communion in that sacrament as members of their flock. 6. Every such pastor is also personally to watch over all the members of his flock as far as he is able; lest false teachers seduce them, or Satan get advantage of them, or any corruption or root of bitterness spring up among them and defile them. ”

“ But each pastor is the leader of his flock; and their opinions and practices are more or less at his control as their religious teacher. And so long as he can carry his people with him he is independent of every other ecclesiastical power. ”

“ The prayers of the pastor may be made more effective for missions than his sermons. If he makes mention in his prayers of the servants of Christ who are toiling among the heathen, or the Freedmen, or the Western settlers, and prays, not with a tedious enumeration, but with fervor and definiteness, he will put missions on the hearts of the people. What has a place frequently in our prayers has a place in our sympathies. ”