THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY NOT A PRIESTHOOD. THE subject of my discourse this evening is "The Christian Ministry not a Priesthood." I have dispensed with the customary formality of a text, because, in fact, the greater part of the New Testament might have been cited for such a purpose; and further, because it is no single text that I mean to expound, but rather the whole teaching of Christ and his apostles. On no one question, whether of doctrine or of practice, be it the unity of God, the divinity and atonement of Christ, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, the necessity for regeneration, the obligations of holiness and virtue-are the Scriptures more explicit than on the matter we now purpose to discuss-viz., that the ministry of the gospel is in no sense of the term a priesthood, and that the very idea of sacerdotalism is in utter and irreconcileable antagonism with that which the apostles contemplate when they speak of ambassadors for Christ. It will be my object to establish this fact BRITISH 1 in a manner which I am sanguine enough to believe will be incontrovertible. A few preliminary observations may be necessary, or desirable, by way of indicating the purpose I have formed, to solicit your attention to this subject at the present time. (1.) In the first place it is a topic which always lies fairly within the scope of Christian teaching. And, apart altogether from special circumstances which lift the subject into prominence, and demand for it our most thoughtful consideration, it is necessary that Christians should from time to time receive instruction as to the precise relation the ministry of the Church holds both towards Christ, his Church, and the world. And the teaching of a pastor can scarcely defend itself from the imputation of narrowness and incompleteness which purposely eschews, or inadvertently neglects, a topic of such high importance. It is not improbable that to the comparative absence of such exposition from our pulpit instructions, may we, in some measure, trace the growth of that ecclesiastical heresy, which is one of the most startling and ominous features of our times. (2.) This suggests my second preliminary remark -viz., that in addition to the appropriateness of the subject before us at any time, in any comprehensive and enlightened system of public Christian instruction, there are at the present time special and urgent reasons for its consideration-reasons so strong and imperious that I should account myself guilty of a grave dereliction of duty were I not to use whatever influence I possess to resist a movement which assails, and that in every direction, the characteristic genius of the gospel. If Ritualism were simply an insignificant thing-if it concerned matters of petty detail only, with the view too, of giving, what may be deemed by some, greater decorum to the worship of God; if it restricted its innovations, or, if it be thought more accurate, its revivals, to ecclesiastical apparelling and liturgical service, then, though one might entertain a strong conviction of the childishness of such a movement, and a fear lest the incubus of forms should oppress and smother the spirit, one might reconcile himself, in part at least, to such a phenomenon by a recognition of the fact that there is a large variety of opinions, tastes, and susceptibilities which demand. a corresponding diversity in the accidentals of worship, and which are quite compatible with the recognition of the fact that "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." We have no weak and credulous hankering after uniformity. We have no sanguine expectation that it will ever be compassed "while the earth remaineth." We confess, indeed, never to have entertained a desire for such a thing. If it could be accomplished it would not, we think, be the highest conceivable result, either in an ecclesiastical or spiritual point of view. If there be the one Lord, the one faith, and the one baptism, there is something sublime, and elevating in the spectacle of the manifold forms which they can inspire and vitalize, and in the conviction that there is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all. |