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To My

Younger Brethren

Handley C. G. Moule

TO MY YOUNGER

BRETHREN

CHAPTERS ON PASTORAL LIFE AND WORK

BY THE RIGHT REV.

HANDLEY C.G. MOULE, D.D.

LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM

1902

TO

MY DEAR BROTHER AND VICAR,

THE REV. JOHN BARTON, M.A.,

INCUMBENT OF TRINITY CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE,

AND RURAL DEAN,

AND TO MY DEAR BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,

THE PRESENT AND PAST STUDENTS

OF RIDLEY HALL, CAMBRIDGE,

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

H.C.G.M.

“Give those who teach pure hearts and wise,

Faith, hope, and love, all warm’d by prayer;

Themselves first training for the skies

They best will raise their people there.”

Armstrong.

PREFACE.

The following pages do not appear to need any extended preface;

their topic is set forth in the first lines of the first chapter. With what

success it has been handled is another matter.

But as a writer reviews his own words, it is inevitable that some sort

of envoi should present itself to his mind. In this case the envoi seems

to me to be the vital necessity of personal holiness in the Christian

Minister, in order to the right working of the Christian Ministry; a

personal holiness which shall be no mere form moulded from

without but a life developed into manifestation and action from

within.

Never did the Church of Christ more need to remember this than at

the present day. The strongest surface currents of the age are against

it; alike that of unregulated, hurrying, indiscriminate enterprize, and

that of an exaggerated ecclesiasticism. In the one case the worker’s

communion with God tends to be sacrificed to the work, the fountain

choked for the sake of the stream. In the other case there is a serious

risk that “the Church” may come to be regarded as an almost

substitute for the Lord in matters affecting the life and growth of the

Christian man, and of course of the Christian Minister. Sacred are the

claims of order and cohesion, but more sacred and more vital still is

the call to the individual constituent of the community to come to the

living Personal Christ, “nothing between,” and to abide in innermost

intercourse with Him, and to draw every hour by faith on His great

grace.

If these simple pages may at all, in His most merciful hands,

promote the holy cause of such a hidden life and its fruitful issues, it

will indeed be happiness to the writer. In these days of stifling

materialism in philosophy, and withering naturalism in theology,

but in which also the Holy Spirit, far and wide, is breathing upon us

in special mercy from above, there is no duty more pressing on the

Christian than to seek, in the world of work, after that life which is

“lived in the flesh by faith in the Son of God,” and which is

manifested in the strong and patient “meekness of wisdom.”

Ridley Hall, Cambridge,

April 22nd, 1892.

Servant of God, be fill’d

With Jesu’s love alone;

Upon a sure foundation build,

On Christ the corner-stone;

By faith in Him abide,

Rejoicing with His saints;

To Him with confidence, when tried,

Make known all thy complaints.”

Moravian Hymn-book.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD

Need of watching and prayer over three departments of a Minister’s

life—The secret department—Temptations in it from work—From

solitude—Secret Devotion—The Morning Watch—Physical

precautions—Evening hours—A Minister’s prayers must sometimes

forget the Ministry—This will be to the advantage of the Ministry—

”Tell Him all”

CHAPTER II.

THE SECRET WALK WITH GOD (ii.).

Secret intercourse with God the life of a Minister’s life—The Example

of Jesus Christ—Testimony of von Machtholf—Special need of

divine communion at the present day—The cry for effort and

enterprize—Secularizing theories of religion and the Ministry—A

call to young English Clergymen—A caution from Laodicea—Study

of the Holy Scriptures—”The New Testament about twice a week”—

What says the Ordinal?—M. Henri Lasserre on Devotional Literature

and the Gospels—Study the Bible unprofessionally—Bridges’

quotation from Witsius—Ridley in the Orchard

CHAPTER III.

SECRET STUDY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

A fragmentary chapter—Higher Criticism—A technical and innocent

term—Actual assertions of certain critics—”Do not follow this Book;

follow Christ”—Weigh facts before theories—Testimony of Nature

and History to Scripture—The Duke of Argyll in the Nineteenth

Century—Prediction—Problem of the Human Knowledge of Jesus

Christ—Current fulfilments of Prophecy—Methods of Bible Study—

The plough—The spade—Specimen of spade-husbandry, in a

Church Congress Study of the Epistle to the Philippians

CHAPTER IV.

THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS (i.).

Secret Communion with God must accompany everything else—We

are watched—Self-respect—Consistency largely means

Considerateness—”A consistent gentleman”—The Tongue—St

Augustine’s couplet for the dinner-table—The Clergy-House, its

opportunities and risks—The duty of Example—Is it remembered as

it used to be?—”For their sakes I sanctify Myself”—”Others” and

their claims on us—Manner—Temper—Simeon’s patience—The

Secret of the Presence

CHAPTER V.

THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS (ii.).

“Take heed unto thyself”—Relations with Woman—Christian

chivalry—And Christian caution—Special difficulties—”Know

thyself”—Celibacy—The Clergyman’s Wife—The problem of

means—The Clergyman and money—Pecuniary intemperance—

Accurate accounts—Investment circulars—”Lay not up for

yourselves”

CHAPTER VI.

THE DAILY WALK WITH OTHERS (iii.).

Curate and Incumbent—A Chancellor on Curates—The ideal

Incumbent—No Incumbent perfect—And no parish perfectly

content—Loyal watchfulness needed accordingly—The Curate’s

Party—”The lost grace, humility”—Subordination—Take sides

against yourself—A letter to The Record on Curates’ grievances.

CHAPTER VII.

PASTOR IN PARISH (i.).

A boundless subject—Visiting—All-important—Prepare for the

round with prayer—Method—Brevity but not hurry—An example—

Courtesy—It must be impartial—Visitation of the sick—Its special

demands—Punctuality always a duty—Use of the Bible—The

advantage of coming as “the Clergyman”—Mistaken for the

undertaker—Come to the point—Lying in wait for the occasion—

Happy rebukes to timid reticence

CHAPTER VIII.

PASTOR IN PARISH (ii.).

Teach as you go—Urgent need of teaching—About Christ—And the

Holy Spirit—And Sacraments—Common mistakes about the

teaching of the Church—Sin—Evidences—Recollections of a visiting

round—The retired tradesman—The sceptical blacksmith—The

invalid artizan—The civil-servant—The consumptive—The dying

printer—The cripple—Aged poor saints—Saddening visits—

Humbling memories—A bright conversion at eighty-two

CHAPTER IX.

THE CLERGYMAN AND THE PRAYER BOOK.

“As bad as inspired”—Imperfections in the Book—Yet it is

priceless—Spirituality of the Prayer Book—What it takes for granted

in the worshipper—A remarkable reason for secession—The Prayer

Book as a weapon—Its Scripturality—Its compilers jealous for the

Word of God—Ministerial use of the Prayer Book—Put yourself into

it—We are not to preach the prayers—Yet we are to pray them—

Reading of the Lessons—Baptism—Marriage—Burial—The Holy

Communion—Reverence—Of what sort—Instruction-addresses on

the Prayer Book—”Less worship”