The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties — John Shaqi
The Pastor: His Qualifications and DutiesHarvey, H. (Hezekiah)
Religion
The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties
Harvey, H. (Hezekiah)
Pastoral theology
for the young, there are many which are not merely trashy but are
positively pernicious. The Sunday-school library is an instrument of
great power in forming the tastes, the opinions, and the habits of the
people, and it is of the utmost moment that the books be pure in
doctrine and healthful in moral and religious tone. 6. The
Sunday-school concert, in which the exercises are prepared chiefly by
the school itself, will be of great value if wisely conducted; but care
is needed to exclude exercises introduced for sensational effect which
may not befit the Lord's Day. Indeed, it is all-important that the
exercise should not be degraded into a mere exhibition, awakening on
the part of teachers and scholars only a desire to produce a popular
sensation and draw the crowd, and on the part of the people a desire to
be amused. The devotional spirit should always be dominant. But in
addition to such exercises, it will be profitable to preach a sermon
statedly--once a month, or at least once in three months--expressly to
the Sunday-school, adapting the whole service to the young. It brings
the pastor and school together publicly and directly and recognizes the
relation of the pastor to it as its chief instructor and guide. But in
the sermon, as in every Sunday-school address, he should be careful
that in attempting to be simple he does not become childish; the former
is necessary to success, the latter is a common and fatal mistake.
Finally, the hearty co-operation and sympathy, above suggested, of
pastor and people with the school will ordinarily avert all difficulty
on the question of the relation of the Sunday-school to the church; for
any school, whether home or mission, which finds itself thus enclosed
within the living sympathies of the church will instinctively recognize
its position as belonging to the church and under its watch-care and
guidance. Nor will the other evil, so widespread and unfortunate, of
the non-attendance of the school on public worship be likely to be
experienced; for the scholars, won by the pastor's personal interest in
them, will be attracted to him and to his ministrations in the pulpit.
+SECTION VII.
PASTORAL VISITATION.
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