MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY. "Able ministers of the New Testament.”—2 COR. iii. 6. MINISTERIAL efficiency means practical capacity for advancing the kingdom of Christ. We recognize several types of it, which seldom, if ever, are found together: and the standard, which both defines and measures it, is observed to vary from age tɔ age. Here it may be added that, while in special functions of the ministry other religious communions distinctly surpass our own (in technical training we are, perhaps, inferior to all), it is probable that an English clergyman strikes a higher average of general efficiency than any other minister of the gospel. But what is the life, and what the character, on which this efficiency depends? The life is not merely the hours spent in the study, the school, and the church, but the sumtotal of it in the dear sanctities of home, in the helpful intercourse of society, in holidays, and in rest. By character is meant that indefinable and inevitable tone and atmosphere of moral nature which, moment by moment, unconsciously but incessantly, forms itself out of our words, thoughts, and deeds; according to the awful proverb (as true of us as of cur fellows) "Sow the act, and reap the habit; Sow the habit, and reap the character; Sow the character, and reap the eternity." Sir Joshua Reynolds was in the habit of grounding his canvas with a thick white paint before he drew a single line of his portraits. This gave luminousness to the picture when it was complete. So a clergyman's character shines through his work as well as on it; it will not be hid, for it cannot be. As Monod writes, in a well-known sermon on St. Paul, "For him the apostle is simply the Christian authorized by God to live for nothing else but to communicate his Christianity to the world; and then, for the purpose of this communication, endowed with certain supernatural powers, which are a grace of the apostleship, but neither its real essence nor proper strength. In a few lines he gives us the secret of his life as an apostle, to be the secret of his life as a Christian." What is the secret, in the world around us, of efficiency of any kind, whether artistic, literary, scientific, or political? Is it not to be found in the combination, more or less perfect, of will, affections, and intelligence, stirred and kept moving by the impulse of conscience, and vitalized by the energy of faith? The will first resolves on action, and then perseveres in it. The affections, if they do not originate the purpose, intensify it by giving it a motive. The intelligence supplies the resources, having already conceived the ideas. The conscience says, "Thou must: it is thy duty." Faith overcomes all obstacles by the vivid anticipation of success. Now, the secret of overcoming the world of material things is also the secret of subduing the souls of men to the yoke and cross of Jesus Christ. We too must will and know, love, fear, and believe; and if we first consider what are the prominent functions of our apostolic ministry, and then inquire what special moral characteristics are |