A Treatise on the Pastoral Office; Addressed Chiefly to Candidates for Holy Orders, or to Those Who Have Recently Undertaken the Cure of Souls (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: i.] generally neglected. 3 thought that not many men devote themselves thus early to the task. True, that all " read their Bible." In the college-chapel, and at the college-lecture, and probably in private, ?almost daily. But why deceive ourselves on so solemn a subject ? The chapters so read are not studied with that exactness which is indispensable if the Bible is ever to be turned to scientific account; neither in this way is the volume ever read consecutively through. Enough has perhaps been said. It may be laid down that the Bible should be studied at least as laboriously and exactly as any other book which has to be completely mastered. Every expression, every word, must be weighed; patiently, thoughtfully, systematically, reverentially. None, it is hoped, will suppose that I am putting the inspired Word of God on a level with Aristotle or Thucydides: or implying that the Bible is to be studied in the same spirit as profane writings. But it must certainly be studied with at least the same amount of attention as any other very difficult book of History, Poetry, or Morals: that is to say, with consummate industry and inquisitiveness. Addressing, for once, very junior aspirants to the ministerial office, I would entreat those who have not done this already, not to lose a day in making a beginning; (for indeed they have not a day to lose): and let them begin, by all means, with the first chapter of Genesis; persuading themselves of this, ?that, whatever flattering notions they may entertain on the subject, they are as yet very imperfectly acquainted with Us contents. The assertion may be hazarded, that they probably could not solve more than three out of a dozen questions, the answers to every one of which nevertheless lie on the surface of the sacred narrative. If any d...