The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1873-03-19

PASTORAL VISITATION AGAIN.


Mr.. EditOr,-With your consent few
questions are here respectfully submitted to
the candid judgment of your correspondent
"YOung Grum."
l. By what authority does he restrict to
public preaching or to public ministratiOns
Of any kind, the various iujunctiOns of the
the Apostle Paul to Timothy aud Titus re-
spectiug their labors for the ed.6cation of
the Church? Those things, e. g., to which
Timothy is directed to give himself a0holly,
on what ground is it assumed that they be-
long exclusively to the pulpit? Is there no
place and no need for "exhortatiOn" aud
for "doc;rine" in private,-in the family
circle, in the chamber of sickness aud mourn
ing, in the highway AID hedges! How has
it happened that in this new theory of the
pastoral ofi3e aud duties, the term public,
or something equivalent, has been quietly
interpolated into the Pastoral Epistles p
Does it follow that because man cannot
be in two places at the same time, he cannot
be in two places at different times? Is there
no middle ground between the extremes
which Young Grun represents as incOmpasi-
blel Will not the pastor be all the more
useful aud happy BY jOd,cious division Of
his time and strength between the public
and the private depaFtments of his waeS7
?. Is j: probable that Paul would eujoil
upon Timothy and Titus Que - manner" aud
himself practice another! Yet Paul declares
that ne taught publicly, and from house to
house, testiiyiag both to the Jews and also
to the Genules repentance toward God and
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" Acts
TX: 20, q. Ia doing this, in going his
rOunds-PAul may have looked like
"sberif, or a ''pedlar," he may have even
stumbled into house where he was so un-
fortunate as to encounter some hypochOudriac
old man or rheumatic old woman, still he
appears to have run the risk Of the odium
Of the one, and the pain of the other. Iu.
deed one might infer from the way in which
he speaks If his great anxiety by all means
TO save some, that when the sick so far neg
lee.ed their duty and privilege as not to send
for him, or when It was not practicable to
convene the elders "as session" to pray
over them, Paul would be so bold or so i'll
hammered as to visit them on his own respOn-
sibiity, cut Of pure unsolicited charity for
their souls. If your correspondent is really
young as we'll as gruH1, be may live to dis
cover that, although there should be "sore
heads in his church whom it might be right
to pass by without notice, or even to hold
up TO ridicule, there viii always exist
larger number Of sore hearts, whom Paul
would have felt it no eondescension to visit
and minister to, whom the Master himself
would have wept with.
3. Is the opinion Of learned and godly
ministers in all ages and branches Of the
Christian Church, of no weight on a subject
in regard to which they could speak from
personal observation aud experience? On
no subject, however, have they spoken with
more unanimisy and emphasis than respect
ing the great value of pastoral visitation,
and its absolute necessity to the highest aud
most enduring results Of the pastoral relation.
4. Although the columns of a newspaper
should be allowed to be the proper medium
for Young Grum' to employ in ordsr to
get at the two hundred out Of those three
hundred members of his church, who will
not give him chance to address them at
the weekly prayer meeting and whom, it is
fair to presume from his own articles, he
does not try to see at their hOuses-he not
being a "sherif or a pedlar granting
this, it may still be question whether it is
well il him, fer the sake Of reproving them
for their delinquency or of vindicating
himself for what they may think is his delin
queIcy, 20 breach and advocate publicly a
theory Of pastoral duty which, being, alas
too eonsonant with the natural pride and
unsOcial tempers of some, and with the in,
dOlenb selfindulgent habits Of others, is
calculated to do serious injury to other
young ministers, whether they are grum or
gleeful. It is only because the new doctrine
is believed to be fraught with evil cOnse-
duences to the cause Of Christ, that these
structures are submitted by
"THE OLD PATHS"