To My Younger Brethren | Page 4

I do, on the one hand, that
a close secret walk with God is unspeakably important in pastoral life,
and, on the other hand, that pastoral life, and not least in its early days,
is often allowed to hinder or minimize the real, diligent work (for it is a
work indeed in its way) of that close secret walk. He finds all too many
possible interferences with the inner working on the part of the outer.
Such interferences come from very different quarters. The new Curacy,
the new duties and opportunities, if the man has his heart in his
ministry, will prove intensely interesting, and at first, very possibly,
encouragement and acceptance may predominate over experiences of
difficulty and trial. Services, sermons, visits to homes and to schools,
with all the miscellanies that attend an active and well-ordered
parochial organization--these things are sure to have a special and
exciting interest for most young men who have taken Orders in earnest.
And it will be almost inevitable that the Curate, under even the most
wise, considerate, and unselfish of Incumbents, should find "work"
threatening rapidly to absorb so much, not of time only but thought and
heart, that the temptation is to abridge and relax very seriously indeed
secret devotion, secret study of Scripture, and generally secret
discipline of habits, that all-important thing.
*HINDRANCES: SOLITUDE.
Then, on the other hand, there is a risk and trial from a region quite
opposite. The Curate comes to his new work, and takes up his abode in
lodgings--alone. Only a few months ago, perhaps only a few weeks ago,
he was in rooms at College, amidst all the social as well as mental
interests of University life, and (so it is, thank God, for many
University men now) feeling on every side the help of Christian
friendship and fellowship of the warmest and truest sort. And now,
socially and as to fellowship in Christ, he is, to speak comparatively,
alone. I say, comparatively. Very likely he has found in his Incumbent

a friend and elder brother, perhaps a friend and loving father, in the
Lord. And most probably he will find among his people, and that very
soon if he is on the watch, friends in Christ, gentle or simple. He may
be associated with a brother Curate or Curates; and if so, the inmost
aim of both or all ought to be, and in most cases will be, not only to
work in the same parish but to work heart to heart as "in Him."
Nevertheless, the Vicar or Rector, though a friend, is a very busy friend;
and so is the brother Curate; and the Christian friend in the parish is
after all only one of the many souls to whom the man has to minister,
and he must not forget those who perhaps need him most just because
they are least congenial to him.
*ITS DANGERS.
So the sense of change, of solitude, in such part of his life as is spent
indoors, may be, and, as I know, very often is, real and deep, sad and
sorrowful, and in itself not wholesome, to the young Minister of Christ.
Possibly my reader knows nothing of all this; but I think it more likely
that at least he knows something of it. And it needs his prompt and
watchful dealing if it is not to hurt him greatly. Solitude will not by
itself, if I judge rightly, help him to secret intercourse with God. A
feeling of solitude, under most circumstances, much more tends, by
itself, to drive a man unhealthily inward, in unprofitable questionings
and broodings, or in still less happy exercises of thought. Or it drives
him unhealthily outward, quickening the wish for mere stimulants and
excitements of mind and interest. Aye, let me not shrink from saying it,
it sometimes quickens a wish for "stimulants" in the most literal sense
of the word. Exhausting and multifarious parochial work, and the
lonely bachelor quarters at the day's end, have brought to many a young
man sore temptations of that sort, and sometimes they have won the
battle, to the wreck and ruin of the work and of the worker.
HINDRANCES ARE OCCASIONS.
Well, all these facts or possibilities are just so many reminders that the
new Curate's life will not, of itself, greatly help him to maintain and
quicken his Secret Walk with God, that vital necessity for his work. It
certainly will not do so directly; it will, directly, be a problem, not an

aid. But on that very account, dear Brother and reader, your new
conditions of life may prove indirectly a most powerful aid, by being a
constant and urgent occasion. As you are a Minister of Christ, your life
and work will, in the Lord's sight, be a