PASTORS

     The men in the church most responsible for the success or failure of the class-meeting are its pastors. Let these rightly estimate the importance of this means of grace, and devote themselves to the task of rendering it in the highest possible degree effective, as did Wesley and the early Methodist preachers generally, and there is no power that can defeat its usefulness or cause it seriously to decline in the esteem of spiritual or sensible people. But let the pastors become indifferent to the class-meeting, manifesting no very great interest in it, and although they may still hold it in some degree of esteem or veneration for its historic character and former usefulness, it will soon sicken, go into decline, and finally die. In such a case the proper form of death certificate would be, "Died for lark of pastoral interest and oversight."

     The pastor must be held responsible above all others for the classes on his charge, inasmuch as the church Discipline makes him the proper organizer of classes, places at his disposal the assignment of members to the classes in which they are to hold membership, gives him in some bodies the appointment, and in others the nomination, of the leaders, requires him to examine the leaders with respect to their methods and usefulness, and to see that improper leaders are exchanged for those who are more wise, holy and efficient; and gives him a general authority over the classes transcending that of all others with respect to all that makes for or against their greatest spiritual efficiency. While he is not the leader, he is the pastor of the classes, and as such is also pastor of the leaders, who are themselves his assistants or sub-pastors. In the very nature of the case, therefore, no one else sustains such a responsible and vital relation to the class-meeting and all that makes for its success or failure as the pastor does.

     As the leaders of the classes are the pastor's assistants, and also form his advisory cabinet, it is highly important that the pastor should cultivate the most confidential fraternal relation with his leaders, and should seek to be in full sympathy with them in all their responsibilities and labors. He should take a special interest in each one separately, inviting the most confidential expression of the leader's personal religious experience, and of the things that concern and burden him with respect to his class, in order if possible to be the more helpful to him, and he should also take deep interest in them collectively, associating them with himself and one another frequently, with a view to mutual counsel, advice, prayer and fraternal fellowship, so that they all may be enabled to instruct, comfort, encourage and edify one another. Having their confidence and fellowship, he should be able also to be very helpful to them, especially to such as are comparatively inexperienced in the line of work to which they have been appointed, in the way of instructing them as to aims, methods, difficulties and embarrassments in their work. As the leaders are the drill-masters of the church, so the pastor should be, unassumingly and inoffensively, the drill-master of the leaders on his charge.

     The pastor should take an interest in all the classes, and, as often as circumstances will allow, should attend their regular meetings. This was almost universally observed in early Methodism, and it was largely the deep personal interest of the preachers in charge of circuits in the class-meeting of that early day, and the holy vigilance with which they watched and labored to keep the class-meeting fires burning intensely, that made those meetings the tremendous power they were in kindling, spreading and perpetuating the Wesleyan revival.

     Then, too, the pastor needs the benefit of the class-meeting the same as do his members. He is subject to the same temptations that. assail the rest of the human family, and is himself a man of like passions with others. Are they weak? So is he. Are they at times cast down? He likewise. Do they have need at times to confess their faults one to another, and pray one for another, that they may be healed? He is not exempt from this necessity. Do they require repeated quickenings lest, having begun in the Spirit, they should end in the flesh? He must have these repeated quickenings, even as they, else his soul also will soon cleave unto the dust.

     Do they need the benefits of a more exclusive Christian fellowship than can be found and cultivated in the larger and more promiscuous crowds that attend upon the public ministry of the word? He can no more thrive in spiritual matters without this means of inspiration and edification than can they. Has he become conscious of dullness, and lack of unction, power and fruitfulness in his pulpit ministrations? Let him not ignore it, but enter the class-room, open his heart candidly to his brethren and sisters, speak out the truth concerning himself with trembling voice and contrite heart, and invite a special season of prayer for himself. Then how that class-meeting will instantly thrill with new life! How others, who have been waiting for such an opportunity to make similar confessions, will humble themselves before God and their brethren, and seek and obtain a fresh anointing with the Holy Spirit!' How the preacher's heart will begin to glow with unwonted fervor, and his face to shine, like that of Moses on descending from Mount Sinai, with a reflection of the divine glory! Then will he go forth, with quickened spiritual vision and a tongue of fire, to preach in demonstration of the Spirit and in power, the gospel of a free and full salvation.

     "If it is objected that the pastor has no time for this, because of so many other religious and semi-religious duties, we answer that we shall not fear for the class-meeting if the pastor will settle upon his knees the relative spiritual importance of his duties and take them up in their order. It ought to be said that the pastors of the largest churches are also class-leaders. If they can do this with a thousand or more members on their hands, it ought not to be impossible for the average pastor. Hugh Price Hughes gives great credit to the class-meeting for the success of his work, and says there are now fifteen hundred people actually meeting in class in West End, London." ^[1]

     Again, the pastor should awaken and stimulate interest in the class-meeting by publicly explaining the nature and objects of this means of grace, commending it heartily, and urging general and prompt attendance. Many stay away from class because of misapprehension regarding its character. They look upon it as something similar to the Romish confessional where the privacy of personal life is invaded, and where every one present must speak whether so disposed or not. Others regard it as too much of a compulsory affair, and object to it on the ground of its supposed restraint on personal liberty, not having learned its spiritual advantages and to regard attendance upon its exercises in the light of a most valuable spiritual privilege. Let the pastor from time to time seek to remove these false conceptions regarding the nature and purpose of class-meetings, and he can thereby do much to lift the class-meeting to a higher plane in the public esteem, to interest his people generally in attendance upon its exercises, and to enhance its effectiveness in every way.

     Moreover, the pastors should all recognize the value of the class-meeting as a means to completing their own pastoral oversight of those entrusted to their care, and should, as much as possible, seek to magnify its spiritual value in connection with their pastoral visitation. No other public means of grace contributes so directly and so largely to simplifying and facilitating complete and effective pastoral oversight as this. It was the discovery of this fact that made John Wesley's heart rejoice, and led him to make the class-meeting an integral part of all his United Societies. The class-meeting also enables the pastor who has any kind of generalship to utilize all the membership of the church, and all the kinds and grades of talent therein, for whatever requires attention and combined effort in the direction of revival work, evangelistic enterprise, missionary service, and all kinds of charitable and benevolent activities. It is his best field for training all his people, and especially the young, for the various departments of Christian service.

     Most earnestly do we appeal on behalf of the class-meeting to the pastors, with whom chiefly is the making or unmaking of this institution as a means of the church's edification in all that makes for holy character and effective service. Through all its history the class-meeting, when properly treated, has proved itself the pastor's best ally. It has been the making of Methodism, and so vital is its relation still to Methodism of the genuine type, that no branch of the great Methodist family can ever disregard it or treat it lightly with impunity. Every pastor throughout universal Methodism who would prove himself a loyal Methodist should place a lofty estimate upon the class-meeting, seek to inspire a like conception of it in his people, and exert himself in every possible way to invest it with its primitive dignity and effectiveness.

1 From "The Drill-Master of Methodism," Written while Mr. Hughes was yet alive.