r work--the preaching of the word--to which it may be well
to advert. It has become much the fashion of the time--most
unthinkingly, surely--to speak of preaching as not the paramount, but
merely one of the subsidiary duties of a clergyman. 'He is not a man
of much pulpit preparation,' it has become customary to remark of some
minister, at least liked if not admired, 'but he is diligent in
visiting and in looking after his schools; and preaching is in reality
but a small part of a minister's duty.' Or, in the event of a vacancy,
the flock looking out for a pastor are apt enough to say, 'Our last
minister was an accomplished pulpit man, but what we at present want
is a man sedulous in visiting; for preaching is in reality but a small
part of a minister's duty.' Nay, ministers, especially ministers of
but a few twelvemonths' standing, have themselves in some cases caught
up the remark, as if it embodied a self-evident truth; and while they
dare tell, not without self-complacency, that their discourses--things
written at a short sitting, if written at all--cost them but little
trouble, they add further, as if by way of apology, that they are,
however, 'much occupied otherwise, and that preaching is in reality
but a small part of a minister's duty.' We have some times felt
inclined to assure these latter personages in reply, that they might a
little improve the matter just by making preaching no part of their
duty at all. But where, we ask, is it taught, either by God in His
word or by the Church in her standards, that preaching is merely one
of the minor duties of the minister, or indeed other than his first
and greatest duty? Not, certainly, in the New Testament, for there it
has invariably the paramount place assigned to it; as certainly not in
our standards, for in them the emphasis is '_especially_' laid on the
'preaching of the word' as God's most 'effectual means' of converting
sinners. If it be a truth that preaching is but comparatively a minor
part of a minister's duty, it is certainly neither a Scripture nor a
Shorter Catechism truth; and, lest it should be not only not a truth
at all, but even not an innocuous _untruth_, we think all who hold it
would do well to inquire how they have come by it.

We have our own suspicion regarding its origin. It is natural for
men to exaggerate the importance of whatever good they patronize, or
whatever improvement or enterprise they advocate or recommend. And
perhaps some degr