Lay Agency in the Church.

It Has been long felt by many that our work, as a church, in meeting the spiritual necessities of the people throughout our borders has been greatly hindered by the difficulty of maintaining a sufficient number of regularly qualified ministers. The population is widely scattered, and therefore requires, in proportion to its numbers, a much larger number of services, and of ministers to conduct them. By a number of ministers, elders and members of piety and prudence have often been engaged to render such assistance as they were able and willing to give, but this has been done on their own authority, and without recognition or support on the part of the Synod, our supreme court. At its meeting last month, the Synod has fairly looked at the necessities of the case, and has given authority for the employment of suitable lay agents, as students and others, in places where there is a necessity for such additional labourers. This we regard as a most hopeful sign. It is in no sense an innovation on the peculiarities of the Presbyterian system. It presents no indication of a desire to depart from that which is the peculiar characteristic of the Presbyterian Church, and which can be claimed by no other—namely, the requiring of a full education and training on the part of all her regular ministers. This characteristic, we trust, she will ever maintain. It is, under God, one of the strongest bulwarks of her orthodoxy and efficiency as a Christian Church.

The lay agency referred to is not intended to interfere with, but rather to strengthen, the efficiency of the regular ministry. At the very foundation of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, lay agents, called readers, were appointed, and they contributed greatly to maintain and extend the Church at a time when the number of regular ministers was quite inadequate to overtake the multitudes scattered throughout the country that were in want of Christian instruction. In the Wesleyan Church agents of a similar kind, called local preachers, page 34 have been the mainstay of the Church, and we do not hesitate to say that but for such agents their cause could not have maintained its ground and extended itself as it has done. In the Episcopalian Church the employment of lay readers has also been felt to be a matter of necessity, and no doubt has contributed in some degree to the strengthening of the Church. So far as the employment of elders, students and other lay agents of accredited piety within our own Church has proceeded, the results have shewn the wisdom of extending such agency, as is now proposed to be done.

There are, however, obstacles which sometimes stand in the way, to which we would ask the consideration of the Church, in order that they may be cleared away, and the efficiency of the Church thus promoted. Regarding the system itself, it is proper to state that it does not contemplate the sending forth of a host of untrained men to occupy our pulpits, and be placed in permanent charge of congregations. Their work will be mainly in remote and necessitous districts that cannot support regular ministers; it will be conducted under the oversight of the ministers and presbyteries of the bounds, and the character and fitness of the men who may be employed will be carefully looked into, so that only those of piety, Christian prudence, and a fair measure of natural fitness for the work will be engaged. At times they may occupy the pulpits of the ministers who have the oversight of their districts, to enable them to preach and administer the sacraments of the Church, which otherwise they could not do.

In view of such an arrangement, it must be confessed that there exists in many congregations a large amount of prejudice against accepting the services of any but regularly qualified ministers, and many who hear of lay agents coming to occupy the pulpit for a day or two are disposed to stay away. This discourages both him who temporarily officiates and the minister who thus seeks to extend the benefits of his ministry. It may be granted that such agents as we speak of may not be qualified to expound the Scriptures and set forth the truths which they contain, so lucidly and powerfully as the regular ministers. This is not to be expected. But the end of the services of the sanctuary is not merely the exposition of the doctrines of Scripture, but one great and principal end of a living ministry is the holding forth of a living and personal testimony on behalf of the truth, so that it may be declared from age to age by those who have themselves believed that the page 35 Gospel is not only the truth of God most sure, but that it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe it. Every Christian man, therefore, who speaks because he believes and who testifies that Jesus is all his salvation and all his desire, is doing a good work, which may be blessed to the conversion and saving of souls, and which is fitted to benefit also the most advanced in the Christian life. We trust, therefore, that the prejudices which many have cherished against listening to lay preachers will not be allowed to prevent their being employed, as is now proposed. These prejudices have, we fear, operated against the developement of the gifts and graces which many of our laymen possess. If opportunities were more abundantly given for their exercise we should probably see laymen rising up among us eminently fitted for exhortation and preaching. We trust that those who have received talents fitting them for usefulness in the Church of Christ, will not leave them unemployed. There is work to be done needing the assistance of all—in prayer meetings—in Sabbath schools—and in conducting public services in places otherwise destitute of religious ordinances. And now that the Synod has expressed its desire that such labourers should enter into the vineyard, and have a recognized place among the gatherers of the vintage, we trust that every corner will soon be occupied, and Isaiah's prediction be realized throughout our borders: "Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains."