accept and defend the Wesleyan doctrine of holiness because it is Wesleyan, but because it is scriptural and reasonable, and accords with experience. We have given a high character to John Wesley, not as a bigot or man worshiper, but to do justice to a great and good man, and to neutralize detractions in which inferior men frequently indulge. Nor are we a hobbyist on the theme of Christian perfection, as some regard all advocates of this special experience. We are as broad in our sympathies and views, and as zealous in our efforts to promote all the phases of spiritual experience and all the interests of the Church, as any other type or class of Christians. We are made a little peculiar, perhaps, because of the stress and urgency of our efforts, on one point of our general faith. We see all the lines of light, all the virtues of the atonement, all the forces of redemption, converging and focalizing in personal holiness. We think Christ came to restore the lost image of God. All else is incidental. But we see the Church without clear vision or ardent feelings on this subject. Therefore we direct special attention to this aspect of religion, and pray that the Church may speedily rise in full-orbed holiness to hasten the millennium. ASBURY LOWREY.

New York city.

OF WHAT USE IS IT?

WE mean the Song of Songs. What it is intended to be seems one of the things no one can find out. Dr. James Strong "accepts the view that the poem is a celebration of Solomon's marriage with a daughter of Pharaoh." Dr. Terry thinks that "the heroine of this poetic drama is to be understood as a fair young maiden of northern Palestine whom King Solomon is supposed to have sought in vain to win. She resists all his blandishments, rejects all his efforts, and remains true to her shepherd lover, to whom she is at last restored." And now in the September Review the Rev. W. W. Martin, in an article of great ingenuity, concludes that the poem is "a production of the exile," "a song of the Beloved and his love; and the Beloved is Jehovah, and his loved one his chosen people."

All of which moves us to ask: If, after some thousands of years of trying to find out what the Song of Solomon does mean, no more agreement is reached among our best and learned men, how successful is the book as a disclosure of saving truth? As a conundrum it is a great success, as a supernatural revelation it is a failure; for a revelation reveals something, while the Song of Songs reveals nothing. And how much divine inspiration is there about a production that presumably from the days of Solomon or of the exile to the closing years of the nineteenth century has been trying to get itself understood and has not yet succeeded? If any human being had made such an effort, and such a failure, men would conclude it was time to let somebody else try. It looks to the writer like nonsense to include this book among the Scriptures of divine truth-at least as in any sense especially inspired.

Jersey City, N. J.

J. C. JACKSON.

THE ITINERANTS' CLUB.

THE AGE OF THE SPECIALIST.

THE time has come when all classes of people unite in paying tribute to the specialist. The old in this respect has been superseded by the new. Breadth has given place, not to narrowness, for that would be too sweeping a term, but to depth as applied to a narrow field. In other words, general ability gives place to special qualifications in particular lines. A general practitioner in medicine is rarely found, except in remote places, and even they on important occasions refer to the specialist. This seems natural and desirable, and yet there is danger of its being overdone. There are many spheres of activity in which a well-rounded man is of more service than one specially fitted for a particular department can possibly be.

The ministry of the Gospel illustrates this. There are diversities of gifts in the ministry, as well as diversities of functions. Some have special aptitude as evangelists. They have great powers of exhortation and appeal. They can gather people to their sermons, can reach them in their homes, and have rare insight into the mode of dealing with struggling souls. This is a great power, and one that ought not to be undervalued. Then there are great preachers. They excel in public address. It is said of them that the pulpit is their throne. They are sought for their oratorical ability, and command large congregations. From the days of Demosthenes great orators, whether in Church or State, have won the homage of mankind. Effectiveness in the composition and delivery of sermons is a power for good which is recognized by Protestant Christendom. The preaching of the Gospel is the supreme function of the minister. Paul himself magnified preaching as compared to the administration of ordinances when he said, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." Some are eminently successful as pastors. They have sympathy, they have tact, they have a knowledge of people, and can minister to them in their times of difficulty. This capacity is often undervalued, as if it were inferior to the more showy gifts; but good pastors are often more effective than are powerful preachers who neglect pastoral work.

None of these capacities, great as they are in themselves, can achieve complete success in the Gospel ministry without the others. They are all essential, and he who would be at his best in the Master's service should cultivate them all. The faithful pastor, the powerful preacher, the warm evangelist, united in one person, constitute a personality whose effectiveness for good cannot be questioned.

And here the question arises for the consideration of the young preacher. The specialist in religious work is sought, while the allround preacher is overlooked. It is announced in glowing words that

the celebrated revivalist or the famous orator is about to visit the city; but the balanced Christian minister, who has made his work tell in every department of Church life, receives little or no public recognition. A true man with a real mission has no desire for notoriety. He is satisfied to see the Church move steadily forward; he rejoices, not in the fact that his praises are sounded on earth, but that his name is written in heaven, and that in due time he shall "come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

This view does not undervalue specialization, but merely aims to assign to it its proper position. In science, literature, and art, and even in practical Christian work, there must be specialists. The professor of geology, of philosophy, of philology must not only have a general training, but in his chosen field he must be a specialist. Nor can anyone question that he who would do his best work in the various fields of reform must be largely a man of one supreme aim, and must have special equipment for it. Each young man who enters the ministry should endeavor to ascertain his adaptations and await the openings of Providence in regard to it. It is a safe rule that the man who has special gifts for any important necessary work will in due time be discovered. There are those constantly on the lookout for such persons, and humanity is waiting for them.

We repeat, however, that the ministry in general should contemplate only the pastorate as its appointed work. To minister to the people in spiritual things, to break to them Sabbath after Sabbath for successive years the bread of life, to visit their sick, to bury their dead, to train their children, to sympathize with them in their troubles, is the work to which the minister of the Gospel is called. And what position or work could be grander or nobler? What a thing of power the regular ministry of the Church is! What noble men have filled it! How the world has been uplifted by it! It is worthy of the best talents and the best training.

It follows that the young preacher of this age should have a broad training. He should not content himself with a narrow study of one particular department. He must have a well-balanced preparation. He will do well to take the "regular course" in any institution to which he may go as a student. It should be his desire to excel in every department of study. Hebrew must not be neglected for philosophy, nor homiletics for Greek. Theology and history will have their own places; and in this way he will become "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed ” in any field to which the providence of God may assign him.

This view will not prevent special attention to any study for which he may have a special aptitude or inclination, but his well-rounded preparation is the safest and surest way to the most complete mastery of any specialty. There should be, and is, in the Church, a place for everybody to work, a special field for men and women with special gifts; but the best field, on the whole, is the ordinary work of the Gospel minister.

63-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. XI.

TRANSFER OF MINISTERS.

THE Methodist Episcopal Church differs from most of the other denominations in the absoluteness of the power of appointment. From an episcopal decision as to the field which the minister is to occupy, when made in conformity with the law of the Church, there can be no appeal. This is true in the several Conferences, and applies with equal force to the transfer of preachers from one Conference to another. While in the Presbyterian Church, for instance, a formal call is necessary and the preacher may accept or decline, in our Church the decision of the bishop as to a transfer is final. It is assumed, of course, that in the administration of this authority he will consult the wishes of both the preacher and the people. We presume few transfers are made where the consent of both parties has not first been obtained.

This method makes the transfer of preachers very simple, and encourages the wish to find in some other part of the country a more desirable field than the one the minister occupies. It is particularly so when what is called a suitable opening is not found in the Conference in which he is laboring. This method also has serious drawbacks. Many Conferences are already crowded, and the transfer of additional preachers to the stronger churches, as is generally the case, necessarily presses other brethren into smaller appointments, often greatly to their discomfort. Hence has arisen a demand on the part of ministers for what are called "equivalent transfers," that is, that as many shall be transferred from the Conference as are brought into it, and that the grade of appointments so filled shall be equal. This demand seems fair, and the authorities, we presume, conform to it whenever they can, without doing violence to what they believe to be the necessities of the work. How to adjust this system to all the conditions which confront us is one of the important problems demanding the consideration of the Church.

In the Itinerants' Club, however, we are interested in it as to its bearings on the preachers, especially the junior ministers. The difficulty of a wise solution of the question arises out of our peculiar mode of appointment. It is generally agreed that when a young man enters a Conference he expects to be assigned to a smaller charge, where he may have time to grow, and from which he will graduate into a larger field in due time. It is very rarely that he expects, or receives, a large appointment at the beginning of his ministry. Suppose, however, that a young preacher is assigned at once to a chief appointment. He accepts it, of course, with satisfaction, and probably fulfills its demands to the satisfaction of his people. According to our regulations, at the end of five years he must have a new charge. If he is a man of unusual ability he may go to another charge of the same grade, and then to another. By the time he has filled all the "chief appointments" he is still young. He perhaps recog nizes the necessity of maintaining the position which he has secured. What shall be done? But two courses are open: if he remain in his Conference he may either be reappointed and serve these churches over

again, or he must consent to occupy places of inferior rank. For, while there ought to be no grades in ministerial service, every minister as called of God being fully the equal of every other, in popular opinion the pastorate in large churches is held to be more desirable than in the smaller ones. This condition of things at once forces upon his attention the desirability of securing a transfer to a large church in some other Conference, and in this way maintaining his ministerial standing. The alternative seems to be, "Step down or step out of the Conference;" and often he chooses the latter. Of course, we must not question that the desire for larger usefulness in a new field enters into the consideration.

In such circumstances-and we have cited actual conditions-what shall the minister do? One answer would be that in three cases out of four it would be better in the long run for him to remain in his Conference and take the work assigned him. It is not necessary to serve the most wealthy or the largest churches to have wide influence and usefulness. A study of any Annual Conference will show that many of their strongest and most influential men have never filled its most prominent pulpits. Transfers have come and gone, and scarcely left an impression; but these faithful men have done work which has remained. There is great danger of confounding great popularity with great influence. These may coexist, and they may not. He who stands by the work, in its general and special obligations, in some particular locality has a better opportunity for permanent usefulness than he who is constantly going from place to place. While a Methodist minister cannot remain in one church he can become an influential part of some Conference which is his home.

This position is enforced by the fact that it is common to hear preachers, who have filled the most prominent appointments in our various Conferences, declare that they now propose to settle down and have a Conference home. This is not an argument for lifelong pastorates, nor yet against the acceptance of a responsible position in some other part of the country; but it is an argument against changing chiefly to maintain one's ministerial standing. A reference to the men who have been transferred from time to time will show how devoted they have been to the Church, and probably no conditions will arise which would even suggest the elimination of the transfer system.

There is a point of importance to young preachers growing out of the above considerations. They are often anxious to advance rapidly to the most difficult fields of labor, and in doing so they often hinder their highest usefulness in the coming years. They take upon them responsibilities which can be borne far better with accumulated knowledge and experience. They have no time to grow. They are so pressed that they have only opportunity for those studies which bear upon their immediate work. If they attempt more it involves a strain upon their health which might otherwise have been avoided.

The conditions of our Church life enable a young man to grow in position as well as in ability and experience from year to year. As he advances in age new and higher responsibilities are put upon him; and