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WE will not go back to the Old Testament to find any office or officer in the kingdom of Christ. What currency, then, has the word “pastor” in the New Testament? The word is in the New Testament, in some translations, in one place. That is its entire currency in the new and everlasting covenant. But then the word “Easter” is found in one place in the common version. Is that authority for Easter? If it is in the New Testament in one place, rightfully, it is authority as much as if it were in fifty places. But how does it happen to be there in one place? If the translators had, in that one place, given us passover, as they have done in every other instance to represent the same original, we should have had no Easter in the New Testament. In the same way, if the translators had given us the word shepherds, Eph. iv. 11, as they have done in every other case to represent the same original word, we should have had no pastor in the New Testament. On this one variation from the rule, to translate poimeen, shepherd, hangs the “pastorate,” so called, the office for the pastor, and we might add, all the “installations,” etc. Probably it is Dr. Watts that exclaims, with other matters before him: “Great God! on what a brittle thread hangs eternal things!” On what a slender prop hangs the pastorate! Still, on this platform the pastors stand.

In one place and only one, in some translations, the original word for shepherd, and so translated in every other place in the New Testament, is translated pastors. When the common version appeared, King James issued a proclamation commanding the translation to be read as the word of God. If we obey this command we must read the Latin word pastor as the word of God, though the same translators give us shepherd as the English representative of the original word poimeen in every other occurrence of it in the New Testament. In this way we get divine authority in the word of God, and human authority from King James, not only for the unscriptural pastorate in the Church of England, but the equally unscriptural pastorate now trying to grow up among us, first under one plausible pretext and then under another.

Why translate poimeen, shepherd, in every other place, and cover up the word shepherd with the Latin word pastor in one place? Whatever idea the Lord and the apostles intended to convey in this matter, they deemed the one word sufficient. What reason can any man give for representing the original word poimeen by the word shepherd in every instance but one, and there using the Latin word pastor? Rome loves Latin. It is not the vulgar tongue. What reason is there for departing from the otherwise invariable rule and giving us pastor, Eph. iv. 11? Why not give us “Chief-Pastor,” or “Arch-Pastor,” and not “Chief-Shepherd?” Why not style the Lord “the Pastor of the sheep,” and not “Shepherd of the sheep?” Pastor would not read well as the correlative of sheep. We hear sermons on the offices of our Lord, as King, Priest, Prophet. Why not have a sermon on his office as Pastor? Then we might have a sermon on the office of the church as a flock, or the office of the members as sheep. Could we not say flock’s office, sheep’s office? The Lord has no such office as shepherd, or, in Latin, pastor. There is no such office as pastorate, nor officer as pastor. There is not one word in the New Covenant about the qualifications of a pastor, the election of one, the calling of one, or the installation of one. As the correlative of the word flock, when the church is figuratively called flock, the Lord who cares for the flock and has the oversight of it is figuratively called Shepherd, or, when the followers of the Lord are figuratively called sheep, the Lord is figuratively called “the Shepherd of the sheep.” When the Lord is called “the Chief-Shepherd,” or “Arch-Shepherd,” the church is in view as the flock of which he is Shepherd, and the overseers in the church are under shepherds, but there is no shepherd’s office, nor flock’s office. The bishops or overseers are as certainly bishops or overseers, when figuratively called shepherds, as if literally called overseers. No other office or work is meant.

Coming now to the practical matter, we desire Bible things and Bible names for them. We desire to preserve the church and everything in it as the Lord gave it. We desire, in the matter in hand, to prevent the creation of any new office in the church. There is nothing new or unscriptural in the idea of an overseer who devotes himself wholly to the word and teaching. There may be other overseers who do not give themselves wholly to the word and teaching. Then there is nothing unscriptural in an evangelist remaining with a church one, two or more years, to set in order things that are wanting, assist in qualifying the church to take care of itself, and preach the gospel to the community. In this capacity he is not a church officer at all, but doing the work of an evangelist. He is not with the church to “perform divine service” for it, to lord it over it, or as a ruler, nor permanently, but assisting the church in her infancy and enabling her to take care of herself.

Every preacher connected with any church is laboring in one of these two senses: as an overseer who labors in the word and teaching, or as an evangelist. In the former capacity he may be there permanently. In the latter capacity he is not there permanently, but setting in order the things wanting, with a view to qualifying themselves to every good word and work; to instruct and edify one another in love, but intending to go on to another place as soon as he has finished his work where he is. But the overseer who labors in the word and teaching is not to assume any airs of authority, or any great chair with his subordinates on more humble seats by his side. We abominate all these great chairs, pulpits and preferences for public men. If they are good men they do not want them, and if they are bad men they certainly should not be honored with them. Really great and good men are plain men—want no great chair nor great titles. They need no priestly robes, clerical coats nor titles. They make a record that tells the story for them. They do the work. Let us do the work, seek the simplicity of Jesus and the humility of children. While we sing, “Nearer, my God, to thee,” let us strive to live nearer to God and do our utmost to excel in understanding and practicing precisely what the Lord has laid before us in the Scriptures.