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EDITORIAL PREFACE.

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FEW words of preface are required to

explain the relation of these Lectures to Dr. Ker's other work, since his own request-the one act of his life which his friends regretprevents the publication of any memoir or biography.

In the year 1875, among other changes in the Theological Hall, the United Presbyterian Church resolved to institute a professorship, which should not be tied down to any one department of theology, but should attend to the training of students in its more practical aspects, with special regard to preaching and pastoral work. Such a Chair exists under some name in every complete Theological College, although in some churches, as had previously been the case in

the United Presbyterian Church, it is combined with the charge of a departmental subject. The title chosen was the Chair of Practical Training for the Work of the Ministry; and, in 1876, Dr. Ker was elected by the Synod as its first occupant.

For some years he had been laid aside from his Glasgow pastorate, and, although he could not now refuse duties so congenial to him, he declined to be called a "professor," and accepted the appointment on the understanding that he should have such freedom as his health required, in regard to the amount and the duration of his work. Through God's kindness, however, he was enabled, with short interruptions, to discharge the full duties of the Chair for ten years; and when he died on the 4th of October, 1886, he was preparing for the work of another session.

It was left to a large extent in Dr. Ker's own hands to determine the scope and even the subjects of his lectures. He had no precedent to guide him, nor any rule beyond the understanding that his work was to bear directly on the actual duties of the pastorate. While always careful to observe this limit, he so exercised his freedom as to secure constant variety. At one time he lectured upon the Public Worship of the Church, upon Prayer and

Praise and the relation of these to the Sermon. At another time he lectured upon Family Visitation and Family Prayer, upon the Care of the Young, and upon general Pastoral Superintendence. He discussed the different conceptions of the Church of Christ as a Society, contrasting the Roman Catholic and the Protestant conceptions, indicating the faults of each, and showing the bearing of such points upon the minister's relation to the work of his own and other denominations. Again, he reviewed the Principles of the United Presbyterian Church, the Forms of Process, and the business of Sessions and other congregational agencies. He occupied several lectures in showing the bearing of University studies upon the minister's work, and the advantage to which a preacher may turn his reading in general literaIndeed, each year seemed to open out to him some new aspect of his office; he was constantly planning and writing new lectures; so that very few of his lectures were repeated more than twice or thrice.

ture.

It will thus be seen that the Lectures on the History of Preaching represent only a fragment of his work, and that they consider the subject with a distinctly practical aim. The selection of them

from his manuscripts is due to the fact that owing to the nature of the subject they were more closely reduced to writing than the others, and that they deal with a subject of interest to the general Christian public.

Besides lecturing upon such topics as we have mentioned, Dr. Ker occupied alternate lecturehours in instruction of a less formal and more conversational kind. Prescribing texts and topics to the students, he asked them to prepare skeletons of sermons, or sermons, and discussed such exercises in the class. Sometimes he asked them to suggest divisions or plans on the spur of the moment, or after quarter of an hour's reflection; and he carried out a similar method with regard to other ministerial duties. These are the hours which have left the most lasting impress upon his pupils; for while he never failed to show his rare combination of critical acumen with appreciation of the freshness and independence of younger minds, it was then that he gave freest scope to his own genial intellect, and revealed most plainly his unfailing spirituality and elevation of tone. Such work, although it leaves the deepest mark on men, cannot be preserved except in living characters.

With regard to the twenty-one Lectures which

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