{"product_id":"2940013158047","title":"Pastor Pastorum or The Schooling of the Apostles By Our Lord","description":"INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this opening chapter I propose to lay before the reader the leading\u003cbr\u003eideas which will be developed in the book. This will necessitate some\u003cbr\u003erepetition, but many readers want to know at starting whither the author\u003cbr\u003eis going to take them, and whether his notions are such that they will\u003cbr\u003ecare for his company.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the course of lecturing on the Gospels, being myself interested in\u003cbr\u003equestions of education, my attention turned to the way in which our Lord\u003cbr\u003etaught His disciples. Following the Gospel History with this view, I\u003cbr\u003erecognised in the train of circumstances through which Christ led the\u003cbr\u003edisciples, no less than in what He said to them, an assiduous care in\u003cbr\u003etraining them to acquire certain qualities and habits of mind. I observed\u003cbr\u003ealso method and uniformity both in what He did and in what He refrained\u003cbr\u003efrom doing. Certain principles seem to govern His actions and to be\u003cbr\u003eobserved regularly so far as we can see, but we have no ground for stating\u003cbr\u003ethat our Lord came to resolutions on these points and bound Himself to\u003cbr\u003eobserve them. A man sometimes sees his duty so clearly at one moment that\u003cbr\u003ehe wishes to make the decision of that moment dominant over his life and\u003cbr\u003ehe embodies it in a resolve, but we must suppose that Christ at each\u003cbr\u003emoment did what was best. So that what I call a Law of His conduct is only\u003cbr\u003ea generalization from His biography, and means no more than that, in such\u003cbr\u003eand such circumstances He usually acted in such and such ways. I can\u003cbr\u003eeasily conceive that He might have swerved from these Laws had there been\u003cbr\u003eoccasion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have fancied that I got glimpses of the processes by means of which the\u003cbr\u003eApostles of the Gospels—striving among themselves who should be greatest,\u003cbr\u003elooking for the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, and dismayed at the\u003cbr\u003eapprehension of their Master—were trained to become the Apostles of the\u003cbr\u003eActs,—testifying boldly before rulers and councils, giving the right hand\u003cbr\u003eof fellowship to one who had not companied with them, and breaking through\u003cbr\u003eJewish prejudices, to own that there were no men made by God who were\u003cbr\u003ecommon or unclean. The shape which much of the outward course of Christ’s\u003cbr\u003elife took, His choice of Galilee as a scene of action, His withdrawal from\u003cbr\u003ecrowds and His wanderings in secluded regions were admirably adapted to\u003cbr\u003ethe educating of the Apostles; while His sending them, two and two,\u003cbr\u003ethrough the cities was a direct lesson in that self-reliance which reposes\u003cbr\u003eon a trust in God. Were not these courses ordered to these ends? The\u003cbr\u003etraining was wonderfully fitted to bring about the changes which occurred.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat this fashioning of the disciples should have been a very principal\u003cbr\u003eobject with our Lord is easy to conceive. For what, except His followers,\u003cbr\u003edid He leave behind as the visible outcome of His work? He had founded no\u003cbr\u003einstitution and had left no writings as a possession for after time. The\u003cbr\u003eApostles were the salt to season and preserve the world, and if they had\u003cbr\u003enot savour whence could help be sought? Is it not then likely that the\u003cbr\u003ebest means would be employed for choosing and shaping instruments for the\u003cbr\u003ework; and can we do better than mark the Divine wisdom so engaged?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn many sides the work of Christ stretches away into infinity. God’s\u003cbr\u003epurpose in having created the world, and put free intelligences into it,\u003cbr\u003eas well as the changes which Christ’s death may have wrought in the\u003cbr\u003erelation of men’s souls to God, belong to that infinite side of things,\u003cbr\u003ewhich we cannot explore. But we _can_ follow the treatment by which Christ\u003cbr\u003emoulded the disciples, because the changes are not wrought in them by a\u003cbr\u003emagical transformation, but come about gradually as the result of what\u003cbr\u003ethey saw and heard and did.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChanges are brought about in the disciples by an education, superhuman\u003cbr\u003eindeed in its wisdom, superhuman in its insight into the habits of mind\u003cbr\u003ewhich were wanted, and into the modes by which such habits might be\u003cbr\u003efostered, but not superhuman in the means employed. We can analyse the\u003cbr\u003einfluences which are brought to bear, judge what they were likely to\u003cbr\u003eeffect, and estimate fairly well what they did effect, because they were\u003cbr\u003ethe same in kind as we now find working in the world. Christ’s ways,\u003cbr\u003etherefore, in this province of His work fall within the range of our\u003cbr\u003eunderstanding. The learners are taught less by what they are told than by\u003cbr\u003ewhat they see and do. They are trained not only by listening, but by\u003cbr\u003efollowing and—what was above all—by being suffered, as in the mission to\u003cbr\u003ethe cities of Israel, to take part in their Master’s work.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147464753392,"sku":"2940013158047","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013158047_p0.jpg?v=1763577590","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013158047","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}