Our Sins at the Seminary (Part IV)

(taken from two letters from John Angell James to his brother Thomas
James—on beginning his studies for the Christian ministry, circa 1811-1812)


"What I intend at present is, not to prove the self-evident truth—that to teach religion we must first know it ourselves—but to insist on the infinite importance of endeavoring to maintain the vigor and life of godliness, in the midst of academic pursuits.

Whatever be the cause of such a circumstance, it is a fact which innumerable instances will verify—that many candidates for the ministerial office lose in personal piety while at a seminary, more than they gain in mental improvement. What I have seen and heard and felt on this subject, induces on your behalf, my dear brother, a degree of trembling solicitude in my mind, which only the Searcher of hearts can estimate. What I design, therefore, in this letter is,

First, To state the vast importance of your vigilant endeavors to maintain a spiritual and holy frame of mind, during the pursuit of your preparatory studies. To see this in its true light, and feel it in its full force, consider,

1. That except you cultivate such a disposition while a student, you are not likely to excel in it as a minister. I have no need to show you how necessary it is that a Christian teacher should be a spiritually-minded Christian. Much more than knowledge is surely requisite for one whose business it is to proclaim incessantly, "though we have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not love, we are nothing." Talents may make us shine—but piety alone can make us glow. Without the unction which spirituality of mind alone can impart, our most elaborate sermons will be like the cold beams of a wintry moon, falling upon the icy bosom of the frozen lake. If, then, such a frame of mind be of any significance to you in future, the importance of cultivating it now, exceeds all expression. Such as you are in the academy now—such you will be hereafter found within the circle of pastoral engagements. I speak now not only from the dictates of abstract reasoning—but also from observation and experience. In looking round upon those who were the companions of my studies, I observe that they are the most spiritual ministers—who were the most devotional students.

2. Without eminent spirituality of mind, your studies will be in great danger of acquiring a wrong bias. This is the only channel through which your mind will or can voluntarily propel the stream of its own vigor, to the ocean of Jehovah's glory. Without this frame of heart—it is impossible either to understand the nature, perceive the design, or feel the importance of your present engagements. The object I endeavored to hold up to your view in my last letter, can be distinctly seen through no other medium than a spiritual mind. In the absence of this, you will sink into a mere self-seeking orator; or into a dull, uninteresting, philosophic lecturer; or, what is still worse, into a teacher of damnable heresies.

Perhaps it would be the first of these, for when the fervor of religion is gone from the soul, what other object can you propose to yourself in your preparatory studies, but as a qualification to enable you to become a successful candidate for popular applause? That zeal for the Divine glory, and compassion for immortal spirits—which should be the very soul of every minister's exertions—are the offspring of glowing piety, and must cease with the cause that produced them. The power of God and the spiritual welfare of man will be present to the eye, and objects of pursuit—only so long as they are present with the heart as subjects of experience. Lose from the mind the spirituality which it ought to possess, and which, I hope, yours does possess—and that moment your study is converted into the temple of a false deity. Self becomes the idol—vanity the priest—and all the attainments which your vigilance enables you to make, become so many sacrifices and acts of self-worship; while piety, like Jeremiah anticipating the desolation of the Jewish temple—stands weeping at a distance, exclaiming, "How is the gold changed—the fine gold become dim!"

Perhaps you would sink, without spirituality, into a cold, dull, uninteresting stiffness. Whatever attainments you might make, if during the process of acquiring them, devotion should evaporate—they will remain behind a mere useless sediment. Science and literature, to be useful to a minister of Jesus Christ, must be held in solution by eminent piety. Without this they will be very likely to lead us beyond dullness, and conduct us to the regions where the most pernicious errors dwell. This brings me to the third probable result of a decay of spiritual religion in a theological student, that is, an apostasy from scriptural truth. You will soon learn, my dear brother, if you have not already discovered, that during the revolution excited in the human mind by the influence of sin, its faculties were displaced; and the will and the affections, formerly the servants of the understanding, became to a very considerable extent its governors. Hence, many of the intellectual errors of mankind have resulted from the depraved state of their hearts. In ten thousand instances, a lukewarm state of the affections, has been the cause of the most pernicious errors of the judgment! The truth of God is given to us as the instrument of holiness, and when we become indifferent to the end, it is no matter of surprise that we become regardless about the means. Biblical truth is the food of spiritual religion, which, when the appetite is lost—is first disrelished, and then loathed. Were it possible for us to trace the history of their apostasy, we would certainly find that of those who have wandered into the darkest religious errors—by far the greater part commenced their dreadful career from a lukewarm heart!

3. Spirituality of mind would be likely to ensure the blessing of God upon your studies, by urging you to constant and earnest prayer. Let it be remembered that intellectual as well as moral improvement, is dependent on Divine assistance. God is the creator, the preserver, and the benefactor of the human faculties. It is in Him they live, and move, and have their being. It is God alone who can expand the judgment, invigorate the imagination, strengthen the memory, sharpen the penetration. One very considerable cause that produced the vast superiority of mind in the early Nonconformist divines above their successors, was the vast proficiency they made in personal religion.

These ideas, and many others which your own judgment will readily suggest, will tend to unfold and enforce the importance of eminent piety, to a candidate for ministerial employment."