happy
obscuration upon the advance of his later years by frequent intercourse
with more skeptical minds.

One of the chief services rendered the church by Herder was his
persistent attempt to elevate the pastoral office to its original and
proper dignity. He held that the pastor of the church should not be
solely a learned critic but the minister of the common people. In his
day, the pastor was considered the mere instrument of the state, a sort
of theological policeman;--a degradation which Herder could hardly
permit himself to think of without violent indignation. In his _Letters
on the Study of Theology_, published in 1780, and in subsequent smaller
works, he sought to evoke a generation of theologians who, being imbued
with his own ideas of humanity, would betake themselves to the
edification of the humble mind. He would eject scholasticism from the
study of the Bible, and show to his readers that simplicity of inquiry
is the safest way to happy results. He would place the modern pastor,
both in his relations to the cause of humanity and in the respect
awarded him by the world, close beside the patriarch and prophet of
other days. And that man, in his opinion, was not worthy the name of
pastor who could neglect the individual requirements of the soul.
According to Herder, the theologian should be trained from childhood
into the knowledge of the Bible and of practical religion. Youths should
have ever before them the example of pious parents, who were bringing
them up with a profound conviction of the doctrines of divine truth. To
choose theology for a profession from mercenary aims would preclude all
possibility of pastoral usefulness. "Let prayer and reading the Bible be
your morning and evening food," was his advice to a young preacher. Some
of the most eloquent words from his pen were written against the
customary moral preaching which so much afflicted him. "Why don't you
come down from your pulpits," he asks, "for they cannot be of any
advantage to you in preaching such things? What is the use of all these
Gothic churches, altars, and such matters? No, indeed! Religion, true
religion, must return to the exercise of its original functions, or a
preacher will become the most indefinite, idle, and indifferent thing on
earth. Teachers of religion, true servants of God's word, what have you
to do in our century? The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are
few. Pray the Lord of the harvest that he will send out la