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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
There is an old custom which is to be observed in all proper churches: at the beginning of public worship the Bible is solemnly carried in and laid upon the pulpit—and then the minister follows. This is the right order of precedence; for the minister, as his name indicates, is but the servant, minister verbi divini; and it is fitting that the servant should follow the master. Further, to make his servitude more evident, the minister wears a livery. It is true, he may be a master of his servile craft, he may be called a doctor, and he may take it upon himself to wear the appropriate badges of proficiency. But his position remains essentially that of a servant whose office it is to attend upon his master, to make way for him, to do his behests.
This little bit of familiar ceremony enshrines essential truth, and it may well form the starting-point of our consideration of the scope and function of the ministry of the Word of God.
1 A Gaelic scholar to whom I appealed was unable to confirm this, and it appears that I was misinformed. But the point stands, and the reader can supply some other example.
1 Some of Harnack's observations on the Canon in his History of Dogma are suggestive in this connection. Augustine's oscillation between Scripture and Rule of faith in the treatise de doctrina Christiana, which he points out, arises from the fact that the two things were really identical for Augustine. Harnack finds it very striking (höchst auffallend) that no one at this time enquired how the Canon came to be set up. But is it very striking that a man should not spend much time in, say, the first four months of his marriage in enquiring how he came to marry his wife and whether he might not have chosen another? See Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 2, p. 82f.