Chapter I. Introduction: The Essence and Dignity of the Priesthood

Chapter II. The Priest as a Preacher
By the Ven. Percy C. Webber, Archdeacon of Madison, Diocese of Milwaukee

Chapter III. The Priest and the Prayer Book
By the Editor.

Chapter IV. The Priest As a Teacher (a) The Sunday School and Bible Class
By the Rev. H.P. Nichols, Rector of Holy Trinity Church, New York City.

Chapter V. The Priest As a Teacher: (b) The Confirmation Class
By the Very Rev. Campbell Fair, D.D., Dean of Trinity Cathedral, Omaha, Neb.

Chapter VI. The Priest and the Vestry; or, The Stewardship of Temporalities
By the Rev. Henry Tatlock, Rector of St. Andrew's Church, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Chapter VII. The Priest in the Organized Parish
By the Rev. Wm. Prall, D.D., Ph.D., Rector of St. John's Church, Detroit, Mich.

Chapter VIII. The Priest among the Flock
By the Rev. Charles H. Smith, D.D., Rector of St. James' Church, Buffalo, N.Y.

Chapter IX. The Priest in the Community
By the Rev. John Brewster Hubbs, D.D., D.C.L., Rector of St. Peter's Church, Geneva, N.Y.

Chapter X. The Priest outside His Parish
By the Rev. Clinton Locke, D.D., Chicago, Ill.

Chapter XI. The Successful Priest from a Layman's Standpoint
By Hector Baxter, Esq., Minneapolis, Minn.

Preface

"NOT as though we had already attained, either were already perfect;" far from it. This must be understood as the emphatic disclaimer of both Editor and Contributors who in this book have aspired to discuss certain points which, we trust, will appeal to the reader as self-evidently those which the American Parish Priest at work must take account of in order to be successful in the highest sense of this popular and much abused word. If it should be suggested that any of us are conspicuously far from being successful, we would reply that this is because we have failed to put into practice the points herein discussed. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

In common with every priest, yes, even with every Theological Undergraduate, the Editor is aware of those points which must be heeded and practised by the successful priest, viz., that the latter must be filled with a sense of the Essence and Dignity of the Priestly Office; that he must know how to Preach and Teach effectively; that he must know how to superintend and direct teachers deputed by him; how to use the Prayer Book; how to prepare candidates for Confirmation; how to deal with Parochial Temporalities; how to Organize; how to minister among his flock; how to fulfil his relations and duties to the Community, to the Church at Large, to the Diocese, to his Fellow Priests, and to those who minister and work for Christ in other Religious Bodies.

Very well, then; how should all these things be done by the Parish Priest of the American Church? The several papers contained in this book stand as an attempt at suggesting an answer to this question. The Editor has reserved for himself the task of dealing with those topics which, from a Priest's standpoint, are more or less axiomatic and consequently call for no expert to handle them; namely, the Essence and Dignity of the Priesthood itself, and the Priest's Public Use of the Prayer Book.

That the handling of the remaining topics will prove as helpful and stimulating to the clerical reader as it has proved to the Editor is the latter's confident hope.

EDWARD MACOMB DUFF.

BUFFALO, N. Y., November, 1899.

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