Last Noble Lecture.

Dr. Fremantle gave the last of the William Belden Noble lectures yesterday evening on the subject "Pastoral Work." He said in part:

It would be a great boon if a Pastoral History of the Church could be written. It would exhibit the Church in its most attractive and beneficent light, engaged in doing good instead of being a scene of conflict. Chaucer's description of the Parish Priest, supposed to be modelled on Wycliffe, may be taken as a kind of type of the Pastor.

In some form or other the Pastorate is a necessity. But no special form of "the Ministry" has the authority of Christ or of Scripture. Each of the earliest ministries, apostles, prophets, teachers, bishops, priests, and deacons, have either been superceded or undergone many changes. "Presbyter," seems originally to have been a general name for those in authority, as it was among the Jews. The Episcopal principle, that of one man as the head and director, is recognized everywhere and is a necessary part of social life; the Diaconate as an office designed for the care of the poor, is also necessary. But we have a right to extend our idea of these functions, so as to embrace rulers, judges, administrators, the officials charged with the welfare of the poor. They are all doing the work of Christ's church.

This does not imply that the Pastorate as it now exists in all the bodies of Christian worship is unnecessary but merely that we have full right to adapt it to modern needs.

A pastor should not act alone, but, as much as possible, with the consent of those associated with him. Lay opinion is needed to modify clerical action. In dealing with individual souls, he must always impress the truth that to be a Christian is to join in working for God and for men. He should be the president of a body of associated workers, whom he trains and trusts. He should, with his associates, endeavor to instil the Christian spirit into every social organism, such especially as the family and the press, not trying to dominate but to inspire them. He should look upon all who are working for the good of the community as being, like himself, ministers of Christ. He should be the friend of all, and bind together in Christian service, first, his own people, and then, as far as possible, all other Christian bodies, and all who have influence amongst their fellow men, in unselfish action, which may reach wider and wider circles in the nation and the world.

Dean Fremantle will leave Cambridge for New York this morning and will sail for England at noon tomorrow on the "Germanic"