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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 16, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 51, No. 20.

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Clerical Titles.

[The following excellent thoughts on “Clerical Titles” are furnished for the Review by a Baptist minister.—Ed.]
He who appointed the gospel ministry did not distinguish it by such titles as are now applied to it. The word of God says nothing of Reverend, Most Reverend, Right-Reverend, Archbishop, D. D., LL. D., A. M., M. D., etc., in connection with ministers’ names. If the Bible is authority on this point, such titles are out of place when applied to the ministry. They may show that persons bearing them have been placed in high offices by their friends, or that they have mastered certain branches of learning; but they are not a criterion of their ability or success in converting people to the Lord. The ministry is not a philosophical institution, it is spiritual in its character and work. It may be well to affix these titles to secular teachers, as an index of their intellectual attainments; but one’s ability as a preacher is determined by the amount of spiritual labor he performs for the Lord.
We would not be understood as speaking depreciatingly of learning in the ministry; far from it! Let the minister study the various branches of learning; let his mind be disciplined, and its faculties developed; and if such studies have increased his ability, people will know it without having a title added to his name. These titles often signify more than is intended; for example, we see a name in print, thus: Rev. Mr. A——, M. D. This implies that the person is engaged in two different professions, and we do not know in which he is most interested. It shows that he is not doing as Paul recommended in 1 Tim. 4:15,—“Give thyself wholly” to the things of the ministry. The Bible term “Elder” is sufficient to distinguish the clergy from the laity; and ministers should be satisfied with it. The time is at hand when preachers should be preachers, and not every thing else; and when they should also be known by their practical labors, and not by the official drapery overshadowing their names. W. S. BARBER.