The Ruling Elder, by Samuel Miller, Presbyterian Heritage Publications, P.O. Box 8812, Jackson, MS. 39204. 1987 Reprint, 322 pps. Hard Cover $14.95. Reviewed by William Shishko, pastor, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Franklin Square, N.Y.
Some years ago, The Outlook published the substance of an address given by Mr. Paul M. Ingeneri at the annual meeting of the Reformed Fellowship. The address was entitled, “The Crucial Role of the Eldership in a Church Desiring to Remain Faithful to the Lord” (Outlook, January 1983.) Ingeneri concluded his challenging address by affirming. “We must regain a consciousness of the unique authority of our elder’s office and the proper focus of our officer service.” Samuel Miller’s The Ruling Elder, first published in 1831 and now again made available through the service of Presbyterian Heritage Publications, is an outstanding tool to assist elders in our Reformed and Presbyterian churches that they might do that very thing.
Miller served for some 35 years as professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government in the first generation of Princeton Seminary. He is one of our staunchly Calvinistic Fathers whose name has heretofore been swept under the carpet of “contemporary Christianity.” There is a renewed interest in his works, however, and deservedly so. His address of Christian day school education, delivered nearly a century and a half ago. advances the same warnings about public education, and directives on truly Christian education which now dress the pages of popular evangelical publications. The volume now under review is so remarkably applicable to the present situation in our churches that Miller could easily have composed it in our decade.
“Faithful discipline . . . ought to be regarded as one of the most precious means of grace, by which offenders are humbled, softened. and brought to repentance; the Church purged of unworthy members; offences removed; the honor of Christ promoted; real Christians stimulated and improved in their spiritual course; faithful testimony borne against error and crime; the professing family of Christ made to appear holy and beautiful in the view of the world” (p. 174). Miller sees such discipline as essential, lays out the historical and theological warrant for such discipline as administered by a class of officers distinct from the Teaching Elder, and defines the qualifications for such overseers as well as their particular role in the life of the congregation and beyond. Can any Reformation–minded Minister or Ruling Elder doubt that such a volume is a welcome contribution in our day of ecclesiastical egalitarianism and congregational anarchy?
While Miller’s perspective is essentially that of early American Presbyterianism (although he unhesitatingly departs from the traditions of his day when convinced those traditions are not representative of historic Christian practice), he is well aware of other schools of thought, especially the Scottish and Continental. In the pages of this volume one may become acquainted with the distinct practices of the Reformed Churches of France and the Netherlands. and also with the strong views of Eldership as presented by Calvin (pp. 128–130). Ursinus (p. 137f.) and Zanchius (p. 137f) among others.
Neither is Miller oblivious to those questions which seem to possess our attention in the 1980’s. There is no equivocation here when declaring that “only male members” of a congregation are eligible to serve in the office of Elder or Deacon (pps. 260, 273f.). His presentation comes. interestingly enough, against a backdrop in which there were at least some arguments for female elders, though only advanced among the more mystical and clearly aberrant sects still regarding themselves as Christian.
Especially as Presbyterian and Reformed (and many Baptist) lovers of historic Calvin ism become more familiar with our “roots,” we must regard this reprint as a worthy contribution in the field of truly Biblical church government. May our Consistories and Sessions profit from these pages of pastoral wisdom still needed in our day which cries for reformation . . . reformation which must begin with the under-shepherds of Christ’s Church.
