CALL, a term often used in reference to various theological and ecclesiastital subjects. —1. The command or invitation to believe in Jesus Christ, is designated the call of God, or the gospel call. Calvinistic theologians make a distinction between a general call and a special or ejlectual call. The former is addressed, they say, to all to whom the word of God comes; but it is insufficient of itself to induce any man to the act of faith, and requires, in order to its efficacy, that it be accompanied by the special and irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit. They are careful, however, to state that the general or out ward calling by the word always precedes and accompanies the special and effectual calling by the Spirit. The notion of an inward call by the Spirit of God in the soul, unconnected with outward calling by the word, belongs not to Calvinistic. but to mys tic theology.-2. A call to office in the church, and particularly to the ministry of the gospel, is regarded by Christians generally as proceeding from God; and the church of England requires of candidates for ordination an express profession that they trust they are so moved of the Holy Ghost.-3. A call by the people who are to be under the pas toral care of a minister has been generally regarded in the Christian church as necessary to the establishment of the pastoral relation. But there have been great differences of
opinion as to what constitutes a sufficient call, and great differences of practice with regard to it. Some of the principal ecclesiastical dissensions in Scotland have had their origin in this question. The election of a pastor by the Christian people of his parish or congregation, has been contended for by many as the true call, or the best kind of it; others, approving of patronage with certain limitations, contended no less earnestly for the right of the people to be consulted, so that without their concurring by a call, the patron's presentee should not be held entitled to be inducted into the pastoral office; and according to the practice of the church of Scotland, this concurrence was always at least formally sought. Questions concerning the call and its proper value, supposed to have been determined by the earl of Aberdeen's act, passed when the disruption of the church of Scotland took place in 1843, were not finally settled until the passing of the act for the abolition of patronage (1874), which gives the right of calling. to the congre gation. See SCOTLAND, CHURCH OF; FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND; andPATRONAGE.