|
I
IMPORTANCE OF A LIVING
MINISTRY
"How much more would a few good and fervent
men effect in the ministry than a multitude of
lukewarm ones!" said Oecolampadius, the Swiss
Reformer -- a man who had been taught by
experience, and who has recorded that experience
for the benefit of other churches and other days.
The mere multiplying of men calling themselves
ministers of Christ will avail little. They may
be but "cumberers of the ground." They may be
like Achan, troubling the camp; or perhaps Jonah,
raising the tempest. Even when sound in the
faith, through unbelief, Luke warmness and
slothful formality, they may do irreparable
injury to the cause of Christ, freezing and
withering up all spiritual life around them. The
lukewarm ministry of one who is theoretically
orthodox is often more extensively and fatally
ruinous to souls than that of one grossly
inconsistent or flagrantly heretical. "What man
on earth is so pernicious a drone as an idle
minister?" said Cecil. And Fletcher remarked well
that "lukewarm pastors made careless Christians."
Can the multiplication of such ministers, to
whatever amount, be counted a blessing to a
people?
When the church of Christ, in all her
denominations, returns to primitive example, and
walking in apostolical footsteps seeks to be
conformed more closely to inspired models,
allowing nothing that pertains to earth to come
between her and her living Head, then will she
give more careful heed to see that the men to
whom she intrusts the care of souls, however
learned and able, should be yet more
distinguished by their spirituality, zeal, faith
and love.
In comparing Baxter and Orton, the biographer
of the former remarks that "Baxter would have set
the world on fire while Orton was lighting a
match." How true! Yet not true alone of Baxter or
of Orton. These two individuals are
representatives of two classes in the church of
Christ in every age and of every denomination.
The latter class are far the more numerous: the
Ortons you may count by hundreds, the Baxters by
tens; yet who would not prefer a solitary
specimen of the one to a thousand of the other?
Baxter's Burning Sincerity
"When he spoke of weighty soul concerns," says
one of his contemporaries of Baxter, "you might
find his very spirit drenched therein." No wonder
that he was blessed with such amazing success!
Men felt that in listening to him they were in
contact with one who was dealing with realities
of infinite moment.
This is one of the secrets of ministerial
strength and ministerial success And who can say
how much of the overflowing infidelity of the
present day is owing not only to the lack of
spiritual instructors-not merely to the existence
of grossly unfaithful and inconsistent ones-but
to the coldness of many who are reputed sound and
faithful. Men can not but feel that if religion
is worth anything., it is worth everything; that
if it calls for any measure of zeal and warmth,
it will justify the utmost degrees of these; and
that there is no consistent medium between
reckless atheism and the intensest warmth of
religious zeal. Men may dislike, detest, scoff
at, persecute the latter, yet their consciences
are all the while silently reminding them that if
there be a God and a Saviour, a heaven and a
hell, anything short of such life and love is
hypocrisy, dishonesty, perjury!
And thus the lesson they learn from the
lifeless discourses of the class we are alluding
to is, that since these men do not believe the
doctrines they are preaching there is no need of
their hearers believing them; if ministers only
believe them because they make their living by
them, why should those who make nothing by them
scruple about denying them?
"Rash preaching," said Rowland Hill,
"disgusts; timid preaching leaves poor souls fast
asleep; hold preaching is the only preaching that
is owned of God."
It is not merely unsoundness in faith, nor
negligence in duty, nor open inconsistency of
life that mars the ministerial work and ruins
souls. A man may be free from all scandal either
in creed or conduct, and yet may be a most
grievous obstruction in the way of all spiritual
good to his people. He may be a dry and empty
cistern, notwithstanding his orthodoxy. He may be
freezing or blasting life at the very time he is
speaking of the way of life. He may be repelling
men from the cross even when he is in words
proclaiming it. He may be standing between his
flock and the blessing even when he is, in
outward form, lifting up his hand to bless them.
The same words that from warm lips would drop as
the rain, or distill as the dew, fall from his
lips as the snow or hail, chilling all spiritual
warmth and blighting all spiritual life. How many
souls have been lost for want of earnestness,
want of solemnity, want of love in the preacher,
even when the words uttered were precious and
true
Our One Object: to Win Souls
We take for granted that the object of the
Christian ministry is to convert sinners and to
edify the body of Christ. No faithful minister
can possibly rest short of this. Applause, fame,
popularity, honor, wealth-all these are vain. If
souls are not won, if saints are not matured, our
ministry itself is vain.
The question, therefore, which each of us has
to answer to his own conscience is, "Has it been
the end of my ministry, has it been the desire of
my heart to save the lost and guide the saved? Is
this my aim in every sermon I preach, in every
visit I pay? Is it under the influence of this
feeling that I continually live and walk and
speak? Is it for this I pray and toil and fast
and weep? Is it for this I spend and am spent,
counting it, next to the salvation of my own
soul, my chiefest joy to be the instrument of
saving others? Is it for this that I exist? To
accomplish this would I gladly die? Have I seen
the pleasure of the Lord prospering in my hand?
Have I seen souls converted under my ministry?
Have God's people found refreshment from my lips,
and gone upon their way rejoicing, or have I seen
no fruit of my labors, and yet content to remain
unblest? Am I satisfied to preach, and yet not
know of one saving impression made, one sinner
awakened ?''
Nothing short of positive success can satisfy
a true minister of Christ. His plans may proceed
smoothly and his external machinery may work
steadily, but without actual fruit in the saving
of souls he counts all these as nothing. His
feeling is: "My little children, of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you" (Galatians 4:19). And it is this feeling
which makes him successful..
"Ministers," said Owen, "are seldom honored
with success unless they are continually aiming
at the conversion of sinners." The resolution
that in the strength and with the blessing of God
he will never rest without success, will insure
it. It is the man who has made up his mind to
confront every difficulty, who has counted the
cost and, fixing his eye upon the prize, has
determined to fight his way to it -- it is such a
man that conquers.
The dull apathy of other days is gone. Satan
has taken the field actively, and it is best to
meet him front to front. Besides, men's
consciences are really on edge. God seems
extensively striving with them, as before the
flood. A breath of the Divine Spirit has passed
over the earth, and hence the momentous character
of the time, as well as the necessity for
improving it so long as it lasts.
The one true goal or resting-place where doubt
and weariness, the stings of a pricking
conscience, and the longings of an unsatisfied
soul would all be quieted, is Christ himself. Not
the church, but Christ. Not doctrine, but Christ.
Not forms, but Christ. Not ceremonies, but
Christ; Christ the God-man, giving His life for
ours; sealing the everlasting covenant, and
making peace for us through the blood of His
cross; Christ the divine storehouse of all light
and truth, "In whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3); Christ
the infinite vessel, filled with the Holy Spirit,
the Enlightener, the Teacher, the Quickener, the
Comforter, so that ~'of his fulness have all we
received, and grace for grace" (John 1: 16).
This, this alone is the vexed soul's refuge, its
rock to build on, its home to. abide in till the
great tempter be hound and every conflict ended
in victory.
Meet "Opinion" With the Truth
Let us, then, meet this "earnestness" which is
now the boast, but may ere long be the bane, of
the age, with that which alone can bring down its
feverish pulse, and soothe it into blessed calm,
the gospel of the grace of God. All other things
are hut opiates, drugs, quackeries; this is the
divine medicine; this is the sole, the speedy,
the eternal cure. It is not by "opinion" that we
are to meet "opinion ; it is the Truth of God
that we are to wield; and applying the edge of
the "sword of the Spirit" to the theories of man
(which he proudly calls his "opinions"), make him
feel what a web of sophistry and folly he has
been weaving for his own entanglement and ruin.
It is not opinions that man needs: it is
Truth. It is not theology: it is God. It is not
religion: it is Christ. It is not literature and
science; but the knowledge of the free love of
God in the gift of His only-begotten Son.
"I know not," says Richard Baxter, "what
others think, but for my own part I am ashamed of
my stupidity, and wonder at myself that I deal
not with my own and others' souls as one that
looks for the great day of the Lord; and that I
can have room for almost any other thoughts and
words; and that such astonishing matters do not
wholly absorb my mind. I marvel how I can preach
of them slightly and coldly; and how I can let
men alone in their sins; and that I do not go to
them, and beseech them, for the Lord's sake, to
repent, however they may take it, and whatever
pain and trouble it should cost me.
"I seldom come out of the pulpit but my
conscience smiteth me that I have been no more
serious and fervent. It accuseth me not so much
for want of ornaments and elegancy, nor for
letting fall an unhandsome word; but it asketh
me, 'How couldst thou speak of life and death
with such a heart? How couldst thou preach of
heaven and hell in such a careless, sleepy
manner? Dost thou believe what thou sayest? Art
thou in earnest, or in jest? How canst thou tell
people that sin is such a thing, and that so much
misery is upon them and before them, and be no
more affected with it? Shouldst thou not weep
over such a people, and should not thy tears
interrupt thy words? Shouldst thou not cry aloud,
and show them their transgressions; and entreat
and beseech them as for life and death?'
"Truly this is the peal that conscience doth
ring in my ears, and yet my drowsy soul will not
be awakened. Oh, what a thing is an insensible,
hardened heart O Lord, save us from the plague of
infidelity and hardheartedness ourselves, or else
how shall we be fit instruments of saving others
from it? Oh, do that on our souls which thou
wouldst use us to do on the souls of others!"
II
THE MINISTER'S
TRUE LIFE AND WALK
The true minister must be a true Christian. He
must be called by God before he can call others
to God. The Apostle Paul thus states the matter:
"God . . hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18). They were
first reconciled, and then they had given to them
the ministry of reconciliation. Are we ministers
reconciled? It is but reasonable that a man who
is to act as a spiritual guide to others should
himself know the way of salvation. It has been
frequently said that "the way to heaven is
blocked up with dead professors"; but is it not
true also that the melancholy obstruction is not
composed of members of churches only? Let us take
heed unto ourselves!
As the minister's life is in more than one
respect the life of a ministry, let us speak a
few words on ministerial holy living.
Let us seek the Lord early. "If my heart be
early seasoned with his presence, it will savof
of him all day after." Let us see God before man
every day. "I ought to pray before seeing any
one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others
early, and then have family prayer and breakfast
and forenoon callers, it is eleven or twelve
o'clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a
wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ rose
before day, and went into a solitary place. . .
Family prayer loses much of power and sweetness,
and I can do no good to those who come to seek
for me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul
unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then, when secret
prayer comes, the soul is often out of tune. I
feel it far better to begin with God, to see His
face first, to get my soul near Him before it is
near another.
. . . It is best to have at least one hour
alone with God before engaging in anything else.
At the same time, I must be careful not to reckon
communion with God by minutes or hours, or by
solitude." (McCheyne.)
Hear this true servant of Christ exhorting a
beloved brother:
"Take heed to thyself. Your own soul is your
first and greatest care. You know a sound body
alone can work with power, much more a healthy
soul. Keep a clear conscience through the blood
of the Lamb. Keep up close communion with God.
Study likeness to Him in all things. Read the
Bible for your own growth first, then for your
people."
"With him," says his biographer, "the
commencement of all labor invariably consisted in
the preparation of his own soul. The forerunner
of each day's visitations was a calm season of
private devotion during morning hours. The walls
of his chamber were witnesses of his
prayerfulness -- I believe of his tears as well
as of his cries. The pleasant sound of psalms
often issued from his room at an early hour; then
followed the reading of the Word for his own
sanctification: and few have so fully realized
the blessing of the first psalm." Would that it
were so with us all! "Devotion," said Bishop
Hall, "is the life of religion, the very soul of
piety, the highest employment of grace. It is
much to be feared that "we are weak in the pulpit
because we are weak in the closet."
"Walking With God"
"To restore a commonplace truth," writes Mr.
Coleridge, 'to its first uncommon luster, you
need only translate it into action." Walking with
God is a very commonplace truth. Translate this
truth into action -- how lustrous it becomes! The
phrase, how hackneyed ! -- the thing, how rare!
It is such a walk -- not an abstract ideal, but a
personality, a life which the reader is invited
to contemplate. Oh, that we would only set
ourselves in right earnest to this rare work of
translation!
It is said of the energetic, pious and
successful John Berridge that "communion with God
was what he enforced in the latter stages of his
ministry. It was, indeed, his own meat and drink,
and the banquet from which he never appeared to
rise." This shows us the source of his great
strength. If we were always sitting at this
banquet, then it might be recorded of us ere
long, as of him, He was in the first year visited
by about a thousand persons under serious
impressions."
Study the Speakers, Not the Sermons
To the men even more than to their doctrine we
would point the eye of the inquirer who asks,
Whence came their success? Why, may not the same
success be ours? We may take the sermons of
Whitefield or Berridge or Edwards for our study
or our pattern, but it is the individuals
themselves that we must mainly set before us; it
is with the spirit of the men, more than of their
works, that we are to be imbued, if we are
emulous of a ministry as powerful, as victorious
as theirs. They were spiritual men, and walked
with God. It is living fellowship with a living
Saviour which, transforming us into His image,
fits us for being able and successful ministers
of the gospel.
Without this nothing else will avail. Neither
orthodoxy, nor learning, nor eloquence, nor power
of argument, nor zeal, nor fervor, will
accomplish aught without this. It is this that
gives power to our words and persuasiveness to
our arguments, making them either as the balm of
Gilead to the wounded spirit or as sharp arrows
of the mighty to the conscience of the
stout-hearted rebel. From them that walk with Him
in holy, happy intercourse, a virtue seems to go
forth, a blessed fragrance seems to compass them
whithersoever they go. Nearness to Him, intimacy
with Him, assimilation to His character -- these
are the elements of a ministry of power.
When we can tell our people, "We beheld His
glory, and therefore we speak of it; it is not
from report we speak, but we have seen the King
in His beauty" -- how lofty the position we
occupy! Our power in drawing men to Christ
springs chiefly from the fulness of our personal
joy in Him, and the nearness of our personal
communion with Him. The countenance that reflects
most of Christ, and shines most with His love and
grace, is most fitted to attract the gaze of a
careless, giddy world, and win restless souls
from the fascinations of creature-love and
creature-beauty. A ministry of power must be the
fruit of a holy, peaceful, loving intimacy with
the Lord.
Faithfulness Essential to Success
"The law of truth was in his mouth, and
iniquity was nol found in his lips: he walked
with me in peace and equity, and did turn many
away from iniquity" (Malachi 2:6). Let us observe
the connection here declared to subsist between
faithfulness and success in the work of the
ministry; between a godly life and the "turning
away many from iniquity." The end for which we
first took office, as we declared at ordination,
was the saving of souls; the end for which we
still live and labor is the same; the means to
this end are a holy life and a faithful
fulfillment of our ministry.
The connection between these two things is
close and sure. We are entitled to calculate upon
it. We are called upon to pray and labor with the
confident expectation of its being realized; and
where it is not, to examine ourselves with all
diligence, lest the cause of the failure be found
in ourselves; in our want of faith, love, prayer,
zeal and warmth, spirituality and holiness of
life; for it is by these that the Holy Spirit is
grieved away. Success is attainable; success is
desirable; success is promised by God; and
nothing on earth can be more bitter to the soul
of a faithful minister than the want of it. To
walk with God, and to be faithful to our trust,
is declared to be the certain way of attaining
it. Oh, how much depends on the holiness of our
life, the consistency of our character, the
heavenliness of our walk and conversation!
Our position is such that we cannot remain
neutral. Our life cannot be one of harmless
obscurity. We must either repel or attract-save
or ruin souls! How loud, then, the call, how
strong the motive, to spirituality of soul and
circumspectness of life! How solemn the warning
against worldly-mindedness and vanity, against
levity and frivolity, against negligence, sloth
and cold formality!
Of all men, a minister of Christ is especially
called to walk with God. Everything depends on
this; his own peace and joy, his own -future
reward at the coming of the Lord. But especially
does God point to this as the true and sure way
of securing the blessing. This is the grand
secret of ministerial success. One who walks with
God reflects the light of His countenance upon a
benighted world; and the closer he walks, the
more of this light does he reflect. One who walks
with God carries in his very air and countenance
a sweet serenity and holy joy that diffuses
tranquility around. One who walks with God
receives and imparts life whithersoever he goes;
as it is written, out of him "shall flow rivers
of living water" (John 7:38). He is not merely
the world's light but the world's fountain,
dispensing the water of life on every side and
making the barren waste to blossom as the rose.
He waters the world's wilderness as he moves
along his peaceful course. His life is blessed;
his example is blessed; his intercourse is
blessed; his words are blessed; his ministry is
blessed! Souls are saved, sinners are converted,
and many are turned from their iniquity.
III
PAST
DEFECTS
"0 my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up
my face to thee, my God . . . 0 our God, what
shall we say after this?"- EZRA 9:6,10.
To deliver sermons on each returning Lord's Day,
to administer the Lord's Supper statedly, to pay
an occasional visit to those who request it, to
attend religious meetings -- this, we fear, sums
up the ministerial life of multitudes who are, by
profession, overseers of the flock of Christ. An
incumbency of thirty, forty or fifty years often
yields no more than this. So many sermons, so
many baptisms, so many sacraments, so many
visits, so many meetings of various kinds-these
are all the pastoral annals, the parish records,
the ALL of a lifetime's ministry to many! Of
souls that have been saved, such a record could
make no mention.
Mulitudes have perished under such a ministry;
the judgment only will disclose whether so much
as one has been saved. There might be learning,
but there was no tongue of the learned to speak a
word in season to him that is weary." There might
be wisdom, but it certainly was not the wisdom
that "winneth souls." There might even be the
sound of the gospel, but it seemed to contain no
glad tidings at all; it was not sounded forth
from warm lips into startled ears as the message
of eternal life -- "the glorious gospel of the
blessed God." Men lived, and it was never asked
of them by their minister whether they were born
again! Men sickened, sent for the minister and
received a prayer upon their death-beds as their
passport into heaven. Men died, and were buried
where all their fathers had been laid; there was
a prayer at their funeral and decent respects to
their remains; but their souls went up to the
judgment seat unthought of, uncared for; no man,
not even the minister who had vowed to watch for
them, having said to them, Are you ready ? -- or
warned them to flee from the wrath to come.
Is not this description too true of many a
district and many a minister? We do not speak in
anger; we do not speak in scorn: we ask the
question solemnly and earnestly. It needs an
answer. If ever there was a time when there
should be "great searching of heart" and frank
acknowledgment of unfaithfulness, it is now when
God is visiting us -- visiting us both in
judgment and mercy. We speak in brotherly
kindness; surely the answer should not be of
wrath and bitterness. And if this description be
true, what sin must there be in ministers and
people! How great must be the spiritual
desolation that prevails'! Surely there is
something in such a case grievously wrong;
something which calls for solemn self-examination
in every minister; something which requires deep
repentance.
The Tragedy of a Barren Ministry
Fields plowed and sown, yet yielding no fruit!
Machinery constantly in motion, yet all without
one particle of produce! Nets cast into the sea,
and spread wide, yet no fishes inclosed! All this
for years -- for a lifetime! How strange! Yet it
is true. There is neither fancy nor exaggeration
in the matter. Question some ministers, and what
other account can they give? They can tell you of
sermons preached, but of sermons blessed they can
say nothing. They can speak of discourses that
were admired and praised, but of discourses that
have been made effectual by the Holy Spirit they
can not speak. They can tell you how many have
been baptized, how many communicants admitted;
but of souls awakened, converted, ripening in
grace, they can give no account. They can
enumerate the sacraments they have dispensed; but
as to whether any of them have been "times of
refreshing" or times of awakening, they can not
say. They can tell you what and how many cases of
discipline have passed through their hands; but
whether any of these have issued in godly sorrow
for sin, whether the professed penitents who were
absolved by them gave evidence of being "washed
and sanctified and justified," they can give no
information; they never thought of such an issue!
They can tell what is the attendance at Sunday
school, and what are the abilities of the
teacher; but how many of these precious little
ones whom they have vowed to feed are seeking the
Lord they know not; or whether their teacher be a
man of prayer and piety they can not say. They
can tell you the population of their parish, the
number of their congregation, or the temporal
condition of their flocks; but as to their
spiritual state, how many have been awakened from
the sleep of death, how many are followers of God
as dear children, they can not pretend to say.
Perhaps they would deem it rashness and
presumption, if not fanaticism, to inquire. And
yet they have sworn, before men and angels, to
watch for their souls as they that must give
account! But oh, of what use are sermons,
sacraments, schools, if souls are left to perish;
if living religion be lost sight of; if the Holy
Spirit be not sought; if men are left to grow up
and die unpitied, unprayed for, unwarned!
For God's Glory and Man's Good
It was not so in other days. Our fathers
really watched and preached for souls. They asked
and they expected a blessing. Nor were they
denied it. They were blessed in turning many to
righteousness. Their lives record their
successful labors. How refreshing the lives of
those who lived only for the glory of God and the
good of souls. There is something in their
history that compels us to feel that they were
ministers of Christ-true watchmen.
How cheering to read of Baxter and his labors
at Kidderminster! How solemn to hear of Venn and
his preaching, in regard to which it is said that
men "fell before him like slaked lime"! And in
the much-blest labors of that man of God, the
apostolic Whitefield, is there not much to humble
us, as well as to stimulate? Of Tanner, who was
himself awakened under Whitefield, we read that
he "seldom preached one sermon in vain." Of
Berridge and Hicks we are told that in their
missionary tours throughout England they were
blessed in one year to awaken four thousand
souls. Oh, for these days again! Oh, for one day
of Whitefield again!
Thus one has written: "The language we have
been accustomed to adopt is this; we must use the
means, and leave the event to God; we can do no
more than employ the means; this is our duty and
having done this we must leave the rest to Him
who is the disposer of all things." Such language
sounds well, for it seems to be an acknowledgment
of our own nothingness, and to savor of
submission to God's sovereignty; but it is only
sound -- it has not really any substance in it,
for though there is truth stamped on the face of
it, there is falsehood at the root of it. To talk
of submission to God's sovereignty is one thing,
but really to submit to it is another and quite
different thing.
Submission Involves Renunciation
"Really to submit to God's sovereign disposal
does always necessarily involve the deep
renunciation of our own will in the matter
concerned, and such a renunciation of the will
can never be effected without a soul being
brought through very severe and trying exercises
of an inward and most humbling nature. Therefore,
whilst we are quietly satisfied in using the
means without obtaining the end, and this costs
us no such painful inward exercise and deep
humbling as that alluded to, if we think that we
are leaving the affair to God's disposal, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth in this matter
is not in us.
"No; really to give anything to God implies
that the wil4 which is emphatically the heart,
has been set on that thing; and if the heart has
indeed been set on the salvation of sinners as
the end to be answered by the means we use, we
can not possibly give up that end without, as was
before observed, the heart being severely
exercised and deeply pained by the renunciation
of the wilt involved in it. When, therefore, we
can be quietly content to use the means for
saving souls without seeing them saved thereby,
it is because there is no renunciation of the
will-that is, no real giving up to God in the
affair. The fact is, the will -- that is, the
heart -- had never really been set upon this end;
if it had, it could not possibly give up such an
end without being broken by the sacrifice.
"When we can thus be satisfied to use the
means without obtaining the end, and speak of it
as though we were submitting to the Lord's
disposal, we use a truth to hide a falsehood,
exactly in the same way that those formalists in
religion do, who continue in forms and duties
without going beyond them, though they know they
will not save them, and who, when they are warned
of their danger and earnestly entreated to seek
the Lord with all the heart, reply by telling us
they know they must repent and believe but that
they can not do either the one or the other of
themselves and that they must wait till God gives
them grace to do so. Now, this is a truth,
absolutely considered; yet most of us can see
that they are using it as a falsehood to cover
and excuse a great insincerity of heart. We can
readily perceive that if their hearts were really
set upon salvation, they could not rest satisfied
without it. Their contentedness is the result,
not of heart-submission to God, but in reality of
heart-indifference to the salvation of their own
souls.
Covering Falsehood With Truth
"Exactly so it is with us as ministers: when
we can rest satisfied with using the means for
saving souls without seeing them really saved, or
we ourselves being broken-hearted by it, and at
the same time quietly talk of leaving the event
to God's disposal, we make use of a truth to
cover and excuse a falsehood; for our ability to
leave the matter thus is not, as we imagine, the
result of heart-submission to God, but of
heart-indifference to the salvation of the souls
we deal with. No, truly, if the heart is really
set on such an end, it must gain that end or
break in losing it."
He that saved our souls has taught us to weep
over the unsaved. Lord, let that mind be in us
that was in Thee! Give us thy tears to weep; for,
Lord, our hearts are hard toward our fellows. We
can see thousands perish around us, and our sleep
never be disturbed; no vision of their awful doom
ever scaring us, no cry from their lost souls
ever turning our peace into bitterness.
Our families, our schools, our congregations,
not to speak of our cities at large, our land,
our world, might well send us daily to our knees;
for the loss of even one soul is terrible beyond
conception. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
has entered the heart of man, what a soul in hell
must suffer forever. Lord, give us bowels of
mercies! "What a mystery! The soul and eternity
of one man depends upon the voice of another!"
IV
MINISTERIAL CONFESSION
"Remember there/ore from whence thou art
fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or
else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except
thou repent."
-REVELATION 2:5.
In the year 1651 the Church of Scotland,
feeling in regard to her ministers "how deep
their hand was in the transgression, and that
ministers had no small accession to the drawing
on of the judgments that were upon the land,"
drew up what they called a humble acknowledgment
of the sins of the ministry. This document is a
striking and searching one. It is perhaps one of
the fullest, most faithful and most impartial
confessions of ministerial sin ever made. A few
extracts from it will suitably introduce this
chapter on ministerial confession. It begins with
confessing sins before entrance on the ministry:
"Lightness and profanity in conversation,
unsuitable to that holy calling which they did
intend, not thoroughly repented of. Not studying
to be in Christ before they be in the ministry;
nor to have the practical knowledge and
experience of the mystery of the gospel in
themselves before they preach it to others.
Neglecting to fit themselves for the work of the
ministry, in not improving prayer and fellowship
with God, opportunities of a lively ministry, and
other means, and not mourning for these neglects.
Not studying self-denial, nor resolving to take
up the cross of Christ. Negligence to entertain a
sight and sense of sin and misery; not wrestling
against corruption, nor studying mortification
and subduedness of spirit."
Of entrance on the ministry it thus speaks:
"Entering to the ministry without respect to a
commission from Jesus Christ, by which it hath
come to pass that many have run unsent. Entering
to the ministry not from the love of Christ, nor
from a desire to honor God in gaining of souls,
but for a name and for a livelihood in the world
notwithstanding a solemn declaration to the
contrary at admission."
Of the sins after entrance on the ministry, it
thus searchingly enumerates:
"Ignorance of God; want of nearness with Him,
and taking up little of God in reading,
meditating and speaking of Him. Exceeding great
selfishness in all that we do; acting from
ourselves, for ourselves and to ourselves. Not
caring how unfaithful and negligent others were,
so being it might contribute a testimony to our
faithfulness and diligence, but being rather
content, if not rejoicing, at their faults. Least
delight in those things wherein lieth our nearest
communion with God; great inconstancy in our walk
with God, and neglect of acknowledging Him in all
our ways. In going about duties, least careful of
those things which are most remote from the eyes
of men. Seldom in secret prayer with God, except
to fit for public performance; and even that much
neglected, or gone about very superficially.
Glad to Find Excuses
"Glad to find excuses for the neglect of
duties. Neglecting the reading of Scriptures in
secret, for edifying ourselves as Christians;
only reading them in so far as may fit us for our
duty as ministers, and oft-times neglecting that.
Not given to reflect upon our own ways, nor
allowing conviction to have a thorough work upon
us; deceiving our-selves by resting upon absence
from and abhorrence of evils from the light of a
natural conscience, and looking upon the same as
an evidence of a real change of state and nature.
Evil guarding of and watching over the heart, and
carelessness in self-searching; which makes much
unaquaintedness with ourselves and estrangedness
from God. Not guarding nor wrestling against seen
and known evils, especially our predominants. A
facility to be drawn away with the temptations of
the time, and other particular temptations,
according to our inclinations and fellowship.
"Instability and wavering in the ways of God,
through the fears of persecutions, hazard, or
loss of esteem; and declining duties because of
the fear of jealousies and reproaches. Not
esteeming the cross of Christ, and sufferings for
His name, honorable, but rather shifting
sufferings, from self-love. Deadness of spirit,
after all the sore strokes of God upon the land.
Little conscience made of secret humiliation and
fasting, by ourselves apart and in our families,
that we might mourn for our own and the land's
guiltiness and great backslidings; and little
applying of public humiliation to our own hearts.
Finding of our own pleasure, when the Lord calls
for our humiliation.
"Not laying to heart the sad and heavy
sufferings of the people of God abroad, and the
not-thriving of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and
the power of godliness among them. Refined
hypocrisy; desiring to appear what, indeed, we
are not. Studying more to learn the language of
God's people than their exercise. Artificial
confessing of sin, without repentance; professing
to declare iniquity, and not resolving to be
sorry for sin. Confession in secret much
slighted, even of those things whereof we are
convicted. No reformation, after solemn
acknowledgments and private vows; thinking
ourselves exonerated after confession. Readier to
search out and censure faults in others than to
see or deal with them in ourselves. Accounting of
our estate and way according to the estimation
that others have of us. Estimation of men, as
they agree with or disagree from us.
"Not fearing to meet with trials, but
presuming, in our own strength, to go through
them unshaken. Not learning to fear, by the falls
of gracious men; nor mourning and praying for
them. Not observing particular deliverances and
punishments; not improving of them, for the honor
of God, and the edification of ourselves and
others. Little or no mourning for the corruption
of our nature, and less groaning under, and
longing to be delivered from, that body of death,
the bitter root of all our other evils.
"Fruitless conversing ordinarily with others,
for the worse rather than for the better. Foolish
jesting away of time with impertinent and useless
discourse, very unbecoming the ministers of the
gospel. Spiritual purposes often dying in our
hands when they are begun by others. Carnal
familiarity with natural, wicked and malignant
men, whereby they are hardened, the people of God
stumbled, and we ourselves blunted.
Loving Pleasure More than God
"Slighting of fellowship with those by whom we
might profit. Desiring more to converse with
those that might better us by their talents than
with such as might edify us by their graces. Not
studying opportunities of doing good to others.
Shifting of prayer and other duties, when called
thereto -- choosing rather to omit the same than
that we should be put to them ourselves. Abusing
of time in frequent recreation and pastimes and
loving our pleasures more than God . Taking
little or no time to Christian discourse with
young men trained up for the ministry. Common and
ordinary discourse on the Lord's Day. Slighting
Christian admonition from any of our flocks or
others, as being below us; and ashamed to take
light and warning from private Christians.
Dislike of, or bitterness against, such as deal
freely with us by admonition or reproof, and not
dealing faithfully with others who would welcome
it off our hands.
"Not praying for men of a contrary judgment,
but using reservedness and distance from them;
being more ready to speak of them than to them or
to God for them. Not weighed with the failings
and miscarriages of others, but rather taking
advantage thereof for justifying ourselves.
Talking of and sporting at the faults of others,
rather than compassionating of them. No due
painstaking in religious ordering of our
families, nor studying to be patterns to other
families in the government of ours. Hasty anger
and passion in our families and conversation with
others. Covetousness, worldly-mindedness, and an
inordinate desire after the things of this life,
upon which followeth a neglect of the duties of
our calling, and our being taken up for the most
part with the things of the world. Want of
hospitality and charity to the members of Christ.
Not cherishing godliness in the people; and some'
being afraid of it and hating the people of God
for piety, and studying to bear down and quench
the work of the Spirit amongst them.
Trusting in Our Own Ability
"Not entertaining that edge of spirit in
ministerial duties which we found at the first
entry to the ministry. Great neglect of reading,
and other preparation; or preparation merely
literal and bookish, making an idol of a book,
which hindereth communion with God; or presuming
on bygone assistance, and praying little.
Trusting to gifts, talents, and pains taken for
preparation, whereby God is provoked to blast
good matter, well ordered and worded. Careless in
employing Christ, and drawing virtue out of Him,
for enabling us to preach in the Spirit and in
power. In praying for assistance we pray more for
assistance to the messenger than to the message
which we carry, not caring what becomes of the
Word, if we be with some measure of assistance
carried on in the duty. The matter we bring forth
is not seriously recommended to God by prayer, to
be quickened to His people. Neglect of prayer
after the Word is preached.
"Neglect to warn, in preaching, of snares and
sins in public affairs by some; and too much, too
frequent, and unnecessary speaking by others of
public business and transactions. Exceeding great
neglect and unskillfulness to set forth the
excellences and usefulness of (and the necessity
of an interest in) Jesus Christ, and the new
covenant, which ought to be the great subject of
a minister's study and preaching. Speaking of
Christ more by hearsay than from knowledge and
experience, or any real impression of Him upon
the heart. The way of most ministers' preaching
too legal. Want of sobriety in preaching the
gospel; not savoring anything but what is new; so
that the substantials of religion bear but little
bulk.
"Not preaching Christ in the simplicity of the
gospel, nor ourselves the people's servants, for
Christ's sake. Preaching of Christ, not that the
people may know him, but that they may think we
know much of Him. Preaching about Christ's
leaving of the world without brokenness of heart,
or stirring up of ourselves to take hold of Him.
Not preaching with bowels of compassion to them
that are in hazard to perish. Preaching against
public sins, neither in such a way, nor for such
an end, as we ought-for the gaining of souls and
drawing men out of their sins; but rather because
it is to our advantage to say something of these
evils.
Attitude Toward Our Opponents
"Bitterness, instead of zeal in speaking
against malignants, sectarians, and other
scandalous persons; and unfaithfulness therein.
Not studying to know the particular condition of
the souls of the people, that we may speak to
them accordingly; nor keeping a particular record
thereof, though convinced of the usefulness of
this. Not carefully choosing what may be most
profitable and edifying; and want of wisdom in
application to the several conditions of souls;
not so careful to bring home the point by
application as to find Out the doctrine, nor
speaking the same with that reverence which
becomes His word and message.
"Choosing texts whereon we have something to
say, rather than those suited to the conditions
of souls and times, and frequent p reaching of
the same things, that we may not be put to the
pains of new study. Such a way of reading,
preaching and prayer as puts us in these duties
farther from God. Too soon satisfied in the
discharge of duties, and holding off challenges
of conscience with excuses. Indulging the body,
and wasting much time idly. Too much eyeing our
own credit and applause; and being pleased with
it when we get it, and unsatisfied when it is
wanting. Timorousness in delivering God's
message; letting people die in reigning sins
without warning. Studying the discharge of duties
rather to free ourselves from censure than to
approve ourselves to God.
"Not making all the counsel of God known to
His people; and particularly, not giving
testimony in times of defection. Not studying to
profit by our own doctrine, nor the doctrine of
others. For most part, preaching as if we
ourselves were not concerned in the message which
we carry to the people. Not rejoicing at the
conversion of sinners, but content with the
unthriving of the Lord's work amongst His people,
as suiting best with our minds; fearing, if they
should thrive better, we should be more put to
it, and less esteemed of by them -- many, in
preaching and practice, bearing down the power of
godliness. We preach not as be ore God, but as to
men; as doth appear by the different pains in our
preparation to speak to our ordinary hearers and
to others
to whom we would approve ourselves.
"Negligent, lazy, and partial visiting of the
sick. If they be poor we go once, and only when
sent for; if they be rich and of better note, we
go oftener and unsent for. Not knowing how to
speak with the tongue of the learned a word in
season to the weary.
"Lazy and negligent in catechising. Not
preparing our hearts before, nor wrestling with
God for a blessing to it, because of the
ordinariness and apprehended easiness of it;
whereby the Lord's name is much taken in vain,
and the people little profited. Looking on that
exercise as a work below us, and not
condescending to study a right and profitable way
of instructing the Lord's people. Partial in
catechising, passing by those that are rich and
of better quality, though many of such stand
ordinarily in great need of instruction. Not
waiting upon and following the ignorant but often
passionately upbraiding them."
These are solemn confessions-the confessions
of men who knew the nature of that ministry on
which they had entered, and who were desirous of
approving themselves to Him who had called them,
that they might give in their account with joy
and not with grief.
Confessing our Shortcomings
Let us, as they did, deal honestly with
ourselves. Our confessions ought to be no less
ample and searching.
1. We have been unfaithful. The fear of man
and the love of his applause have often made us
afraid. We have been unfaithful to our own souls,
to our flocks, and to our brethren; unfaithful in
the pulpit, in visiting, in discipline, in the
church. In the discharge of every one of the
duties of our stewardship there has been grievous
unfaithfulness. Instead of the special
particularization of the sin reproved, there has
been the vague allusion. Instead of the bold
reproof, there has been the timid hint. Instead
of the uncompromising condemnation, there has
been the feeble disapproval. Instead of the
unswerving consistency of a holy life whose
uniform tenor should be a protest against the
world and a rebuke of sin, there has been such an
amount of unfaithfulness in our walk and
conversation, in our daily deportment and
intercourses with others, that any degree of
faithfulness we have been enabled to manifest on
the Lord's Day is almost neutralized by the want
of circumspection which our weekday life
exhibits.
Archbishop Ussher's Example
Few men ever lived a life so busy and so
devoted to God as Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh.
His learning, habits of business, Station,
friends, all contributed to keep his hands every
moment full; and then his was a soul that seemed
continually to hear a voice saying: "Redeem the
time, for the days are evil." Early, too, did he
begin, for at ten years of age he was hopefully
converted by a sermon preached on Romans 12:1: "I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice." He was a painstaking, laborious
preacher of the Word for fifty-five years.
Yet hear him on his death-bed! How he clings
to Christ's righteousness alone, and sees in
himself, even after such a life, only sin and
want. The last words he was heard to utter were
about one o'clock in the afternoon, and these
words were uttered in a loud voice: "But, Lord,
in special forgive me my sins of omission." It
was omissions, says his biographer, he begged
forgiveness of with his most fervent last breath
-- he who was never known to omit an hour, but
who employed the shred ends of his life for his
great Lord and Master! The very day he took his
last sickness, he rose up from writing one of his
great works and went out to visit a sick woman,
to whom he spoke so fitly and fully that you
would have taken him to have spoken of heaven
before he came there. Yet this man was oppressed
with a sense of his omissions!
Reader, what think you of yourself -- your
undone duties, your unimproved hours, times of
prayer omitted, your shrinking from unpleasant
work and putting it on others, your being content
to sit under your vine and fig tree without using
all efforts for the souls of others? "Lord, in
special forgive me my sins of omission!"
Hear the confession of Edwards, in regard both
to personal and ministerial sins: "Often I have
had very affecting views of my own sinfulness and
vileness; very frequently to such a degree as to
hold me in a kind of loud weeping, sometimes for
a considerable time together, so that I have
often been forced to shut myself up. I have had a
vastly greater sense of my own wickedness, and
the badness of my heart, than ever I had be-fore
my conversion. My wickedness, as I am in myself,
has long appeared to me perfectly ineffable,
swallowing up all thought and imagination. I know
not how to express better what my sins appear to
me to be than by heaping infinite upon infinite,
and multiplying infinite by infinite. When I look
into my heart and take a view of my wickedness,
it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than
hell. And yet it seems to me that my conviction
of sin is exceedingly small and faint: it is
enough to amaze me that I have no more sense of
my sin. I have greatly longed of late for a
broken heart, and to lie low before God."
Worldliness Stunts the Conscience
2. We have been carnal and unspiritual. The
tone of our life has been low and earthly.
Associating too much and too intimately with the
world, we have in a great measure become
accustomed to its ways. Hence our tastes have
been vitiated, our consciences blunted, and that
sensitive tenderness of feeling which, while it
turns not back from suffering yet shrinks from
the remotest contact with sin, has worn off and
given place to an amount of callousness of which
we once, in fresher days, believed ourselves
incapable.
Perhaps we can call to mind a time when our
views and aims were fixed upon a standard of
almost unearthly elevation, and, contrasting
these with our present state, we are startled at
the painful changes. And besides intimacy with
the world, other causes have operated in
producing this deterioration in the spirituality
of our minds. The study of truth in its
dogmatical more than in its devotional form has
robbed it of its freshness and power; daily,
hourly occupation in the routine of ministerial
labor has engendered formality and coldness;
continual employment in the most solemn duties of
our office, such as dealing with souls in private
about their immortal welfare, or guiding the
meditations and devotions of God's assembled
people, or handling the sacramental symbols-this,
gone about often with so little prayer and mixed
with so little faith, has tended grievously to
divest us of that profound reverence and godly
fear which ever ought to possess and pervade us.
How truly, and with what emphasis, we may say: "I
am carnal, sold under sin" (Romans 7:14). The
world has not been crucified to us, nor we unto
the world; the flesh, with its members, has not
been mortified. What a sad effect all this has
bad, not only upon our peace of soul, on our
growth in grace, but upon the success of our
ministry!
3. We have been selfish. We have shrunk from
toil, difficulty and endurance, counting not only
our lives dear unto us, but even our temporal
ease and comfort. We have sought to please
ourselves, instead of obeying Romans 15:2: "Let
every one of us please his neighbor for his good
to edification." We have not borne "one another's
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ"
(Galatians 6:2). We have been worldly and
covetous. We have not presented ourselves unto
God as "living sacrifices," laying ourselves, our
lives, our substance, our time, our strength, our
faculties -- our all -- upon His altar. We seem
altogether to have lost sight of this
self-sacrificing principle on which even as
Christians, but much more as ministers, we are
called upon to act. We have had little idea of
anything like sacrifice at all. Up to the point
where a sacrifice was demanded, we may have been
willing to go, but there we stood; counting it
unnecessary, perhaps calling it imprudent and
unadvised, to proceed further. Yet ought not the
life of every Christian, especially of every
minister, to be a life of self-sacrifice and
self-denial throughout, even as was the life of
Him who "pleased not himself"?
4. We have been slothful. We have been sparing
of our toil. We have not endured hardness as good
soldiers of Jesus Christ. Even when we have been
instant in season, we have not been so out of
season; neither have we sought to gather up the
fragments of our time, that not a moment might be
thrown idly or unprofitably away. Precious hours
and days have been wasted in sloth, in company,
in pleasure, in idle or desultory reading, that
might have been devoted to the closet, the study,
the pulpit or the meeting! Indolence,
self-indulgence, fickleness, flesh-pleasing, have
eaten like a canker into our ministry, arresting
the blessing and marring our success.
It can not be said of us, "For my name's sake
[thou] hast labored, and hast not fainted"
(Revelation 2:3). Alas! we have fainted, or at
least grown "weary in well-doing." We have not
made conscience of our work. We have not dealt
honestly with the church to which we pledged the
vows of ordination. We have dealt deceitfully
with God, whose servants we profess to be. We
have manifested but little of the unwearied,
self-denying love with which, as shepherds, we
ought to have watched over the flocks committed
to our care. We have fed ourselves, and not the
flock.
5. We have been cold. Even when diligent, how
little warmth and glow! The whole soul is not
poured into the duty, and hence it wears too
often the repulsive air of routine and form. We
do not speak and act like men in earnest. Our
words are feeble, even when sound and true; our
looks are careless, even when our words are
weighty; and our tones betray the apathy which
both words and looks disguise. Love is wanting,
deep love, love strong as death, love such as
made Jeremiah weep in secret places for the pride
of Israel, and Paul speak "even weeping" of the
enemies of the cross of Christ. In preaching and
visiting, in counseling and reproving, what
formality, what coldness, how little tenderness
and affection! "Oh that I was all heart," said
Rowland Hill, "and soul, and spirit, to tell the
glorious gospel of Christ to perishing
multitudes!"
Afraid to Tell the Whole Truth
6. We have been timid. Fear has often led us
to smooth down or generalize truths which if
broadly stated must have brought hatred and
reproach upon us. We have thus often failed to
declare to our people the whole counsel of God.
We have shrunk from reproving, rebuking and
exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine.
We have feared to alienate friends, or to awaken
the wrath of enemies. Hence our preaching of the
law has been feeble and straitened; and hence our
preaching of a free gospel has been yet more
vague, uncertain and timorous. We are greatly
deficient in that majestic boldness and nobility
of spirit which peculiarly marked Luther, Calvin,
Knox, and the mighty men of the Reformation. Of
Luther it was said, every word was a
thunderbolt."
7. We have been wanting in solemnity. In
reading the lives of Howe or Baxter, of Brainerd
or Edwards, we are in company with men who in
solemnity of deportment and gravity of demeanor
were truly of the apostolic school. We feel that
these men must have carried weight with them,
both in their words and lives. We see also the
contrast between ourselves and them in respect of
that deep solemnity of air and tone which made
men feel that they walked with God. How deeply
ought we to be abased at our levity, frivolity,
flippancy, vain mirth, foolish talking and
jesting, by which grievous injury has been done
to souls, the progress of the saints retarded,
and the world countenanced in its wretched
vanities.
Preaching Self Instead of Christ
8. We have preached ourselves, not Christ. We
have sought applause, courted honor, been
avaricious of fame and jealous of our reputation.
We have preached too often so as to exalt
our-selves instead of magnifying Christ, so as to
draw men's eyes to ourselves instead of fixing
them on Him and His cross. Nay, and have we not
often preached Christ for the very purpose of
getting honor to ourselves? Christ, in the
sufferings of His first coming and the glory of
His second, has not been the Alpha and Omega, the
first and the last, of all our sermons.
9. We have used words of man's wisdom. We have
forgotten Paul's resolution to avoid the enticing
words of man's wisdom, lest he should make the
cross of Christ of none effect. We have reversed
his reasoning as well as his resolution, and
acted as if by well-studied, well-polished,
well-reasoned discourses, we could so gild and
beautify the cross as to make it no longer
repulsive, but irresistibly attractive to the
carnal eye! Hence we have often sent men home
well satisfied with themselves, convinced that
they were religious because they were affected by
our eloquence, touched by our appeals or
persuaded by our arguments. In this way we have
made the cross of Christ of none effect and sent
souls to hell with a lie in their right hand.
Thus, by avoiding the offense of the cross and
the foolishness of preaching we have had to labor
in vain, and mourn over an unblest, unfruitful
ministry.
10. We have not fully preached a free gospel.
We have been afraid of making it too free, lest
men should be led into licentiousness; as if it
were possible to preach too free a gospel, or as
if its freeness could lead men into sin. It is
only a free gospel that can bring peace, and it
is only a free gospel that can make men holy.
Luther's preaching was summed up in these two
points -- "that we are justified by faith alone,
and that we must be assured that we are
justified"; and it was this that he urged his
brother Brentius to preach; and it was by such
free, full, bold preaching of the glorious
gospel, untrammeled by works, merits, terms,
conditions, and unclouded by the fancied humility
of doubts, fears, uncertainties, that such
blessed success accompanied his labors. Let us go
and do likewise. Allied to this is the necessity
of insisting on the sinner's immediate turning to
God, and demanding in the Master's name the
sinner's immediate surrender of heart to Christ.
Strange that sudden conversions should be so much
disliked by some ministers. They are the most
scriptural of all conversions.
Too Little Emphasis on God's Word
11. We have not duly studied and honored the
Word of God. We have given a greater prominence
to man's writings, man's opinions, man's systems
in our studies than to the WORD. We have drunk
more out of human cisterns than divine. We have
held more communion with man than God. Hence the
mold and fashion of our spirits, our lives, our
words, have been derived more from man than God.
We must study the Bible more. We must steep our
souls in it. We must not only lay it up within
us, but transfuse it through the whole texture of
the soul.
12. We have not been men of prayer. The spirit
of prayer has slumbered amongst us. The closet
has been too little frequented and delighted in.
We have allowed business, study or active labor
to interfere with our closet-hours. And the
feverish atmosphere in which both the church and
nation are enveloped has found its way into our
closet, disturbing the sweet calm of its blessed
solitude. Sleep, company, idle visiting, foolish
talking and jesting, idle reading, unprofitable
occupations, engross time that might have been
redeemed for prayer.
Time for Everything but Prayer
Why is there so little anxiety to get time to
pray? Why is there so little forethought in the
laying out of time and employments so as to
secure a large portion of each day for prayer?
Why is there so much speaking, yet so little
prayer? Why is there so much running to and fro,
yet so little prayer? Why so much bustle and
business, yet so little prayer? Why so many
meetings with our fellow-men, yet so few meetings
with God? Why so little being alone, so little
thirsting of the soul for the calm, sweet hours
of unbroken solitude, when God and His child hold
fellowship together as if they could never part?
It is the want of these solitary hours that not
only injures our own growth in grace but makes us
such unprofitable members of the church of
Christ, and that renders our lives useless. In
order to grow in grace, we must be much alone. It
is not in society -- even Christian society --
that the soul grows most rapidly and vigorously.
In one single quiet hour of prayer it will often
make more progress than in days of company with
others. It is in the desert that the dew falls
freshest and the air is purest. So with the soul.
It is when none but God is nigh; when His
presence alone, like the desert air in which
there is mingled no noxious breath of man,
surrounds and pervades the soul; it is then that
the eye gets the clearest, simplest view of
eternal certainties; it is then that the soul
gathers in wondrous refreshment and power and
energy.
And so it is also in this way that we become
truly useful to others. It is when coming out
fresh from communion with God that we go forth to
do His work successfully. It is in the closet
that we get our vessels so filled with blessing,
that, when we come forth, we can not contain it
to ourselves but must, as by a blessed necessity,
pour it out whithersoever we go. We cannot say,
as did Isaiah: "My Lord, I stand continually upon
the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my
ward whole nights" (Isaiah 21:8). Our life has
not been a lying-in-wait for the voice of God.
"Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth" (1 Samuel
3:9), has not been the attitude of our souls, the
guiding principle of our lives. Nearness to God,
fellowship with God, waiting upon God, resting in
God, have been too little the characteristic
either of our private or our ministerial walk.
Hence our example has been so powerless, our
labors so unsuccessful, our sermons so meagre,
our whole ministry so fruitless and feeble.
Seeking the Spirit's Strength
13. We have not honored the Spirit of God. It
may be that in words we have recognized His
agency, but we have not kept this continually
before our eyes, and the eyes of the people. We
have not given Him the glory that is due unto His
name. We have not sought His teaching, His
anointing-the "unction from the Holy One,
[whereby] ye know all things" (1 John 2:20).
Neither in the study of the Word nor the
preaching of it to others have we duly
acknowledged His office as the Enlightener of the
understanding, the Revealer of the truth, the
Testifier and Glorifier of Christ. We have
grieved Him by the dishonor done to His person as
the third person of the glorious Trinity; and we
have grieved Him by the slight put upon His
office as the Teacher, the Convincer, the
Comforter, the Sanctifier. Hence He has almost
departed from us, and left us to reap the fruit
of our own perversity and unbelief. Besides, we
have grieved Him by our inconsistent walk, by our
want of circumspection, by our
worldly-mindedness, by our unholiness, by our
prayerlessness, by our unfaithfulness, by our
want of solemnity, by a life and conversation so
little in conformity with the character of a
disciple or the office of ambassador.
An old Scottish minister thus writes
concerning himself: "I find a want of the Spirit
-- of the power and demonstration of the Spirit
-- in praying, speaking, and exhorting; that
whereby men are mainly convinced, and whereby
they are a terror and a wonder unto others, so as
they stand in awe of them; that glory and majesty
whereby respect and reverence are procured; that
whereby Christ's sermons were differenced from
those of the Scribes and Pharisees; which I judge
to be the beams of God's majesty and of the
Spirit of holiness breaking out and shining
through His people. But my foul garments are on!
Woe is me?. The crown of glory and majesty is
fallen off my head; my words are weak and carnal,
not mighty; whereby contempt is bred. No remedy
for this but humility, self-loathing and a
striving to maintain fellowship with God."
Too Little Imitation of Christ
14. We have had little of the mind of Christ.
We have come far short of the example of the
apostles, much more of Christ; we are far behind
the servants, much farther behind the Master. We
have had little of the grace, the compassion, the
meekness, the lowliness, the love of God's
eternal Son. His weeping over Jerusalem is a
feeling in which we have but little heartfelt
sympathy. His "seeking of the lost" is little
imitated by us. His unwearied 'teaching of the
multitudes" we shrink from as too much for flesh
and blood. His days of fasting, His nights of
watchfulness and prayer, are not fully realized
as models for us to copy. His counting not His
life dear unto Him that He might glorify the
Father and finish the work given Him to do, is
but little remembered by us as the principle on
which we are to act. Yet surely we are to follow
His steps; the servant is to walk where his
Master has led the way; the under shepherd is to
be what the Chief Shepherd was. We must not seek
rest or ease in a world where He whom we love had
none.
V
REVIVAL IN THE MINISTRY
It is easier to speak or write about revival
than to set about it. There is so much rubbish to
be swept out, so many self-raised hindrances to
be dealt with, so many old habits to be overcome,
so much sloth and easy-mindedness to be contended
with, so much of ministerial routine to be broken
through, and so much crucifixion, both of self
and of the world, to be undergone. As (Christ
said of the unclean spirit which the disciples
could not cast out, so we may say of these: "This
kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
So thought a minister in the seventeenth
century; for, after lamenting the evils both of
his life and his ministry, he thus resolves to
set about their renewal:
"(1) In imitation of Christ and His apostles,
and to get good done, I purpose to rise timely
every morning.
"(2) To prepare as soon as I am up some work
to be done, and how and when to do it; to engage
my heart to it; and at even to call myself to
account and to mourn over my failings.
"(3) To spend a sufficient portion of time
every day in prayer, reading, meditating,
spiritual exercises: morning, midday, evening,
and ere I go to bed.
"(4) Once in the month, either the end or
middle of it, I keep a day of humiliation for the
public condition, for the Lord's people and their
sad condition, for raising up the work and people
of God.
"(5)I spend, besides this, one day for my own
private condition, in fighting against spiritual
evils and to get my heart more holy, or to get
some special exercise accomplished, once in six
months.
"(6) I spend once every week four hours over
and above my daily portion in private, for some
special causes relating either to myself or
others.
"(7) To spend some time on Saturday, towards
night, for preparation for the Lord's Day.
"(8) To spend six or seven days together, once
a year, when most convenient, wholly and only on
spiritual accounts.
Today's Need for Revival
Such was the way in which he set about
personal and ministerial revival. Let us take an
example from him. If he needed it much, we need
it more.
In the fifth and sixth centuries, Gildas and
Salvian arose to alarm and arouse a careless
church and a formal ministry. In the sixteenth,
such was the task which devolved on the
Reformers. In the seventeenth, Baxter, among
others, took a prominent part in stimulating the
languid piety and dormant energies of his fellow
ministers. In the eighteenth, God raised up some
choice and noble men to awaken the church and
lead the way to a higher and bolder career of
ministerial duty. The present century stands no
less in need of some such stimulating influence.
We have experienced many symptoms of life, but
still the mass is not quickened. We require some
new Baxter to arouse us by his voice and his
example. It is melancholy to see the amount of
ministerial languor and inefficiency that still
overspreads our land. How long, 0 Lord, how long!
The infusion of new life into the ministry
ought to he the object of more direct and special
effort, as well as of more united and fervent
prayer. The prayers of Christians ought to he
more largely directed to the students, the
preachers, the ministers of the Christian church.
It is a living ministry that our country needs;
and without such a ministry it can not long
expect to escape the judgments of God. We need
men that will spend and be spent -- that will
labor and pray -- that will watch and weep for
souls.
How Myconius Learned His Lesson
In the life of Myconius, the friend of Luther,
as given by Meichior Adam, we have the following
beautiful and striking account of an event which
proved the turning point in his history and led
him to devote his energies to the cause of
Christ. The first night that he entered the
monastery, intending to become a monk, he
dreamed; and it seemed as if he was ranging a
vast wilderness alone. Suddenly a guide appeared
and led him onwards to a most lovely vale,
watered by a pleasant stream of which he was not
permitted to taste, and then to a marble fountain
of pure water. He tried to kneel and drink, when,
lo! a crucified Saviour stood forth to view, from
whose wounds gushed the copious stream. In a
moment his guide flung him into the fountain. His
mouth met the flowing wounds and he drank most
sweetly, never to thirst again!
No sooner was he refreshed himself than he was
led away by his guide to be taught what great
things he was yet to do for the crucified One
whose precious wounds had poured the living water
into his soul. He came to a wide stretching plain
covered with waving grain. His guide ordered him
to reap. He excused himself by saying that he was
wholly unskilled in such labor. "What you know
not you shall learn," was the reply. They came
nearer, and he saw a solitary reaper toiling at
the sickle with such prodigious effort as if he
were determined to reap the whole field himself.
The guide ordered him to join this laborer, and
seizing a sickle, showed him how to proceed.
Again the guide led him to a hill. He surveyed
the vast plain beneath him, and, wondering, asked
how long it would take to reap such a field with
so few laborers. "Before winter the last sickle
must be thrust in," replied his guide. "Proceed
with all your might. The Lord of the harvest will
send more reapers soon." Wearied with his labor,
Myconius rested for a little. Again the crucified
One was at his side, wasted and marred in form.
The guide laid his hand on Myconius, saying: "You
must be conformed to Him."
With these words the dreamer awoke. But he
awoke to a life of zeal and love. He found the
Saviour for his own soul, and he went forth to
preach of Him to others. He took his place by the
side of that noble reaper, Martin Luther. He was
stimulated by his example, and toiled with him in
the vast field till laborers arose on every side
and the harvest was reaped before the winter
came. The lesson to us is, thrust in your
sickles. The fields are white, and they are wide
in compass; the laborers are few, but there are
some devoted ones toiling there already. In other
years we have seen Whitefield and Hill putting
forth their enormous efforts, as if they would
reap the whole field alone. Let us join ourselves
to such men, and the Lord of the harvest will not
leave us to toil alone.
Reaping the Great Harvest
"When do you intend to stop?" was the question
once put by a friend to Rowland Hill. "Not till
we have carried all before us," was the prompt
reply. Such is our answer too. The fields are
vast, the grain whitens, the harvest waves; and
through grace we shall go forth with our sickles,
never to rest till we shall lie down where the
Lamb himself shall lead us, by the living
fountains of waters, where God shall wipe off the
sweat of toil from our weary foreheads and dry up
all the tears of earth from our weeping eyes.
Some of us are young and fresh; many days may yet
be, in the providence of God, before us. These
must be days of strenuous, ceaseless,
persevering, and, if God bless us, successful
toil. We shall labor till we are worn out and
laid to rest.
Vincent, the non-conformist minister, in his
small volume on the great plague and fire in
|
