It is not enough
It is not enough
It is not enough that a minister is a converted man — he must be more. In the degree of his divine illumination, in the extent of his acquaintance with divine truth, in the depths of his Christian experience, in a practical embodiment of the spirit of the gospel, in the simplicity of an unreserved surrender of himself to God, and in a life which, though lived in the flesh, is yet crucified to its unsanctified tendencies and spent in converse with God and truth — he must be far in the ascendant of the ordinary Christian. If not, how can he be an efficient teacher and a safe guide of the flock? How can he elevate the character of his people's piety to a high standard — if his own piety is but low, and perhaps in declension? With what honesty can he press the necessity of eminent personal sanctity and a growing heavenly-mindedness — while his own droops, languishes, and wanes? With what sincerity of heart, and power of appeal, and cogency of argument, and hope of success — can he urge upon the church entrusted to his teaching, a greater degree of spiritual fruitfulness — while his own soul presents but the aspect of a blighted tree, whose hidden root is decayed and whose sapless branches are hung with nothing but the seared and withered leaf, which the autumnal blast quickly scatters? Thus, that he should be a decidedly renewed man is essential to his ministerial character; but that he should be a pre-eminently holy man is essential to his ministerial success.
The discussion of this part of our subject will supply an answer to the question, "What is the order of the Christian ministry demanded in the present day?" To an analysis of this order, let me with all simplicity, solemnity, and lowliness, address myself.
A humble and well-grounded evidence of his personal interest in Christ must be considered as essential to the character of a holy and able minister of the New Testament. Until, my brethren, this momentous point is settled — we are but as men that beat the air. In the course of our ministrations, we are necessarily called upon to expatiate much and minutely upon the nature and the evidences of experimental Christianity. We may, without assuming too much, suppose that the great mass of our hearers are firm believers in the divine authenticity of the Bible. We may seldom find it necessary to expend much time and labor in strengthening and defending the outposts of Christianity. But Christianity as an internal religion — Christianity as felt, tasted, and handled — is a point on which no concession can be made but on the clearest and most satisfactory testimony. Here a different order of mind and a different mode of teaching, are demanded.
To treat of a work of grace in the soul of man, requires a personal and thorough acquaintance with that work in all its essential elements and varied phases. With what accuracy, clearness, and power — can we unfold the nature, explain the evidences, and press the necessity of experimental religion — when the great change in ourselves is so dubiously developed and its lineaments are so faintly drawn upon the tablet of our own souls? With what a tremulous hand shall we lift the veil of the human heart and conduct our hearers within its deep, dark, and mysterious recesses! With what a faltering lip and stammering tongue shall we explain the nature of a renewed mind and descant upon the joys that flow from a sense of pardon, acceptance, adoption, sanctification, and the hope of glory — while the great question of our own saving interest in these stupendous matters has never been honestly canvassed or fairly settled?
It is true, their importance may be admitted and felt — they may form the themes, frequent and prominent, of our administrations. An informed judgment, a fervid imagination, an eloquent diction, an impassioned delivery, and even a desire to maintain the reputation of an evangelical preacher — may assist us to portray them with vivid and beautiful coloring before the mind. But with no inward unction of their truth, sweetness, and power — their representation from the pulpit will be but as the exhibition of a piece of finely-chiseled statuary which does not breath, or the gorgeous picture which does not speak — all is as cold and lifeless as death!
What do you think, my brethren, gave to the first preachers of Christianity and to the "noble army of martyrs" — the amazing power and far-reaching success with which they wielded the sword of the Spirit? You have the reply, brief but emphatic, in the language of that same Spirit whose word, and beneath whose anointing, they preached: "We believe — and therefore we speak." It was not a cold assent of the mind which they gave to the truth — nor did they proclaim it with a cold, perfunctory spirit. Far from this. As men of spiritually-enlightened understanding — they received it. As sinners deeply conscious of its need — they welcomed it. As saints, chosen in affliction and schooled in trial — they lived upon it. As apostles called of God — they everywhere and zealously preached it; and as martyrs, sustained by its promises and exulting in its hopes — many of them nobly died for it.
They proclaimed no unknown, unfelt, inexperienced gospel. They could preface their epistles to the churches with an affirmation, that what they preached, they experienced; and that what they wrote, they felt. "That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, that which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the Word of life — we proclaim also to you."
If they spoke of the joys of pardoned sin — it was because they experienced those joys glowing in their own souls, through the atoning blood sprinkled upon the conscience. If they told of peace with God through justification by Christ — it was because they saw, with an undimmed eye, their own acceptance in the Beloved. If they expatiated on the greatness of God's love in the adoption of sons to Himself — it was because the "Spirit of His Son" was in their hearts, and the cry of "Abba, Father!" was ever on their lips. If they preached Jesus — and Jesus was their one sublime and constant theme — it was because they "saw His glory," and therefore "spoke of Him." It pleased God to reveal his Son in them — that they might preach Him among the heathen; and thus inwardly taught — they were best qualified to bring men to the knowledge of the truth.
Thus, to be able and successful preachers of the word — we must have Christ in our hearts. God must reveal His Son in us. How poor and scanty must our knowledge of Christ be; how limited must our conceptions of His personal dignity and glory be; how little of Him and of His work can we make known to others — if we cannot say with Paul, to whom this grace was given: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me!"
I am not now pleading for a full and unclouded assurance of a saving interest in Jesus, as an essential and indispensable element in the character of an efficient, spiritual, and successful minister. There are, perhaps, but few in the Christian ministry who arrive at this exalted and blessed attainment. But I am pleading, and pleading earnestly — for a heartfelt, vital experience and perception of the power, glory, and sanctity of the "truth as it is in Jesus." I do not know how we can be prepared to meet the numerous and varied cases of inquiry, of doubt, of philosophy, of prejudice, of error, of backsliding, of temptation, of darkness, of trial, of sorrow, and of joy which crowd around the path and press upon the attention of a settled pastor — apart from an internal experience of the truth, dwelling in the heart as an ever-living, ever-ascending spring.
God will have His true ministers experimentally acquainted with the truth they preach. They shall not lift up a Christ whose glory they have not seen, whose grace they have not experienced, whose voice they have not heard, whose love they have not felt, whose fullness, tenderness, sympathy, and compassion they have not tasted. They shall not preach a dead Christ — but a living Christ; a Christ living, not merely on the throne of His glory — but living, in all His reigning, sanctifying, and consoling power, on the throne of their hearts!
They shall not preach a Savior, the extent of their acquaintance with whom is just the limits of a well-read mind, an informed judgment, a knowledge derived from the hearing of the ear, or culled from the musty tome of a human system of theology. But they shall preach a Savior, seen by the eye of faith to be transcendently glorious in His person and felt to be infinitely suited in His atoning work to meet the case of the vilest sinner, and to supply the needs of the most necessitous saint.
And what is the school, in which, for the most part, the chief training for our work of feeding the "sheep" and the "lambs" of Christ's flock is attained? Is it not the school of sanctified trial? Here we are led into the deeper and richer experience of what before we knew, perhaps, but in theory, or, if known experimentally — yet known but superficially. Here the Bible opens to us with all the freshness and glory of a new book. Its doctrines unfold with new light, its precepts with new power, its promises with new sweetness. The gospel appears to be another system, Christianity appears to be another revelation, and divine truth appears to be a new discovery to the soul. And this, not because it is in reality so, but because God has brought our mind, by the discipline of His covenant , into a harmony with His revealed word.
We learn, now, that the Bible is the book of the tried . That the fountains of inspiration can only be truly opened, that the full meaning of the sacred oracles can only be rightly understood, their beauty perceived, their worth appreciated, their authority reverenced, their spirit imbibed, their sweetness tasted, and their molding and transforming power felt — as the Lord baptizes us, not only with the Holy Spirit, but also with fire . Oh the costly blessing accruing to a minister of Christ — from a process of deep but sanctified trial! The flame may have risen high, the furnace may have intensely glowed, and the precious ore has melted — but rich and vast and lasting and expanding have been the purifying and hallowed results!
Laid low beneath a Father's hand — afflicted, chastened, humbled, set aside, it may be, for a while from active labor — time and season are afforded for a faithful and solemn review of his ministry. And what startling and humiliating discoveries has that review made! What imperfections and defilements are seen to have traced his ministrations! How meager and diluted have been his unfoldings of truth! What undue preponderance has been given to some parts — and what slight has been thrown upon others — thus marking a lack of symmetry and proportion in his ministry! What holding back of important doctrines , and what feeble enforcement of needed precepts — thus evincing a deficiency of holy boldness in declaring the whole counsel of God!
And with what overpowering truth and conviction does, perhaps, the appalling fact flash upon his mind, "Christ crucified has not been the central truth of my ministry, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the all in all — of my preaching!" He discovers that he has preached himself — and not his Master; that he has exalted himself — and not his Lord; that he has sought his own glory — and not Christ's. He has increased — but Jesus has decreased.
Concerning the spirit of his ministry, equally affecting are the disclosures. Scrutinizing the principles and motives that have guided and prompted — how deep does he find the stain of human guilt upon them all! What lack of singleness of eye, simplicity of aim, and holiness of motive! What self-sufficiency, self-pleasing, self-seeking, self-applauding — have left the marks of their defilement on all he has done professedly for his Lord! How little has he trampled upon his own interest for Christ; how faintly has he stemmed the tide of human applause; how has he shrunk from the cross and sought the smoother path of worldly ease!
But who can fully describe the affecting discoveries which the sanctified corrections of the covenant make to the soul of a tried and afflicted minister of Christ! And yet, though painful and humiliating — they are needed and beneficial. It is in this way, and by this process — that He who sits as a refiner and purifier of silver "will purify the sons of Levi — that they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord."
Emerging from beneath the mighty hand of God, humbled, emptied, instructed, sanctified — another minister than he was formerly, seems to occupy the pulpit — another pastor seems to walk among the people! How differently does he preach! He speaks as he never spoke before. How experimental , how spiritual , how solemn , how fervent , and with what unction — his word is with power. His lips, formerly so cold — now glow and burn with the celestial fire of the altar. His spirit, once so formal and lifeless — now kindles and expands with the glory and vastness of his theme. Christ, before so criminally kept in the shadows — is now set forth in His own glory, fullness, and preciousness! Truths hitherto finding either no place in his ministration or preached with such faintness and obscurity as greatly to veil their beauty and neutralize their effects — are now exhibited in their proper proportions, their vast importance, and with their sanctifying tendency and their hallowed results.