Ministerial Duties Stated & Enforced

Next Part Ministerial Duties Stated & Enforced 2

(Editor's note. With regard to the sermon, the editor cannot refrain from remarking that the author himself lived up to all which he here enjoins, and that he owed all his success as a minister and an author to his observance of the rules which he here lays down. And the editor does not recollect hearing from him any important maxim as to a minister's duty or conduct—which he has not met with in this sermon. The author here tells the secrets of his own success, which exceeded that of most ministers. When this charge was given he was a young unknown man, but all his subsequent experience confirmed the opinions which it contained. In the author's peculiar manner, he goes into particulars not often treated on similar occasions, yet not the less important; and these counsels, enforced by his own practice and its results, during more than forty years after they were first uttered, will, the editor trusts, by this re-publication of them, long benefit the denomination which his father so loved and labored for.)

My Dear Brother,
I rise to address you under circumstances at once most interesting and most embarrassing to myself. I have undertaken, at your particular request, an office usually assigned to much older ministers than myself. The grey head is thought to add weight and emphasis to that part of an ordination service denominated the charge. This glory does not encircle my brow. Compared with many by whom I am surrounded, and at whose feet I should thankfully sit to receive instruction, I am but young in the Christian ministry. What I lack in age and experience, however, if a substitute may be admitted, I will endeavor to supply by affection. You are mybrother, not merely by the ties of religion and of office; the same mother bore us, the same father was the guide of our youth; whose sainted spirits, perhaps, now bend from their celestial thrones to witness the scene of this morning; and I shall direct no admonition to your heart, my brother, which is not full fraught with the affection of mine. In order to do away every appearance of presumption, I wish to be considered as publicly recognizing the vows which, more than ten years ago, I pledged in circumstances similar to those in which you now stand. I wish to feel addressed by my own charge, thrown back in echo upon my own spirit; and have therefore selected a text which, though I am the speaker, associates me with you in the exhortations it conveys.

"In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God." 2 Cor. 6:4.

The commencement of this chapter should have been rendered in the form of a solemn address to those who were employed in the Christian ministry at Corinth. "Now then, fellow workers, we beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain." The whole passage is a charge to those whom the apostle in the preceding chapter had represented as entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, and whom he here admonishes not to "receive this distinguished favor in vain; to give no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed; but in all things to approve themselves as the ministers of God." These words present us with a description,

I. Of the NATURE of our office. We are "the ministers of God." This implies,

1. That we are sent by God. The concerns of the Christian church are administered by him "who is over all, God blessed forever." And of course an affair of so much importance as the appointment of its principal officers, must be his inalienable prerogative. Everyone who is truly a minister of God must be called by him to the work. To prove your commission, you have no need to resort to apostolic succession; you have derived it immediately from God, and no power on earth can add to it the least validity whatever.

It cannot be necessary for me on the present occasion to enter particularly into the nature of a scriptural call to the work of the ministry. To express this matter summarily, it appears to me, that an ardent desire to be employed in the work of the ministry, with a view to the glory of God in the salvation of sinners, endowment with all those qualifications which the Word of God requires, together with the election of a church of Christ—are indications of the mind of God, sufficiently obvious to warrant the conclusion that we are called to this honorable but arduous office. If the account you have just read of your views and feelings as a Christian, your motives, desires, and aims as a minister—are a faithful representation of your mind, it may be regarded by you in the light of a copy of letters patent, issued from the chancery of heaven, signed by the Great Head of the church, and authorizing you, although it bear no impress of crown or mitre, to preach the gospel to the perishing children of men. And when the pride of ecclesiastical domination would at any time demand by what authority you do these things, you have only to reply, the appointment of him "who gives pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

2. This expression implies that you are to labor for God. If for God, then not surely for the preacher's fame. SELF is an idol which has been worshiped by far greater multitudes than any other deity of either ancient or modern heathenism. A minister is the last man in the world who should be seen at the altar of this vile abomination--self. And yet

without great care he is likely to be the first one there, to linger there the longest, to bow the lowest, and to express his devotion by the costliest sacrifices. This, my brother, and "not the form of creeping things or women weeping for Tammuz," is the abomination which Ezekiel would witness in many a Christian temple; this is "the image of jealousy which provokes to jealousy," before which the glory of Jehovah so often, in modern times, retires from between the cherubim to the threshold, from the threshold to the exterior, until at length the lingering symbol totally removes, and the fearful word 'Ichabod' is inscribed alike upon the pulpit and the pews!

Many serve themselves instead of God, even by the work of the ministry. Some by entering upon it merely with a view to temporalsupport. Ashamed to beg, unwilling to work, they crouch for a piece of silver, and say, "Put me into the priest's office, that I may eat a morsel of bread." "They teach for hire, and divine for money;" and on this account are stigmatized in Scripture as "greedy dogs that can never have enough," as "shepherds that do not understand, looking everyone for his gain from his quarter." This prevails to a most dreadful extent in every established church in Christendom, and necessarily must do so, as long as human nature remains what it is, and so many pulpits are at the disposal of secular patronage. Nor is it altogether unknown among the body of dissenters. A man whom indolence has led to this office, and who has converted the pulpit into the hiding place of the sloth, is one of the basest, as he certainly is one of the guiltiest, of mankind. Sometimes his punishment comes in this world, and he is driven out by an indignant people, who determine no longer to starve their souls in order to support his body; or if, like a wolf, he continues to feed and fatten upon the flock, it is only for the hour of approaching destruction. "But I am persuaded better things of you, although I thus speak."

Others serve themselves in the ministry by entering it chiefly with a view to literary leisure and scientific pursuits. You know my sentiments on the importance of learning to the ministerial character too well, to suppose that I am now placing it under the ban of the pulpit. The pastoral office is neither the offspring nor the advocate of vandalism; it does not say to barbarism you are my sister, nor to ignorance you are my mother. You may draw the waters of the Castalian fountain, and cull the flowers of Parnassus. You may explore the world of mind with Locke, or the laws of matter with Newton—but not as the end of your entering the ministerial office. The pulpit, and not the study, is the summit on which your eye is to be fixed, and all the intense application of the latter is but to prepare you for a more commanding eminence upon the former. A thirst for literary pursuits, if this is your highest object, might lift you farther above the contempt of your fellow creatures, than an indolent regard to temporal support; but will not elevate you one step nearer to the approbation of your God. It might place you upon earth's pinnacle, but only to be smitten after all, by heaven's lightnings. It might procure for you the brightest and the purest crown of worldly glory, but only to be quenched amidst the blackness of darkness forever.

Many become ministers merely to acquire popular applause. 'Fame' is their motive and their aim. To commend themselves, is the secret but powerful spring of all they do. SELF is with them in the study directing their reading, selecting their texts, arranging their thoughts, forming their illustrations—and all with a view to shine in public. Thus prepared, they ascend the pulpit with the same object which conducts the actor to the stage—to secure the applause of approving spectators. Every tone is modulated, every emphasis laid, every attitude regulated—to please the audience, rather than to profit their souls; to commend themselves and not Jesus Christ. The service ended, this bosom idol returns with them to their own abode, renders them restless and uneasy to know how they have succeeded, and puts them upon the basest acts to draw forth the opinion of their hearers. If admired, they receive their reward; if not, the first prize is lost. It is nothing in abatement of the sin, that all this while evangelical sentiments are uttered. Orthodoxy is the most direct road to popularity. Christ may be the text—when SELF is the sermon! And dreadful as it seems, it is to be feared that many have elevated the cross only to suspend upon the sacred tree their own honors, and have employed all the glories of redemption merely to emblazon their own name!

My dear brother, when carried to this height, it is the direst, deepest tragedy, that was ever performed by man, since it ends in the actual and eternal death of the performer, who forgets, as he snuffs the gale of popular applause, that it bears the vapors of damnation!

But you are a minister, that is, a servant, of God; and as such are to sum up all your life and labors in that one sublime and comprehensive direction, "Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." From this hour until your tongue ceases to articulate, and your heart is cold, your business, your pleasure, your aim must be to serve God in the ministry of the gospel, by seeking his glory in the salvation of immortal souls.

Whatever other men do, and are permitted to do, this is your duty. Without retiring to the gloom and indolence of monastic seclusion, you have in the best sense of the term, surrendered yourself to God. Before that altar on which the Son of God offered up himself a sacrifice for sin, you have taken the vow of separation to the world. You profess to have relinquished the career of commerce, fame, wealth, and every other road through which the human spirit marches to the gratification of an earthly ambition, and to be so filled with a desire to glorify God in the salvation of souls, that you could stand upon the mount which the Savior occupied when under satanic temptation, and refuse all the kingdoms of the world, rather than give up the object which now fills your heart and occupies your hands. To the accomplishment of this you are to bring all the talents you possess, all the solicitude you can feel, all the influence you can command, and all the time you are destined to live—for you are not your own, but the minister of God.

3. This expression implies also that you are RESPONSIBLE to God. Your rule over the church is neither sovereign nor legislative, but administrative only. And therefore you are accountable for its exercise to him from whom it is derived. "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." No man has more to account for at that day, and with no man will the Judge be more strict in his requirements, than a minister of the gospel. In that day of terrors, disclosures will be made that will amaze all worlds; but when the veil of secrecy, which now conceals so many unthought of matters, shall be rent asunder, nothing so fearful shall be discovered as a faithless minister of God!

At sight of him, as he goes trembling to the throne, the countenance of the Judge glows with more terrible indignation; the thunder rolls with seven-fold terrors; a shriek of horror involuntarily escapes from the multitudes of the redeemed; while a fiend-like shout is uttered by all other monsters of iniquity—over an instance of depravity whose aggravations swell above the heinousness of theirs. What will the miserable creature say to such sounds as these. "You wicked and slothful servant, why have you lived for yourself? Where are the souls I entrusted to your care? What have you done with your time and your talents? How have you lived, and how preached?"

But I forbear, the scene is too dreadful even to be imagined. At that day, and before that tribunal you and I must meet again. Then all our motives and our conduct will be known. I shall witness your degradation or honor, and you will witness mine. Oh that we could make the judgment-seat of Christ the polar star of all our conduct, and preach and live as with the scenery of that day ever present to our imagination.

Next Part Ministerial Duties Stated & Enforced 2

Back to John Angell James