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THE MINISTRY WE NEED. 



if- 



BY 



S. SWEETSER. 



The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few." 




PUBLISHED BY THE ^ 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

219 Washington Street, Boston. 

HURD AND HOUGHTON, 13 Astor Place, N. Y. 

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass. 



IVJ3. 



j& 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

The American Tract Society, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 




riverside, Cambridge: 

stereotyped and printed by 

h. o- houghton and company 



CONTENTS. 

♦ 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Work 5 

II. Confidence in the Truth .... n 
III. The Love of Christ . . . . . .18 

IV. Good-will to Men 26 

V. Christ-like Compassion 30 

VI. Enduring Hardness 47 

VII. Faith in Christ and the Promises ... 55 

VIII. The Peculiarity of the Times ... 68 

IX. The Intellectual Activity of the Age . 77 

X. Obligations 85 

XI. The Broad View 93 

XII. The Privilege . 99 

XIII. The Higher Choice . . . . .106 

XIV. Conclusion XI 3 



THE MINISTRY WE NEED. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE WORK. 

| HE drift of the world is all away from God. 
This is no novelty. The present age does 
IKfSSJlll not differ from other ages in this particular. 
At one time the worldly forces may be more intense, 
and the spirit more ardent. The causes which stimu- 
late activity and enterprise have a tendency to give 
greater energy to ungodliness. Success feeds pride 
and self-reliance ; and the opportunity for luxury and 
indulgence enervates the moral character and sensu- 
alizes society. 

There are reasons for believing that some, if not 
all these unfavorable processes, are carried forward 
at the present time with more than usual vigor. If 
so, it is right to say, that the worldly currents set 
away from God with an increased momentum. The 
vital question, always is, how shall men be brought 
back to God to do his will and enjoy his favor? 

If the normal condition of the individual and of 



6 The Ministry we need. 

society is one in which God is consciously the central 
object of affection, and his- will the cordial rule of 
conduct, wherever this moral state does not exist, it 
is of secondary consequence what the outward aspect 
of life is. 

Civilization is greatly preferable to barbarism ; for 
there are benefits from knowledge, from the arts, 
from judicious laws, from agreeable conventional 
usages, which ameliorate the rougher, and enhance 
the more satisfying circumstances of existence. The 
way is also prepared for a more hopeful application 
of higher principles. 

On the other hand, barbarism presents more dis- 
gusting vices, more violent exercises of the malign 
passions, with fewer redeeming traits, and withal a 
discouraging obtuseness of the sensibilities, and a 
degradation of the mental faculties. And yet, when 
we weigh the facts touching the relations of society 
to God, we find a humiliating agreement. In one 
case men know God, but in their works deny Him. 
In the other they know not God and establish idols 
in his place. The idolatry of heathenism is formal 
and visible. The idolatry of Christendom inscribes 
no altar with the name of Mammon, institutes no 
order of worship, while nevertheless it secures that 
profounder devotion in which with heart and soul, 
men serve the god of this world. 

In its radical significance, then, the problem is one 
for the whole race of men estranged from God, 
whether they are polite or rude, whether cultivated 
or untutored. 



The Work. 7 

If these statements are correct, we cannot resort, 
with any measure of hope, to those means by which 
the intellect is furnished or the taste refined. Though 
ignorance and wickedness are closely allied, taking 
away the ignorance does not remove the wickedness. 
Though the highest piety depends upon the aid of 
knowledge, yet no amount of intellectual training 
and burnishing will produce piety. History testifies 
convincingly, that vice ripens under the mellower sky 
of aesthetic culture, wealth, and intellectual advance- 
ment ; that the sterner virtues of savage morality 
decay in the softer climate ; and that the absolute 
decline is sure to hasten to a fatal termination. 

The evil cannot be mastered until it is appre- 
hended. If it lies in a moral and spiritual defect ; if 
its source and its energy consist in the alienation of 
the heart from God, and the indisposition of the will 
to follow God's counsels, it is clear that no amount of 
what is called education, no advancement in science, 
no development and use of the material resources of 
the world, no refinement of taste, and no courtesies 
in social intercourse, can be relied on to produce the 
essential reformation. These things have an inesti- 
mable value. They constitute an important part of 
the world's elevation. Mankind can never reach the 
high plane on which they are destined to stand with- 
out them. But their value depends upon the rela- 
tion they bear to the moral and spiritual forces which 
are the efficient reforming powers. They are to be 
subordinate ; to be used as helpers ; to come in as 



8 The Ministry we need. 

the servants of religion. Knowledge is to be urged 
forward ; science, art, literature, commerce, manufac- 
tures, all activities and enterprises of which man is 
capable, and to which the realm over which he has 
dominion invites, are to receive worthy attention — 
but they are to be pursued under the control of a mind 
inspired with love to God, and seeking his glory and 
human welfare, as its end. Losing sight of this fact 
is the fatal mistake of many sincere and ardent 
friends of human progress. These things they ought 
to do, but not to leave the other undone. They for- 
get the weighter matters of the law. 

God has provided adequate means by which the 
race may be arrested in its departure, and restored to 
the enjoyment of his favor. The end of divine reve- 
lation is the enlightenment, redemption, and renova- 
tion of mankind. The world has been slow t;o see 
this, for the world by wisdom has not known, nor 
ever can know God. From the beginning, ingenuity, 
stimulated as well by pride as by sufferings, has been 
seeking out some good way. The countless failures, 
whether of visionary conceits or of thoughtful phi- 
losophy, have scarcely abated the ardor or the ex- 
pectation of the search. It is as true to-day, as it 
was thousands of years ago, that the world by wisdom 
knows not God. Science, with its splendid achieve- 
ments, adds not an iota to the promise. Civilization 
does not solve the problem ; for so far as civilization 
is moral purification, it is the result of Christianity, 
and not an element of progress. To whatever quar- 



The Work. 9 

ter the eye has been turned for help, disappointment 
has been the invariable sequel of unjustified hopes. 

So far as the past can furnish wisdom, it declares 
to us, that the only recovery of man is found in re- 
ceiving and obeying the truth, revealed by God for 
our salvation. Any independent and candid exami- 
nation of the possible forces, by which righteousness 
and peace can be established, will, with a nearly 
absolute certainty, lead to the same conclusion. The 
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is to 
work deliverance from this moral and spiritual bond- 
age. The gospel of our Lord Jesus is the renovat- 
ing agency, by which men are to be trained, and 
qualified to live worthily, and to reach the ample 
blessings of communion with God. And this is 
asserted, in the face of all that is claimed for and may 
justly be ascribed to the influence of increasing and 
diffused knowledge. It is asserted, notwithstanding 
the wide range and number of the sciences, so called, 
whether physical, metaphysical, moral, or social ; and 
notwithstanding the merit due to them, as helpful aids 
in the formation of a higher social state. 

From all these, and every other method, by reason 
of their inherent inefficiency, we turn to the truth, as 
unfolded to us by the Spirit of God, made powerful 
on the conscience and the heart of man by the same 
Spirit, as the only adequate force, and the only trust- 
worthy discipline, by which the individual soul can be 
brought back into peaceful relations with God, or the 
world become subject to his law. 



10 The Ministry we need. 

The ministry instituted by Christ is the foremost 
human agency in applying this method. The work 
to be done by the ministry, and the weapons to be 
used, are not indistinctly marked out in the foregoing 
remarks. The aim is to reconcile revolted men to 
God ; to bring them into loving obedience to his law ; 
to secure to them the divine blessing in its fullness, 
and so in this life to exalt a fallen race to the felici- 
ties of righteousness, and to the pleasures which are 
at God's right hand, in the life#to come- 





CHAPTER II. 



CONFIDENCE IN THE TRUTH. 




N seeking characteristic and essential quali- 
ties, needed by those who are to engage in 
this work, one of the first which attracts our 
attention is the importance of profound convictions 
in regard to revealed truth. 

When it is remembered that the highest spiritual 
living we are capable of is prompted by intelligent 
conceptions of God and his requirements, it will be 
obvious that to teach and impress the truth of God, 
must be the substance of a minister's efforts. 

A formal knowledge may be sufficient for formal 
instruction. But the terrible energy of sinful pro- 
pensity is not restrained by knowledge. It has al- 
ways been known, perhaps it will never be better 
known than it has been, that misery is the offspring 
of vice. And yet the world has rolled on in its 
career of suffering, unchecked by the demonstration 
of thousands of years. Some adequate authority is 
needed to give urgency to the fact, that sin is the 
forerunner of a fearful doom. This authority is 
found in the declarations of God, as sovereign and 
judge. These declarations contain God's purposes, 



12 The Ministry we need. 

the principles of his government, and the issue of 
the world's life. They are of necessity the most 
solemn and weighty truths to which our minds can 
be given. 

As the whole question is one of divine government, 
the destiny of men depends upon the influence 
which God's word has upon them. A minister stands 
between God and his subjects. He bears to them 
the divine message. He is appointed to utter the 
threatenings, and to reiterate the promises of mercy. 
The Scriptures make it clear that eternal life and 
eternal death are the inevitable issues of preaching. 
Ministers " are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in 
them that are saved, and in them that perish." To 
the one the savor of death unto death ; and to the 
other, the savor of life unto life. 

How now is it possible to enter upon such duties, 
involving such possibilities, and to discharge them 
faithfully, unless the minister himself is deeply pene- 
trated with the grand and awful realities, comprised 
in the truth. A frivolous mind cannot sympathize 
with the momentous alternatives. An easy credence 
cannot take in the unmeasured responsibilities. A 
wavering belief cannot boldly assert the necessary 
admonition, nor present the infinite fullness of grace 
in the divine promise. When the intensity of the 
grasp of sin is considered, the abandonment of the 
will to the rule of passion, and the insensibility of the 
depraved heart to spiritual joys, it will be evident, 
that an earnestness and tenderness, a patience and 



Conftde7ice hi the Truth. 13 

persistency are needed in pursuing the message of 
God, which cannot exist without deep and stirring 
convictions. The advantage is on the other side ; for 
sin has the possession. 

In every human view the prospect is a dishearten- 
ing one. The combined verdict of the world in the 
centuries of its history is, that happiness is to be 
found out of God ; and to find it, the world has 
aggregated and expended, with amazing pertinacity, 
its ingenuity and its zeal. To confront this solid 
phalanx of opposition requires a just confidence in 
the resources to be applied. So long as the mind 
wavers in doubt of the absolute necessity of the 
gospel ; so long as it entertains the thought that the 
danger is not imminent ; so long as it vacillates be- 
tween the uncompromising claims of God's word 
and some other possible method of escape, just so 
long will it be an impossibility to press upon men, 
with full energy and effectiveness, the demands of 
God. 

A minister, to do his work in any manner corre- 
sponding to its importance, should be absolutely 
possessed and penetrated by the truth, - Eternal * 
realities should Jill his mind with their august solem- 
nities. His reason, his understanding, his heart, 
should all be enlisted in the service. The vividness 
of his own impressions should give vitality to his 
words. The glow of his heart should impart zeal to 
his utterance. His faith should inspire confidence in 
his declarations. Believing with unfaltering firmness, 



14 The Ministry we need. 

in the word of God, he should speak with unfaltering 
distinctness whatever comes to him under the sanc- 
tion of, Thus saith the Lord. 

r Such a faith is the very substance of sincerity. 
Sincerity is the soul of true earnestness. Earnest- 
ness is the moral power to which the heart yields its 
readiest obedience. It has proved the triumphant 
energy in most of the great revolutions of the world. 
It is the recorded distinction of the most successful 
preachers from John the Baptist to our day. 

Earnestness in error is more convincing than tame- 
ness in the truth. Even a simulated earnestness, 
based upon a profound belief, is more efficacious 
than a divided heart. Mr. Froude has justly re- 
marked, that " a mind sufficiently in earnest about 
religion, to prefer truth to falsehood, listens only to 
teachers who speak with emphasis and certainty, who 
do not think and say, but feel with warmth and pas- 
sion. Before a man can persuade others to accept 
him as a guide, he must know his own mind, and be 
ready with a Yes or No, on the questions with which 
his hearers are perplexed." 

But, for this unadulterated sincerity, for this glow- 
ing and mighty earnestness, this prompt and pro- 
nounced utterance, it is essential that the mind of the 
preacher should be fully persuaded, that his heart 
should suffer no wavering in its convictions of the 
truth. To him the word of God should be, yea and 
amen. He should feel, that heaven and earth may 
pass away, but God's word cannot pass away. He 



Confidence in the Truth. 15 

should feel, that the doctrines of the word are as 
deep laid and as eternal as the throne itself. He 
should realize, with a conviction as settled as that 
there is but one sun in the heavens, that there is but 
one name under heaven given among men, whereby 
they must be saved. As an ambassador for Christ, 
he must press men to be reconciled through Him with 
an assurance as complete as his confidence that the 
world exists. So long as the word of God is the 
substance of the argument, the very arsenal of the 
artillery of a minister, it must be as essential to his 
might and his efficiency that he cherish profound 
convictions of the truth ; that his own soul be fully 
under its dominion, and that he speak as one who 
knows, and by his faith has seen. 

This has been a characteristic of God's minis- 
ters always. The prophets were wellnigh terrible in 
their absorbing conviction of the majesty and truth 
of their messages. The Apostles had a boldness in 
uttering all the words of the new life, which no au- 
thority of rulers, or anger of the populace could with- 
stand. They thoroughly believed what they pro- 
claimed ; and confessors and reformers have been 
men of a like spirit. We can hardly conceive of a 
successful enunciation of disagreeable and condemn- 
ing truth without it. It has been the decisive ele- 
ment in the mental and spiritual tone of all great 
moral renovations, and has left its stamp upon the 
character and work of the great company of faithful 
pastors and teachers in the Church of Christ. 



1 6 The Ministry we need. 

We cannot presume that there ever was a time 
which could dispense with this quality ; or that such 
a time will ever come ; most assuredly such is not 
the case now. For the truth of God is assailed still, 
with unabated pertinacity. If old issues are aban- 
doned, new ones are started. If some questions con- 
cerning the gospel histories are forever settled, and 
some teachings of the New Testament are established 
beyond controversy, it does not follow, that skepticism 
is routed or that unbelief has ceased. 

We are to remember that one tendency of our 
times is to unsettle established beliefs ; to disparage 
the importance of doctrine y to diminish the differ- 
ence between truth and error ; to exalt sentiment, 
and to proclaim an era of good feeling, with but 
sparing regard to principles fundamental in the gov- 
ernment of God, as well as in the scheme of redemp- 
tion. We are to remember that there is a pressure 
to fix the conclusion, that nothing is to be accepted 
which cannot be proved, and so become a matter of 
science. There may be no more danger in this than 
in the spirit of exploded devices and forms of oppo- 
sition. The point to be noted is, that positive belief 
in revelation is rejected on the grounds of science ; 
and that faith itself is divided as a source of knowl- 
edge. The whole of what is called modern thought, 
tends to make more imperative in the preachers of 
righteousness the necessity of carrying with them 
always into the service of God the unfaltering con- 
viction, that his word is the truth, and that God will 
not alter the thing that is gone out of his lips. 



Confidence in the Truth. 17 

It is the weakest illusion to assume that a high 
moral and spiritual life can rest upon feelings and 
emotions without the force and sustaining efficacy of 
fundamental principles. These principles are the 
ground doctrines of the word of God ; and therefore, 
a needful equipment for a successful and powerful 
ministry is a profound belief of these truths. 




CHAPTER III. 



THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 



T should be kept in the foreground that the 
gospel is a system by itself, amongst what 
are called religions. Christianity is not the 
religion of nature, not Judaism, not even pure theism. 
It is not a code of moral regulations ; a digest of 
wholesome prohibitions and restraints ; a compen- 
dium of rewards and punishments. Although its 
morality is the most elevated ; its rules of living the 
purest and most spiritual ; its rewards and punish- 
ments the most definite and comprehensive ; its dis- 
tinctive quality, over and above all these, is that it is 
a redemption. It includes every worthy suggestion 
of natural religion, respecting our duty to God and 
to man, the practice of righteousness, the cultivation 
of the virtues, and the condemnation of error and 
transgression ; while it does what no other system can 
do, in making provision for the recovery, pardon, and 
salvation of men ruined in their guilt. Preeminently 
the gospel is not law, but love ; while it does not in 
the slightest degree derogate from sovereignty, it ex- 
alts grace ; while it diminishes nothing in the con- 
demnation of sin, it delights in the forgiveness of the 



The Love of Christ. 19 

sinner ; while it retains the accuracy of retribution, 
it glories in the bestowment of a free gift ; while it 
justifies righteousness wherever it can be found, it 
reinstates in the divine favor and the final inheritance 
with great joy, every repentant prodigal and every 
returning wanderer. 

To use such a gospel as an instrument, must differ 
widely from giving instruction in the precepts of the 
law. It obviously requires the minister to be in 
sympathy with the spirit of the gospel, or more ex- 
actly to be in sympathy with Jesus Himself, the pro- 
claimer of glad tidings. The very name Christianity 
is not without its significance. It points directly to 
Christ, as the person who, in his mission and teach- 
ings, stands as the originator of Christianity. If, as 
has been intimated, the spirit of the gospel is peculiar, 
the distinctive spirit is to be found in Christ. What 
Christ is — that is the index of the tone and temper 
of his system. If Christianity is specifically love, it 
is because Christ in his work is specifically love. It 
has been truly said, " Christ is Christianity. Detach 
Christianity from Christ and it vanishes before your 
eyes into intellectual vapor. Christianity is non-ex- 
istent apart from Christ: it centres in Christ; it 
radiates now as at the first from Christ. It is not a 
mere doctrine bequeathed by Him to a world with 
which He has ceased to have dealings ; it perishes 
outright when men attempt to abstract it from the 
living person of its Founder.' ' 

It can then hardly be possible to administer heartily 



20 The Ministry we need. 

the word of Christ, without feeling and appreciating 
his love. There is no other avenue to Christ but this. 
He is never comprehended till his love is understood ; 
and that attainment is never made, until his love has 
melted, inflamed, and purified the heart. So that a 
prime quality in the character of a minister, must 
ever be his lively susceptibility to this love ; his spon- 
taneous response to it, and the fervor and zeal with 
which he is inspired by it. 

For it is a defective and unsatisfactory view of a 
minister's work to present it only as didactic, and 
ethical ; to confine its scope to the inculcation of 
sound principles, or the culture of the graces which 
adorn character. No more is it to be looked upon 
merely as the rebuke of sin, and the utterance of de- 
nunciations against iniquity. Whatever tends to with- 
draw men from the dominion of transgression, to 
promote righteousness, and to perfect the discipline 
of a godly life is manifestly within its province. 

But when it is remembered that the key-note of the 
gospel is a proclamation of pardon to men, too deeply 
insensible both to guilt and danger, that the very 
mission of Christ was to seek and to save the lost ; 
that his mighty love concentrated itself on this, that 
men under condemnation might not perish ; the pith 
and substance of the whole work takes another 
aspect. A minister becomes a messenger of mercy. 
He is a herald of salvation. He is an ambassador 
for Christ. He beseeches men in Christ's stead. 
He pleads with men to be reconciled to God. 



The Love of Christ. 21 

As no one can doubt that the moving principle in 
Christ's humiliation and sufferings was love, so no 
one can doubt that a sense of this love must be a 
conspicuous quality in Christ's ministers. It should 
be a constraining power. Therefore the Apostle says, 
The love of Christ constrains us, because we thus 
judge, if one died for all, then were all dead ; and 
that He died for all, that they which live, should not 
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that 
died for them and rose again. This is the law of all 
discipleship. 

Its application and its binding force is evinced in 
the earnest words which follow, describing the minis- 
try of reconciliation. Persuasion, entreaty, beseech- 
ing, as though God Himself did through his servants 
beseech men ; these are the exercises by which recon- 
ciliation to God by Jesus Christ is sought. 

To enter thus into the heart of Christ's mission 
without sympathy with Him, and without feeling the 
kindlings of his love and responding to it, must ever 
be a vain attempt. All the refining, exalting, and 
stimulating influence of divine love is required to 
bring about entire consecration to Christ. In such 
consecration alone can the active powers be de- 
voted to his service. Between a minister and Christ, 
there should exist a close and peculiar union. How 
intimate and tender it is, may be inferred from the 
declaration, " Henceforth I call you not servants, for 
the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth ; but I 
have called you friends ; for all things that I have 



22 The Ministry we need. 

heard of my Father I have made known unto you." 
Without appropriating so much of this passage as be- 
longs exclusively to the immediate disciples, we may 
safely gather the fact, that those in the work of the 
Redeemer are admitted to special privileges of friend- 
ship and intimacy. It is no mere formality to be 
Christ's minister. It is not an office, to be fulfilled 
by perfunctory performances. It is not following a 
ritual in worshipful observances, or discharging with 
a cold conscientiousness a round of religious teach- 
ings and duties. All such are sacrifices laid upon 
the altar with no flame to send the acceptable incense 
heavenward. 

There can be no true devotion to God or man 
without love. And if the law is emphatically bind- 
ing upon ministers, to be so constrained by the loVe 
of Christ as to live to Him and not to themselves, it 
becomes a question of momentous weight, what is the 
import and extent of the implied consecration ? Can 
it be anything short of taking the cause of Christ to 
be one's own : the interests of Christ, his work, his 
end, to be the interest, the work, and the end of his 
servants ? Is there not of necessity implied an 
identification of the minister with Christ, such that 
there shall be but one aim and purpose to them both ; 
so that no one thus pledged to Christ can in any 
other sense pursue his own ends than as Christ's 
ends have become his ? This will bring the whole 
energy of the man into the work of God. 

For everywhere it is observable that, for the high- 



The Love of Christ. 23 

est human efficiency, there must be an inward, vital, 
spontaneous movement of the soul towards a chosen 
object , some idea, some passion, the longing for 
some achievement, must possess it, inspire it, magnet- 
ize it, marshal its powers, sustain it under the toil 
of striving, during the delay of obstructions, against 
the depression of partial defeats, and hold it up to 
endure and persevere, till the triumph is reached. 
Then the searcher for truth, the explorer, the in- 
ventor of complicated mechanical contrivances, the 
patriot burning with zeal for his country's salvation, 
the prophet glowing with a divine afflatus, as he sees 
afar the coming glory ; the reformer as he confronts 
the stake, and defies the despotic rage which bars his 
progress ; these and all others who won great victo- 
ries in great struggles, are moved by concentrated 
desires and purposes, and are held under the league 
and conspiracy of the affections and the will, and so 
are enabled to combine all their energies upon the 
determination of their noble endeavor. So the 
Apostle felt, when he declared, " Woe is unto me, if 
I preach not the gospel." A necessity was laid upon 
him. So felt the prophet. " His word was in mine 
heart a burning fire shut up in my bones." He could 
not withstand the mighty impulse. 

Now Christ's work being preeminently and dis- 
tinctively a work of love, to enter into it with all the 
heart, demands that Christ's love shall penetrate and 
pervade the soul, subjecting to Christ the powers and 
passions of the mind, kindling so responsive a grati- 



24 The Ministry we need. 

tude that the utmost service shall be a joyful offering 
upon his altar. To have felt the redeeming energy 
of this love ; to have been inspired by it with a good 
hope of mercy ; to have received from it strength for 
duty and temptation, and to have read in it the 
assurance of the final glory, serve, most effectually, 
to purge out the leaven of selfishness, and to allay 
the fires of an earthly ambition. 

There is no loyalty like this, when the soul is bound 
to the Master by his all-constraining love. It makes 
it possible to do the work of Christ, as one's own 
work, and so to perform it, with all the freedom, the 
heartiness, the joyousness, and the singleness of de- 
sire apd* purpose with which men pursue the objects 
of their personal interest. 

This is a condition of the service of the highest 
importance. It strips the ministry of the repulsive- 
ness of toil, .of the irksomeness of duty and makes it 
a delight. It lifts it above mercenary considerations 
and private and personal ends, and invests it with the 
charm and power of spontaneousness. It unites the 
servant with the Master in the tender associations and 
sweet intercourse of friendship, and makes the Lord 
and his disciples, fellow workers, and sharers to- 
gether in the tribulation and triumphs of his king- 
dom. 

This responsive affection, this grateful submission 
of everything to Christ, this hearty adoption of his 
cause, this self-consecration to all its interests, this 
surrender of self to the exposures, struggles, and 



The Love of Christ. 



25 



final exaltation of the gospel, should be held not 
only to be a reasonable, but an essential element 
in ministerial character. It will give a distinctive 
tone to the ministry, sanctify and elevate the office, 
and vindicate for it the appellation of the ministry 
of Christ. 





CHAPTER IV. 

GOOD-WILL TO MEN. 

|0 say that the ministers of Christ should be 
actuated by a principle of good-will to men, 
is hardly saying more than that the servant 
should adopt the principles of the master. If it is 
included in this statement, that the servant should 
be as his master, it is sufficiently comprehensive. 
There is little danger of exaggerating the quality of 
divine love, as it seeks the welfare of the human 
family. God so loved the world as to send his Son. 
The Son so loved the world as to give Himself freely 
to humiliation and suffering for its redemption. The 
glory of the cross infinitely transcends its ignominy ; 
for it shines and blazes with the effulgence of God's 
love. The great transaction elevated above all other 
events in the world's history, was conceived in the 
heart of God before the world was ; and through it 
the Infinite Father pours out his heart for his ruined 
children. Glory to God, and good-will to men, is the 
wonderful harmony of that scene, which will draw to 
it the eyes of the universe, and inspire the anthems 
of eternity. ' 

The Apostle determined to preach, as his one 



Good-will to Men. 27 

theme, Christ Jesus, and Him crucified. But to 
preach Christ crucified, is to proclaim the way of 
life, by God's love to lost sinners. The cross is the 
energy of love, because it makes practicable the 
longings of love. What then is a herald of the cross, 
but a messenger of good-will to men ? And who 
can so fitly bear glad tidings, as those whose hearts 
- thrill responsive to the joyous theme ? 

Among the motives urging to the ministry, this 
should be distinct — a good- will towards men ; a 
yearning of heart, to advance welfare and promote 
happiness. Fairly ' to put this desire within the 
sphere of Christian motives, it should be a zeal, 
kindled by the love of Christ, to secure to men the 
benefits of the mission of Christ. 

To distinguish a Christ-like benevolence from other 
generous dispositions, is not an unworthy fastidious- 
ness. The object of the ministry is not merely to do 
good, but to accomplish the peculiar and transcend- 
ent good aimed at in the gospel of grace. There 
are reformations, and ameliorations of evil of value 
in their sphere, which fall far short of the blessings 
of evangelical righteousness. There are benefits 
worthily labored for, which are not the preparation 
for the kingdom of heaven. There is an enthusiasm 
for humanity, which may be kindled in a human heart 
not touched by the Spirit of God, the fruits of which, 
though precious and lovely to the eye, will not adorn 
the celestial paradise. 

It is not necessary to depreciate the lower forms 



28 The Ministry we need. 

of benevolence, in order to give just exaltation to the 
higher. Ample credit should be allowed to every 
kind and generous feeling which seeks to lift bur- 
dens ; alleviate sorrows ; to purify society, and dif- 
fuse happiness. Whoever in honesty of good-will 
diminishes the sighs and groans of the world, and 
adds one ray to the beam of light which irradiates its 
darkness, is to be welcomed as a benefactor. But 
the minister of Christ stands upon a higher plane 
than the highest of human benefactors. He is the 
messenger of his mercy, who shed his blood for the 
remission of sins ; who died, the just for the unjust, 
that He might bring them unto^God. The scope of 
this benevolence ranges far beyond the annoyances 
and ills of a brief mortality. It embraces a blessed- 
ness excelling all possibilities of earthly comfort. No 
conception of the gospel promise is adequate, which 
does not include the forgiveness of sin, and by it, the 
redemption of the soul from death, the favor of God, 
and with it, the crown of glory which fadeth not 
away. 

When it is said, that a minister should be moved 
by a spirit of good-will, it is meant, that just such 
love as filled the bosom of the Saviour should in- 
flame him ; that, just such blessings as Christ pur- 
chased by his death, he yearns to convey to men. It 
means, that he is so in harmony with Christ in his 
heart, that he burns with desire to persuade men to 
be reconciled to God, through the blood of the Lamb. 
How exalted this benevolence is ; how different from 



Good-will to Men, 29 

the ordinary exercises of good-will ; how distinct will 
be the efforts to which it impels, how immeasurable 
the blessings to which it invites, is readily seen. It 
is indeed only saying that in every minister of Christ 
the spirit of Christ should be enthroned. Such be- 
nevolence will give the true tone and dignity to the 
ministry. It will be to it a safe and pure inspiration. 
It will inflame the preacher with a zeal according to 
knowledge. It will render him forgetful of self in 
his regard for others. It will secure him against the 
enticements of pride and the flatteries of the world. 
The absorbing worth of the end he seeks will ex- 
clude the thoughts of his own instrumentality ; and 
his loyalty to his Master will induce him to lay all 
the honors at his feet. For love is truly humble, and 
they who most love the Lord and are most absorbed 
by the perception and power of his love, are ever the 
most willing and joyful in carrying out his plans. 

If there is any thing real in the union of the be- 
liever with Christ, it can never be doubted that those 
who are especially called to declare his mercy should 
be eminently moved by good-will to men ; that they 
should be fired with the zeal of the Master, who 
esteemed not his life dear unto Him, but was strait- 
ened until by his death his great purpose was ful- 
filled. 



^CTCtv**- 



CHAPTER V. 



CHRIST-LIKE COMPASSION. 




IT may seem that what is conveyed by the 
term compassion, is properly included in 
what has already been said. There are, 
however, reasons for the distinction — a reason of 
emphasis, if no other. 

A portrait of Jesus, in which his compassion is not 
delineated, does not satisfy. His love takes that 
form when the sufferings of men arrest his attention. 
Distress penetrates his heart ; sorrow brings tears to 
his eyes ; the cry of the suppliant awakens his sym- 
pathy and the forlorn and helpless hear Him saying, 
" Be of good cheer, go in peace." His sensitiveness, 
his appreciation of human necessities, the yearning 
tenderness which poured out the pathetic lamentation 
over Jerusalem, indicate the depth and quickness of 
his compassions. Whatever in Christ illustrates his 
desire to forgive sin and deliver from the bondage of 
death, is the working of the same spirit. It is a 
faithful description of his life and mission, to say, 
" He had compassion on them, forgave their sins, and 
healed their diseases." 

This quality of the Master's work should be closely 



Christ-like Compassion, 31 

emulated by the servant. It will bring him into im- 
mediate contact with the sufferings which the gospel 
is to relieve. Christ came not to call the righteous, 
but sinners to repentance, — emphatically lost sinners 
Christ offered Himself to save the lost. He under- 
stood the contents of this fearful epithet. His com- 
passions glowed, and his love yearned over souls 
under just such a weight of misery. The contumelies 
He endured in his earthly career, the incomprehensi- 
ble struggle of Gethsemane, the awful darkness and 
desertion of the cross, give some glimpses, at least, 
of his estimate of the woes impending over the guilty. 
How else could. He have ransomed them at such a 
cost ? And how could He have met the demands of 
the mighty enterprise of love, had not a divine com- 
passion moved Him on it to lay down his life ? 

It is difficult to frame any consistent interpretation 
of the life and crucifixion of our Lord, without esti- 
mating the guilt of sin as so heavy as to entail a 
heavy doom of suffering : and therefore counting de- 
liverance from it so great an event as to justify the 
priceless ransom. No other view can save the cross 
from the satire of being " a grand impertinence." or 
exempt the songs of the redeemed in heaven from 
the charge of heartless exaggerations. 

The record we have of the teachings, the mighty 
and the benevolent works of the Saviour, and the 
substance of his promises, all imply that sinners in 
their sins are sufferers, exposed to a retribution, both 
certain and dreadful. It was this condition of the 



32 The Ministry we need. 

race under the first administration of God, to which 
the compassions of Christ responded. Here was a 
prospect on which the Son of man could not look 
without the deepest emotions. Nor was it mere 
emotion ; it stirred that current of active love that 
bore Him through the self-denials and pangs which 
wrought salvation. 

It is a distinct part of the ministerial spirit, to be 
in sympathy with Christ in his compassions. The 
servant should know the work he has to do, and in 
his measure fathom its conditions and its results. 
He, like the Lord Himself, is to look upon men as 
lost, and, in the fearful conception of the impending 
ruin, to be moved for their rescue and yearn for 
their salvation. It requires the utmost tenderness to 
deal with the ruined who are insensible to their ex- 
posures. Their ignorance and unconcern call for 
knowledge and compassion in their deliverers. It 
was because the Apostle knew the terrors of the 
Lord, that he so earnestly persuaded men to be 
reconciled to God. These judgments of God hang- 
ing over the guilty, were the fittest stimulants to that 
energy and tenderness which Paul always displayed 
in his exhortations and appeals. 

No one thing is of higher moment in a minister. 
Without it zeal is apt to be an intemperate and un- 
reasonable heat. Instead, the minister should burn 
with a fervor justified by his conception of the mo- 
mentous issue. So long as to him sin is under the 
condemnation of God, and retribution in the future 



Christ-like Compassion. 33 

a revealed fact, so long he has just cause to be in 
earnest, to plead, exhort with all long suffering and 
doctrine, and to be zealous in importuning men to 
accept the mercy of the gospel. 

To such a fervor Guizot attributes much of the suc- 
cess of the efforts for the revival of religion in France. 
He calls it " the passionate desire to save human 
souls.'' " A force born and developed in the bosom 
of the Christian religion, and in that alone." "The 
ardent solicitude for the eternal welfare of human 
souls, the never wearying effort to prepare human 
souls for eternity, to set them, even during their ex- 
istence, in intimate relations with God, and to pre- 
pare them to undergo his judgments ; we have in all 
this a fact essentially Christian, one of the sublimest 
characterstics of Christianity." 

These are pregnant words. They present a vital 
topic foi; Christian thought. The passion for souls is 
distinct from the impulses of humanity. It regards 
man, and is moved for him as immortal, and as a 
subject of the divine government. It seizes upon 
the relations of the soul to God, and the preparation 
of the soul to meet God's judgment, as facts of the 
deepest significance. It expands the happiness of 
man into the limitless future, 4 and grounds the secu- 
rity of that happiness upon enjoying God's approba- 
tion. 

All true Christian compassion contains this ele- 
ment. It is something more than human instincts. 
Its scope is broader than the field of temporal 
3 



34 The Ministry we need. 

wretchedness. It turns upon a more fundamental 
view of man, than that which embraces only his re- 
lation to present scenes and events. Its object is 
man, in the entireness of his being and possibilities ; 
man in his condition of present and impending 
wretchedness. 

If it degrades the idea of Christ's compassion, to 
limit it to a tender feeling for the bodily sufferings, 
under which men labor, it equally degrades the same 
sentiment in us, if we only sympathize in the brief 
pains and sorrows of those whose miseries we wit- 
ness. The mystery of the cross is not relieved by 
narrowing the force of it to what it may accomplish 
in our present short existence. On the contrary, such 
a view exposes it to all the disparaging criticism, so 
freely indulged in, by those who do not realize the 
necessity of a scheme of reconciliation. 

Christian earnestness is justified by the sajne con- 
siderations which justify the death of Christ. If the 
cross means that sinners must perish without it, then 
Christ's compassion means that his heart is moved 
by the peril of souls exposed on account of sin. If 
those who are to do the work of Christ need to be 
moved with feelings like his, the substance of their 
compassion must be a Seep and tender solicitude for 
the soul. 

Christianity is nowhere more distinct from hu- 
manity than here ; and nowhere is the difference be- 
tween religious enthusiasm and philanthropy more 
palpable. The aim of the gospel is, first, to set men 



Christ-like Compassion. 35 

right with God ; and having done that, the mightiest 
barrier to happiness is removed. But the contro- 
versy with God is in reference to his law. Sin and 
obedience are the great facts. God's disapprobation 
follows transgression ; and it is reasonable to ask the 
question, Can an accountable moral being be happy 
under the government of God,, while sin remains un- 
forgiven ? If not, then to what purpose are all 
ameliorating circumstances and mitigations of evil ? 
If the displeasure of God rests upon the soul for its 
sins, whatever may be the alleviations of the tempo- 
ral condition, the attainment of blessedness remains 
an impossibility. 

If the present life is the period in which the par- 
don of sin is to be secured, then the present life has, 
as opportunity, a value as immeasurable as eternity. 
The manifestation of Christ in time, then becomes 
the highest demonstration of divine love. Then the 
compassion of Christ has a depth, a reasonableness, 
and a breadth of comprehension, which will be re- 
vealed more and more, throughout the ages of eter- 
nity, to every redeemed spirit. We can understand 
something of his willingness to suffer. Though we 
may not fathom the love which so meekly and ma- 
jestically exalts the life of the Son of God, we may 
catch some glimpses of the heart of compassion, 
which bore the load of human woes. Beneath the 
lively sympathy He felt for every mortal ill, there was 
a deeper tone of love — the love of Christ for the 
soul, which is to survive the body, and which is in- 



2,6 The Ministry we need. 

vested with the capacity to enjoy forever the presence 
of God, and to be made partaker of the divine nature. 

The revelation of this love is the singular revelation 
made in the Incarnation. To share in this love is 
the highest gift of God to man. This love, when 
they caught the idea of it, before it was made actual, 
tilled the heavenly host with amazement. The fruit 
of it will be the abounding joy of heaven. Any lower 
view than this dims the lustre of the gospel, and 
diminishes the glory of the cross. The compassion 
of Christ sinks to a feeble sentiment, instead of being 
a divine energy, compassing and accomplishing the 
exaltation of a ruined race. 

When the ministers of Christ assume to carry for- 
ward his work, they need the inspiration of this spirit. 
The aim of Christianity is nothing less than the aim 
of Christ. The preachers of Christianity must thus 
expand their view to the same comprehensive limits ; 
and when they preach, preach to men, under the stir- 
ring conviction of their real exposures. Nor is it 
enough to admit the speculative fact of their expos- 
ure. This fact must exert its influence upon their 
hearts. It is the chief fact to excite those melting 
and resistless compassions that urge ministers to be 
importunate in their expostulations. Reading the 
evil of sin in the cross, and the profound dangers of 
men in the life and death of the Redeemer, they will 
feel their hearts burning within them ; and their de- 
sires will be fervent and strong \ and they will be im- 
pelled to plead with all the force and persistency of 
intense concern. 



Christ- like Compassion. 37 

It is reasonable to conclude that the strength of 
active compassion will, in some measure, correspond 
with the idea entertained of sin. For if the chief 
peril is found in the impending consequences of 
transgression, we must intelligently apprehend the 
transgression before we can be moved by the calami- 
ties it threatens. 

Precisely at this point does the Scriptural line of 
thought diverge from the speculative. The tendency 
of human judgment is to measure sin by the evils or 
injuries* which flow from it, or stand connected with 
it. Sin and evil come to be synonymous. The guilt 
of a theft is the injury inflicte.d. The crime of drunk- 
enness is the swift following wretchedness. Confin- 
ing, either really or practically, the contents of sin 
to these narrow limits, eliminates all the spiritual 
quality of it ; gradually absolves the criminal of 
guilt, and consigns him to the category of unfortu- 
nates. The sense of ill-desert vanishes ; the idea of 
resisted authority is lost sight of; commiseration is 
felt instead of condemnation ; and whatever is in- 
cluded in the fearful threatening of God's displeasure 
ceases to have force. 

It is difficult to conceive of any deep moral earn- 
estness being awakened, to deliver men from sin 
under such views. The ravages of sin have been 
always present, and have embittered the lives of all 
the generations of men ; and yet no thorough, deep 
working compassion has ever been elicited ; no ener- 
getic redemptive scheme has ever been devised. 



38 The Ministry we need. 

These, and all feeble conceptions of sin, hide its 
deadliness and its hideousness by veiling its true 
nature. The malignity of the will that chooses 
wrong i the badness of the heart that tafces delight 
in selfish indulgence ; the stain upon the soul by its 
contempt of the rule of right ; the defilement of the 
conscience by resisting God ; all these are lost sight 
of. The soul's loss of its native purity, its separation 
from God, its incapacity for fellowship with goodness, 
and for participating in the joys of holiness, fail to be 
weighed according to their value. So, also, the pen- 
alty of the divine law, considered as an actual deter- 
mination of the reigning justice of the universe, is 
emptied of its contents. But if the soul is under- 
stood in its true nature, with all its moral responsibili- 
ties ; with its vast capacities and possibilities ; with 
its proper dependence on God, and its accountability 
to Him, as the subject of an actual and righteous 
government ; with a life before it eternal in its dura- 
tion and development ; the idea of sin assumes other 
proportions, and the peril of sin — grown to be mo- 
mentous, apart from the calamitous consequences of 
it here, because measured by the more fearful conse- 
quences of it hereafter, when the soul will meet the 
judgment of God, and reap the fruit of its own 
doings — must awaken an anxiety which no feeble 
efforts can pacify. The same chord in the Christian 
heart will be touched which vibrated in the Saviour's 
bosom ; and those, who in their own deliverance from 
the curse of sin, have experienced the might of a 



Christ-like Compassion, 39 

Saviour's compassion, will, in like manner, have com- 
passion upon their fellow-men, and burn with an in- 
tense desire to bring them to Christ, that they too 
may be saved. 

No one can read the record of the apostolic min- 
istry without finding ample illustration of these views. 
It is certain that the preachers who went everywhere 
proclaiming Jesus Christ, were penetrated with a con- 
sciousness of the reality of the coming life, and of 
the connection between receiving Christ and being 
delivered from the wrath to come, and made sure of 
blessedness. They preached Jesus and the Resur- 
rection — Jesus who saved his people from their sins, 
and gave them a title to the inheritance. This was the 
energy of their earnestness. This made Paul willing 
to be accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kins- 
men according to the flesh. He fixed his thought 
upon the judgment. He mastered himself, lest he 
should be a castaway. He looked for a building of 
God, a house not made with hands. He believed 
and therefore spake, " knowing that He which raised 
up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and 
shall present us with you. Wherefore we labor, that 
whether present or absent, we may be accepted of 
Him." 

Thoughts confined to a brief earthly existence 
would have prompted no such utterances. The 
Apostles looked with a clearer and more just scrutiny 
into the present and the future. They viewed, with a 
sort of indifference, the good and evil of the present 



40 The Ministry we need, 

life, so weak and diminutive, compared with the reali- 
ties to be revealed. They paid no regard to personal 
sufferings and losses^ if they could win souls. For, 
to them it was better to depart and be with Christ. 
For themselves, " they pressed towards the mark for 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," 
and by every act, and by all available efforts per- 
suaded others to do the same. 

These facts give the tone and complexion to their 
compassions, and bring them into harmony with the 
compassions of Christ. 

We are not by reason of the preeminence of this 
type of compassion, to disregard the fact, that the 
tenderness of our Saviour made Him susceptible to 
all human suffering. He was touched with a feeling 
of our infirmities. The sensibilities of his human 
nature, qualified Him to perform the service of a 
Redeemer. He had a heart open to the cry of all 
forms of distress. He was anointed to preach the 
gospel to the poor ; He was sent to heal the broken- 
hearted ; to preach deliverance to the captives and 
recovery of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them 
that are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of 
the Lord. These ministries of mercy are the visible 
grace and ornament of his mission. They are not 
less appropriate and becoming in his disciples. 

All Christ's servants are sent upon similar errands ; 
and the love which is quickened in them finds ex- 
pression in every exercise of human kindness. The 
elevation of the fallen ; the relief of the wretched ; 



Christ-like Compassion. 41 

the bestowment of comfort upon the destitute, are 
distinct offices of Christian charity. Even the natu- 
ral heart feels in some degree the appeal — though 
the wail of despair and misery, full often, meets only 
a deaf ear. The responses of humanity to suffering 
humanity, shed light upon the dismal regions of 
misery; afford glimpses of the better side of our 
nature — some sparkling fragments of its pristine 
beauty, — and intimate, that man can be something 
other than the enemy of his fellow. 

A true manhood is fellowship with man. But this 
fellowship, so utterly broken by the reign of selfish- 
ness, is restored only in Christ. Without this divine 
regeneration, the energy of human sympathy is en- 
tirely inadequate to cope with the malignant influ- 
ences which fill the world with darkness and woe. 
The active and systematic endeavors to ameliorate 
the condition of the race ; to lift the crushing burdens 
under which men groan, and to defend them against 
social and natural evils, are almost entirely the out- 
growth of Christianity. No endeavors of philan- 
thropy, in any degree commensurate with the neces- 
sities of the case, have ever been developed. Christ 
taught the lesson of sympathy. He uttered kind 
words \ performed kind offices \ put Himself upon a 
level with those whom He sought to bless ; put his 
own hand to the work and made the wretched in 
every phase of suffering, feel the warmth of his heart. 
It is for his ministers to do in like manner, with the 
same lowliness, and with warm and sympathetic en- 



42 The Ministry we need. 

deavors. And this is a power in the ministry, an 
indispensable requisite to a symmetrical and success- 
ful prosecution of the work. It is the spiritual type 
of compassion, united with tenderness of sympathy, 
that fits for the manifold, the loving, the delicate, and 
the forbidding duties of Christ-like devotion. 

A sinner, in the hopelessness and helplessness of 
his ruin, by the mere fact of his situation and expos- 
ures, becomes an object of interest. His outward 
circumstances do not repel or dishearten. Whether 
he is found dwelling amid the comforts and attrac- 
tions of affluence, or in the abject wretchedness and 
squalor of loathsome and vicious poverty ; whether 
within the area of neighborhood and common coun- 
try, or separated by the distance and the antago- 
nisms of half-civilized or barbaric tribes \ in virtue of 
kindred with him, and in virtue of the unlimited offers 
of mercy, his necessities spontaneously excite Christian 
solicitude. If the commission of Christ includes the 
evangelization of the race, as truly as his death pro- 
vides a way of life for every individual, the execution 
of the gracious purpose admits of no restriction to 
places or persons. The working of compassion must 
be as universal as the call for it. 

A sympathy less pervasive is not the sympathy of 
Christ. His infinite compassions are for ruined man 
in all the countless varieties of his misery. His gos- 
pel is grace for the nations. His hand holds the 
pardons ready for sinners of all tribes, races, and 
conditions. His heart bounds with joy over any 



Christ-like Compassion. 43 

sinner of any complexion, or any class, when he 
turns to seek life ; and when the followers of Christ, 
go forth to speak in his name, they need the same 
breadth of feeling, the same cosmopolitan good-will, 
the same lively and unexclusjve affections. What 
else will inflame a zeal, satisfied to wait, in patient 
earnestness, by the side of an African kraal, for weary 
years, before one note of praise to the Redeemer is 
heard from its dark inhabitants ? What else will 
nerve to the forbidding task, of delivering from the 
pollutions of the dens of city heathenism, the almost 
brutal victims of vicious habits ? What else can 
enable one with meek forbearance to withstand the 
contumely of profane and worldly pride ? What else 
can sustain the persistent effort to present the hum- 
ble way of life in Christ, to those who by much 
learning are tempted to trifle with the words of 
Christian love ? Such self-denials exceed the prompt- 
ings of philanthropy. The shriveled affections of 
the natural heart, turned in upon itself, are not equal 
to the occasion. It requires the new heart given of 
God ; the new life after Christ, and out of Christ. 
In his spirit, none of these things are impracticable. 

It is all the more necessary to keep in view such 
distinctive truths now that the tendency is so decided 
in public speaking, in much written in books and 
perodicals, and in the strain of conversation, to con- 
fine religion to the relative duties, and to restrict its 
fruits to the courtesies and amenities of life. There 
are undisguised endeavors to disparage Christian. 



44 The Ministry we need. 

doctrine, and to exalt the value of all efforts by 
which society is relieved of moral and social griev- 
ances. The popular religion is not submission to 
God, worship of his name, hope in his mercy, and 
fidelity to his requirements \ but rather a certain 
cultivation and moral discipline, which gives security, 
peace, and convenience, in e very-day relations and 
intercourse. It does not embrace the notion of re- 
covery from sin or preparation for future blessedness, 
excepting as the latter results from uprightness and 
good temper. It does not propose to set man face to 
face with God, and establish peace with Him upon 
the revealed conditions of mercy. 

If this is all that the regeneration of the race, and 
final salvation demand, the work is a very simple 
one. Enthusiasm for humanity, and the ordinary 
impulses of good feeling, are sufficient. 

But is this what Christ meant when He came to 
save the lost ? Is no more than this implied when 
men are warned to flee from the wrath to come ? Do 
these things constitute the sum of the blessings, 
which the unparalleled love of Christ, bestows upon 
his followers ? If so, then his ministers have no 
occasion to bear upon their hearts the burden of 
souls, or to be concerned about eternal life and 
eternal death. But if otherwise, if Christ's compas- 
sions moved Him to die, to redeem men from the just 
condemnation of sin, the weight of eternal retribu- 
tion, and to secure them the joy of a heaven of in- 
finite holiness, in the presence of God, then his 



Christ-like Compassion. 45 

ministers must be something more than moral re- 
formers. They must strike at a deeper root of evil 
than mere surface irregularities, and labor to do 
something more than correct annoyances and incon- 
veniences arising from transgressions. They have a 
different arithmetic of values to study, and a more 
noble end to gain. And this work cannot be done 
as Christ Himself did it, without a measure of the 
compassion which prompted Him to lay down his 
life to save souls from death. 

If this appears to be an inordinate representation, 
and to force one phase of religious truth too much into 
the foreground, it should be remembered, that just 
now, this characteristic truth, by the drift of thought 
and opinion, and the dictation of public sentiment, 
is thrust far into the background. The aid of religion 
is acceptable for this present life, if it can smooth the 
roughnesses that disfigure society \ if it can clothe 
the rude in the guise of beauty, and silence the up- 
roar of outrageous sin. But the gospel is chiefly the 
offer of eternal life. While securing the peace of the 
undying soul it cultivates the highest and purest virtues 
and maintains the best moral and spiritual discipline. 
It treats the life that now is, and the life that is to 
come as parts of one whole. It seeks to form such 
characters here, as are fit to be transferred to the 
world of purity and glory hereafter. Redemption 
aims to rescue men from the power of sin, to excite 
in them the purpose and the love of holiness, and 
then to exalt them, justified and sanctified, to the 



46 



The Ministry we need. 



design 



absolute enjoyment of peace. Such is the 
which the loving heart of Christ conceived, and 
which his life of humiliation accomplished. And 
such in spirit and aim is the work of his ministers. 




CHAPTER VI. 

ENDURING HARDNESS. 




NDURING hardness may be taken to ex- 
press a characteristic, comprehending the 
ability and disposition to meet whatever 
trial and heavy toil a minister may be subject to. 

In the fairest view of it, this calling is noble and 
dignified, presenting the most exalted and worthy 
aims, and sustained by substantial supports and cheer- 
ing hopes. It would be, nevertheless, a childish 
weakness, to expect it to be exempt from severe 
conflicts and perplexing straits. To build up right- 
eousness in the face of domineering and time-honored 
iniquity, and to make head against a rebellion, strong 
in its vast majority, and bold by the completeness 
with which it enlists the pride and passions of men, 
cannot reasonably be esteemed an easy task. And 
if it is a great work, it demands, in common with all 
worthy undertakings, an appreciation and devotion, 
with forgetfulness of self and disregard of suffering, 
so that neither inherent difficulties, nor incidental 
pains, shall damp the ardor, or diminish the energy 
of pursuit. 

To suppose that the grandest exercise of human 



48 The Ministry we need. 

power, upon the most exalted plane of action, neces- 
sitates no toiling or striving, is to contradict all an- 
ticipations of reason, and all results of experience. 
The degree of strength and fortitude required in an 
enterprise, depends, not alone upon the outward ob- 
structions to it, but as well upon the weight and true 
magnitude of the object itself. Great achievements 
involve the outlay of great energies. 

That the work of redemption has this preeminent 
and inherent dignity is evident from the fact that it is 
God's chief manifestation of wisdom and love ; that 
in its interest the course of history is designed and 
proceeds, and that in its development the Son of God 
is the chief actor. It embraces larger results and 
more grand than the visible creation, for that is finite 
and will come to an end ; whereas, the glory of God 
in redemption is infinite, and the reign of blessed- 
ness which it sets up, is eternal. When God sent his 
Son into the world, in the form of a servant, He in- 
vested Him in a peculiar glory. " And the Word was 
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his 
glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth." The Son was the appointed 
messenger and mediator, the representative of the 
Father. God glorified his Son, in appointing Him 
to show 7 forth the glory of his love, and to convey 
pardon and eternal life to sinners ; to ransom and 
save the lost by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, 
and to bring home the countless multitudes of sons 
and daughters of the Lord God Almighty, who are to 



Enduring Hardness. 49 

constitute the society of heaven, by whom God is to 
be forever adored, and in whom the universe will 
forever admire the triumphs of grace. 

This redemption is but partially conceived of, when 
we limit it to the elevation and transcendent felicity 
of ransomed souls. Its brightest lustre is in the 
wonderful display it presents of the profound benig- 
nity of God, the unfathomable thoughts of love and 
mercy towards men, made actual in the incarnation ; 
and in that highest glory ascribed to God forever, 
by all the moral beings who shall have witnessed, 
or participated in, the execution of the plan. What 
earth-born and earth-completed design can for a mo- 
ment compare with this in solid grandeur and endur- 
ing worth. However much this redemption may sur- 
pass our powers of comprehension, in the mystery of 
its origin, or in the vast sweep of its effects, it is, nev- 
ertheless, the precise commission of Christ's ministry 
to carry it forward towards its consummation. The 
treasure of infinite wisdom is committed to earthen 
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of 
God and not of us. 

Christ Himself, with wonderful condescension, as- 
sociates his disciples in the very spirit and glory of 
his mission. " The glory which thou hast given me I 
have given them, that they may be one even as we 
are one. I in them and thou in me, that they may be 
made perfect in one." With what significance this 
bestowment impresses the ministry and with what 
honor it invests it, is obvious. The servants of Christ 
4 



50 The Ministry we need. 

are thus elected to receive and manifest, in their 
measure, the same love of God to men ; and in the 
spirit of Christ to declare .the words of eternal life. 
They are called to all the service, the tribulation 
and joy of this kingdom of righteousness ; and it is 
theirs to be the subordinate messengers of heavenly 
mercy. They are admitted to fellowship with Christ 
in the toil and in the glory ; not merely by their own 
self-consecration, but by the incorporating act and 
electing love of Christ Himself. In fact, a large and 
conspicuous portion of all that the advancement of 
God's kingdom demands, is laid directly upon Christ's 
ministers. They are the soldiers who are to be in 
the conflict, and meet the opposition face to face. 
They are the laborers who are to toil against obstruc- 
tions, whatever they may be. They are to bear any 
obloquy, reproach, or scorn, that the world may 
choose to visit upon them. They are to endure the 
coldness and apathy of unbelief, when it turns away 
unmoved from the melting love of a dying Saviour. 
They are to rise superior, in- their heart-earnestness, 
to the supercilious pride which stamps the cross of 
Christ as foolishness, and derides the offer of mercy 
as weakness. Where the name of Christ is cast out 
as evil, and the gospel rejected as an imposture, they 
are to stand firmly for the glorious hope, inspired by 
it themselves, and yet groaning in themselves under 
the burden of souls who choose darkness rather 
than light. 

So far as thought can take in the issues of Christ's 



Enduring Hardness, 5 1 

mission, the fearful ness of rejecting it, the joy of its 
acceptance, just so far must every minister of Christ 
labor, with a sense of responsibility which, without 
the promised aid of the Spirit, would make his life an 
oppression and a weariness. The same grace which 
is mighty and merciful to save, is also mighty and 
merciful to sustain. He that has said, go preach my 
gospel, — though He has not said, no tribulation shall 
attend you, — has said, " Lo I am with you alway, 
even to the end of the world." 

There is, inherent in the work, a burden to be 
borne and a conflict to be maintained, which impera- 
tively demands willingness to endure, and readiness 
to forego ease and personal gratification and self- 
pleasing. The very essence of the gospel is disin- 
terested benevolence, a desire to do good to others 
without regard to self. The fundamental condition 
of discipleship is, deny thyself, take up the cross. 
If it is an axiom of all worldly endeavor that no 
great attainment is reached without great pains and 
strifes, it must be still more so of this, that its success 
must involve toil and hardship. 

To any one united by faith and love to the heart of 
Christ, and by tenderness and compassion sharing 
the woes and sorrows of humanity, there is no escape 
from these burdens. There is a travail of soul com- 
mon to the master and servant, which cannot be 
satisfied, till redemption is completed ; and as the 
Master was straitened and groaned under the load, 
so the servant must gird himself, and take upon him 
the yoke, and bear hardness. 



$2 The Ministry we need. 

" c Now it behooves thee thus to put off sloth, 7 
My Master saith, for sitting upon down 
Or under quilt, one cometh not to fame, 
Withouten which, whoso his life consumes, 
Such vestige leaveth of himself on earth 
As smoke in air or in the water flames. 
And therefore raise thee up, o'ercome the anguish, 
With spirit that overcometh every battle, 
If with its heavy body it sink not." 

If the fading chaplet of a posthumous earthly re- 
nown cannot be had without resisting sloth and ease, 
and meeting with resolute purpose the anguish of the 
battle, it is not to be expected that the incorruptible 
crown can be won by light effort. 

The great victory of Christ, accomplished when 
He cried, " It is finished," was achieved, in a life of 
unhonored and unrewarded toil and privation, and 
completed, amid the darkness and ignominy of the 
crucifixion. How can we take up the work without 
also taking up the burden ? How can we enter into 
the spirit of redemption without a sense of the woes 
and pains which afflicted the soul of the Son of 
God ? How can we guage the miseries, which Christ 
so fully measured, without bearing, in part, the an- 
guish of soul which He suffered ? How can we 
follow the cross-bearer, without partaking of the 
enmity and reproach visited upon Him ? It is 
enough for the servant that he be as his Master ; 
and if He carried the griefs of a world, and sympa- 
thized in the sorrows of a race, and exposed Himself 
to the indignities and opposition of men, blinded and 



Enduring Hardness. 53 

hardened in sin, with a divine patience and endur 
ance, with a humility as profound as his nature was 
exalted ; it cannot be too much to expect his servants 
to be of a like mind, and willingly to do as He did. 
If burden bearing, self-denials, and strivings are in- 
separable from the work of converting the world to 
God, all shunning these inevitable things is shunning 
the cross \ seeking to make light work of it is seek- 
ing to spare self, at the risk of defeating the very end 
proposed. It would at once annihilate the value of 
this endurance, if it were the endurance of self-in- 
flicted, or invited suffering. Nothing can be farther 
from the true spirit of the office, or of any Christian 
service, than self-imposed or conventional inflictions. 
There is no virtue in austerities, nor in courted 
martyrdom. 

There are, besides the great burdens and trials 
which of necessity belong to the promotion of God's 
kingdom, as the antagonist of all the evil there is 
in the world, and to the unwelcome task of reforming 
those who are the slaves of passions and appetites, 
abundant incidental annoyances and inconveniences. 
They have been over-much dwelt upon by a well 
meant but unfortunate sentimentalism. They have 
had too large a place in the attention of those enter- 
ing the ministry. For the cares which invade the 
quiet of the parsonage, the irritations growing up 
within the bounds of a parish, the sometimes severe 
bitings of penury, and the uncomfortable straits into 
which ministers are cast, although real, are still com- 



54 The Ministry we need. 

paratively unimportant. They are of like quality 
with vexations and perplexities, which other callings 
are exposed to. They should be set aside as of 
small concern, when compared to the great work in 
hand ; just as the naturalist who in his zeal for sci- 
ence pushes his way through morasses and forests, 
teeming with pestilent insects and vermin, taking no 
heed of the smart of the sting, in the ardor with which 
he presses towards his desired object. 

To dwell much on these things, when the kingdom 
of God demands energy, will not only eat out all true 
manhood, but as surely will destroy Christian forti- 
tude and magnanimity. Under a just sense of the 
immense issue, all hinderances will be withstood, and 
all obstructions and repulsive circumstances will be 
overborne, even as the general, who best knows the 
dismal scenes and horrid carnage of the battle-field, 
through them all urges his battalions to the victory, 
for the prize at stake. 

The ministry has its full share of joy, its full 
measure of delights, and as compared with other 
professions it receives an ample consideration in the 
community. It would be difficult to find any class of 
men happier, or to name any service in itself con- 
sidered nobler or more ennobling. All the more, 
therefore, should those who enter upon this warfare 
be willing, self-sacrificing, patient, and endure hard- 
ness, as good soldiers of the Lord Jesus. 




CHAPTER VII. 

FAITH IN CHRIST AND THE PROMISES. 

HERE must be the sustaining power and 
cheering influence of an expectation. This 
is essential everywhere. The question is, 
what that power and influence shall be ? Even our 
Lord Himself looked to the recompense of reward ; 
and He by no means leaves his servants to the 
depression and discouragement of unrequited toil. 
Hopeless labor sinks to the lowest verge of numan 
endurance ; and on the other hand, every energy, and 
the whole force of mind and heart, are cheerfully 
given to attain inviting and practicable ends. It is 
unjust to regard the ministry as a form of slavery ; 
for there can be no exercise of human faculties more 
consonant with the highest freedom. It is equally 
unjust to describe it as unpaid toil ; for although in 
the world's currency it may fail to show r a satisfactory 
renumeration, yet even in this life it is enriched by 
ample enjoyments, and an income of spiritual good, 
more than atoning for incidental evil. 

We are not, however, to look even to the best 
earthly encouragements as the true motive in this 
work. Its range is higher, and its inspiration comes 



$6 The Ministry we need. 

from a purer source. The sufficient fountain is in 
Christ and the promises. While in many aspects 
these coalesce, they have also a distinct influence. 
For Christ is a personal inspiration, and imparts 
strength to the heart which trusts in Him. The min- 
istry of Christ is a service of love and loyalty. It is 
fealty to a master who has won the heart first, and 
with it has carried captive the whole man. It is the 
outflow and expression, in which love and gratitude 
seek to bring honor and offerings to Him who first 
loved. Nothing short of an affection which gives 
Christ the first place can produce the essential devo- 
tion. " Lo, we have left all and followed thee \ " 
which can only be truly said, when Christ and his 
kingdom have become supreme. 

This is, by no means, an estimation derived from 
an intellectual comparison and judgment. This 
elevation is not reached by a supereminent act of 
reason, or by a cold mental intuition. It is nothing 
more than the common faith of a believer, made 
deeper, stronger, more vital and comprehensive by 
receiving and resting upon the Saviour, more singly 
and exclusively. The richness of Christian experience 
is a fuller consciousness of the love of Christ, and a 
more childlike and tender response to it. The more' 
Jesus Christ becomes all in all to the heart, — the one 
support and joy and hope for the present life and the 
life to come, — the more freely and delightfully will 
every power of soul and body bend to his control, and 
we shall live to Him. " I am crucified with Christ," 



Faith in Christ and the Promises. 57 

said the Apostle \ " nevertheless I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in 
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me and gave Himself for me." 

There is great force in the frequent expression of 
Paul, as descriptive of the believers relation to Christ. 
He is said to be in Christ. So Christ is said to be in 
him. The believer is said to be Christ's — so Christ 
is said to be his. This intercommunion and mutual 
property are the terms of a close union and friendship, 
which sinks out of sight all contradiction in purpose, 
and all inharmonious feeling. It is a melting and 
fusing of all the passions and powers of the soul into 
one. It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in 
me ; and then the soul desires to know nothing but 
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and to proclaim no 
other salvation but that by the cross, and to hold up 
no other redemption but that by the blood of the 
Lamb. Then the feeble heart craves no support but 
Christ strengthening it. Then the pressure of duty 
calls for no other helper but Christ working in us. 
Then the hour of tribulation demands no other com- 
forter than Christ making his abode with us. 

It is this possession of Christ as the soul's life, and 
this being possessed by Him which emphatically con- 
stitutes a minister of Christ. It is a relation founded 
exclusively upon that spiritual regeneration which 
attends the casting off all dependence upon self, and 
coming in abasement and sorrow to the foot of the 
cross, there to realize and receive Jesus as Prince and 



58 The Ministry we need. 

Saviour. As there is no other door but this into the 
heart of Christ, and the present anticipation of the 
joys of heaven, so there is no other way into the 
ministry of Christ. All short of this must he defective 
in the warmth and glow which the sight of Christ 
kindles, and must lack that personal inspiration which 
is heartier, more fervent and effectual than any con- 
viction. While to the consciousness it is always a 
living truth, that Jesus is eternal life ; while the heart 
in its intensest gratitude thirsts to honor Christ as its 
hope ; while the infinite yearnings of the soul are 
daily satisfied in Christ, — the bread which cometh 
down from heaven, — there will always be motive and 
inspiration and earnest persuasion on the part of a 
minister. While his faith is firm, his strength will be 
firm. The fluctuations of opinion, the conflicts of 
schools, the attractions of culture, and the dogmas of 
science, cannot touch this bond, which holds him to 
the heart of the Infinite One. 

Such a personal consciousness in respect to Christ, 
and such reliance upon Him, will prove an antidote 
against the speculations, which are warily working to 
destroy all personality in the divine being, and, in a 
narrower sphere, to reduce all religion to the exact 
discharge of relative duty. Duty without devotion 
must always be cold. Ambition is passionate. The 
love of the world burns to a frenzy. And it is hardly 
possible to conceive of a force sufficiently inspiring 
to sustain the arduous pressure in the service of 
truth against error and sin, excepting one that carries 



Faith in Christ and the Promises, 59 

with it the indescribable charm and fascination of a 
personal affection. The profoundest divine wisdom 
is manifested in making the Son of man the captain 
of our salvation. 

It is the host under this leadership which is to 
conquer the world. It is his name, proclaimed by 
faith in it, that is to make the soul-sick whole. It is 
to the name of Jesus that every knee is to bow. It 
is to the love of Jesus that every harp in heaven is 
to be strung. It is at the feet of Jesus that every 
crown is to be cast. It is into the likeness of Jesus 
that every redeemed soul is to be transformed. 

Equally true is it that all who are to be the heralds 
of salvation, in their work are to be inspired by the 
indwelling Christ, and to go forth, not only in his 
name to speak his words, but moved and animated 
by his Spirit, to do his will. All other motives failing ; 
all earthly hopes disappointed ; all earthly friends 
forsaking ; earthly goods taken away ; even life in 
jeopardy ; this is still sufficient. " I can do all things 
through Christ which strengtheneth me." Of all the 
spiritual forces animating men, this of Christ in us, 
working both to will and to do, is at once the loftiest 
and most penetrated by self- abasing feelings ; the 
purest and yet the most persistent. Though it may 
resemble the intense passion of soldiers for a mili- 
tary hero, the burning enthusiasm of revolutionary 
partisans for a trusted chief, the fervor and faith with 
which crowds press after daring adventurers, it is a 
rarer virtue than these, and holds the heart by a more 



60 The Ministry we need. 

profound and steadier affection. For although self 
ishness may not in this life ever be purged out en- 
tirely, in no way is it so nearly overcome as by the 
ascendancy of love to Christ, at once expelling every 
evil propensity, and exalting every pure disposition. 

With such an inspiration it is more easily under- 
stood how the handful of despised disciples laid the 
foundation of the Christian Church, amid perils and 
hardships, and at the risk of life ; how the martyrs 
resisted the frowns of despotic hatred, in sight of the 
fires ; and how, in these later days, ministers and 
missionaries have patiently, and without fainting, 
preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified, in spite of 
sufferings and losses. 

But there is still another element not to be over- 
looked. While Christ is with his servants, to uphold 
and cheer them by his Spirit, he holds out to them 
encouragement in the future. There is a recompense 
of reward. This, in the main, looks to the final set- 
tlement. The laborer is worthy of his hire. 

If this be true of all lower worldly toil, much more 
is it true of the higher ; for God is not a hard master. 
If there is some severity, and much burden in the 
service, the reward is commensurate. Even here 
fidelity finds alleviating renumerations. The fruit 
gathered year by year ; extraordinary spiritual har- 
vests ; the growth of purity, meekness, faith, and char- 
ity in the church ; the visible enlargement of the do- 
minion of righteousness ; the increase and greater 
skillfulness of Christian activity \ the higher tone of 



Faith in Christ and the Promises. 61 

morals ; the advancing type of civilization ; the im- 
proved social condition, and the wider acknowledg- 
ment of Christian principle in national life ; the 
consciousness of doing something in all these benign 
movements for man, and for the kingdom of God, is 
a satisfaction of no ordinary moment. To be allowed 
of God to bring one soul to Christ is a priceless 
recompense. To be constituted a leader in the ap- 
pointed way, of making known the truth ; to be 
associated with all the godly in diminishing evil and 
increasing goodness ; to be a builder together with 
God on the walls of the temple, the top-stone of 
which shall be laid with shoutings of grace unto it ; 
this brings a revenue of pleasure, in the very days of 
the service, -such as is looked for in vain in other 
avocations. So that the ministers of Christ are well 
provided with alleviations and joys by the way. 
These serve to mitigate the irksomeness, and smooth 
the roughnesses, so much insisted upon as inseparable 
from this service. 

The fullness of the promise is the joy at the end of 
the day. It may be briefly stated as entering into 
the joy of the Lord. This is held out to every 
laborer in the vineyard. Not only shall his toil yield 
fruit in the blessedness of others, but he himself shall 
be made the recipient of the highest exaltation. 
For the joy into which the faithful servant is admit- 
ted, is the joy of his Lord. It is written that Christ 
shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. 
This soul-travail is that unknown anguish of spirit in 



62 The Ministry zve need. 

which He agonized for the salvation of the world. Its 
end is all the glory of the redeemed in the heavenly 
kingdom^ and all the glory of God in the sight of the 
universe, when the vast plan of love and mercy is 
fully accomplished. So far as revelation helps our 
obscure vision, we are justified in considering the 
most ravishing, and the sweetest of all the pleasures 
around the throne of God, to be those exultations 
and spontaneous utterances, which express gratitude 
and praise for salvation by Christ. This is preemi- 
nently the consummation, the fullness of joy, the 
mutual satisfaction and united blessedness of the 
Redeemer and his saints. 

To claim any participation, either in the antece- 
dent work, or in the following glory, would be bold 
and guilty presumption, were it not actually the 
declared way of the goodness and condescension of 
God. Even so God teaches ; and even so may those, 
who are in themselves utterly unworthy, be permitted 
to hope. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life." If a cup of cold water 
will not lose its reward, God, surely, will not pass by 
those, in the retributions of eternity, who have borne 
the burden and heat of the day. Every form and 
degree of service will be equitably considered. To 
fidelity will be meted out its due portion ; and those 
that turn many to righteousness will shine as the 
stars for ever and ever. They will be priests unto ' 
God and the Lamb. 

Thus to share with Christ in the final glory of his 



Faith hi Christ and the Promises. 63 

kingdom, is in itself sufficient ; it is more than suf- 
ficient. No known degree and sharpness of suffering, 
which the preachers, defenders, and confessors of the 
truth have endured, are of any weight whatever in 
the comparison. Surely it is enough to have Christ 
the cheerful sustainer and strength, the present joy of 
the heart, and to be with Him in his glory when the 
end comes. 

To know assuredly that Christ accepts the service ; 
that He owns it as done for Him ; that in the heavenly 
distribution it will find its acknowledgment ; will not 
this obliterate every thought of pain, even though it 
be the pain of martyrdom, or what is heavier, the 
life-long struggle for Christ against a cold, relentless, 
and unbelieving world ? 

If these things are the true tone of the encourage- 
ment, and the real substance of the recompense of 
reward, does it not seem almost a profanation, at least 
a puerility, to descend from them to weigh and 
measure ^thly emoluments, and to take the dimen- 
sions of popular favor, and gauge the dignity of 
social positions ? It is not to be denied that, as a 
worldly occupation, the ministry is a vocation to be 
treated as other avocations are, and to be paid for as 
they are. And yet there is this essential difference. 
Ordinary engagements have, for their chief end, 
something temporal in their nature. They aim 
mainly at a present good. They have a fixed com- 
mercial value. They are the means and avenues to 
worldly wealth, power, or pleasure. But the ministry 



64 The Ministry we need. 

has a scope ranging beyond time, and involving, as 
its distinctive good, the blessedness of the soul in 
eternity. It cannot, without profanation, be made 
chiefly, or in any marked degree, the avenue to 
wealth, reputation, or worldly honor. He that 
preacheth the gospel should live by the gospel. But 
this is incidental. It is the care of the churches to 
provide reasonable support, and not the chief design 
of the minister to procure compensation. To make 
preaching the instrument of acquiring riches is de- 
grading the calling. It is polluting the service of 
Christ. Most certainly no one can be a true soldier 
of the cross who enters the ministry with the ques- 
tions uppermost: How much worldly good can I 
acquire? how much personal comfort can I secure? 
how much consideration can I gain ? how can I 
make my life pass most easily? These are the 
elements of self-seeking, anrd these are the rewards 
of secular toil and ambition. Christ pleased not 
Himself. He laid down his life for the sheep ; and 
He calls his shepherds to imitate Him in caring for 
the flock, and not for themselves. " Feed my sheep. 
Feed my lambs." If any are stumbled by the low- 
liness of the calling ; or are afraid of the hardness of 
the way ; or covetous of greater honor or riches than 
Christ offers, they have need of seeking again what 
are the first principles of this service ; that it is a self- 
denying, unworldly service, is its glory and crown. Its 
elevation, its honor, is its union with Christ, participa- 
tion with Him in the tribulation and toil, and also in 



Faith in Christ and the Promises. 65 

the final triumph. Be it so, that Christ's ministers 
are often poor \ often overburdened ; often in con- 
flict ; often in peril, — was it not so with the Master ? 
Be it so, that Christ's ministers are often despised, 
looked down upon, and made to endure the keenness 
of neglect, — was it not so with the Master ? It is 
enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, 
and the servant as his Lord. The cause is too great ; 
the issue too momentous ; the blessings in prospect 
too immeasurable ; the exaltation following too 
glorious, to allow a check and stay from the transi- 
tory inconveniences of time. Christ Himself is a 
present joy, and his joy is present strength for his 
servants ; and the hereafter, who shall attempt to tell 
the wonders of love, the exhaustless flow of pleasures 
which are at God's right hand ? Will not that vision 
be filled which shall behold the King in his glory ? 
Will not that heart be satisfied that will be forever 
joined to the Lord, awaking by divine grace in his 
likeness ? 

These are some of the lineaments and qualities 
proper to the ministers of the gospel. They do not 
embrace everything. They admit, as a necessity, all 
the learning, the discipline, the trained skill, embraced 
in the various forms of culture. Religion is an in- 
telligent service. The lips of the priest should keep 
knowledge. The pastors after God's own heart feed 
the people with knowledge and understanding. 
Nevertheless, invaluable and indispensable as all the 
helps of education are, without the spiritual basis, 



66 The Ministry zve need, 

heart preparation, consecration, and sanctification. 
everything else is futile. 

This age is distinguished for the fullness and 
variety, for the thoroughness, it may be, and the 
sufficiency of its courses of instruction. They are 
admirable, and give just occasion for lively gratitude. 
But they are no substitute for the graces of the Spirit, 
and the training of the heart in Christ-like virtues. 
Let there be no diminution of the former — for every 
attainment is valuable, and adds its amount to 
efficiency and endurance. Beyond all these, let 
there be, in the fullness of a sustaining consciousness, 
Christ in us and we in Christ. This will sanctify 
learning, and consecrate intellectual power. Without 
this, literature, science, eloquence, are unhallowed 
gifts upon the altar. Let a minister live and preach 
under the mighty power of the world to come ; let 
him feel in his inmost heart the force of that eternal 
wealth of blessedness laid up for the faithful ; let him 
be lifted up by the spirit of the songs of redeeming 
love around the throne, the notes of which surprise 
us even here ; let him rise to the foretaste of that joy 
which fills to overflowing the cup of the ransomed ; 
let him be swayed by the anticipation of beholding 
the final triumph of the Son of God, when the king- 
dom is delivered up to the Father, and God is all and 
in all, all enemies being put under his feet; and He 
will have a fullness and strength of encouragement, an 
inspiration of hope, and a consciousness of fellowship 
in the scheme of infinite goodness, powerful enough 



Faith in Christ and the Promises, 



e 7 



to animate and sustain him in any emergency, 
through which, in the service of Christ, he may be 
called to pass. This is true power — faith in Christ — 
a faith which lives and works by love ; faith in the 
future, as determined and sure by the love of God in 
Christ. And of it, it may be said, as was said in 
another connection, " A drop of faith is far more noble 
than a whole sea of mere science." 

Faith and love are the internal forces of a minister's 
life; and the objects and sources on which they 
depend are Christ and his word of promise. Armed 
with these, .even in an age so material, amid utter- 
ances of skepticism so bold, with the atmosphere full 
of the giddy lights of human pride, and surrounded 
by the insolent prosperity of self-acquired wealth, the 
servants of Christ may be cheerful, patient, and 
hopeful. They will not lose their reward. 




CHAPTER VIII. 




THE PECULIARITY OF THE TIMES. 

T is often asserted that the times are peculiar, 
and demand a peculiar quality of preaching. 
There is truth in this. No two periods in the 
world's development are alike, any more than youth, 
manhood, and old age are alike in our natural life. 
There is a growth of the race as well as of the 
individual. Forms of thought are laid aside. One 
degree of knowledge gives place to another. The 
horizon of mental view widens as man rises higher. 
Therefore, what once satisfied his tastes and necessi- 
ties, satisfies them no longer. If this were not so, 
there could be no history of the race. Life would 
be reduced to a dead level, and the constant recur- 
rence of the same forms of things, and the same tones 
of thought, would result in a w r earisome monotony. 

Nevertheless, it must be remembered that the 
changes are not radical, but superficial and relative. 
The fruit-bearing tree is constitutionally the same 
organization as the young sapling. The man is 
only the boy grown up. The mankind of to-day is 
the maturity of the early race. Two things do not 
change : human nature and truth. Therefore, if the 



The Peculiarity of the Times. 69 

end of preaching is to improve, inspire, and control 
the understanding and the will by the force of truth, 
the question is simplified. It is how? not what? 
The material, truth, is ever the same ; but it needs to 
be presented with new settings, and moulded in 
different shapes. The iron of the mine is the sub- 
stantial strength of the artisan's tool. But experience 
and skill enable the manufacturer to give it greater 
fitness, a finer polish, or a sharper edge. So with 
truth: it is ever strength, power — the sword of the 
Spirit — while it may be fashioned more aptly, 
wielded more adroitly, and applied more sagaciously, 
as a clearer understanding and more perfect disci-, 
pline secure its better use. 

Human nature does not change. The range and 
force of desires change, the objects and ends of 
pursuit are different at different periods, and in 
different nations. Beneath the ambitions of the 
antediluvians, the passions of the Greeks, the pride 
of the Romans, the rivalries of the present day, and 
the struggles for wealth and place which engage the 
actors before our eyes, there are similar susceptibili- 
ties and powers, the same elements of mind and 
heart. The wool, the flax, and the silk, which 
oriental art wove into the clothing of peasants, and 
the purple and fine linen of the ancient nobility, were 
of like growth with the material of modern fabrics. 
The fibre is the same ; the texture differs. So the 
poets and heroes, the prophets and devout men of 
God, whose lives adorned the Jewish history, were 



70 The Ministry we need. 

men of the same make as ourselves, and their char- 
acters were fashioned by just such truth as still sus- 
tains spiritual life, vigor, and righteousness. 

There is, then, no necessity to seek new material 
of truth from which to forge the weapons of spiritual 
warfare. It will not aid a minister to assume that 
he has different natures to work upon from those 
which were renovated by the preaching of the fathers. 
It is erroneous to affirm that men are not such 
as they formerly were. Radically and constitution- 
ally they are just the same. The character which is 
to be formed by the preacher is morally and spiritu- 
ally identical with that which the Apostles sought to 
produce. The elements of righteousness have not 
changed since the law was given on Sinai. The 
character of God, who demands our love and service, 
has not changed. Repentance, faith, love, obedience, 
are immutable. David, Paul, and Jonathan Edwards 
were saints by one spiritual process, and the exercise 
of like holy affections. 

Misconceptions are common on this subject. It is 
too often taken for granted that piety in ancient days 
was a different attainment from piety now ; that the 
principles of a godly life have altered with the change 
of circumstances. It is even represented and believed, 
that the God of the Old Testament was a different 
being from the God of the New, and to be differently 
worshipped and served. The terrors of Jehovah are 
sometimes depicted in such colors that compassion 
seems hardly to be an attribute of such a Deity. 



The Peculiarity of the Times, yi 

And yet it was on Mount Sinai, the same mountain 
where the thunderings and the lightnings were so 
terrible, that God proclaimed himself the *' Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and 
sin." 

Such has ever been the divine mind, and the work 
of God has always been one, to turn men from sin, 
that they might obtain pardon, and become the 
dutiful and loving children of our heavenly Father. 
Sin has not altered its character, and mercy has ever 
been extended to those who have confessed and 
forsaken their sins. The graces of a holy life, in the 
ancient and in the modern church, have been the 
sanctified affections of similar hearts, and the persua- 
sion of prophets, apostles, and modern preaehers has 
been addressed to men of one mould and make. 

If then, the truth of God is the same from age to 
age, and human nature does not change ; and if the 
end sought is the regeneration and reconstruction 
of human nature in its purity, by the truth • the 
preeminent object will be to determine how to adapt 
the truth to existing conditions and necessities. This 
is the principal point in which the character of the 
times bears upon the character of preaching. Preach- 
ing is to adopt the style and tone of expression of 
the age ; to use forms of thought in harmony with 
existing methods ; to conform to prevalent ideas 
of taste and culture ; and to be, in all its dress and 



J2 The Ministry we need. 

habit, a thing of to-day. By no means should the 
preacher chill and ex-animate the truth by casting it 
in the worn-out moulds of other days. It is as un- 
wise to insist upon composing a sermon after the 
pattern of the homilies of Chrysostom, as it would be 
to insist upon arraying ourselves in the garments of 
the Apostles. Truth, though in itself immutable, 
comes into new relations. Life, with unchanging 
moral elements, is presented under new conditions. 
Manners, customs, modes of speech are ever varying. 
The substance of a temptation is always the same, 
while the art of the tempter is as manifold as the 
phases of life. In this lies the difficulty of the 
preacher's task. He must adapt his method to 
existing conditions and tastes of society \ fit his warn- 
ing to present temptations \ admonish men of sins to 
which they are exposed ; defend and promote living 
interests and issues ; and urge such duties, and 
according to such rules as are of daily requirement. 
John Knox and John Howe were earnest and power- 
ful preachers — great lights in their age. But it 
would be a solecism, because an anachronism, to 
insist upon doing the urgent work of our times by 
reproducing the bold, impassioned utterances of the 
one, or the stately, exhaustive discussions of the 
other. As well might statesmen and lawyers read 
the speeches of ^Demosthenes, or the arguments of 
Cicero, to gain their causes in the senate chamber or 
the court-room. All that is required, in what is so 
much talked of, in respect to the peculiarity of the 



The Peculiarity of the Times. 73 

age, is found in the exercise of good common sense. 
The truth is given. The object to be gained is very 
plain. Let the most simple and effective measures 
be adopted to bring living, appreciable truth into the 
warmest contact with living, throbbing hearts. That 
is the sum of it. These considerations do not infringe 
upon the substance of a minister's work, or in any 
wise conflict with its essential spirit. No less fervor 
or zeal, no less love and faith, no less self-denial and 
devotion, no less patience and endurance, are requisite 
in one age than in another. If it were possible to 
possess all the prophetic fire and the apostolic 
inspiration, they would not exceed the demands of 
the service. If St. Bernard were to arise to preach a 
new crusade, although he would be obliged to alter 
his mode of address, and work upon the hearts of the 
multitude by new excitants, he would find no occasion 
to abate a whit of that saintly fervor by which he set 
all Europe in a blaze. 

The inward heart of God's ministers in all ages 
burns with the same fire, and the intensity of their 
effort is for an unchanging object. Reformers now 
do not need Luther's harness with which to go into 
the fight, but they do need an equally absorbing 
devotion to Christ and as-courageous a faith. There 
is no foundation for the assumption that the work of 
God is widely diverse now from what it has been in 
other times. It must be in its fundamental qualities, 
and in its aims, the same, or else the kingdom of God 
is itself different, and the moral principles of God's 



74 The Ministry we need. 

government are different. This is not so. " There 
are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 
There are diversities of operations, but it is the same 
God which worketh all in all- One Lord, one faith, 
one baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is 
above all, and through all, and in you all." 

How unlike in intellectual gifts and in methods 
were Paul and John, and yet what positive harmony 
in the tone of their love, in the object of their desire, 
and in the victory for which they contended. White- 
field and John Wesley stand in modern times among 
the brightest lights in evangelical history. With 
intensity and fervor, with self-denial and laborious- 
ness, with earnestness and perseverance beyond all 
praise, they urged the necessity of salvation by the 
cross of Christ alone. They preached with all bold- 
ness the gospel of the grace of God as the one hope 
of life, and yet they were not altogether in agreement 
as to the means and methods to be used. One clung 
pertinaciously to the Calvinistic form of doctrine, 
and the other as tenaciously adhered to the looser 
Arminian. They had no antagonism of purpose. 
It was a difference of understanding in regard to 
what the ends of the kingdom of righteousness and 
peace required. 

To be of like spirit with the holy men of all 
ages, to be inflamed with the same love, to be 
animated with loyalty to the one Lord, and to strive 
to fill up the company who will in the end unite in 
ascribing salvation to Him, these are the harmonies 



The Peculiarity of the Times. 75 

that distinguish all the servants of Christ whenever 
and wherever they serve Him. The contrasts and 
disparities are only changes on the outer surface, 
differences of administration ; and not of substance or 
of spirit. 

The only question of practical moment is how the 
minister shall adapt his method so as to do the work 
to which in his day he is called. He is to look 
mainly to the end for which the truth is given. If 
by it man is to be elevated to a higher plane of 
spiritual life, brought near to God in faith, love, and 
service, and prepared for the felicity of the divine 
presence, it is a felony to descend from this high and 
holy discipline merely to gratify the vicious caprices 
of the times, and please the lower sentiments which 
chance to crave indulgence. Variety and conformity 
are valuable only just so far as they are means and 
instruments for the better security of the great object. 
Food has its worth in the supply it furnishes to a 
bodily necessity. The way of dressing it, and the 
ceremonies in serving it, are incidental, and of little 
consequence beyond the part they play in stimulating 
the appetite so that the nutriment shall be received. 
The displays at a feast are tantalizing and pernicious 
if the guests are not nourished. And so the admin- 
istration of truth, if it does not feed the hungry 
soul and bring water to the thirsty, and so strengthen 
for the conflict and duty of life, and for the glorious 
destiny foreshadowed in revelation, is absurd and 
abortive, whatever may be its beauty and polish, the 



y6 The Ministry we need. 

charms with which it is invested, or the art and 
eloquence with which it is uttered. 

The downright earnestness of a heart glowing with 
zeal for God and love to man will scarcely fail to use 
truth powerfully, though often its methods may be 
defective. The single aim to force an entrance for 
the truth through all obstructions to the very citadel, 
or to insinuate it by every honest art of persuasion, 
will generally succeed. The intense desire and the 
strong will are inventive, and they will ordinarily 
strike out practicable paths so as to go straight on to 
the mark. Under the inspiration of such a spirit, 
the adaptation will be quite sure to be readily 
found. 




CHAPTER IX. 



THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OF THE AGE. 




'HE great mental activity of the age is 
reckoned adverse to the successful and 
S&J, agreeable pursuit of the preacher's calling. 
Whether it be so or not depends upon the light 
in which it is viewed, and the attitude which is taken 
towards it. The strong tendency of thought towards 
particular subjects is liable to amount to preoccupa- 
tion of the mind, and its absolute engrossment to the 
exclusion of other things. A competition and rivalry 
are excited, enthusiasm is kindled, devotion becomes 
ardent, the value of the object and kindred ones is 
exaggerated, and other fields of thought are treated 
with comparative disregard. 

It cannot be denied that just now there is an 
extraordinary devotion to the natural sciences, and to 
the determination of useful results in the applications 
of science. So rapid and startling is the accumula- 
tion of facts, and so bold and aggressive are the 
theories advanced, that science, instead of imparting 
the most settled and trustworthy knowledge, which is 
its true mission, seems to be flooding the world with 
corruscations which dazzle where they should illum- 
inate, and fascinate where they ought to instruct. 



78 The Ministry we need. 

The process in this, as in other departments of 
thought, is rather revolutionary than constructive, — 
preparatory to results rather than formative. On all 
sides there is thinking, questioning, investigating, 
challenging old opinions, disturbing received theories 
and methods, a seeming demand for first principles 
and axioms in all the realm of knowledge. 

In reference to such a condition, two things are to 
be observed. First, That a state of activity and 
agitation is to a resolute mind to be preferred to a 
condition of torpor, and an unquestioning submission 
to tradition and authority. No condition is more 
hopeless than the lethargy of mind which sleepily 
accepts things as they are, happy to be relieved of 
the necessity of summoning the moral sense to a 
decision upon their Tightness or wrongness. The 
apathy and congealed immobility of a people where 
worship is a sacred tradition, and the creed a never 
to be questioned symbol of the true faith, is as 
hostile to all endeavors in promoting religion as the 
sullen and stupid inertia of barbarism. Where the 
mental activity of society is limited to the mainte- 
nance of a fixed circle of opinions in politics and 
education, and to a servile repetition of antiquated 
processes in the arts and industries of life, innova- 
tions of all sorts are resisted, and the force of 
religious truth is neutralized by the hereditary control 
of established ideas. Not so where thought is free, 
and the mind of the community is roused and on the 
alert. A calm sea, ruffled by no breeze, not only 



The Intellectual Activity of the Age. Jij 

leaves the sails of commerce hanging listlessly by th<* 
mast, but fills itself with broods of disgusting living 
creatures. The wind that raises the waves not only 
speeds the mariner on his voyage, but brings health 
and purity on its wings. 

The motion of the mind involves inquisitiveness, 
sensitiveness, and susceptibility. Break up the old 
fallows, and the scattered seed will root and grow. 
Break up old traditions, and there is room for new 
thought. Something good may be disturbed by the 
agitation, but possibly more, that is bad — the despotic, 
the conventional, the hereditarv fallacies. The com- 
motion loosens the hold of evil, because it loosens 
everything. The innovation challenges the good, 
because it challenges everything. In the crucible 
prejudices melt off, but truth stands the fire. Conceits 
that have deceived vanish in the heat, but principles 
come out, like gold from the furnace, all the brighter 
for the trial. % 

In times when the mind of the community is 
awakened to inquire and investigate, and is stimu- 
lated to more and more various thinking, its 
receptivity, its docility, and its power of assimilation 
are in a favorable condition to be strengthened. , 
While the mass of disengaged elements is convulsed 
and clashing, then is precisely the time to effect new 
combinations by such forces as will reassort the 
disturbed particles according to their true affinities. 
Truth needs but to assert itself wisely and firmly at 
such periods to secure a hearing. It needs to be 



80 The Ministry we need. 

uttered, not with human authority, nor with the pride 
of exulting science, but with that power inherent 
in humility when the reverent mind is itself standing 
in awe, and proclaims the eternal Word, in its own 
name, and in the name of the Almighty. 

Such periods are seed times. They stand in 
history as formative periods. They are not to be 
deprecated or dreaded, but to be used. If any one 
asks for an illustration, let him read the history of 
New England for the fifteen years preceding the 
Declaration of Independence, and he will see how 
the convulsions of the times led to discussions and 
deep searchings after political principles and the 
foundations of civil rights, from which sprung the first 
of great republics. He will see that against the 
warm currents of affection, and the cherished loyalty 
towards the institutions of Old England, the force of 
reason and the tide of argument carried the people 
away from their moorings, and brought them happily 
and unitedly to settle under new and better auspices. 
Few, if any, parallels can be adduced presenting a 
more general and profound thoughtfulness, on topics 
of public welfare, both moral and civil, than this ; 
and the excitements which provoked conflicts of 
opinion were really the occasions which made the 
great political enfranchisement possible. So that it 
is not to be at all concluded that an age like this, 
when the public mind is all astir, and the fervor of 
thought seems almost to reach a self-impelled frenzy, 



The Intellectual Activity of the Age. 8 1 

is a season unfavorable to the demands and the 
determinations of truth. The aspect may be, at the 
first glance, forbidding. A closer inspection renders 
it inviting. Secondly \ It is palpable that religious 
truth in the midst of apparently adverse excitement is 
receiving, and must receive, more than ordinary 
attention. Every discussion of the day touches 
somewhere upon that circle which incloses religious 
ideas. Whatever the intention or desire may be, 
religion cannot be kept out of public discussion. It 
forces itself upon the attention everywhere. Those 
who assume the boldest hostility to it are unceasingly 
mingling it in their conversations and their writings. 
Speculations, assertions, inquiries, and denials abound 
in all the current literature. Pamphlets, magazines, 
and the daily press reflect the tone and temper of 
the times, and constantly contain references to the 
great questions properly belonging to the domain of 
theology. The necessity has gone by which once 
compelled religious men to call public attention to 
these topics. They are now either for disputation, 
for criticism, for condemnation, for comparison, or for 
inculcation among the most common themes. The 
leading minds — the so-called " foremost thinkers " — 
are by a sort of necessity drawn into this sphere of 
thought, and think they must ; and they do not fail 
to give utterance to their thoughts ; not indeed 
because this is peculiarly a believing age ; not indeed 
because it is devout and reverential, but rather that 

6 



82 The Ministry we need. 

it is a time when the authority of the past, the 
influence of great names, and even credence in the 
Word of God, are sensibly shaken. 

This unsettling of foundations, and discrediting of 
trusted opinions, is itself a cause of restlessness. 
The mind has its laws as well as matter. There is 
an equilibrium in the one as well as in the other, 
depending on fixed conditions. Disturb the mental 
condition and rest is destroyed ; and by the inherent 
instincts of our nature there must be an effort to 
regain the repose. Whatever may be the infidelity 
and cold irreligiousness of the world, there is that in 
the soul of man which yearns after something which 
can only be satisfied by the knowledge of God. 
Give the soul liberty from the oppression of false 
restraints, and it will as surely struggle towards this 
summit as water, when free to obey its law, will rise 
to the height of the fountain. 

There are dangers connected with such revolutions, 
but there is a promise in them as well. When society 
swings loose from the authority of revered opinions, 
it is uncertain where it may settle, and also uncertain 
what trustworthy bulwarks may be leveled in the 
movement. But this is true : that so far as the mind 
has been released from servile or superstitious 
reliance upon authority, upon tradition, upon the 
unintelligent conformity to mere dogmas, it is in a 
more healthful state for the reception of knowledge 
and belief of the truth, which frames the life in godli- 



The Intellectual Activity of the Age. 83 

ness. Manifold mischiefs may indeed be brewing in 
this fermentation of the public mind ; but at all 
events there is wakefulness, inquiry, impressibility. 
Any earnest thinker and warm-hearted advocate can 
get a hearing. All ears are open ; all eyes are 
straining. There are wonders in the heavens above, 
and in the earth beneath, and in the waters that are 
under the earth. In the whirl and displacement, 
effects may be severed from their causes ; and on the 
other side, those things may be joined which have no 
part together. In such emergencies, history warrants 
the belief that the readjustment will come if the 
masters of truth are faithful to their calling. 

There is nothing so indestructible as truth. It 
may be buried, it may be obscured, it may be 
restricted and hindered, but in all great upheavals the 
perishable is lost, and the truth survives. No violent 
onset has ever yet been made upon religion which 
did not result in some signal advantage to it and to a 
firmer establishment of its power. No reformations 
have been complete, or have proceeded through any 
long periods, because of the easily wasting strength 
of the friends of truth, and the facility with which 
they suffer her simplicity to be incumbered by selfish 
accretions. For a little while the hosts fight hero- 
ically, but shortly they turn aside to quarrel over 
a division of spoils. 

From such views as these, if they are correct, it 
will be seen that there is no occasion for discourage- 



84 The Ministry we need, 

ment in the current thought and in the mental 
activity of the times. On the whole, no one could 
ask for more favorable conditions under which to 
advocate and press the claims of religion ; therefore 
this state of things involves some necessities and 
privileges worthy of consideration. 




CHAPTER X. 



OBLIGATIONS. 




HAT, then, are the obligations which now 
particularly devolve upon the ministry in 
view of the peculiarities here adverted to ? 

Unquestionably one apprehension is, and that not 
altogether a groundless one, that the ministry will 
succumb to the popular dictation, and suffer its true 
spirit to be restrained injuriously by the prevailing 
spirit. This is at least conceivable, for there are few 
human hearts unsusceptible to the impressions of 
flattery, to the seductions of favor, or to the more 
self-originated yearnings of ambition. The desire to 
go with wind and tide is no exclusive passion of the 
ministry ; nevertheless, it must be acknowledged 
among the hurtful influences to which ministers are 
exposed. 

Against such deflecting and neutralizing forces the 
utmost resistance should be interposed. The humble 
but firm and determined purpose of the ministry 
should be not to follow after the spirit of the age, not 
vainly to contend against currents which have a 
necessary and irresistible set, but in the higher spirit 
of truth, and of Christ who came to bear witness to 



86 The Ministry we need, 

the truth, to turn the mental activity and thoughtful- 
ness of the times towards the solid principles 
established of God for human welfare and the 
advancement of the race. " The most powerful and 
living preachers and writers have ever been those 
who, full of the spirit of their own age, have felt 
a calling and a yearning to bring that spirit into 
subjection, and to set it at one with the spirit of 
Christ." 

This felicitous result is gained, not so much by 
conflict, as by control. There is no occasion for 
timid apprehension. The foundations are not over- 
thrown, neither will they be undermined. Courage 
is needed, but not of the boastful sort. Loud 
declamations, hasty assertions, intemperate denials, 
arrogance, and empty conceits are a vain reliance. 
To asperse the characters and motives of those who 
seem to be disparaging revelation, and endeavoring 
to substitute some form of philosophy, some absolute 
science, some dreary scheme of moral freedom in its' 
place ; to charge with insincerity or with malice such 
as claim to be searching into the reason and founda- 
tion of things, can never be wise or helpful. While 
it is unpardonable to be ignorant of what is doing, 
and of the direction in which the tide is setting, the 
ministry and the church ought, of right, to stand 
composedly upon the firm ground which revelation 
furnishes, to stand there with watchfulness and con- 
fidence, observing with discriminating and impartial 
eye the tendencies and necessities of society, and 



Obligations. 8? 

studying with a prayerful spirit to know how to apply 
God's truth, so that it shall be the guide and salva- 
tion of the multitude. To hold themselves aloof in 
solemn awe, or in the ill-concealed assumption of a 
superior goodness ; to utter rebukes and denuncia- 
tions with oracular complacency, is poor philanthropy, 
and worse piety. 

No minister should temporize or utter the truth as 
if ashamed of it, because it is scoffed at or questioned. 
It is God's power, and just as much man's necessity. 
Controversy is not the requisite. If conflict comes, 
it should be the unavoidable conflict to which God's 
truth is always exposed, from the pride of opinion, or 
the superficial misconstructions of those who do not 
discern its glory. That glory is largely in its spirit 
and its fruits. 

It has been recently said, by an admirer of Voltaire, 
that he never contended against the religion of the 
Sermon on the Mount. Whether this be so or not, 
it cannot be questioned, that very much of the 
embittered virulence of the attacks upon Christianity 
has been generated by the arrogance of ecclesiastics, 
and the usurped authority of those who have chosen 
to command rather than to teach, and have forgotten 
to draw by the inspirations of deeds of loving kind- 
ness and tender mercy. 

The qualifications of the ministry, presented in the 
foregoing pages, are eminently appropriate in this 
particular exigency. To move men aright who are 
already excited, they must be moved considerately. 



88 The Ministry we need. 

What power is there in the service of the truth more 
effective than the humility which realizes how lofty 
and holy truth is/ and how majestic and august the 
God of truth is? What might like the might of 
meekness, which, with deep self-distrust, is conscious, 
of its common inheritance of frailty, and, at the same 
time, rests with profound confidence on the help 
which God offers? Neither humility nor meekness 
are inconsistent with knowledge, with earnestness, 
with activity, and persistent effort. They are rather 
the very ground-work and essence of all that is best, 
and most effective in knowledge and effort, since 
they, more than anything else, eradicate that hurtful 
self-reliance which springs from pride, and which 
always disparages the inherent might of truth. 

The servant of the Lord must not strive ; the 
Master did not ; but into the minds blinded by 
bigoted instructions, and sore from the burden of 
grievous exactions, He quietly, and with a majestic 
calmness of spirit, unceasingly instilled the precepts 
of a heavenly wisdom, and the cheering light of a 
wonderful grace. The common people gladly received 
the counsels and promises, which, though they fell to 
them as gently as the dew from heaven, were in fact 
the repositories of a power, which, in its norma) 
development, was to raise them from under their 
oppressions, and in due time to encircle the earth 
with peace and joy. And why should not the servants 
of Christ, in the humble confidence that is ever the 
might of his own word, go on, casting the heavenly 



Obligations. 89 

wisdom into the currents of thought, there to exert 
its purifying and elevating influence ? Why should 
not faith in the truth, as Christ's instrument, inspire 
every minister with that calm patience, which is an 
unyielding firmness, derived from a source which the 
world knows not of? If Christ is what He declares 
Himself to be to his followers ; if his word is that 
eternal and incorruptible truth against which not 
even the powers of darkness shall prevail ; if it has 
in it the charm before which error shall vanish, and 
the clear light which will finally irradiate all intellects 
and warm. all hearts, why should not believers, with- 
out fearing, or apologizing, or time-serving, use this 
instrument of their final victory ? Why should they 
not, with the confidence of hope, utter their message ; 
with all persistency, vigor, and clearness, declare 
God's Word even where unbelief, or skepticism, or 
worldly dogmatism, or hardened indifference seem to 
bid it defiance, or, in advance of a hearing, pro- 
nounce it foolishness ? 

Truth is not less likely to prevail because of the 
excited condition of the public mind on all questions 
relating to man and his destiny. Paul did not refrain 
from disclosing the strange doctrine of the living and 
true God on Mars Hill, because of the intense specu- 
lative tendency of those Greek sages, who were on 
the tiptoe for novelties, and ever alive with question- 
ings and quibbles. He was not daunted, but rather 
inspired, by the presence of a philosophy so inquis- 
itive and subtle : and braving, in the elevated assur- 



90 The Ministry we need. 

ance of a truer and nobler belief, the searching look:* 
and the cynical contempt of the proud assembly, told 
them of the God wha made heaven and earth, whom 
they ignorantly worshipped. May not the Creator 
and the Redeemer now be introduced to the thought 
of unbelievers ; and while the search is going on for 
a maker of the world, or a method by which the fact 
of the world may be accounted for without a maker, 
may not the learned and the unlearned be taught 
concerning Him whom they are seeking in darkness ? 

Those who began the regeneration of society at 
Jerusalem, where there were no idols, advanced from 
thence to the centres of intellect, the emporiums of 
■commerce, the seats of the arts, and to the very 
strongholds of the deceiving systems, which were 
blinding men in perdition. Their way was the very 
obvious and simple one, of putting the truth of God 
into the minds of men, antagonistic as it was to all 
their cherished opinions, and leaving that truth to 
work its mighty results under the influence of reason 
and of conscience, the force of pressing necessities, 
and the power of the Spirit of God. 

It may be asked, what is there to hinder now ? 
Why should not those who hold the truth of God, 
and who rest with sustaining confidence upon Christ, 
as the inspiring energy of his own word, by all 
means present that word to the attention of men, 
however violent their opposition, however crowded 
or preoccupied their thoughts may be ? Is not that 
word as a fire? Is it not penetrating? Is it not 



Obligations. 91 

persuasive ? Is it not such an illuminator as to make 
differences clear, and to separate the precious from the 
vile? Does it not discern the thoughts and intents 
of the heart ? Has it not reason on its side ? Does 
it not touch the conscience ? Does it not offer 
soothing alleviations to the weary heart, and entice, 
by the spirit of peace and joy which it breathes, the 
perplexed and the heavy laden to come and rest ? 

With such munitions and towers of strength as 
Christ's ministers possess, they, of all men, have no 
occasion to be faint-hearted. Why tremble before 
the giants ? Are they not fabulous ? And if real, are 
they not vanquished by a smooth pebble from the 
brook ? 

There should be no shrinking from Christ's work 
for any of the hinderances with which the age is 
thought to be incumbered. With all the more ardor 
should the champions enter the lists. The field is 
attractive, by everywhere present signs of life. It is 
of all days the very day in which to put on the 
harness, and, with cheerful hope, to go forth in the 
name of the Lord. His work must not be done 
deceitfully. A trembling heart, a timid utterance, a 
shame-faced bearing, are unfit for the occasion. It 
needs rather the settled convictions, the heart- 
sustaining faith, the all-inspiring love of souls, the 
uplifting fellowship with Christ, the prophetic as- 
surance of the ultimate triumph, all -of which enter 
into that calm and patient working, which is power. 

Neither the ministry nor the church can be true to 



92 The Ministry we need. 

Christ if they avoid the issue. If they meet it as in 
the eye of the Master, feeling the power of his spirit, 
reaching forward to the glorious disclosures of the 
hereafter, they cannot but rejoice if they are accounted 
worthy to take part in the great conflict Christen 
dom is now only a name ; it is to be an inheritance 
The new Jerusalem is to come down from God out 
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her hus- 
band ; and a redeemed race is to glorify the Lord of 
the whole earth in all the abodes of men. Nature 
and art, science and skill, the best products of the 
intellect, the purest creations of imagination, the 
wealth of industry and the power of labor, are yet to 
be the ministers of God, and to be amongst men the 
voices of his love. This false array against God, 
this perversion of the tokens and gifts of his wisdom, 
and of the signs of his goodness, will come to an end, 
and that, too, by the subduing and elevating spirit 
of the gospel, proclaimed in the name of God. To 
doubt and hesitate in discharging the duties of the 
great commission, is only to retard the coming of the 
promised triumph. 




CHAPTER XL 

THE BROAD VIEW. 

WIDER field than civilized society claims 
attention. Hitherto the gospel, as a con- 
verting and regenerating power, has been 
restricted to very narrow territorial limits. By re- 
tarded steps it has been working its way .upward to 
a more commanding position, and by a slow proc- 
ess, like the hidden leaven, it has been permeating 
and purifying larger masses of mankind. Within the 
area of its recognized possession and its partial do- 
minion, nearly all its spiritual forces are expended. 
So that, by a sort of conventional limitation, the min- 
istry means the company of pastors and teachers who 
carry on the work of the Lord, where churches are 
established, or at most, in parts adjacent. Treatises 
defining clerical duties and qualifications, in the main, 
describe what appertains to this class of men. 

There is a broader view. The field is the world. 
The earth is to be filled with the knowledge of God. 
The good tidings of great joy are to all people. All 
nations are to be evangelized. A portion of the her- 
alds are denominated ministers ; another portion mis- 
sionaries. The distinction is convenient, but super- 



94 The Ministry we need. 

ficial. In quality, in temper, in aim, in heart, they 
should all be one. 

In this view, instead of the spirit of the times, the 
truer consideration is, the state of the world. If all 
around among Christianized peoples, there is a con- 
dition of affairs and an attitude of mind inviting at- 
tention, and inspiring the most hopeful anticipations, 
what shall be said of the nations upon whose vast 
borders the gospel has hardly made an indentation, 
and over whose teeming millions night, relieved by 
scarcely the twinkle of a star, reigns unbroken ? The 
commission covers this region of dense darkness. 
Mercy is prepared for these lost tribes, these be- 
nighted wanderers. Christendom is not mankind, 
but a fragment. The human family is divided, but 
the huge majority are aliens in a strange land, where 
they hear not the Father's voice, and no sweet invita- 
tions of love call them to his open arms. 

But the Son has come, and his word still resounds 
through all the camps of Israel. " Go ye, therefore, 
and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost." To confine the work of the 
ministry to the narrow section now evangelized, is 
restricting the great commission, and contracting the 
breadth of the blessing. All the land is to be pos- 
sessed ; and the command to go forward was never 
emphasized so deeply by concurrent circumstances 
as now. 

Within the memory of those living, nearly all the 



The Broad View. 95 

pagan world was closely barred against the gospel. 
How greatly changed the aspect! One nation after 
another has become accessible. The most inveterate 
heathenism has yielded. The fierceness of perpet- 
ual war, and the thirst for human blood, have given 
place to the purity and brotherhood inculcated by 
Christianity. Degrading superstitions have been 
exploded, and the vast systems of false religion, 
hoary with length of years, and supreme by immemo- 
rial usage, are everywhere showing signs of decay. 
The heralds may now publish salvation by Christ in 
any nation. 

In these encouraging changes the spirit of the 
age has been cooperating with the gospel ; perhaps, 
more correctly, has been the pioneer, opening paths 
by which Christianity may enter those empires which 
were hermetically sealed against foreign intrusion. 
It is impossible to keep the thoughts away from the 
two great semi-civilized nations, whose relations to 
the rest of the world have been so remarkably modi- 
fied. Every reader is familiar with the almost 
incredible revolution going on in Japan, and with 
the auspicious omens constantly coming into view in 
respect to China. Breaking away from a govern- 
ment strengthened by centuries of despotic rule ; 
discarding a religion in which generation after gener- 
ation have lived and died ; allowing an intercourse 
so long forbidden by the severest restrictions ; invit- 
ing instruction from other nations, in literature, art, 
science, and even religion ; proposing, of their own 



g6 The Ministry we need. 

motion, a reconstruction of society upon foreign 
models, and pushing forward on all these lines of 
progress with energy, with a remarkable degree of 
wisdom and forecast, and with a commendable will- 
ingness to meet all needful costs, the Japanese pre- 
sent to the contemplation of the world a picture, 
unlike anything which the past has recorded. 

But these things throw over the problem a charm, 
a rare fascination • lights and shadow flit across the 
scene, and transform it almost into fairy land ; and 
yet, to sober thought, the future is uncertain. Who 
will pretend to divine it ? Who will assume to say 
how the materials of the demolished fabric will 
assume new forms ? Who dares prophecy what the 
reconstruction will be, after the dismemberment has 
been completed ? what the allegiance will be, after 
the total enfranchisement of a whole heathen nation ? 

It hardly admits a doubt that there must ensue a 
conflict of interests, of passions, and of ideas. Pos- 
sibly chaos and night may return, and the dawning 
of the true day follow another epoch of darkness. 
Certain it is, that already the insatiable greed of gain 
has showed its covetous propensities. Already has 
avarice made victims of those whom the feelings of 
humanity should have protected and helped.' It can 
hardly but be conjectured that all the nations, like 
birds of prey scenting a carcass, will hover around, 
and each one clamor and contend for the best terms 
for itself. 

Meantime, what is the Church to do ? What are 



The Broad View, 97 

the yearnings of the Christian heart ? What are the 
purposes of men consecrated as soldiers of the cross ? 
What does the spirit of Christ in all his people 
prompt to ? May it not be asked, with some potency 
of solicitude, does not this state of things call for a 
ministry equipped in the best furnishing, cherishing 
the profoundest and most self-denying views of their 
calling ; men as it were transfigured into the image 
of Christ, and rising up with an apostolic devotion, 
and saying, Lord send us ! 

All other considerations aside, the true hope of 
Japan and of China, and of other heathen nations 
as well, must be in the principles of the gospel. A 
reconstruction in some form is inevitable. Shall 
materialism be supreme ? Shall the controlling force 
be avarice ? Shall the powers and capacities, which 
discipline will enlarge and strengthen, be devoted 
only to the uses of this world ? Shall. Japan have a 
civilization "without God, and pass from the terrible 
reign of superstition to the colder reign of atheism ? 
If not, then the life-giving, elevating, hope-inspiring, 
transforming words of the Lord Jesus, must be 
allowed to do their part in forming the future. 

Can it be doubted that the truth of God ought to 
be a factor in the result ? Should there be a moment's 
hesitation whether it is the duty of Christians to give 
to these awakened minds the truth as it is in Jesus ? 
The world will equip a host of missionaries to teach 
letters, and art, and sciences, and to aid in introduc- 
ing all the humanizing and productive operations of 
modern civilization. 



98 The Ministry we need. 

There is another and a weighty consideration. Japan 
and China must not be excluded from the problem 
of the age. India with its myriads, hapless Africa, 
and the islands of the ocean must be regarded. The 
foremost thinkers are tasking themselves with deter- 
mining whether the universe is under the government 
of God, or under the reign of impersonal forces and 
inherent laws. Admit that this is the problem ; if it 
is, the problem comprehends the necessities and the 
condition of the race. It is not whether God shall 
be worshipped in Britain or in New England, but 
shall God be known and honored by all the souls He 
has created in his own image, and redeemed by the 
blood of his Son ? If Christianity is anything more 
than a fable, this is its mission. If its ministers are 
anything more than masters of empty ceremonies, 
this is their work. If the reign of Christ transcends 
in benignity all other conceptions of good, then the 
highest service to which the human intellect and 
heart can be devoted, is the extension and establish- 
ment of the kingdom of righteousness, and peace 
and joy in the Holy Ghost. A ministry for this age 
which comprehends its vocation, is a ministry fitted 
for this broad enterprise, and ready for the Master's 
work wherever the call is heard. Mankind is the 
object of its regard and its hope. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE PRIVILEGE. 




ANOTHER inquiry forces itself upon the 
mind. Whence are to come the men who 
will go forward in the benign enterprise of 
converting the world to Christ? Neither our im- 
agination, nor our thought, is able to comprehend the 
fullness of the proposition. Only He whose infinite 
love submitted to infinite self-denials, that He might 
renew into the image of the Father the lost race, and 
lift it to the enjoyment of unspeakable and unfading 
glories through eternity, can measure it. Wellnigh 
does the momentous truth paralyze us, as it flashes 
upon the mind, that the vast result hinges upon 
human efforts. Man is God's angel of mercy to his 
fellow ; man is the minister of infinite good to the 
wretched. Humanity regenerate, and transfused 
with the love of the Son of Man, is the agency 
whereby humanity is to be lifted up to share the 
benediction and the presence of God the Father. 

It may with propriety be asked who is sufficient 
for these things? No answer could be given, did 
not the divine condescension write the all-sufficing 
response, My grace is sufficient for thee. The under- 



ioo The Ministry we need. 

taking would be as preposterous, as it has often been 
declared to be, by those who take counsel only of 
flesh and sense. But when, to the fact that man in 
his feebleness is ordained to this work, it is added, 
that he goes forth in the might of the divine Spirit 
to accomplish God's chosen purpose, the great moun- 
tain becomes a plain. The eyes of the lonely and 
timid servant are opened, and he is surrounded with 
chariots and horses of fire. The presence of Christ 
with his ministers dissipates fear, and gives strength 
for every emergency. 

To assume the weighty responsibility of the minis- 
try is not arrogance, if it be done under the leadings 
of that faith and love which are the inspiration of 
Christ's disciples. If the heart is penetrated and 
possessed by the Spirit of Christ, it will pass with 
spontaneous eagerness into his work. In proportion 
to the vigor of love and gratitude there will be a 
^yearning to advance the glory of the Redeemer. Not 
always will this inward force determine those who 
feel it to be ministers or missionaries. The range of 
Christian service is wide, and its forms are manifold. 
There is enough in any walk of life, and with any 
type of fitness, to engage the energies of all who will 
enter the vineyard. It is the same spirit working 
within both to will and to do, and doing the will of 
God must ever be not merely the law, but the life 
of discipleship. 

If every service to a right heart is an offering of 
love and a joy, it may safely be said, that the specific 



The Privilege. IOI 

work of the ministry is a high privilege. As such it 
should be contemplated. Not must I, but may I, 
enter this service. If there is fitness in respect to 
physical and mental qualities ; the adaptations of 
make and temperament ; the requisite culture and 
intellectual discipline ; if there are spiritual longings, 
promptings of heart, yearnings of soul, for useful- 
ness ; if there is a hungering and thirsting to do the 
will of God, and to advance the interests of his king- 
dom, which is the normal condition of living disci- 
pleship, the question of the ministry is reduced very 
much to one of circumstances and possibilities. 

The desire and aim being single and sincere, it 
must be decided whether the work of the ministry 
can, under existing circumstances, be wisely and 
hopefully undertaken ; whether it presents a more 
promising prospect of usefulness than other methods ; 
whether it is more congenial, and takes hold more 
powerfully upon the affections ; whether it commands, 
with a somewhat irresistible persuasion, the assent 
of the heart, and moves with an inspiration by it to 
achieve a work for the glory of God and the best 
welfare of men. In fine, do all these qualities and 
antecedents concur with a solemn conviction, and 
a joyful sense, that in his Providence, and by the 
grace of his Spirit, God is saying, This is the way ; 
walk ye in it. 

He that desireth the office of a bishop desireth a 
good work. Whoever stands ready to go and preach 
the gospel wherever God may send him, is enlisted in 
a noble undertaking. 



102 The Ministry we need. 

From suggestions which have been already made, 
and from a multitude of others which will readily 
occur, the demand for ministers at the' present day is 
strong and urgent. Human enterprises, are pressed 
with unaccustomed energy. The race for wealth and 
honors is run with accelerated velocity. Fortunes 
are accumulated with magical skill. Gratifications 
wait upon every passion, and every fancy is fed to 
satiety. Devotion to learning progresses in harmony 
with the increase of lower accumulations. Academies 
and colleges are crowded with young men eager to 
equip themselves for the strife. The more promising 
business avenues are thronged with excited com- 
petitors. The lucrative and honorable professions 
invite the studious and the intellectual to rarer con- 
flicts, where discipline and culture win envied laurels. 
The duty to carry forward the civilizing processes 
of the age, to develop the world's resources, and 
multiply its means and capacities, should not be 
undervalued. The command to replenish the earth 
and subdue it, was given of old, and has not been 
repealed. 

But is there not a progress higher in its nature, 
and a more noble elevation to be attained, than such 
uses of faculty and power indicate ? When the sub- 
ject comes home to the Christian heart, and is 
weighed with seriousness under the light which comes 
to us in the revelations of God, is there not a more 
commanding claim presented to us, in the necessities 
and prospective benefits of the kingdom of Christ ? 



The Privilege. 103 

It would be an ungenerous, as well as an unjust 
judgment, to conclude, that the highest examples of 
piety, and the spiritual zeal which is inventive and 
fruitful in the service of religion, are found only in 
the ranks of the ministry. It can hardly be so ; nor 
should it be. The vitality and efficiency of the 
Church is exhibited in the earnestness and energy of 
a multitude of Christians single-eyed, self-forgetful, 
consecrated, who are giving the clearest illustrations 
of godliness by living for Christ, while they dis- 
charge with manly fidelity every social and civil duty. 
Such men constitute the strength of the Church. 
They are the salt of the earth. They diffuse purity 
into the very midst of corruption, and maintain 
integrity in the face of the duplicity and sharp practice 
of the market. They demonstrate unselfishness by 
their high and generous aims ; show what love to 
man is by the exercise of it ; and prove what religion 
can do in producing true uprightness, trustworthiness, 
godliness, and superiority to the questionable prin- 
ciples of the world without going out of the world. 
Conspicuous are the instances in which the finest 
demonstration of the Spirit, and aim of the gospel, 
and devotion to the true welfare of society are found, 
in men and women, who abide in the calling in which 
they are called, or who elect their vocation under 
the force of the social circumstances in which they 
are placed. 

When it is said that the disciples of Christ are 
commissioned to spread the gospel over the globe, all 



104 The Ministry we need. 

disciples are included ; and all, within their sphere, 
and according to their capacity, are responsible. 
Much of the burden must rest upon those who have 
also to bear the burden of secular avocations. The 
world and Christ are brought face to face in this age. 
The conflict is more open — -friends and foes are 
more sharply defined. The division goes down 
through all ranks in society. The speculations of 
the study and the laboratory reappear in the work- 
shop ; and boldness of aggression, laxity of opinion, 
and license of practice, must be openly met by the 
well-established integrity and clear faith of those, 
whose religion shapes, not their carefully settled 
opinions only, but their daily conduct. Hence it is, 
that in Christian lands a wide field is opened for 
earnest service on the part of all believers. Not 
only men of business of every description can be at 
work for God, but all the professions are avenues 
and stand-points eminently adapted to successful 
religious effort. While our colleges are providing 
highly educated minds for important posts of honor 
and influence, it is of incalculable moment, that 
those who occupy these positions should be consistent 
and effective Christian men. In securing the rapid 
advances of truth, all the working force, available 
from these sources, should be drawn into the service. 
Every disciple should be an enlisted soldier. There 
is something to be done over against every man's 
house, which will tell upon the final result. 

Giving, then, all the weight to these considerations 



The Privilege. 105 

which they deserve, it still is true that the movement 
for the world's redemption must have its appointed 
leaders. The church cannot dispense with its min- 
isters ; missionaries must be sent to the heathen. 
" How, then, shall they call on Him in whom they have 
not believed ? and how shall they believe in Him of 
whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear 
without a preacher? and how shall they preach ex- 
cept they be sent ? " And then, as if the Apostle's 
mind caught a new glow of inspiration as he thought 
of the blessedness of the mission, he adds, " How 
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel 
of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things ! " 
This is the motto emblazoned on every banner which 
is carried forth by the servants of the Lord. The 
service of Christ calls for standard-bearers. And 
why should not the call be answered with alacrity? 
why not with joy and hope ? why not with gratitude? 
why should not the opportunity be seized as a choice 
favor ? 





CHAPTER XIII. 

THE HIGHER CHOICE. 

|HERE are many open ways to usefulness 
and honor, and in them there are noble op- 
portunities of making our life-work illus- 
trious and beneficent. To institute a just comparison 
between these and the ministry, so as to exhibit 
clearly to the inquiring mind the grounds on which 
the latter claims the highest regard, is by no means 
easy. The standards of estimation are different. 
While sound motives incline to one or the other, and 
the results justify the decision, it is possible there 
may still be underlying values, inappreciable in a 
worldly view, which, in a truly Christian judgment, 
will give to the ministry the controlling choice. For 
in this service there is a more far-reaching, more 
enduring, and less selfish aim than any other. The 
scope of any secular calling is narrow when compared 
with it. The aims of statesmen are shut up to the 
defense and establishment of the rights, the interests, 
and the glory of their nation. No one has ever arisen 
whose thought embraced mankind. But one Wash- 
ington has illuminated the rolls of history, and left a 
name signally unselfish, an almost spotless renown 



The Higher Choice. 107 

amongst men of all nations, and to be perpetuated to 
all time. But even he was limited in the range of 
his effort to his native land ; to the beneficence of 
her institutions, and the establishment of her freedom. 
Authors and philosophers there have been, whose 
penetrating and acute minds have shot out far 
beyond the vision of their own age, and have been 
willing to wait for posterity to test their discoveries, 
and admire their genius. But these have been few, 
and in the widest sweep of their discursive thought, 
and in their highest flights, they were bounded by 
the narrow horizon of time, and sought, at best, only 
that transient good which alleviates the ills, or enlarges 
the possibilities of a temporal existence. And, be- 
sides, in almost all cases the amelioration embraces 
only that which is external and visible, the formal 
and the relative in human life. Whereas, the distinc- 
tive purpose of Christ's servants is to advance the 
renovation of the spirit in man ; to adjust his relations 
to God and eternity; to subject his whole being to 
principles as unchangeable as the Divine Nature, and 
to elevate him to a happiness as lasting as his exist- 
ence. 

This process, in its bearings upon the temporal 
condition, has a profound worth. It is really the 
elevating and ennobling process. Whoever does 
Christ's work is toiling directly to restore to man 
both his manhood and his brotherhood. What other 
force excepting the spirit of Christ in the human 
heart, can combine in actual unity and fellowship, the 



108 The Ministry we need, 

hostile and hating, who, in all times, have been prey- 
ing upon one another? To what region can we 
look and see the harmony of family ties and mutual 
interests? Is not selfishness in man everywhere 
the motive for exclusiveness ? Do not cliques and 
clans, feuds and factions, petty tyrannies and huge 
despotisms, mean frauds and unscrupulous encroach- 
ments, alike rend and divide civilized and uncivilized 
communities? Where is the power to fuse into har- 
mony these clashing elements ? Certainly the power 
of government cannot do it. For governments are 
themselves based upon exclusiveness, and every 
nation is struggling to secure for itself the widest 
power and the greatest renown. Certainly knowledge 
cannot do it. For the evil is not a fruit of ignorance, 
and knowledge only informs the understanding. 
The cultivated nations have not been less selfish than 
the rude. A painted savage who starts on the war- 
path, his heart burning with hate, and his eye flash- 
ing with the fires of revenge, and returns to his 
village with hands reeking in blood, and his spirit 
exulting over the smouldering ruins of the wigwams 
of his enemies, excites indignation, disgust, or sadness. 
The Franco-Prussian war commands admiration, it 
may be, not only because there is a charm in valor, 
but from the exhibition it affords of strength of com- 
bination, power of discipline, promptitude in action, 
fertility of resources, and the irresistible might of 
mind, in armies of intelligent, thoroughly drilled, and 
enthusiastic soldiers, under the highest attainable 



The Higher Choice. 109 

military leadership. There is grandeur in the spec 
tacle ; for it illustrates the possibilities of human 
energy, when developed and wisely directed. 

Will any one venture to affirm that the blood-guilt, 
the heart-stain, of the savage is deeper than that of 
the imperial duelists ? The nations engaged in the 
struggle were powers of the first rank. They repre- 
sent, on the one side or the other, the refinement of 
learning and of art, the strength of scientific culture, 
well-arranged systems of schools, colleges, and uni- 
versities, and the humanizing influence of knowledge 
upon the habits of society. If one of these nations 
is distinguished for the keenest and most profound 
thought on all speculative topics, on all theories of 
morals and philosophy, the other is not less noted 
for the polish of its manners, the elegancies of its 
social life, and the attractive ornaments and luxuries 
of its renowned metropolis. How much have all 
these results of education and aesthetic discipline 
done to subdue selfishness, to tame the ferocity of 
hate, to mitigate the sharpness of hostility between 
these neighboring peoples ? Are the human sym- 
pathies, the instincts of helpfulness, the ties of 
brotherhood, more sacred on these high planes of 
civilization than in the haunts of the savage ? Is 
avarice or ambition any less willing to gratify itself 
by shedding blood ; or injured pride any more slow 
to seek revenge at the cost of human life ? No doubt 
that these huge conflicts are planned with more 
deliberation, with a deeper calculation, and executed 



no The Ministry we need. 

with a greater self-possession ; and so, it may be, 
* with more of what is called dignity. When the im- 
pulse and purpose are analyzed, nothing will be found 
to justify the verdict of conscience in their favor. 

Is there anything besides accepting and obeying 
the precepts and spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
will really bring men nearer to each other in confi- 
dence and good-will ? Is there even a faint prospect 
of human brotherhood and helpfulness in any merely 
worldly scheme of beneficence ? If not, does it not 
follow that, essential as other forms of exertion are, 
the endeavor to instill into the heart the sentiments 
of the gospel, has a quality and a promise transcend- 
ing every other ? 

It is true, that often in this service the theatre of 
influence is a narrow one, and the results seem very 
small. But it is to be remembered, that the entire 
work of God is made up of small services, in various 
times, in widely separated regions ; but that all con- 
spire to fulfill that design, which covers in its span 
the life of the race, and ends only in the perfection 
of eternity. 

In this view some small achievement, reckoned 
with its adjuncts, and weighed in its connections, 
may assume grand proportions. The common esti- 
mate of greatness is fallacious, for it is scanned 
through a deceiving atmosphere. Eternity will rec- 
tify many mistakes. The world may not think it 
much to bury one's life out of sight among the de- 
graded inhabitants of a far distant island of the 



The Higher Choice, ill 

ocean • to give them a written language ; put the Bible 
into their hands ; lay the foundations of the church • 
teach them the arts of peace and the law of love, and 
so raise the ignorant savage to the dignity of a man, 
and the enjoyment of the favor of God. Viewing 
such an achievement from beyond the confines of our 
mortal vision, may it not, then, assume grander 
proportions, and a truer glory ? May not the Lord 
Himself say, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
unto me " ? 

Generations to come will not easily allow the 
memories of such heroes to fade. The seed which 
they have sowed in tears, and with many hard priva- 
tions, will shake, by and by, like Lebanon, and they 
shall be amongst men as the palm among trees, 
crowned with refreshing verdure. How much more 
will they be honored of God ? 

Every true-hearted minister of Christ, whatever be 
his position, whether in the midst of brethren who 
cooperate with him, or in barbarous climes and 
among hostile peoples, is toiling for results of this 
high and enduring character. He is a subject in the 
one everlasting kingdom. He is a builder upon the 
one imperishable foundation. His work, if never 
vindicated in this life, will be approved in the life to 
come. Not a nerve is strained ; not a pulse beats ; 
not an impulse is felt ; not a sacrifice is made ; not a 
pain is endured, but it is taken up into that mighty 
current of love which is destined to bless the whole 



112 



'The Ministry we need. 



earth with peace, and make heaven vocal with halle- 
lujahs. Not one voice raised amid the din of the 
world for Immanuel will be lost. Not one laborer, 
however unhonored or unknown he may have been 
on earth, shall fail of the final exaltation. 





CHAPTER XIV. 

CONCLUSION. 

jHE future of the race, and the prospects of 
the nations most highly civilized, excite in 
all active minds an intense interest. Is the 
race to make advances ? Are polished and cultivated 
peoples to enjoy the fruits of a more thorough intel- 
lectual and social development? Are the comforts 
and privileges of life to be expanded and held by 
surer safeguards ? Are the boundaries of organized 
society, and the dominion of free and just govern- 
ments, to be extended over the portions of the world 
still under the rule of despotism, or sunk in barbaric 
chaos ? Are the rights of man to be held in greater 
respect, and the obligations of men to one another to 
be more faithfully performed ? Are the fundamental 
principles of morality to become the practical rule 
in society, so that integrity, uprightness, truth, and 
honor shall be the prevailing ornaments of all con- 
ditions and classes? Are the higher virtues of 
fraternity and fellowship, good-will and helpfulness, 
to add their grace and glory to humanity? Is the 
true relation between God and man ever to be 
realized, so that men shall delight in the reverence 

8 



U4 The Ministry we ?ieed. 

and worship of their Father in heaven, and be satis- 
fied with the enjoyment of his present and promised 
favor ? Is the law of God ever to become supreme, 
and the reign of peace to be established on earth ? 

These questions cover a wide range, but 'they 
embrace nothing which does not properly belong to 
the possible elevation of the race. They are parts of 
no Utopian scheme, but commend themselves to the 
calmest and most conservative judgment. 

If such results are possible, are they probable ? 
Do they wait, as the growth of the oak does upon 
the slow unconscious steps of development, accord- 
ing to an inherent force following an inflexible 
law ? or are they the hard-earned productions and 
accumulations of thought, feeling, will, purpose, 
energy, compelling an accomplishment ? Is man in 
any sense the master of his destiny, the architect of 
the character, and the controller of the position of the 
race ? If he is, — and no intelligent person cares to 
deny it, — then it becomes a question, What are his 
instruments of action ? what are the powers at his 
command for securing effects ? 

One thing can hardly admit a doubt, that among 
the chief instruments to be used are those which 
educate and strengthen the moral principles, and 
which establish the moral and spiritual law, as a 
practical rule, over the will and affections. The 
reason of this has been adverted to in the outset of 
these remarks. The true dignity of man is unattain- 
able without a full training of his moral and spiritual 



Conclusion, 1 1 5 

nature. The highest culture, and the deepest knowl- 
edge of material things without this, must leave him 
debased, and devoid of purity or beauty. The 
essential element in the real elevation of the race is 
virtue — virtue in its broadest and highest sense. 
This is a fruit of the highest truth in its power over 
the heart. This highest truth is God's revealed 
truth. This truth, to become a working force, must 
be believed. Its potency is developed in us, and 
energizes us, just in proportion to our convictions. 
It is for this reason that the ministry becomes the 
highest office of the human intellect; for it is the 
appointed work of the ministry to wield the truth 
— this mighty God-ordained instrument — for the 
renovation of man, and his highest and noblest 
advancement. 

All that has been said thus far is based upon the 
fact that the welfare of the soul, and the dominion 
of righteousness and peace, depend upon the truth of 
God made a living force in the heart ; and that this 
is accomplished mainly by preaching the word with 
the promised blessing of the Spirit. 

The appeal in behalf of the ministry, is simply an 
appeal to educated, self-denying, benevolent men to 
bend their energies into this line of effort. This is 
the call of humanity ; this is the call of God. It 
is according to God's purpose. He has ordained 
that his great design should be accomplished by 
human activity. It is the highest conception of the 
use of our powers. It brings man as an actor into 



n6 The Ministry we need. 

the divine scheme, not as a blind force, but with the 
consciousness of spiritual freedom, and the joy of 
a loving heart. The object of this work, in the 
language of the Bible, is the kingdom of God — a 
kingdom in which God reigns, not as in nature over 
impassive elements, but over spiritual beings, whose 
obedience is free, and whose loyalty is love. The 
divine method has ever been to establish his sceptre 
over the hearts of his subjects, and then inspire the 
willing with zeal for his glory, and the extension of 
4iis dominion. 

The only consecutive history which presents the 
progress of mankind, in accordance with a fixed 
idea, is what President Edwards denominates " The 
History of Redemption." It is not the history of 
an organization, like an empire having a territorial 
existence, and managed by its special officers, vested 
with definite powers. It is a spiritual kingdom in 
which God is ruling, and by his truth carrying for- • 
ward his eternal purposes ; and all are its subjects 
in any nation or age, who are, in the belief of the 
truth, loyal to God. 

The plan of God has included human services. 
The old lawgiver, and the leaders who followed 
him ; the company of the prophets and holy men ; 
the Apostles and the ministers of the word, have 
constituted the unbroken line by whom God has been 
developing and extending this kingdom. The Spirit 
has touched the heart, now of one, and now of 
another. The inward fire has kindled the intellect, 



Conclusion, 117 

and brought the power of thought and feeling into 
the work. Outward providences have conspired with 
these spiritual ministries. The building has been 
going up stone by stone. One generation has fulfilled 
its task, and passed away ; another has followed ; 
and all have been raising the walls of the eternal 
temple, whose foundation is the rock Christ Jesus. 

The process is to be continued. Wickedness is 
not always to sit in the high places of power and 
sway its malign sceptre over the earth. Righteous- 
ness is to be exalted, and man is to be redeemed. 

The work deserves and will afford scope for the 
highest endowments and the best trained energies. 
It should have the very best men, men competent in 
intellect and competent in heart. There is no occa- 
sion to shrink from the service of the ministry from 
an apprehension that it is ignoble. Can any mortal 
look down upon a service in which the Son of God 
has gone before him? Is there any splendor of 
attainment, or any power of mind, too exalted to be 
devoted to the ends for which Christ gave his life ? 
Is it not enough, for any aspiration, to follow such a 
leader in so glorious an enterprise ? Humility may 
tremble at the venture, but it can be nothing short 
of pride that spurns the offer. Furthermore, there 
are very impressive considerations suggested by the 
outward aspects of the work itself. From what has 
been attained, and what is reasonably attainable, 
appeals are pressed upon us. 

The urgency proceeds from the magnitude of the 



Ii8 The Ministry we need. 

enterprise. Its proportions are imposing, whether 
we consider the vastness of its extent or the great- 
ness of its results. The Christianization of the world, 
and the salvation of the race, are the narrowest 
limits that can be assigned to it. The contents of 
this proposition can only be approximately estimated 
by weighing the known effects of the gospel. Can 
any candid observer fail to see that the degree of 
order, security, and welfare exhibited in the cities 
of this land, is an undoubted resultant of existing 
religious institutions ? The majority, it may be, are 
not reached by the benign influence. A huge aggre- 
gate of depraved mind persistently resists the law of 
God, and revels in impious freedom. What holds in 
check this terrible power ? On what do we rely, 
that it shall not roll its desolating wave over the 
entire community ? One of two things — moral force, 
that disarms by changing the intention ; or physical 
force, which is the law of the strongest. It is clearly 
a choice between the gospel and the bayonet. We 
can test our estimate of the worth of the gospel as 
the palladium of our safety and peace, by asking, 
What would be the result, if at once, in the commer- 
cial metropolis of the nation, every vestige of a 
religious organization should be swept away, the 
Bible banished, and the Sabbath abolished ? Would 
life be endurable ? 

It is a common belief that the permanence of our 
government depends upon the virtue of the people. 
But virtue is not a self-growth. The centuries of 



Conclusion. 119 

experiment have failed to prove that it is a plant 
indigenous in the soil of the human heart. Thus far, 
notwithstanding its restricted limits, righteousness 
has been the conservative element. We owe to it 
our strength. But there is now within our borders 
a race just emancipated from a bondage which for 
generations has been cheating it of its birthright, and 
defrauding it of its opportunities. These millions, 
now citizens, are left intellectually ignorant, morally 
degraded ; the victims of sensuality and superstition. 
Does any patriot feel willing to allow them to remain 
without the formative influence of knowledge, and 
the purifying influence of religion ? Does not the 
dullest mind see that they would become a fatal 
gangrene in the state ? 

In respect to these views there can be no differ- 
ence of opinion. The preeminence of this nation, 
the foundations of its order, its rapid advancement, 
its high civilization, rest upon its widely diffused 
morality ; and its morality is a growth of its religious 
institutions. 

If now the gospel is a refining and conserving 
power here, absolutely essential in our estimation, is 
it not a necessity everywhere ? Can the vast tracts 
over which the government of Russia spreads, ever 
contain a population which can vie with that of the 
British Isles in refinement, in purity, in moral worth, 
in mental development, in the conditions which 
adorn society, without the all-pervading and elevating 
influence of the gospel in the hearts of its people ? 



120 The Ministry we need. 

Can India reach its possible manhood by any other 
means ? Can Africa otherwise be emancipated from 
its ages of inhumanity and darkness ? 

If the gospel is the essential transforming agency, 
equally the hope of our own country and the hope of 
all nations, we can at least arrive at a comparative 
estimate of its importance. We have the means of 
knowing something of the grandeur of the enterprise 
of building up the kingdom of Christ. 

All this may be denominated the secular view. 
There are more profound results. The gospel is the 
wisdom of God, and the power of God unto salvation. 
Here we touch a theme which baffles our compre- 
hension. Feebly, at best, do we realize its depth and 
height. All the momentous interests of the soul in 
relation to eternity, turn upon the cross of Christ. 
He that believeth shall be saved. How shall they 
believe if they do not hear ? 

For the past few years the attention to advanced 
education has been rapidly intensified. Wealth, with 
a generosity unsurpassed, has been bestowed upon 
institutions of learning; funds have been liberally 
provided in aid of such as need assistance. Year by 
year the number of graduates is swelled. Churches 
have increased, and young men have been conse- 
crated to God. Population spreads over the vast 
areas opened to industry and enterprise. The call 
for teachers and preachers is heard .on every breeze. 

But if the statements of those whose position for 
observation, and whose character entitle them to con- 



Conclusion. 121 

fidence, are to be relied upon, the demand for 
ministers continually outruns the supply. The 
response is wholly disproportionate to the necessity. 
Churches increase faster than the seminaries educate 
pastors. If, therefore, with the facilities so ample, 
the ranks of the home ministry are not rilled, what is 
the prospect for the destitute nations who look to 
this country for help? Is not the emergency a 
pressing one, and the urgency as profound as the 
enterprise is imposing ? 

Is it intrusive, to urge the inquiry, upon what 
principle the decision is made? There are sub- 
stantial reasons which justify the warmest hearted 
Christian disciple in withholding himself from the 
ministry : reasons which will stand any scrutiny, and 
abide any trial. 

But have all those, who seem to be promising 
candidates for the pastoral office, weighed the subject 
with all the deliberation which its profound impor- 
tance demands ? Have they considered it, standing in 
sight of that cross which has filled their own souls 
with peace and joy ? Have they weighed the ques- 
tion of duty when, touched with Christ's compassions, 
they have looked out upon the vast multitudes still 
sitting in the region and shadow of death, and 
perishing for lack of the knowledge of a Saviour? 
Have they taken into the account the glorias of that 
day, when all the self-denial and love of Christ will 
be rewarded in the completed salvation of the 
redeemed ? And have they anticipated the exalted 



122 The Ministry we need, 

joys of the faithful servants whom the Lord will 
admit to a share in the triumph ? Have they fixed 
their idea of the value of the privilege of proclaiming 
a Saviour, after looking upon the multitudes who are 
venturing their souls for the fragment of this world 
which they may gain, and the nothing of this 
world which they can hold? Have they measured 
the risk of these infatuated myriads by that searching 
utterance of Christ : " What shall it profit a man if 
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? " 

At such moments, and in such positions, the 
eternal realities assume more of their inherent great- 
ness and worth. It will seem a noble calling to be 
commissioned to plead with men to accept a Saviour. 
To stand for Christ against the world, and for man 
against all his spiritual enemies, will be looked upon 
as a great favor. A new charm will invest the 
privilege of leading in the cause of truth against 
deceiving and destroying error, and of righteousness 
against soul-ruining iniquity. It will be felt a satis- 
faction, exceeding all other satisfactions, to bear a 
part with Christ in lifting a fallen race out of its 
miseries, and spreading sunshine and rejoicing over 
the realms of darkness and death. 

There can be no doubt how such motives will be 
viewed, when looked back upon in the light of 
eternity. When the scales fall from our eyes, and 
the obscuring mists of time are dissolved, the clear 
vision will insure a true verdict. It cannot be other- 
wise. When all the glory of divine, love shines forth, 



Conclusion, 123 

and the redeemed are in possession of the inherit- 
ance, the consecration of a life to the kingdom 
of God will be acknowledged the one transcendent 
service. That work only will survive. The rest, 
however fair to earthly eyes, and precious to earthly 
desire, will perish. " Every mdn's work shall be 
made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it 
shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try 
every man's work of what sort it is." 

" Oh what, if we are Christ's, 
Is earthly shame or loss ? 
Bright shall the crown of glory be, 
When we have borne the cross. 

" Keen was the trial once, 
Bitter the cup of woe, 
When martyred saints, baptized in blood, 
Christ's sufferings shared below. 

" Bright is their glory now, 
Boundless their joy above, 
Where, on the bosom of their God, 
They rest in perfect love." 




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