IS EVERY ONE A PREACHER?
IS EVERY ONE A PREACHER?
The mind of man can be used in two ways to defeat or counteract the mind of Christ, in one by restricting that which is enjoined, and in the other by advocating and pursuing more than is enjoined. Be the turn to the right hand or to the left, the right path has been deviated from. Now this is just the way ministry has suffered and been obstructed. On one side it was regarded as outside men in a secular position. The minister is a man among men, but in respect to his office placed on an eminence, with an enforced immunity from the engagements of those to whom he ministers, and consequently with permission for their continuance in them. The minister, in virtue of his position, and not because of his moral standing, is invested with a sacredness and separation from men ordinarily. His sacred office, not his personal sanctity, acquired for him this elevation and distinction. They who estimate everything as God estimates it will soon see that there is no elevation in the house of God without spiritual power or gift; but no sooner has light broken in than [p. 19] we are exposed to a danger on the other side. Many men now, and sometimes women, having merely ability and readiness to convey their impressions, assume and undertake to declare the gospel and the word of God. Now while I should heartily say, “Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets!” yet I feel that we must not lose sight of the solemn and holy business and calling of a minister of Christ. If a man is assured that the Lord has entrusted to him a commission to preach or to teach, then he is bound to fulfil this ministry. And if this be the case, he will not only be assured himself, but the spiritual — they whose judgment is of any weight — will be able to recognise the gift of the Lord to him, and this the more distinctly according as the mind and life of Christ are seen in him at the same time. It is not only that he has an inward conviction of divine light, but his whole being should bear marks of the gift conferred on him. Can such a gift be conferred without any moral insignia? Can I have received a commission from Christ, and have none of the sacredness, or the separation morally from human engrossments which the natural mind accords to a legalised minister? Is it not right to expect and demand that the minister who asserts that he has been appointed and qualified by Christ should exhibit testimonials of his appointment morally superior to any traditional imitation? Should he not make full proof of his ministry? Is the casket to bear no evidence of the value of the jewel? Is the vessel not to be descriptive of the gift deposited in it and which is assumed to be expounded by it? It is a serious question. Is not the minister personally the exponent of the value of the truth which he presents? Ought not the evangelist to be able to say, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds”? “In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses”,
[p. 20] etc. (2 Corinthians 6: 4 - 10). Is it too much to expect that a minister should be in himself a testimony of the truth which he propounds? How is it to affect others, if it has no effect on the teacher? Hence it is said, “Be not many teachers ... knowing that we shall receive greater judgment”.
There is a great difference between a minister now and a prophet of old. The latter often did not know the meaning of that which he spoke. Now we are on the ground that “I believed, therefore have I spoken”. But if I believe a truth and attempt to teach it, and at the same time make no true effort to conform myself to it, do I not in my own person avow the impracticability of the truth which I minister? If I believe it, and have yielded to it, as far as I have, I can insist on the truth and its divine efficacy. And as a minister, one’s power really goes no further. Souls may be awakened through any instrument in God’s sovereign grace, but souls are not nurtured and matured by careless indifferent ministers. The minister of Christ must take Christ’s place. “When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them”. The minister should say, like Gideon, “As I do, so shall ye do”, Judges 7: 17. The evangelist points to the door — to Christ, for He is the door; but it must be from the inside, from where he has got himself And the one who enters through his instrumentality cannot help having his eye on the servant who has pointed out the door to him; and at his first introduction he necessarily bears in his eye the one who has got in and the sort of being he is. If worldly, he necessarily concludes, As he got in worldly, so may I. And thus, in every truth, the one who ministers gives me my first idea of what would be the effect of the truth ministered; so that, if he be worldly, I assume that I could hold that truth in a worldly condition, as well as the one who ministered it to me. Thus the ministry is blamed.
The Lord give grace that the many now entering [p. 21] His service may understand that, while they feel there can be no higher or better service, nor any work equal to the Lord’s work, they may be so true to it that they may seek to be the living exponents of the truth they minister, and may thus in moral power minister to their fellows, assuring them of the efficacy and blessedness of that which they advocate.