THE GOSPEL

THE GOSPEL

I have greatly enjoyed Luke 7 and 15. God not only delights in saving us, but in having us. Nothing can satisfy love but company. I could suppose a great man driving by and seeing a man drowning would pull up and throw himself into the water to save a fellow creature, and glad to do it. But where did you ever hear of a great man, after saving one from a watery grave, saying to him: ‘You must come home in my carriage and share all that I have, I wish for your company!’ Never - until the gospel of the glory came!

I have been trying to find a subject that would awaken brethren to the state of things around us. What is a “good minister of Jesus Christ”?

I feel there is not in the ministry the character of aim, as you would see in a man of business, for instance. I admit the evangelist aims at conversions, but there, as a rule, his aim ends. Thus the teacher in general aims at good conduct and no more, and I see that certain terms are used without the divine meaning that belongs to them. I take, for example, ‘the washing of the feet’ and the expression ‘over Jordan’. I believe the divine meaning is very little known. I only make this remark to indicate the nature and character of our decline.