REVIEW OF MINISTRY

REVIEW OF MINISTRY

I hear that you desire to know something of the state of things spiritually in these home countries (England, Ireland and Scotland). I will endeavour, as far as I am able, to meet your wish.

I think the ministry in the word is the first thing to review, for surely its order and character must colour the flock.

There are two distinct lines of evangelical ministry outside of Brethren, so-called, the evangelical churchman and dissenter, and the evangelical who has broken away from every distinct organisation, having received the ^[p. 238] gospel of the grace of God from and in the revival movement. In the revival there was an appeal to the senses of men, with, at the same time a presentation of the gospel of free grace: human energy was used to produce a sense of need, and an acceptance of the offer made.

There is a distinction as to the lines of teaching between the evangelical churchman and the evangelical dissenter; the former, while preaching forgiveness through the blood of Christ, is leavened and fettered by the system and ceremonial with which he is connected, and cannot lead his converts outside man or what addresses man in the flesh, and hence, though really believing in the atonement made by Christ, their standard, their perfect Man, even when they do not make the law the standard and rule of life to themselves, is Christ as having fulfilled the law; not Christ the heavenly Man on entirely new ground, and hence they either drop into ritualism, which is their proper terminus, or they buoy up their conscience by resisting the inroads of it, like mariners at the pump of a sinking ship. Now, the evangelical dissenter is not hampered by any liturgy or definite articles, and hence he, while preaching the sacrifice of Christ, supplies what he has lost in leaving the Establishment by seeking instead the reform of man. That is, he looks for a renovation of man in the Adamic state, and considers that all the tastes and abilities of man in the flesh are good in themselves and are spiritual gifts; so that, instead of the truth that another — a new man has come in Christ, it is with them that the sins of the old man having been taken away by Christ, man is beautiful in himself, and that every improvement in society is tending to the spiritual reign of man in moral perfection. It is remarkable how in politics the churchman is conservative and the dissenter a reformer, expecting improvement and progress by change. The saints under each system are different too: under the first they are legal, controlled by authority, and with great reverence for what is orthodox; under the latter they are independent, speculative and rationalistic; so you can see that the seeds of ritualism and rationalism are in the soil where the gospel of free grace has been received, which the faithful servant has carefully and completely to seek ^[p. 239] to remove before the saint can be in Christ in joy and strength.

Now the second class outside brethren, the Revivalists, is very marked and peculiar in itself. The preachers proclaim the gospel of free grace without works, in the clearest terms. They are generally indifferent about any church organisation, loose as to all church fellowship, and have revived with a true gospel in terms much of the old Methodistic excitement, only that baptism is often added as an evidence of sincerity in addition to expressions of feeling. Many have been converted under revival preaching, but not one so converted ever grows in the soil in which he was born, beyond a mere babe. God in His mercy transplants them into better soil, but then invariably they are the warmest and most earnest refusers of the soil and ministry in which they were born. The tendency of this, the revival ministry, little as they intend it themselves, and little as it might prima facie be expected, is to foster the flesh which is avowedly condemned as the source of the clerical system maintained by both churchman and dissenter. The revival preacher asserts that he is called to preach independently of any human organisation, and he repudiates the systems which limit the preacher to their appointment as carnal and of man; but while in leaving these in order to obtain liberty for himself, he asserts this right principle, yet when he acts, he practically denies it, for by his appeal to the natural feelings, and the use of exciting and persuasive words, he, while offering free grace to man as irretrievably lost, indirectly admits that there is some remnant of good in man, on which he can act by human means, and in this admission the flesh is spared, and all its components, and with the flesh, the world, which is man’s work, also gets a place, so that with the revivalists neither the flesh nor the world are set aside and the church as Christ’s body is never known. A revival preacher is ordinarily still in the world, and hence the ritualist and the rationalistic dissenter contrast themselves as to devotedness and ecclesiastical position with much plausible advantage with the revivalist. If I am right as to the above, and I surely think I am, and if even in measure you agree with me,

^[p. 240] I am sure you will see how definite and marked is the ministry incumbent on those who stand for God in an evil day, as the brethren assume to do, and what their duty simply is. They have to refuse the evangelical churchman’s line, the evangelical dissenter’s line, and as much as either, because it supports the flesh though avowedly deprecating it, the revivalist line. The truest among brethren, especially the older ones, who have patiently endured, give no countenance to any of these lines of evangelical preaching. They not only insist on the death and resurrection of Christ, as the only ground for safety and righteousness before God, but that the life of a believer is in a risen Saviour, the last Adam, He having borne the judgment resting on the first man, and having risen from the death resting on man, is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him — that it is in Christ risen that life and righteousness can only be assured, and if this be maintained simply, where is the man for legality or ritualism as with the evangelical churchman? or the reformed man as with the evangelical dissenter? To faith the first man is gone in the death of Christ, and every believer lives in the life of Christ risen out from among the dead, the Head of a new race. If to faith man is dead, there is nothing either for law or for restoration, every man in Christ is a new creature. These two lines, I am happy to tell you, are refused by all teachers among the Brethren; but, as a whole, I grieve to say that we are not preserved from the leaven of revivalism, though many, thank God, are opposed to that line, and fear the working of it. In a way, it is hard to account for the acceptance that the revival line has met with from Brethren. It is wonderful how men, holding as clearly as they do that there is nothing in man that could be turned to any account, can think and act on the presumption that faith or credence produced by any excitement could be divine or lasting. Ask any one of them in detail, and you will find that though they practice this sensational preaching, they doctrinally believe that there is no capacity in man to receive the grace of God, and yet they belie themselves in that they place confidence in a confession of faith produced by human excitement. I know they would not ^[p. 241] admit this, but facts are great witnesses. There is in many a true love for souls, and they have been beguiled by the success apparently connected with the revival line to adopt this mode themselves. Every one feeling as I do would greatly deplore it, for I believe it has the most baneful effect on souls. It is giving to impassioned expression and appeal a province which only belongs to the Spirit of God, and it thus practically — not intentionally, I know — weakens the truth of the power and presence of the Holy Ghost. The conversions are weak and the converts worldly, and because the flesh and the world are not definitely set aside, the general mass of the saints are gradually bearing the complexion of them and losing that of a true remnant for Christ.

There are — blessed be God — many bright lights among us — the veterans, as I may call them, the brightest; but even among the young ministers there are some very devoted and intelligent. Formerly there was more study to be a witness in walk. Now it is more to preach to large audiences without much private study or exercise. I fear there is much less praying among us as a habit of soul, and this is perceptible often in the tone. It is beautiful to see steady consistency and persevering faithfulness in any....