the ministerial office. By Charles
Simeon. Isaiah 58 verse 1. Cry aloud,
spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people
their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Certainly,
one of God's richest mercies unto man has been the appointment
of an order of men to be his ambassadors to a guilty world,
and to beseech their fellow sinners to be reconciled to him. The
ungodly indeed have never appreciated this mercy aright. For, from
the very beginning of the world, have the prophets of the Most
High been regarded as the troublers of Israel fit objects for hatred
and contempt. Which of the prophets, says our
blessed Lord, have not your fathers persecuted? But when a dispensation
is committed to any man to declare the mind and will of God, woe
will be unto him if he does not execute the office that has been
assigned him. The words which I have read will
naturally lead me to set before you. 1. The office of a minister. This is, to show to men their
transgressions and their sins. But it may be asked, What need
is there for their services for such an end as this? Do not all
of us know ourselves better than anyone else can know us? Can
anyone be so well acquainted with the workings of my heart,
or with the actions of my life, as I myself am? To this, however,
I answer, that 1. The world at large stand in need
of such faithful ministers. There is, in the generality of
men, a thoughtlessness about their ways, so that they are
altogether unconscious of having contracted any great guilt. they
never consider the requirements of God's law. They never refer
their conduct to any other standard than public opinion. They rest
satisfied that all is right, so long as they do not violate
the laws which the common consent of those around them have established
for the regulation of their lives. As for the spirituality of God's
law, they are utterly unacquainted with it. and consequently they
never dream of their responsibility to God for anything beyond their
overt acts. Or, if they think themselves
accountable for their motives, they give themselves credit for
meaning well. Even where they are conscious
of having acted sinfully, and though their actions have not
been altogether correct, they persuade themselves that their
hearts are good. and that their aberrations from
the path of duty have been the result of chance rather than
design, and of temptation rather than of any inveterate propensity
to evil. 2. Those also who are called
God's people, and who consider themselves as the seed of Jacob,
are not a whit less in need of instructors than the careless
world. See the account given of those to whom the prophet
was sent. For day after day they seek me out. They seem eager
to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just
decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. Isaiah
58 verse 2. Could such as these have any
transgressions of which they needed to be informed, and any
sins which endangered their souls? Yes. Their hearts were not right
with God. They were partial in the law.
They put their outward obedience in the place of vital godliness.
They trusted in their works also as recommending them to God,
and as forming a justifying righteousness before Him. And they even complained
that God did not recompense them according to their deserts. In
the same way, how many such characters are found among us? How many,
who, while they find pleasure in attending upon the house of
God, imagine that, by their religious observances, they shall entitle
themselves to his favor? Now, in reference to all such
characters, I must say, that the duty of ministers is to show
them their sins. It is their duty to search out
for the information of others, the mind and will of God, and
to bring home to the consciences of all a sense of their manifold
transgressions. They must endeavor to hold up
before men the looking-glass of God's law, that they may see
the deformity of their own fallen image, and be stirred up to seek
reconciliation with their offended God. To everyone must they point
out the sins which most easily beset him, and declare to him
the judgments which God, in His Word, has denounced against him.
While we assert this to be their duty, it will be proper for us
to notice. 2. The manner in which it must
be discharged. The direction here given is clear
and strong. Those who have received a commission
to speak for God must deliver their message. 1. With earnestness. Mere advice or friendly counsel
is not that which befits them on such occasions as these. They
must cry aloud, and lift up their voice as a trumpet, if by any
means they may awaken the drowsy consciences of those to whom
they speak. viewing themselves as ambassadors
from God, they must speak with all authority, fearing the face
of none. But declaring the truth, whether
men will listen or not, they must show by the very manner
in which they deliver their divine message, that it is a matter
of life and death, and that the word they utter is, not the word
of man, but indeed and in truth the word of God. 2. With Fidelity. They must not spare, even though
the offender is ever so great and powerful, or ever so dear
and tenderly regarded. As John the Baptist reproved
Herod, in whose hands his life was so must ministers be faithful
even to the mightiest upon earth. They must show no respective
persons, nor conceal anything which they are authorized to
declare, but must be impartial in their reproofs, and make known
the whole counsel of God. Having received God's word, they
must speak it faithfully, they must be faithful, for God's sake,
whose ambassadors they are, and for the people's sake, whose
eternal welfare is at stake, and for their own sake, seeing
that, if any perish through their lack of faithfulness, then the
blood of all such people will be required at their hands. Permit
me now to discharge my office with respect to you. 1. To those
who are altogether careless and indifferent. You may imagine
that God takes no notice of your sins, but indeed they are all
viewed by Him with abhorrence, and recorded by Him in the book
of His remembrance, in order that they may be brought forth
against you at the future judgment. It is true that if you repent
of them, they shall all be blotted out as a morning cloud, But if
you remain impenitent, they will all be visited upon you, and
sink you into everlasting perdition. I have no wish to alarm you needlessly,
but I must, at the peril of my own soul, declare the truth,
and must say, that unless you repent, you shall all perish.
But if you repent and turn from all your transgressions, I am
authorized to declare that your iniquities shall not be your
ruin. 2. To those who account themselves to be the people of
God. I ask not now whether you be self-righteous formalists
or hypocritical professors. But of whichever class you are,
I must declare that God is not mocked. But whatever a man sows,
that shall he also reap. He who sows to the flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption, and he who sows to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Do not imagine that
God will judge according to the estimate which you form of yourselves.
No, He will take off the mask from the hypocrite, and judge
every man according to his works. Entreat Him. Then, to put truth
in your inward parts, and to make you altogether new creatures
in Christ Jesus, so shall you be accepted in His beloved Son,
and stand before Him with boldness in the great day of His appearing.