MINISTERIAL PRIDE By Richard
Baxter One of the most heinous and palpable sins is pride. This is a sin which has too much
sway in most ministers, but which is more hateful and inexcusable
in us than in other men. Yet is it so prevalent in some
of us that it fills our discourses, it chooses our company, it forms
our countenances, it puts the accent and emphasis upon our
words, it fills some men's minds with aspiring desires and designs,
it possesses them with envious and bitter thoughts against those
who stand in their light, or who by any means eclipse their
glory, or hinder the progress of their reputation. Oh, what
a constant companion, what a tyrannical commander, what a sly and subtle
insinuating enemy is his sin of pride. It goes with men to
the draper, the mercer, the tailor. It chooses from them their cloth,
their trimming, and their fashion. Fewer ministers would ruffle
it out in the fashion and hair and habit if it were not for
the command of this tyrannous vice. I wish that this were all,
or the worst. But alas! How frequently does
pride go with us to our study, and there sit with us and do
our work? How oft does it choose our subject, and more frequently
steal our words and ornaments? God commands us to be as plain
as we can, that we may inform the ignorant. And as convincing
and serious as we are able, That we may melt and change their
hardened hearts. But pride stands by and contradicts
all, And produces its toys and trifles. It pollutes rather than
polishes, And, under presence of laudable ornaments, Dishonors
our sermons with childish things. as if a prince were to be decked
in the clothes of a stage player or a painted fool. Pride persuades
us to paint the window that it may dim the light, and to speak
to our people that which they cannot understand, to let them
know that we are able to speak unprofitably. If we have a plain
and cutting passage, it takes off the edge and dulls the life
of our preaching, under presence of feeling off the roughness,
unevenness, and excess. When God charges us to deal with
men as for their lives, and to besiege them with all the earnestness
that we are able, this cursed sin controls all, and condemns
the most holy commands of God, and says to us, What, will you
make people think you are mad? Will you make them say you rage
or rave? Cannot you speak soberly and
moderately? And thus does pride make many
a man sermons, and what pride makes, the devil makes. and what
sermons the devil will make, and to what end we may easily
conjecture. Though the matter is of God,
yet if the dress and manner and end is from Satan, we have no
great reason to expect success And when pride is made the sermon
and the study, it goes with us into the pulpit, informs our
tone, animates us in the delivery, takes us off from that which
may be displeasing, howsoever necessary, and sets us in the
pursuit of vain applause. In short, the sum of all is this. Pride makes men, both in studying
and preaching, to seek themselves and deny God, when they should
be seeking God's glory and denying themselves. when they should
inquire, What shall I say, and how shall I say it, to please
God best, and do most good? Pride makes them ask, What shall
I say, and how shall I deliver it, to be thought a learned,
able preacher, and to be applauded by all that hear me? When the
sermon is done, pride goes home with them and makes them more
eager to know whether they were applauded than whether they did
prevail for the saving of souls. Were it not for shame, they could
find in their hearts to ask people how they liked them and to draw
out their commendations. If they perceive that they are
highly thought of, they rejoice as having attained their end.
But if they see that they are considered but weak or common
men, they are displeased as having missed the prize they had in
view. But even this is not all, nor the worst, if worse may be. O, that ever it should be said
of godly ministers, that they are so set upon popular air,
and on sitting highest in men's estimation, that they envy the
talents and names of their brethren who are preferred before them,
as if all were taken from their praise, that is given to another. And as if God had given them
his gifts to be the mere ornaments and trappings of their persons,
that they may walk as men of reputation in the world, and
as if all his gifts to others were to be trodden down and vilified,
if they seemed to stand in the way of their honor. What, a saint,
a preacher of Christ, and yet envy that which has the image
of Christ, and malign his gifts for which he should have the
glory? and all because they seem to hinder our glory? Is not every
true Christian a member of the body of Christ, and, therefore,
partaker of the blessings of the whole, and of each particular
member thereof? And does not every man owe thanks
to God for his brethren's gifts? Not only is having himself a
part in them, as a foot has a benefit of the guidance of the eye, but
also because his own ends may be attained by his brethren's
gifts, as well as by his own. For if the glory of God in the
church's felicity be not his end, he is not a Christian. Will
any workman malign another because he helps him to do his master's
work? Yet, alas, how common is this
heinous crime of envy and pride among the ministers of Christ!
They can secretly blot the reputation of those that stand in the way
of their own, and what they cannot for shame do in plain and open
terms, lest they be proved liars and slanderers, they will do
in generals and by malicious intimations, raising suspicions
where they cannot fasten accusations. And some go so far that they
are unwilling that any one who is abler than themselves should
come into their pulpits, lest they should be more applauded
than themselves. A fearful thing it is that any
man who has the least of the fear of God should so envy God's
gifts, and had rather that his carnal here should remain unconverted
and a drowsy unawakened, than that it should be done by another
who may be preferred before him. Yet so far does this cursed vice
prevail that in large congregations, which have need of the help of
many preachers, we can scarcely in many places get two of a quality
to live together in love and quietness, and unanimously to
carry on the work of God. But unless one of them be quite
below the other in abilities, and content to be so esteemed,
or unless he is willing to be ruled by him, they are contending
for precedency. and envying each other's interest,
and walking with coldness and jealousy towards one another
to the shame of their profession and the great wrong of their
people. I am ashamed to think of it, that when I have been
laboring to convince people of the great necessity of more ministers
than one in large congregations, they tell me they will never
agree together. I hope the objection is unfounded
as to the most, but it is a sad case that it should be true of
any. Nay, some men are so far gone
in pride, that when they might have an equal assistant to further
the work of God, they had rather take all the burden upon themselves,
though more than they can bear, than that any one should share
with them in the honour, or that their interest in the esteem
of the people should be diminished. Hence also it is, that men do
so magnify their own opinions, and are as censorious of any
who differ from them in lesser things. as if it were all one
to differ from them, and from God. They expect that all should
conform to their judgment, as if they were the rulers of the
Church's faith. And while we cry down papal infallibility,
too many of us would be popes ourselves. and have all stand
to our determination, as if we were infallible. It is true we
have more modesty than expressly to say so. We pretend that it
is only the evidence of truth in our reasons that we expect
men should yield to. And our zeal is the truth, and
not for ourselves. But as that must needs be taken
for truth, which is ours, so our reasons must needs be taken
for valid. And if they be but freely examined,
and be found fallacious, as we are exceedingly backward to see
it ourselves, because the opinions are ours, so we are angry that
our errors should be disclosed to others. We so espouse the
cause of our errors, As if all that were spoken against them
were spoken against our persons, and we were heinously injured
to have our argument thoroughly confuted, by which we injured
the truth and the souls of men. So high indeed are our spirits,
that when it becomes the duty of any one to reprove us, we
are commonly impatient both of the matter and the manner. We
love the man who will say as we say, and be of our opinion,
and promote our reputation, Though in other respects he is less
worthy of our esteem, but we think that one is ungrateful
to us, if he differs from us, and deals plainly with us as
to our errors, and tell us of our faults. Especially in the
management of our public arguings, where the eye of the world is
upon us, we can scarcely endure any reproof or plain dealing.
I know that relling language is to be abhorred, and that we
should be as tender of each other's reputation as our fidelity to
the truth will permit. But our pride makes too many
of us think all men condemn us who do not admire us. Yes, and
admire all we say, and submit their judgments to our most obvious
mistakes. We are so tender, that a man
can scarcely touch us, but we are hurt. We are so high-minded,
that a man who is not versed in complimenting and skilled
in flattery can scarcely tell how to speak to us, without us
being offended at some word, which our proud hearts will fasten
on, and take as injurious to our honour. I confess I have
often wondered that this most heinous sin should be made so
light of, and thought so consistent with the holy frame of heart
and life, when far less sins are by ourselves proclaimed to
be so damnable in our people. And I have wondered more to see
the difference between godly preachers and ungodly sinners
in this respect. When we speak to drunkards, worldlings,
or ignorant, unconverted persons, We disgrace them to the utmost,
and lay it on as plainly as we can speak, and tell them of their
sin, and shame, and misery. And we expect that they should
not only bear all patiently, but take all thankfully. And
most that I deal with do take it patiently. And many gross
sinners will commend the closest preachers most, and will say
that they care not for hearing a man that will not tell them
plainly of their sins. But if we speak to ministers
against their errors or their sins, if we do not honor them
and reverence them and speak as smoothly as we are able to
speak, yes, if we mix not commendations with our reproves, and if the
applause is not predominant so as to drown all the force of
the reprove, they take it as almost an insufferable injury. Brethren, I know this is a sad
confession. but that all of this should exist
among us, should be more grievous to us than to be told of it. Could the evil be hidden, I would
not have disclosed it, at least so plainly in the view of all.
But, alas, it has been so long open to the eyes of the world.
We have dishonored ourselves by idolizing our honor. We print
our shame and preach our shame, thus proclaiming it to the whole
world. Some will think that I speak overcharitably when I call such
persons godly men, in whom so great a sin as pride does so
much prevail. I know, indeed, that where it
is predominant, not hated and bewailed, and mortified in the
main, there can be no true godliness. And I beseech every man to exercise
a strict jealousy in search of his own heart. But if all be
graceless, who are guilty of any pride, or of most of the
aforementioned discoveries of pride, the Lord be merciful to
the ministers of this land, and give us quickly another spirit,
for grace is in a rarer thing than most of us have supposed
it to be. Yet I must need say that I do
not mean to involve all the ministers of Christ in this charge. To
the praise of divine grace be it spoken, we have some among
us who are eminent for humility and meekness, and who in these
respects are exemplary to their flocks and to their brethren.
It is their glory, and shall be their glory, and makes them
truly honourable and lovely in the eyes of God and all good
men, and even in the eyes of the ungodly themselves. O that
the rest of us were imminent for humility and meekness! But,
alas, this is not the case with all of us. O that the Lord would
lay at His feet in the tears of sincere sorrow for the sin
of pride! Brethren, may I expostulate this
case a little with my own heart and yours, that we may see the
evil of our sin and be reformed? Is not pride the sin of devils,
the firstborn of hell? Is not pride that wherein Satan's
image does much consist? and his pride to be tolerated
in men who are so engaged against him and his kingdom as we are,
the very design of the gospel is to obey us, and the work of
grace is begun and carried on in humiliation. Humility is not
a mere ornament of a Christian, but an essential part of the
new creature. It is a contradiction in terms
to be a Christian and not humble. All who will be Christians must
be Christ's disciples and come to Him to learn, and the lesson
which He teaches then is to be meek and lowly. Oh, how many
precepts and admirable examples has our Lord and Master given
us to this end! Can we behold him washing and
wiping his servants' feet, and yet be proud and self-important? Shall he converse with the poorest
of the people, and shall we avoid them as below our notice, and
think none but people of wealth and honour fit for our society? How many of us are oftener found
in the houses of gentlemen than in the cottages of the poor,
who most need our help? There are many of us who would
think it below us to be daily with the most needy and beggarly
people, instructing them in the way of life and salvation, as
if we had taken charge of the souls of rich people only. Alas, what is it that we have
to be proud of? Is it of our body? Why is it
not made of the like materials as the brutes? And must it not
shortly be as loathsome and abominable as a carcass? Is it of our graces? Why, the more we are proud of
them, the less we have to be proud of. When so much of the
nature of grace consists in humility, it is a great absurdity to be
proud of it. Is it of our knowledge and learning?
Why, if we have any knowledge at all, we must know how much
reason we have to be humble. And if we know more than others,
how much more reason have we to be humble? How little is it
that the most learned know, in comparison of that which they
are ignorant? To know that things are past
your reach, and to know how ignorant you are, one would think should
be no great cause of pride. However, do not the devils know
more than you? And will you be proud of that
in which the devils excel you? Our very business is to teach
the great lesson of humility to our people. And how unfit,
then, is it that we should be proud ourselves? We must study
humility and preach humility. And must we not possess and practice
humility? A proud preacher of humility
is a self-condemning man. What a sad case is it, that so
vile a sin is not more easily discerned in ourselves. Many
who are most proud can see it in others, and yet take no notice
of the pride in themselves. The world takes notice of some
among us, that they have proud hearts and seek for the highest
place. and must be the rulers and bear this way wherever they
are, or else there is no living with them. In any dialogue they
come not to search after truth, but to dictate to others, who
perhaps are fit to teach them. In a word, they have such arrogant,
domineering spirits that the world sees it plainly, and yet
they will not see it in themselves. Brethren, I desire to deal closely
with my own heart and yours. I beseech you to consider whether
it will benefit us to speak of the grace of humility. While
we possess it not, or to speak against the sin of pride, while
we indulge in it, have not many of us cause to inquire diligently
whether sincerity will consist with such a measure of pride
as we have in our hearts? When we are telling the drunkard
that he cannot be saved unless he becomes temperate, and the
fornicator that he cannot be saved unless he becomes chaste,
have we not as great reason if we are proud to say to ourselves
that we cannot be saved unless we become humble? Pride, in fact,
is a greater sin than drunkenness or whoredom, and humility is
as necessary as sobriety and chastity. Truly, brethren, a
man may assertedly and more slyly make haste to hell in the way
of earnest preaching of the gospel, and seeming zeal for a holy life,
as in a way of drunkenness and filthiness. For what is holiness
but a devotedness to God and a living to Him? And what is
a damnable state but a devotedness to carnal self and a living to
ourselves? And does anyone live more to
himself or less to God than the proud man? And may not pride
make a preacher study for himself, and pray and preach and live
to himself, even when he seems to surpass others in the work?
It is not the work without the right principle and end, which
will prove us upright. The work may be God's, and yet
we may do it, not for God, but for ourselves. I confess I feel
such continual danger on this point, that if I do not watch,
lest I should study for myself, and preach for myself, and write
for myself rather than for Christ, I would soon miscarry, and after
all I justify not myself when I must condemn the sin. Consider,
I beseech you, brethren. What base there are in the work
of the ministry to entice a man to self-exaltation, even in the
highest works of piety! The fame of a godly man is a
great a snare, as the fame of a learned man. But woe to him
that desires the fame of godliness instead of godliness! Truly,
I say unto you, they have their reward in full. When the times
were all for learning and empty formalities, the temptation of
the proud did lie that way. But now, and through the unspeakable
mercy of God, the most lively practical preaching is in credit,
and godliness itself is in credit, the temptation of the proud is
to pretend to be zealous preachers and godly men. Oh, what a fine
thing is it to have the people crowding to hear us, and affected
with what we say, and yielding up to us their judgments and
affections! What a fine thing is it to be
cried up as the ablest and godliest man in the country, to be famed
through the land for the highest spiritual excellencies! Alas,
brethren, a little grace combined with such inducements will serve
to make you join yourselves with the forwardists in promoting
the cause of Christ in the world. Nay, pride may do it without
grace. O therefore, be jealous of yourselves,
and amidst all your studies be sure to study humility. He who
exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall
be exalted. I commonly observe that almost
all men, whether good or bad, do loathe the proud and love
the humble. So far, indeed, does pride contradict
itself, that, conscious of its own deformity, it often borrows
a homely dress of humility. We have the more cause to be
jealous of it, because it is a sin most deeply rooted in our
nature, and is the most stubborn sin to be extirpated from the
soul." Richard Baxter, the Reformed Pastor. feeding sheep or amusing
goats by Charles Spurgeon. And evil is in the professed
camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence that the most short-sighted
Christian can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few
years, this evil has developed at an alarming rate. It has worked
like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom
done a more clever thing than hinting to the church that part
of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people,
with a view to winning them. From speaking out the gospel,
the church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked
at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated
them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under
the plea of reaching the masses. My first contention is that providing
amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the as a function
of the church. If it is a Christian work, why
did not Christ speak of it? Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature, and provide amusement for those
who do not relish the gospel? No such words, however, are to
be found. It did not seem to occur to him.
Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning
them. Were the prophets persecuted
because they amused a people, or because they confronted them?
The concert has no martyr role. Again, providing amusement is
in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all his
apostles. What was the attitude of the
apostolic church to the world? You are the salt of the world,
not the sugar candy, something the world will spit out, not
swallow. Had Jesus introduced more of
the bright and pleasant elements into his teaching, he would have
been more popular. When many of his disciples turned
back and no longer followed him, I do not hear him say, Run after
these people, Peter. and tell them we will have a
different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive
with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening
for the people. Tell them they will be sure to
enjoy it. Be quick, Peter. We must get to people somehow.
No, Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never
sought to amuse them. In vain will the epistles be
searched, to find any trace of the gospel of amusement. Their
message is, Therefore come out from them, and separate yourselves
from them. Don't touch their filthy things.
Anything approaching amusement is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence
in the gospel, and employed no other weapons. After Peter and
John were locked up for preaching, the church had a prayer meeting.
But they did not pray, Lord, grant unto your servants that
by a wise and discriminate use of innocent recreation, we may
show these people how happy we are. No, they did not cease from
preaching Christ. They had no time for arranging
entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they
went everywhere, preaching the gospel. They turned the world
upside down. That is the only difference from
today's church. Lastly, amusement fails to effect
the undesired. Let the heavy laden who found
peace through the concert not keep silent. Let the drunkard
to whom the dramatic entertainment had been God's link in the chain
of their conversion stand up. There are none to answer. The
mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the
hour for today's ministry is earnest spirituality, joined
with biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that it sets men on
fire. Lord, clear the church of all
the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her, and bring
us back to apostolic methods. MINISTERIAL CONFESSIONS By Horatius
Bonar We have been carnal and unspiritual. The tone of our
life has been low and earthly, associating too much and too
intimately with the world. We have, in a great measure,
become accustomed to its ways. Hence our spiritual tastes have
been vitiated, our consciences blunted, and that sensitive tenderness
of feeling is worn off and given place to an amount of callousness
of which we once, in fresher days, believed ourselves incapable. We have been selfish. We have
shrunk from toil, difficulty, and endurance. We have counted
only our lives and our temporal ease and comfort dear unto us.
We have sought to please ourselves. We have been worldly and covetous.
We have not presented ourselves unto God as living sacrifices,
laying ourselves, our lives, our substance, our time, our
strength, our faculties, our all upon His altar. We seem altogether
to have lost sight of this self-sacrificing principle, on which even as Christians,
but much more as ministers, we are called upon to act. We have
had little idea of anything like sacrifice at all. Up to the point
where a sacrifice was demanded, we may have been willing to go,
but there we stood, counting it unnecessary, perhaps calling
it imprudent and unadvised to proceed further. Yet ought not
the life of every Christian, especially of every minister,
to be a life of self-sacrifice and self-denial throughout, even
as was the life of him who pleased not himself? We have been slothful. We have been sparing of our toil.
We have not endured hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We have not sought to gather
up the fragments of our time that not a moment might be thrown
idly or unprofitably away. Precious hours and days have
been wasted in sloth, in idle company, in pleasure, in idle
or worthless reading that might have been devoted to the closet,
the study, the pulpit or the meeting. Indolence, self-indulgence,
fickleness, flesh-pleasing, have eaten like a canker into our
ministry, arresting the blessing and marring our success. We have
manifested but little of the unworried, self-denying love
with which, as shepherds, we ought to have watched over the
flocks committed to our care. We have fed ourselves, and not
the flock. We have dealt deceitfully with
God, whose servants we profess to be. We have been cold. even when diligent, a little
warmth and glow. The whole soul is not poured
into the duty, and hence it wears too often the repulsive air of
routine and form. We do not speak and act like
men in earnest. Our words are feeble even when
sound and true. Our looks are careless even when
our words are weighty, and our tones betray the apathy. which
both words and looks disguise. Love is lacking, deep love, love
strong as death, love such as made Jeremiah weep in secret
places, in preaching and visiting, in counseling and reproving,
what formality, what coldness, how little tenderness and affection!
We have been timid. Fear has often led us to smooth
down or generalize truths which, if broadly stated, must have
brought hatred and reproach upon us. We have thus often failed
to declare to our people the whole counsel of God. We have
shrunk from reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with all patience
and doctrine. We have feared to alienate friends
or to awaken the wrath of enemies. We have been lacking in solemnity.
How deeply ought we to be abased at our levity, frivolity, flippancy,
vain mirth, foolish talking and jesting, by which grievous injury
has been done to souls, the progress of the saints retarded, and the
world countenanced in its wretched vanities. We have preached ourselves,
not Christ. We have sought applause, courted
honor, been avaricious of fame, and jealous of our reputation.
We have preached too often so as to exalt ourselves instead
of magnifying Christ, so as to draw men's eyes to ourselves
instead of fixing them on Him and His cross. Have we not often
preached Christ for the very purpose of getting honor to ourselves? Christ and the sufferings of
His first coming and the glory of His second has not been the
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last of all our sermons.
We have not duly studied and honored the Word of God. We have
given a greater prominence to man's writings, man's opinions,
man's systems in our studies than to the Word. We have drunk
more out of human cisterns than divine. We have held more communion
with man than God. Hence the mold and fashion of
our spirits, our lives, our words have been derived more from man
than God. We must study the Bible more.
We must steep our souls in it. We must not only lay it up within
us, but transfuse it through the whole texture of the soul.
The study of truth in its academic more than in its devotional form
has robbed it of its freshness and power, engendering formality
and coldness. We have not been men of prayer.
The spirit of prayer has slumbered among us. The closet has been
too little frequented and delighted in. We have allowed business,
study, or active labor to interfere with our closet hours. A feverish
atmosphere has found its way into our closet, disturbing the
sweet calm of its blessed solitude. Sleep, company, idle visiting,
foolish talking and jesting, idle reading, unprofitable occupations,
engrossed time that might have been redeemed for prayer. Why
is there so little concern to get time to pray? Why is there
so much speaking, yet so little prayer? Why is there so much
running to and fro, yet so little prayer? Why so much bustle and
business, yet so little prayer? Why so many meetings with our
fellow men, yet so few meetings with God? Why so little being
alone, so little thirsting of the soul for the calm, sweet
hours of unbroken solitude, when God and His child hold fellowship
together? as if they could never part.
It is the lack of these solitary hours that not only injures our
own growth in grace, but makes us such unprofitable members
of the Church of Christ, and it renders our lives useless. In order to grow in grace we
must be much alone with God. It is not in society, even Christian
society, that the soul grows most rapidly and vigorously.
In one single quiet hour of prayer it will often make more progress
than in whole days of company with others. It is in the desert
that the dew falls freshest, and the air is purest, so with
the soul. It is when none but God is near,
when His Presence alone, like the desert air in which there
is mingled no noxious breath of man, surrounds and pervades
the soul, it is then that the eye gets the clearest, simplest
view of eternal certainties. It is then that the soul gathers
in wondrous refreshment in power and energy. Nearness to God,
fellowship with God, waiting upon God, resting in God, have
been too little the characteristic, either of our private or our
ministerial Hence our example has been so powerless, our labor
so unsuccessful, our sermon so meager, our whole ministry so
fruitless and feeble. We have not honored the Holy
Spirit. We have not sought His teaching or His anointing. But
you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know
the truth. 1 John 2, verse 20. Neither in the study of the Word
nor the preaching of it to others Have we duly acknowledged His
office as the Enlightener of the understanding, the Revealer
of the truth, the Testifier and Glorifier of Christ? We have
grieved Him by the slight put upon Him as the Teacher, the
Convincer, the Comforter, the Sanctifier. Hence He has almost
departed from us, and left us to reap the fruit of our own
perversity and unbelief. Besides, we have grieved him
by our inconsistent walk, by our lack of circumspection, by
our worldly-mindedness, by our unholiness, by our prayerlessness,
by our unfaithfulness, by our lack of solemnity, by a life
in conversation so little in conformity with the character
of a disciple or the office of ambassador. We have had little
of the mind of Christ. We have come far short of the
example of the Master. We have had little of the grace,
the compassion, the meekness, the lowliness, the love of Jesus. His weeping over Jerusalem is
a feeling in which we have but little heartfelt sympathy. His
seeking of the lost is little imitated by us. His unwary teaching
of the multitudes we shrink from is too much for flesh and blood. His days of fasting, his nights
of watchfulness and prayer, are not fully realized as models
for us to copy. His counting not his own life
dear unto him that he might glorify the Father, and finish the work
given him to do, is but little remembered by us as a principle
on which we are to act. Yes, surely we are to follow
his steps. The servant is to walk where
his master has led the way. The under-shepherd is to be what
the chief shepherd was. We must not seek rest or ease
in a world where he whom we love had none. We have been unbelieving. It is unbelief that makes us
so cold in our preaching, so slothful in visiting, and so
remiss on all our sacred duties. It is unbelief that chills our
life and straightens our heart It is unbelief that makes us
handle eternal realities with such irreverence. It is unbelief
that makes us ascend with so light a step into the pulpit
to deal with immortal beings about heaven and hell. We have
not been sincere in our preaching. If we were, could we be so cold,
so prayerless, so inconsistent, so slothful, so worldly, so unlike
men whose business is all about eternity? We must be more in
earnest if we would win souls. We must be more in earnest if
we would walk in the footsteps of our beloved Lord, or if we
would fulfill the vows that are upon us. We must be more in earnest
if we would be less than hypocrites. We must be more in earnest if
we would finish our course with joy and obtain the crown at the
Master's coming. We must work while it is day.
The night comes when no man can work. We have been unfaithful. The fear of man and the love
of his applause have often made us afraid. We have been unfaithful
to our own souls, to our flocks, and to our brethren. Unfaithful
in the pulpit, in visiting, in discipline in the church, in
the discharge of every one of the duties of our stewardship.
There has been grievous unfaithfulness. Instead of the special particularization
of the sin reproved, there has been the vague illusion. Instead
of the bold reproof, there has been the timid hint. Instead
of the uncompromising condemnation, there has been the feeble disapproval.
Instead of the unswerving consistency of a holy life, whose uniform
tenor should be a protest against a world and a rebuke of sin,
there has been such an amount of unfaithfulness in our walk
and conversation. In our daily deportment and talking
with others, that any degree of faithfulness we have been
enabled to manifest on the Lord's Day is almost neutralized by
the lack of circumspection which our weekday life exhibits. We
need men that will spend and be spent, that will labor and
pray, that will watch and weep for souls. Pastoral Councils. Excerpts from
J.C. Philpott's annual addresses.
What then is or should be the object of a periodical that,
like the gospel standard, circulates widely among the living family?
The same object that Paul set before the Ephesian elders, Acts
20 verse 28. to feed the Church of God, feed
my sheep, feed my lambs, was Christ's thrice repeated injunction
to Peter. Every preacher, writer, and editor
that addresses himself to the Church of God should have this
set before him as his whole aim and desire. This, we can honestly
say, is ours, and the only motive which keeps us at our difficult
and responsible post. Here we feel our conscience clear. It is not worldly interest or
ambition or aiming at popularity and influence, but a desire to
be instrumental in feeding living souls that bears us up and keeps
us at our post amid many discouragements, from both within and without,
best known to ourselves. We can say, we trust with all
honesty, that we feel an increasing desire to be made a blessing
to the Church of God. Placed as we are in a position
unsought and undesired by us, to edit a periodical widely circulated
among the living family, we desire it to be a means in the Lord's
hands of great and increasing profit to their souls. In laboring
month after month for their benefit, We have no party ends to serve,
no miserable, petty ambition to gratify, no schemes of pelf
or pride to advance, no rich leaders to flatter, nor worldly
professors to fear. To say we have no workings of
pride and self would be to say that we have no blood of the
old Adam nature circulating in our veins, but we hope we can
say, in the sight of God and before his people, that our chief
desire and aim is the spiritual profit of the Church of Christ.
If our readers believe this, and if, in addition to our assertion,
they have the more convincing evidence of their own conscience
that they have felt any blessing or derived any benefit from our
labors, they, as knowing that in many things we all offend,
will overlook these blots and stains which human infirmity
will ever drop on the fair page of truth. and will ascribe them
not to willful design, but to a hand unsteady through the fall. To speak the truth in love, to
be faithful yet affectionate, keeping back nothing that is
profitable, but abstaining from all harsh, unbecoming language.
To watch for souls as those who must give an account, to renounce
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
committing themselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. If this is the spirit which should influence the servants
of God who speak in their Master's name, should it not equally be
the ruling desire and aim of those who write for the honour
of the same blessed Lord? and for the benefit of his people,
to edify, to comfort, to instruct, to lead on, to encourage the
family of God amid all their trials and sorrows, temptations
and conflicts, is or should be the aim of all who, as preachers
or writers, stand on the battlements of Zion. If God then, in his
providence and grace, has placed us in a position whence we can,
if not with voice, yet with pen, address many, very many of his
dear children, if he is inclined any of their hearts to listen
to us, as believing that we know and love the truth as it is in
Jesus, We are bound, not only by the weight which eternal realities
have with our own soul, but by the very readiness of our friends
and brethren to receive our words, to seek to the uttermost their
spiritual profit, to be of the least spiritual service to the
Church of Christ, to profit the souls of any, though the least
and lowest of God's dear children, to promote in any way a spirit
of love and union in the churches of truth especially, and among
individual believers generally, to contend for the faith once
delivered to the saints earnestly, but affectionately, to testify
boldly against all error and all evil, and be a favoured instrument
of advancing in any measure the kingdom of the Redeemer, the
cause of vital, experimental godliness, and the glory of a
triune god, what earthly rank or dignity, what place of worldly
power or profit can for a moment be compared with an honor such
as this? And are any of us friends and
brethren so highly favored and honored? Blessed are our eyes,
dear readers, if they have seen any divine beauty and blessedness
in Jesus. Blessed are our ears if we have
heard His voice with sweetness and power. Blessed are your tongues,
you servants of God, if in testifying of His person and work, love
and blood, suitability and preciousness, you have felt the dew of the
Spirit dropping from your lips. and blessed are your fingers,
you whose pens seek to trace his worth, if what you write
is attended with the unction of his grace to contrite believing
hearts. If this be our experience, if
this our aim and end, when living bond of union will knit together
editor, writers, readers, servants of God, members of gospel churches,
and believers generally among whom our pages come. As an editor,
the desire of our soul is to seek and pursue peace, love,
and union with all who fear God and love the Lord Jesus Christ,
and to avoid as much as possible contention and strife. We wish
to say little of ourselves, lest we fall into the same spirit
of self-exaltation that we have been condemning. But this much
we trust, we may say, that in editing this periodical we desire
to seek the good of the brethren among whom it comes, and what
falls from our pen, as well as in selecting what is sent by
our correspondence for insertion, our main aim and object are to
profit the Lord's people, to avoid all questions that may
tend towards contention and strife, and while we contend for the
truth and the power and experience of it in the heart, to do so
in a spirit of tenderness, affection, and love. We cannot but declare
our honest conviction that we have never flinched from setting
before our readers the truth of God from any apprehension
of either offending readers or losing them. The desire of our
soul is to possess for ourselves, and to be a means of strengthening
in others, nothing short of a saving faith in the Son of God, and
all the gracious fruits which gladden the heart and adorn the
life, as bringing out a function and communion with Him. However
we come short of this, and we are always so failing, this is
the goal towards which we run, the mark at which we aim, and
to be an instrument in the Lord's hand to promote His glory and
His people's good is the highest privilege He can confer upon
us. A minister of any real weight and power, of any long-standing
and general acceptability, when permanently fixed over a church
and congregation, gradually forms his own body of hearers. Those
who cannot hear him, or at least, not to profit, gradually drop
off, and there remains a congregation which receives his ministry,
sees us with his eyes, drinks into his spirit, and is united
to him in love and affection. He stands to them in time as
a father to his children. In a tie being cemented by mutual
affection, he becomes enabled and warranted to speak to and
deal with them in a way which would not be consistent, nor
indeed tolerated, in a strange minister or a transient supply. No man is more despised, no man
more justly despicable than a time-serving minister. A shifting, time-serving
editor is, in our judgment, scarcely less despicable. As there has
always been and always will be religious parties, every party
naturally, almost necessarily, if of any extent, Seek some recognized
organ of opinion by which it may act and speak. Our desire
and aim are, and always have been, to represent no party,
or at least that party only which possesses and professes sound
experimental truth and sterling vital godliness. If we have any
weight or influence, this is the secret of it, that we express
what our spiritual readers believe and feel. We do not lead them,
nor do they lead us. We are friends and brethren,
not master and servants, nor servant and masters. It is the
truth and the love and power of it which unites us, that secret,
mysterious, invisible, and yet powerful bond which knits together,
as with ties of adamant, all who see eye to eye and feel heart
to heart in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is a reading age,
and as books are cheap, largely read, and easily procurable,
the press has come to embrace a wider circle, and to possess
a greater influence on the public mind than in any other medium
of communication. The Christian press has spread
itself in all directions, and exercises an influence scarcely
inferior to that of the pulpit. Works, therefore, written by
gracious men, whether living or dead, may be viewed as exercising
a ministry of their own, running, as it were, parallel to that
of the pulpit, and in harmony with it, but possessing the advantage
of penetrating into places, and speaking on occasions where the
voice of the living preacher cannot come. as well as being
accessible at all times, lying silently and unobtrusively on
a table or the bookshelf, ready to be taken up or laid down at
pleasure, and if we have well chosen them, our trustiest friends
and wisest counselors, who will always tell us the truth without
fear and without flattery. Now, if God is pleased to use
our little monthly work as an instrument for His people's good
and His own glory, how abundantly will it reward us for all the
toil, care, anxiety, and responsibility of conducting it which falls
to our share. Our desire is to make it as instructive,
as edifying, and as profitable as we can to the Lord's living
family. We wish, therefore, to avoid
all strife and contention. all doubtful disputations, all
gossip, slander, and news-mongering, all flattery and time-serving,
all dry and merrily notional discussion of points of doctrine
which usually leads to endless dispute and vain jangling, and
every other thing which feeds the flesh and starves the soul.
If you have received any instruction or consolation from our writings,
If they have strengthened your faith, if they have encouraged
your hope, if they have drawn forth your love, if any light
has been cast upon your dark path, if any truth has been learned,
if any error has been exposed in which you were nearly entangled,
if you have effectually felt any reproof or rebuke, if there
has been any stirring up or recovery from sloth and indifference,
If there has been produced any brokenness of spirit, true penitence,
and godly sorrow for sin, if any backsliding has been healed,
if there has been any gracious renewal or revival of the good
work within effected, in a word, if any real, solid, and abiding
profit has been communicated to you by our labors on your
behalf, We pray that our Heavenly Father, who supplies seed to
the sower and bread for food, will also supply and increase
your store of seed, and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9 verse 10 We ask
that you bring us before the throne of grace. that God would
bestow upon us that spiritual and experimental knowledge of
His truth, that heavenly wisdom and judgment, that holy boldness
and faithfulness, that zeal for His glory and desire for His
people's good, which, if granted, would be both our and your best
reward. Finally, brethren, pray for us
that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored
just as it was with you. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 1 OUR SINS AT THE SEMINARY. 2 LETTERS FROM JOHN ANGEL JAMES
TO HIS BROTHER THOMAS JAMES ON BEGINNING OF STUDIES FOR THE
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. DECEMBER 19, 1811. TO MY BROTHER THOMAS. WERE MY
ABILITY EQUAL TO MY WISHES? With what hallowed delight would
I expatiate on the scenery of that prospect which, to the eye
of your imagination, is seen stretching over the interminable
compass of futurity? How readily would I trace, and
how plainly, the path from which your feet must never deviate?
I would mark the spots where you may naturally expect to meet
with danger, wherewith difficulty, wherewith delight. I would tell
you when to open your heart to the most delicious pleasures,
when to close it against the most insidious poison. I would
caution and encourage, stimulate and restrain, as circumstances
required. But because I cannot do what
I would, shall I not do what I can? and thus obtain Mary's
memorial? I will. It was my intention,
my dear brother, to have written one long letter, containing merrily
such heads of advice as I thought adapted to your present situation. But finding upon reflection that
I would wish to say more than could be well contained in a
single epistle, I determined to change my plan, and tax your
patience by a series of letters addressed to you at different
times, each containing the discussion of some particular topic. The
plan which at present I propose is, number one, to state with
what particular end and design you would enter on academic pursuits,
and the great importance of keeping that precise end continually
in view. Secondly, to consider the great
import of preserving in the midst of your studies the power and
life of personal piety. Thirdly, to mention what branches
of study should most closely engage your attention during
your residence at Hoxton. Fourthly, the means of prosecuting
those studies with advantage to yourselves, and in subordination
to the great end of all your academic pursuits. The subject
of the present letter is to state the chief end and design with
which you should enter on your preparatory studies, and the
great importance of ever keeping that end in view. It is a part
of folly to act before the end is chosen, or the means of exertion
properly arranged. Right reasons suggest to everyone
entering on a new career this natural inquiry, for what precise
object are you about to start? It is to a neglect of this question
that we are to attribute that profligate misuse of time and
talent, which in this world of activity we are so frequently
grieved to witness. How many active minds, capable
of great service to the world, do we see driven at random over
the stage of existence, answering no other end but to teach mankind
how much exertion may be wasted, for lack of a precise and proper
end to guide its progress? Their whole life resembles the
evening flight of the bat, a useless flutter amidst darkness and vanity. What wisdom, to say nothing of
religion, dictates to you, my dear brother, at the present
moment, is, to fix with yourself, after serious deliberation, the
precise design of your academic career, to divide between many
claimants, which has a rightful authority to your supreme reverence
and regard. By your preparatory studies you
propose to become possessed of learning. You mean to be a minister
with some education. You wish to preach with acceptance. You propose to yourself great
pleasure in the attainment of knowledge. These are all ends
which you may lawfully set before your mind in your present prospect. But woe be to your ill-judging
mind if any of these is your chief end. If this is the case,
you will carry a curse with you to the study, and from there
to the pulpit, from thence to the grave, from thence to the
bar of Christ, and from thence, by a last remove, to the bottomless
pit. I am, however, persuaded better
things of you, though I thus speak. Your religion has, before
now, fixed this on your heart as the chief design of preparatory
studies. that you might be qualified in
the use of appointed means, more fully to glorify God in the salvation
of immortal souls. It is not merely to be prepared
to preach, nor merely to preach well, nor to preach acceptably,
but to preach successfully. And what is successful preaching
short of the conversion of immortal souls? But what I wish to impress
upon your mind is the infinite importance of keeping this great
object in view through all. even the most minute of your
academic pursuits. Everything is to be viewed by
you in connection with this end, and only as it promotes this
is anything absolutely momentous. This must remain in the midst
of all your feelings and opinions, all your pursuits and exertions,
the common center to which everything by an undeviating law of attraction
gravitates. If you pore over the difficulties
of language, if you read the systems of moral philosophy,
if you study the accuracies of logic, if you examine the flowers
of rhetoric, or demonstrate the problems of mathematics, it must
not be ultimately for the purpose of becoming a classic, a philosopher,
a logician, an orator, or a mathematician. But that by these means you may,
in one way or other, be prepared to demonstrate, explain, and
enforce to the conviction of sinners the truths on the belief
of which their salvation depends. All are to be viewed as giving
you, in the order of means, a readier access to their minds, a greater
power over their hearts. A man who is systematically trained
to the terrible art of war is taught some of the modern languages. He is instructed in mathematics,
mechanics, geography, history, fortification. Not, however,
merely for the sake of being a learned soldier. no but a successful
general in the defense of his country and the destruction of
its enemies. He is taught to study, as it
were, at the foot of a bastion, in the middle of a trench, pointing
a cannon, storming a breach, or heading an army, and drives
on his scholastic pursuits amidst imaginary shouts of war, the
glories of conquest or the shame of defeat. Fields covered with
the slain, cities reduced to ruin, and prisons crowded with
captives are the objects on which he is taught that all his learning
must terminate. Similar must be the manner in
which your preparation for the work of the ministry is carried
forward. You will not mistake me, and
suppose that I am upholding the barbarous idea which many seem
to entertain, that learning for a minister of the gospel is unnecessary. Such a sentiment can only spring
from ignorance and envy. No, my brother, I attach the
greatest importance to general knowledge, considered as a means
subordinate to the great end which I have already specified.
Learning is likely to procure a respect for its possessor.
It is calculated not only to screen him from neglect or contempt,
but to engage the attention of many who would otherwise treat
him with indignant scorn. It has, in innumerable instances,
abated the violence of prejudice, and conciliated esteem, where
excellence the most sterling, unattended by the polish of education,
would have been totally destitute of attraction. How often have
men of taste and intellect been led to hear from the lips of
some able preacher the glorious gospel of the blessed God, not
from any desire of spiritual edification, but merely to be
pleased with the talents of the speaker, and who, when they intended
only to admire the abilities of the servant, have returned
adoring the grace of his Lord. In this respect, learning is
useful to a minister, as it extends the probability of his success.
For this end it ought to be pursued, and as this is the best motive
to stimulate your mind in its academic engagements, so it is
unquestionably the strongest. Who is likely to search for knowledge
with the greatest ardor? The man that seeks it merely
as his own reward, or he that desires it as a probable means
of enlarging his qualifications as a messenger of peace? The
former has little to urge him but the prospect of personal
gratification. The latter, in addition to this,
has a hope of making his knowledge subservient to the best interests
of his fellow-creatures. One is urged forward by selfishness
somewhat refined, the other by a benevolence which knows no
limit to the extent of its desires, short of the everlasting happiness
of its objects. Such a view is this of the great
design of academic pursuits would not only excite the mind to exertion,
but help it to bear with patience the rigor of intellectual toil.
By having determined to arrive at the pulpit only in the regular
way of preparatory study, you have undertaken what will often
be found a weariness to the flesh. Your way as a student must necessarily
lead you through much which at first will present on every hand
little but alpine hills of difficulty and desert plains of barren sterility. If you mean to apply closely
to study, which I most fervently hope is your determination, there
are hastening on to meet you hours and weeks and months of
dry and tedious labor. And can your imagination frame
one motive so encouraging, so strengthening to the mind, as
a recollection that all this toil is to enable you to discharge
with ability and success the arduous and important duties
of the ministerial office? If you keep in view, as you ought,
and as I pray God you may, the proper design of your academic
pursuits, if your soul glows with burning zeal for the glory
of God, and is penetrated with tender pity for the souls of
mankind, you will, with the greatest cheerfulness, make any sacrifice,
however costly, endure any fatigue, however oppressive. I do most
earnestly entreat you, my dear brother, to consider well this
great design of your residence at Hoxton. There the model of
your future character will be framed. The path for your future
steps will be indicated. In short, there will your whole
future life and all its important results, both to yourself and
others, be epitomized. I can assure you from evidence
that without great watchfulness you will be often in danger of
forgetting the precise end for which you study. If you make
proficiency in learning, vanity will suggest how pleasing it
is to be esteemed as a literary genius. If you should feel a
deficiency compared with some of your fellow students, envy
will sometimes spur you on to diligence with the hope of equaling
or excelling these. If you are superior to many of
the others, pride will induce a kind of idolatry of your own
talents. Hearing of the applause with
which the attainments of some popular favorites are received,
you will feel a temptation to give such a turn to your studies,
as shall be likely to prepare you for a share of public admiration. These, and a variety of other
feelings, will frequently send up a mist that will hide from
distinct observation the great object which Revelation has already
erected for your waymark, and which I have endeavored to point
out to your vigilant attention. Again, before I close this letter,
I remind you that the chief design of your academic pursuits is
to prepare you more extensively to glorify God and the salvation
of sinners. Let this thought be the constant
inmate of your soul. Let it rise up with you in the
morning and lie down with you at night. Wherever you go, whatever
you do, let it attend and direct you. Reckon the duties of that
day, but half perform them which you have never seriously reflected
on this vast subject. and impress it upon your spirit,
by making it the subject in part of almost every prayer that you
present to God, as a means of fastening it more securely on
your own heart. Talk of it to others, let it
be the matter of conversation with those to whom it is the
subject of equal interest and obligation, and be assured, my
dear brother, that it will be my fervent and never-ceasing
prayer to the God of all grace, that he would grant you that
assistance which is necessary to keep this great object ever
before your eye, surrounded with all its tremendous importance,
and ever impressed upon your conscience with all its beneficial
influence. Believe me, my dear brother,
yours affectionately, J. A. James. An ignorant, profane, and soul-flattering
clergy. Thomas Brooks, The Crown and
Glory of Christianity, or Holiness, The Only Way to Happiness, 1662. A preacher's life should be a
commentary upon his doctrine. His practice should be the counterpart
of his sermons. Heavenly doctrine should always
be adorned with a heavenly life. And ignorant, profane, and so
flattering clergy are the greatest pest, plague, affliction, and
judgment which can befall a people. There is no rank nor order of
men on earth who have so enriched hell, who have been such benefactors
to hell. As the ignorant and profane clergy,
how many are there in these days who are more ready and willing
to make a sacrifice of the gospel for profit's sake, and preferment's
sake, and honor's sake, and lust's sake? Where there is no serious,
sincere, faithful and powerful preaching, there the people grow
abominably wicked and will certainly perish and go tumbling to hell. Pastors, either preach as the
ministers of Jesus Christ ought to preach, plainly, spiritually,
powerfully, feelingly, fervently, frequently, and live as the ministers
of Jesus Christ ought to live, heavenly, graciously, holily,
humbly, righteously, harmlessly, exemplary, or else lay down your
names of being the ministers of Jesus Christ. Do not any longer
put a cheat upon yourselves, nor upon the people, by making
them believe that you are ministers of Jesus Christ, when you have
nothing of the Spirit of Christ, nothing of the anointings of
Christ, nor of the grace of Christ, nor of the life of Christ in
you.