of Christ and Omnipotence is sufficient for the work. Many of us also realized in the prospect some taste of the delights and encouragements of the work of the Lord, and in all the spring and freshness of youth calculated upon a steady and uninterrupted devotedness rising obove all opposing obstacles. But scarce ly had we passed the threshhold, before the dream of confidence passed away in the first perception of the reality of things. The chilling influence of worldly objects and the disheartening effect of unsuccessful pains, soon began to exercise us with the harrassing power of ministerial temptations. We learnt to become conversant with disappointment; our sanguine expectation of a harvest proportioned to our industry was dispelled. Our constancy and love are often put to a severe and searching trial, and with all the dignity of character and principles of encouragement that belong to our service, we are made to feel that "if a man desires the office, he desires" a toilsome and self-denying, as well as "a good work."* Quesnal observės, The sacred Ministry is not a state of idleness or of delight, but a holy warfare, in which there are always toils and fatigues to be endured. Whoever is not resolved courageously to maintain the interests of Jesus Christ, and to labour continually to enlarge his kingdom, is not fit for this warfare." We must indeed work, like Nehemiah and his men, with the trowel in one hand and the sword in the other. We have to build and to fight at the same time, and with incessant employment. The progress of the work would be stopped by 'the laying down of the trowel. The enemy would gain a temporary advantage by the sheathing of the sword. Nothing therefore * 1 Tim. iii, 1, † Quesnel on 1 Tim. i. 18. VOL. I. 4 ‡ Neh. iv. 17. remains but to maintain the posture of resistance in dependence upon him who is our wise Master-builder, and the Captain of our salvation-waiting for our rest, our crown, our home. Not indeed that we have any reason to complain of a dispensation, so obviously fraught with important blessings to our own souls, and subservient to the best ends of the Ministry. The discipline of the cross in some of its varied forms, is most needful to repress the over-weaning confidence of presumption, to establish the habit of simple dependence on the Divine promises, to prove the power of faith, the privileges of prayer, and the heavenly support of the word of God, and to furnish us with the tongue of the learned, that from our own experience of the power of temptation and the difficulties of the Christian warfare we "should know how," after our Master's example, "to speak a word in season to him that is weary."* Had the Lord fully shewn us these difficulties before we entered upon the work, we should probably have shrunk back. But in exhibiting them in clear prospect before us, he links them in connection with the promises of Divine aid-" As thy day, so shall thy strength be."† No reasonable ground remains therefore for despondIn the exercise of a simple and dependent spirit we may say to the mountain of difficulty"Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." Discouragements, properly sustained and carefully improved, will become the most fruitful sources of eventual encouragement in the Christian Ministry, and love to our work bears us on in the midst of and above all our difficulties.§ ency. * Isa. 1. 4 66 † Deut. xxxiii. 25. ‡Zech. iv. 6. §'Magnum opus omnino et arduum conamur: sed nihil difficile amanti puto.' Cicero. CHAPTER V. THE COMFORTS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS OF THE It is of the utmost importance that we should comprehend within our view the whole compass of the Christian Ministry. The view of one side only of the prospect, which ever side that may be, must necessarily give an imperfect and inaccurate representation. Painful and habitual experience reminds us that it is a work of constant service and anxiety, and that we should be with our people "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling."* The opposition of the world-the inconstancy of the wavering-the inconsistency of the mere professor-the difficulties that beset the paths of the enquirer-and our frequent disappointments with the hopeful-with the recollection of what we are-what we ought to be-and what we ought to do-all this acts with the subtle and mighty power of temptation upon the weakness and depravity of the heart. Did we carry on "the warfare at our own charges," there is but little doubt that "Satan would get advantage of us.” Often circumstances and feelings sympathize with those of the Apostle, "we were prest out of measure above strength." But "what contradictions" meet in our work! It is indeed sorrow-but a sorrow full of joy." There are indeed "temptations that take us, besides such as are common to man." We have † 1 Cor. ix. 7. * 1 Cor. ii. 3. ‡ 2 Cor. i. 8. § See an exquisite hymn on Ministerial Experience in the Olney Collection, Book ii. 26. a painful pre-eminence above our fellow Christians in the honour of bearing a double share of "the burden and heat of the day." But if "the sufferings of Christ abound in us," it is equally true that "our consolation also aboundeth by Christ."* The grounds of support and encouragement are fully commensurate with the momentous difficulty of the work; which is not to be measured by the feeble resources of human agency, but by the Almighty power of the Spirit of God.† Did we depend for ministerial success upon the energy of mere moral suasion, we should cry out in the prostration, not of conscious helplessness, but of heartless despondency "Who is sufficient for these things!" But the recollection that our ministration is that "of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit," sustains us under all apprehended oppositions and difficulties, with most cheering prospects of success. "The life-giving Spirit" employs our ministry as the vehicle of conveying his Divine influence "to open the blind eyes," and to quicken the spiritually dead. And to be enabled, and excited, by his omnipotent grace; to have his Divine seal to our work, in the conversion and edification of sinners; to be thus the * 2 Cor. i. 5. What a source of encouragement is opened in such a spirit as that of Witsius, on entering upon the duties of his Professorship. 'Quidni ergo jucundissima mihi illa Domini verba applicem, quibus servum suum Josuam quondam affatus est. Nonne ego precepi tibi? Confirmare igitur et fortis esto; quia tecum est Dominus Deus tuus quocunque iveris.' Licet infirmitatis me meæ conscientia anxium reddat, reficit tamen Divinæ gratiæ, nunquam suos deserentis, ad sustentandum prompta facilitas-Illius autem gratiæ, cui lubitum est virtutem suam in infirmitate confirmare, queque abjectissimis sæpe et rei gerendæ minime idoneis instru mentis utitur, ut totius operis gloria in solidum ac illibata sibi remaneat. Oratio De Vero Theologo. Misc. Sacra, ii. 851, 852. 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6. honoured instrument of communicating the life of God, with all its attendant privileges, to the soul cannot but bring with it a reflex delight This is indeed to find our wages in our work, independent of any respect to the recompense of the reward." of man; 66 "Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord" are also realized, amidst seasons of toil and discouragement, in marking the influence of the blessed fruits of the ministry, connected with the honour of the Redeemer's name, in the many instances where the once-despised Saviour has been found "chiefest among ten thousand," and where "the beauty of holiness" has been stamped upon a profession once bearing a widely different superscription. The subsequent walk also of this renewed people in the faith, hope, and love of the Gospel, forms our ground of unceasing thanksgiving to God, our chief joy, and the very life of our life. "We have no greater joy, than to hear that our children walk in truth."† We turn to them in the expression of parental anxiety and delight -"Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord."‡ * 'I will remind you,' says Cotton Mather, that one of the greatest personages (an Archbishop and a Lord-Keeper) in the English nation once uttered this memorable speech. I have passed through many places of honour and trust both in Church and State, more than any of my order in England, for seventy years before but were I assured that by my preaching I had converted but one soul unto God, I should herein take more comfort than in all the honours and offices that have ever been bestowed upon me.' You are entering upon a work that will keep you continually in the way of this incomparable satisfaction; and I hope that you will rejoice in the way of bearing testimonies for God more than in all riches; and that the saving, or enlightening and edifying of our soul at any time will be a matter of more joy unto you, than if all the wealth of Ophir should flow in upon you.' Mather's Student and Pastor, pp. 159, 160. Thess. iii. 7-9. † 2 John 4. |