The Guarantees of a Successful Ministry
To-DAT I feel as if I would much rather specik to you than address you in writing, as my heart is full of a subject which requires to be explained in the tenderest and most urgent manner, and in secrecy, as between friend and friend who are both conscious of the presence and looking forward to the judgment of God. I do you no injustice assuredly in presuming that you are most anxious that your ministry should be successful. Success, when applied to Christian work, is a term which requires to bo carefully explained. Already I have given you my views pretty fully upon this point; but as the subject is one of extraordinary importance, you will excuse me repeating that success in ministerial service is not to be confounded with success in any other engagement of life. Naturally you think of success in connection with crowded chapels, ample pecuniary resources, and a sounding reputation: far be it from me to say that these things are not to be desired in a proper measure; at the same time I hold distinctly that it is perfectly possible to fall short of them, and yet to be realising a very high degree of success in the Christian ministry. I think it exceedingly unreasonable on the part of any person to ridicule large congregations, or to attempt to undervalue outward and visible signs of a powerful ministry. It is certain that if people do
256 Ad Clerum: Advices to a Young P readier.
not come to hear you you cannot do them any good; on the other hand, it is probable that if they do come to hear you the word which you preach may touch their hearts; on this ground I hold it to be unreasonable to say one word against able ministers of the gospel whose ministry secures an overflowing attendance of hearers. Success, in fact, is a term which has different meanings according to the different circumstances under which it is employed. One man is a successful preacher, — his style of thought and his manner of expression are such as to constitute him a master of great assemblies. Another man has a style of thinking and a manner of expression which give him a quieter, but not less useful influence. One man is qualified to direct a crowd; another is capable of exerting a most beneficent influence on a few select minds; in both cases there may be the highest ministerial success, though the outward signs differ so much. I hold that no ministry is successful that does not work in men a profound conviction of the sinfulness of sin, and an earnest desire to know Jesus Christ and His blessed salvation. Assuming that we are equally earnest in endeavouring to reach the highest point of success in our holy vocation, allow me to put before you a point or two which will show you my own view of the case, and may lead your own mind into still further pursuit of the conditions which are essential to the highest service for Christ.
It is perfectly clear to me that our first business is to keep diligently our own heart. For a moment let us exclude the idea that we are called to any special office in Christ’s kingdom; forgetting that we are ministers let us think of ourselves as individual Christians. As sinners recovered by the grace of Grod, we are never to lose sight
TUe Guarantees of a Successful Minishy. 257
of the fact that our salvation is derived entirely from the cross of Jesus Christ, and not at all from the exercise of our ministerial gifts. We are not first ministers, and then Christians; we are first Christians, and then, by the grace of God, we are called to minister in Jesus Christs name. What then is our spiritual condition before God? Is our heart really alive to the grandeur of the redemption of which we profess to have been made partakers? Do we find rest in the blessed fact that we ourselves have cast our souls entirely upon the Saviour and given up our destiny to His keeping? There is, as you will come to know, a dread possibility of our sinking the Christian in the minister, and of our seeing even God’s own book rather for ministerial than for strictly personal and spiritual uses. Holding, as I do most tenaciously, that the ministry of the gospel is not a profession, but a vocation, I am yet well aware how powerful is the temptation to regard all things appertaining to our ministry in a professional light, to turn Christian meditation into a kind of professional study, and to discharge our obligations as hirelings rather than sons of God. Retirement, self-examination, devout study of the holy Scriptures, are entirely indispensable to any man who would grow in grace and qualify himself for public usefulness in the church. Are we much alone with God? Do we turn away from the world with all its distractions and allurements, and enjoy the secrecy in which God is our only companion? Rely upon it, we shall be mighty only in proportion as we are devout; and only as we walk with God, and enjoy deep and constant fellowship with Him through His Son, shall we be able to speak in a manner which will commend our ministry to every man’s conscience. I know the difficulties which lie in the direction of profound spiritual culture in the individual heart: there is so much excitement, there is so much to be read and to be heard, there are so many conflicting opinions to consider and balance, so many inroads are made upon privacy by the demands of custom, that it is next to impossible, apart from the severest economy of time, to secure opportunity for deep and loving intercourse with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I dont know why I should hesitate to say that there is great danger, in the multiplicity of claims which are constantly made upon our attention, of overlooking the distinctive claims of Grods own book. I do not know how far your observation and my own may coincide, but to me it is a very painful and humiliating. fact that few books seem to be less known, even by ministers themselves, than the book of inspiration. I have known men of very limited culture whose ministry has yet been signally owned, through a devotion to the Scriptures, which has enabled them to meet the necessities of the people with an appropriateness and sufficiency even which no man of general reading could ever have secured. Truly in us who are called to preach Jesus Christ the word of God ought to dwell richly and abound. We ought not to stumble in our quotation of the Divine word; that word ought to be hidden in our heart, and ought to be so precious to us as to be within instant call of our memory whenever occasion arises for its application to our own spiritual condition or the interests of those to whom we minister. Do not imagine that I am in any degree enforcing my own example upon you, when I venture to say again and again that unless you be shut up as it were with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in secret retirement, no unction will rest upon your ministry, however eloquent your language, or splendid your illustrations, or vehement your public appeals. It is impossible to disguise the spirit wbicli comes of
profound contemplation of religious subjects; it is impossible to conceal the fact which is produced by prolonged and loving intercourse with the Saviour. If the countenance itself do not shine with unearthly lustre, there will be in the whole manner an influence which will proclaim itself to have been originated by the highest intercourse. Let us, then, seek to deepen our Christian conviction and Christian feeling. Let us live very near the cross; let Jesus -Christ be the one all- commanding Object of our attention and our love. If such be the case, we shall know what it is to long with unspeakable desire for the presence and guidance of the Holy Ghost. Some of us, indeed, are in danger of forgetting that this is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and that all Christian usefulness is now to be conducted and directed by Him alone. The Holy Ghost is to be given in answer to fervent and unceasing prayer; let us wait diligently at the throne, until we receive this most blessed and inspiring Gift.
Our work in the ministry will be a failure unless we seek to discharge our obligations in the spirit of Jesus Christ. We must work as He worked, and for the purposes which formed the great object of His ministry. The spirit of Jesus Christ was a spirit of true sincerity, courage, unselfishness; Jesus Christ was always seeking the redemption of men. We shall grow cold in our work, if the fires of our heart be not renewed by the love of the Saviour. We must seek to obtain His view of human life, alike in the individual and in society. Jesus Christ
s 2
2G0 Ad Clerum: Advices to a Young Preacher.
did not work on great occasions only, He sought to make every occasion great. He devoted Himself as entirely to the service of one sinner, as to the teaching of the greatest multitude that throng’ed upon His ministry. The spirit of Jesus Christ was the spirit of hope; He did not discourage the worst persons who sought His counsel and His sympathy. His delight was to seek and to save the lost. Are we not in danger of attending almost exclusively to the sections of society which are distinctly denominated respectable? We think it a great thing to see a respectable congregation; we s]3eak applaudingly of the men who gather around them the rich and the learned; I fear that in doing so we may miss the influence of the spirit which inspired Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ sought the lost, the lowest, the vilest, the outcast and the despised. You will no doubt remind me that in connection with most ecclesiastical organisations there are agencies for the recovery of the lowest class of the population. I am quite aware of this, yet I feel a danger even here, because some of us may be seeking to do by deputy what we ought to be doing in our own proper person. Believe me, it does not appear to me to be sufficient to delegate to others the work of informing ourselves of the condition of the most ruined peojole; there is not a minister amongst us, how remarkable soever his gifts or exalted his position, who would not be stimulated and encouraged in his work by spending a little time now and again in visiting the darkest haunts of our incomplete civilisation. I cannot but think that Jesus Christ Himself would not always be found on the busy thoroughfares of our cities or in their attractive suburbs; I cannot but feel that oftentimes He would be found in the lowest places.
The Guarantees of a Successful Mimstry. 261
speaking to men women and children out of whom all that is human has almost perished. Ought not the spirit of our Saviour to constrain us to make some personal sacrifice in this direction? Of course, there must be adaptation on our part to meet such as those now specially referred to; at the same time it is quite possible that when we put ourselves into the right circumstances adaptation on our part may be unexpectedly developed. The highest talent is often required to meet extremitfes. It appears to me to be quite a mistake to imagine that inferior talent is good enough to meet the requirements of the outcast masses; on the contrary, my conviction is that the highest gifts may be most profitably employed in meeting the difficulties, the objections, the hardships, and the perplexities of men whose case has too often been regarded as utterly hopeless. Now nothing can enable us to undertake with spirit and determination work of this kind, but deep sympathy with Jesus Christ. We cannot engage in such service with any personal satisfaction; our taste will be disgusted, our energies will be impaired, our whole nature will recoil, unless we go into this work animated by the self-sacrificing and all-loving spirit of the Redeemer. Not only so, our own morality will be corrupted if we take with us anything less than the protection of the holiness of Jesus Christ. We ourselves are but men; if we touch pitch, we shall be defiled; but if we seek Christ’s companionship, and defend ourselves by Christ’s righteousness, we shall be enabled to pass through the most revolting scenes without loss of virtue, and not only so, but with a positive gain of moral strength in our hearts. I do not ask you to undertake work of this kind as a man of letters, or as a mere philanthropist, as a political or a social reformer; I ask you to undertake it because of the cross of Jesus Christy wliicli is the symbol of all that is Divine and blessed in sacrifice.
The great object of our ministry is the salvation of souls. The term salvation as I here employ it is the most inclusive term which occurs to me to describe the whole service of our holy vocation. It includes not only the persuasion of men to go as penitents and believers to the footstool of mercy and the cross of Christ, but the teaching, the enlightenment and strengthening of all Christian principle in the hearts of those who have avowedly given themselves to the Lord. It will be of poor value to us, on the great day of final judgment, that we have been applauded for preaching great sermons, if we have not brought sinners to a knowledge of the way of salvation. I know of no bitterer irony, or more humiliating satire, than to be told that we have delivered splendid discourses, and yet to know that not one soul has ever been led to Jesus Christ by a ministry so flatteringly described. I do not despise the uses of criticism, nor do I say one word against the charms of speech; but I do increasingly feel, as my experience of men extends, that there is nothing worth living for compared with the grand object of winning souls, working in them, by the aid of the Holy Ghost, those Christian convictions which save men from death. To be told by any poor creature that you have been the means of turning his attention from things that are earthly to things that are heavenly, is to receive the highest reward which is possible to Christian labour in the present scene of life. It is a hint of what will be said to you on another day and in higher circumstances. Let us seek for this applause, — the applause wMcli testifies to the rousing and converting power of an inspired ministry. I know you will be tempted to engage in controversies; you may also be tempted to show oflf in some degree your many acquirements and your distinguished abilities; but let me entreat you as I would in the fear of God entreat myself, to pray, study, and preach more distinctly for the conversion of men. ^’ He that winnetb souls is wise.-*^ If we convert a sinner from the error of his way, we shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins.” They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as stars for ever and ever.’’’ I see not why we should not enter into a vow, to give our souls no rest until we have used every endeavour to bring men to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. We cannot indeed command success; we cannot say that this and that result shall assuredly accrue from our ministry; but if we work as if we were determined to command success, the grace of God is such that we shall surely not go without the highest reward. For your encouragement, as well as for my own, I would remind you that no minister ever knows the extent of his usefulness. We see again and again instances which save us from despondency; but we cannot tell what may be the indirect influence of our Christian service. Strangers hear us; we never know their names or their circumstances; yet some word of ours may have been to them as unexpected and precious light, and they may go on their way rejoicing; words of which we thought but little at the time may have sunk into the hearts of some who have been burdened with secret grief; a cheerful tone may have animated others who had not courage enough to lay before us the circumstances which gave them pain. I think we do right to remind ourselves of these possibilities, lest we be cast down for want of evidence of a more distinct and public nature.
When you enter upon your sphere of service,, let me advise you to confine as far as possible the energies of your first years to that sphere. You are to be a pastor, a shepherd, a man who loves men, and desires their salvation and Christian instruction and refinement. It must be a poor sphere which is not large enough to exhaust all the energies of a young minister. LeL me implore you to work for your own church as if it were all the world to you. I know there is a supposed magnanimity which looks beyond details, localities, and individual claims, and luxuriates in large ideas and boundless enterprises. Without saying one word against this, I venture to appeal to you on every ground that you considel* sacred, to keep diligently the vineyard to which you have been appointed in the providence of Grod. I am afraid that some of us will have occasion to say at last, “other vineyards have I kept, but mine own vineyard have I not kept.” A¥hen in the fear of God you can truthfully say you have exhausted the sphere to which you were appointed, when you have taxed every power, when you have carried light into every home that is accessible, when you have taught every child who is willing to be instructed, when you have carried the inspiration of Christian conviction and stimulus into every household belonging to your church, then it will be time enough for you to consider whether you cannot do something beyond the limits of your particular appointment. You will consider that I am warning you against public work, and I do not hesitate to say vthat my advice is intended to operate to a large extent in The Guarantees of a Successful Ministnj. 2G5
tliafc direction. You will tell me that you are a patriot as well as a Christian; that you are a citizen as well as a minister, and therefore you have rights of this kind or of that kind, which are not distinctly ministerial. I know, my dear sir, all that can be said upon this point. I am not speaking to you as to a man who has had twenty years’ experience in the ministry, but to a youth who is just putting on the ministerial harness; and I say again and again, with most urgent importunity, let me intreat you to devote the first of your years and the best of your powers to the interests of your own church and congregation. After you have been seven years with your people, and become accustomed to the work which is expected at your hands, I do not say that you will not feel yourself at liberty to help in services which lie somewhat remote from your ministerial and pastoral engagements. You may be able to serve year day and generation by authorship; you may have a useful word to say on the passing topics of the time: you may be able to teach on the platform, and stimulate useful courses of thinking; you may increase your influence by several kinds of collateral engagements: but let the strength of your life, the richest power of your nature, be still devoted to the exposition and enforcement of Divine truth. You are a minister, not an author; you are a minister, not a lecturer; you are a minister, as was Paul; be as devoted as he was to the cross and the kingdom of Jesus Christ. How noble and glowing was the enthusiasm which said, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ‘’; how resolute was the will which declared,” I determine to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.’’^ Believe me, there is
2G6 Ad Clerum: Advices to a Young Preacher.
scope enough in the Clirlstiaii ministry to exhaust the fullest resources of any man; no man who gives himself entirely to the work of the ministry lias occasion to complain of having too little to do. Let us then, giving days to study and our nights to prayer, endeavour to show ourselves ‘’ able ministers of the New Testament.”
You will observe that in this letter I have changed my usual style, and sought to express myself with the utmost simplicity and earnestness. I feel the need of doing so more and more. The work of the ministry becomes to me daily more exacting in its demands. I know not that I ever had so high an idea of what a Christian preacher should be, and of what Christian preaching may be, as I have to-day. The pulpit will go down if the preacher goes down; the preacher will go down if the Christian goes down; but if there be due service, at the sacred altar, if there be profound and earnest meditation upon the Divine oracles, if there be earnest searching of heart and continual desire to live as before the judgment seat of Christ, if there be anxious study and preparation for public appeals and for pastoral services, the Christian pulpit will retain its hold upon the sanctified judgment and affections of all men.