The Sacredness of the Preacher's Vocation
Here is one calling which especially deserves the name of the “High calling of God in Christ Jesus,” namely, that of the preacher of the gospel. He who, from this divine vocation, goes into any other, though it be to occupy the throne of a world empire, steps down to a lower level. The piety and purity of a Christian community will therefore be found to be in exact proportion to the intelligent respect and reverence in which the office of the minister of Christ is held, and by which it is magnified.
Paul to the Ephesian elders, gives the five-fold aspect of this office of the preacher and teacher: First, it is a ministry of the Lord Jesus, of whom he is a disciple and ambassador; secondly, it is a ministry of the gospel of the grace of God, of which he is a herald and witness; third, it is a ministry of the kingdom of God, in which he is a subject and representative; fourth, it is a ministry of the church of God, in which he is a servant and shepherd; fifth, a ministry of the Holy Ghost, of whom he is an ensample, and overseer or bishop.
To Dr. Gordon the holy vocation was thus invested with this manifold opportunity and obligation, exalted privilege and commensurate responsibility. To fulfile these high functions, three things were pre-eminently needful: that the word of Christ should dwell in him richly, that Christ himself should abide in him, and that he should be filled with the Spirit. Hence he sought to know the word thoroughly as his text-book, to know Christ as his personal Saviour, and to know the Holy Spirit as his indwelling Guide.
He was, as became a preacher of the word, a man of clear and firm convictions. If physiognomy is any index of character, there was no mistaking the meaning of that large head, high, broad brow, firmly set lower jaw. It needed no exceptionally keen observer to detect and predict the intellectual capacity, intelligent habit, and courageous conviction, of which such signs were hung out by nature herself. And the signs were not misleading, for he lacked neither mental power, nor clear vision of truth, and tenacious hold upon it.
But this devout man of God had learned that it is not enough that one hold the truth, if the truth hold not him. “Teneo et Teneor.’” How grand the significance of the metaphor in the Epistle to the Ephesians, which represents truth as the girdle of the warrior Christian — the veryzone that, grasping the vital parts, holds all the other pieces of armor in place! But let us not lose sight of the fact that the minister of Christ must also know his Master, the living Word.
Thackeray sagaciously hints that there is a law of spiritual harvest; we sow a thought and reap an act; sow an act and reap a habit; sow a habit and reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny. A character like that of Dr. Gordon is a whole history brought to light; it tells of habits of life, of thought as well as conduct, of a secret communion with God in the closet which shows its fruit and has its reward openly. Charles Lamb satirizes the man who vainly persuades himself that he can eat garlic in secret and not smell of it pubHcly. No man can walk with God in secret and cultivate the acquaintance of the unseen Christ, without character becoming radiant, until even his face will shine though he knows it not. Hence a minister is not only to be a herald but a witness. He is to tell what he knows, testify to that which he has tested and proved by testing, and, because experience limits his testimony, he must aim at a constantly richer and deeper experience in order to a witness correspondingly convincing and persuading.
How long will it take us to learn that power in service hangs on the height and breadth of attainment in divine things? A minister of Christ must ii6the dream as interpreting the man
be like a mountain, soaring high Godward into realms of unclouded faith and serene communion; for the higher his level, the surer and ampler the blessing he receives and conveys. The rains touch first the hilltops, and thence flow to the plains beneath, and the broader the hilltops the fuller and farther the flood. How can a congregation get a rich blessing from a pastor who does not live on a high level? I’he pastorates which have been most widely useful prove beyond doubt that he who, in the holy office, aspires to power, intense, extensive, pervasive, permanent, must first of all live close to God, and touch the very heart of Christ. He must hear by the ear in the closet what he is to proclaim with the tongue from the housetops. The higher the altitude, the richer the quality of the life and the life-imparting power. Fellowship with God is not to be sought only as a means to an end, for it is itself the end to which all means must contribute; but, when it is so sought and cultivated for its own sake and so found and felt as a fact of consciousness, he who enjoys such fellowship becomes the fountain of untold blessing to the church and the world.
Andrew Bonar, of Glasgow, shortly before his death, recorded this precious testimony: that from the time of his conversion, sixty years before, he had not passed a day when he lost access to the mercy-seat. Is it strange if he felt the power of Christ, as Paul said, canopying him, like the curtains of a tent? The man who thus lives daily with God and in God, must live by faith. At such habitual heights, clouds and mists are left below, and the soul dwells in a clear atmosphere. How many soever the promises of God, they are all in Christ, yea, and through him, amen, subject to no discount, but like any sound financial paper, good for the full face value.
Our Brother Gordon likewise received, by a definite act of submission and appropriation, as he said to a few intimate friends, the Holy Spirit as his guide.
If any wondered at the simple trust which led him to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God, to undertake missions to Jews and Gentiles, drunkards and outcasts; to build up a training school for evangelists and missionaries, and venture on God for the supply of every need, and, like Pastor Gossner at sixty years of age, stop ringing human door bells and knock only at heaven’s gate — the solution is simple: all this mystery is unlocked by this one key — an elevated life of godliness, which can be understood by none who live on a low level, and a complete surrender to the Holy Spirit to be only a passive instrument in his hands. Dr. Gordon lived near enough to God to catch his own Spirit, which is love, unselfish, self-imparting love — that “royal law,” or principle of life, nobler than any iiSthe dream as interpreting the man
mere emotion or affection — which gives, gives all, and gives to all. Hence he not only preached the gospel to all he could reach, but he was essentially a missionary, for the Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. Foreign missions took passionate hold upon him because, like the love of God, they reach out toward those most distant and most destitute. His interest in the heathen, so far off, so needy, was largely involuntary. Because he was led of the Spirit and taught of the Spirit, he loved as God loves, and could no more limit his benevolent affection or beneficent activity to those near by him, than a full mountain stream could determine to flow only so far. If there is but little water that fact sets a bound beyond which the stream cannot pass; but the fuller and mightier the current, the broader the channel and the farther the onflow. Imagine the sun bidding his own beams bless only the nearest planets, and let Uranus and Neptune be bound in eternal night and ice! A Holy Ghost man never bounds his own effort by narrow limits, or by any limits. Rivers of living water flow from him and rays of divine light emanate from him, and to both there is no limit but the limits of human need.
The ambassador of Christ is so identified with his Sovereign that he may not only ask but claim his promised presence.
It is said by Williams of Wern, of Gryffyth, the Welsh preacher, that having to preach one night he asked to be allowed to withdraw for a time before the service began, and remained so long that the good man of the house felt constrained to send his servant to request him to come and meet the waiting congregation. As she came near the room she heard what seemed to be an indication of conversation between two parties, and, though in a subdued tone of voice, she caught the words: “/will not go unless you come with me.” She returned and reported to her master: “I do not think Mr. Gryffyth will come to-night; some one is there with him, and I heard him say that he will not come unless the other will come also, but I did not hear the other reply, and so I think Mr. Gryffyth will not come either.” The farmer, understanding the true case, replied: “Yes, he will come and I warrant the other will come too, if matters are as you say between them; but we would better begin singing and reading until the two do come.” And sure enough when Gryffyth made his appearance there was another who came with him, came with him in power, and that proved a pentecostal meeting when many found newness of life.
The ambassador of Christ has a right to insist reverently on Jiis sovereign Master’s unseen presence and manifested power. How significant that prayer in the assembly of the early church, when, going out from the threatening council to their own company, the apostles with one accord besought God: “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus” !^ Nothing takes away boldness in testimony to the Lord like the lack of his co-witness in his mighty works. He loves the reverent confidence that says, “I will not go unless thou go with me.” If we are about our Father’s business, we have a right to say: “And he that sent me is with me.”