The Responsibility of Ministers

The true influence of the pulpit will be found to be intimately connected with deep impressions of responsibility on the part of those who occupy it. Every thing that has been suggested in the preceding pages, is iitted to enforce this solemn thought. Nor is it one which the ministers of the Gospel can ever feel too deeply. The office they bear, the Master they serve, the interests committed to them, and the influence and power they exert, throw upon them a burden, of responsibility which is borne by no other class of men, and will render their account at the bar of the Supreme Judge, solemn beyond any thing which the tongue of mortals can utter. It were no marvel if a deep sense of this responsibility should have deterred many a man from entering the desk, and made more tremble who have ventured to enter it, and have occupied it long. It is a responsibility which diminishes not with growing vears; and which, could the whole extent of it have been anticipated, would have presented an affecting, if not a fearful view to many a youthful aspirant for the sacred office.

There is responsibility in being clothed with an immortal existence; and in being gifted with powers and faculties of doing good in the humblest sphere. There is responsibility in the successful cultivation of those faculties and powers, by familiarity with the works, and providence, and truth of God, and in the communicated grace that calls the foreigner and exile into the divine family, and gives him a name better than that of sons and of daughters. But how is this responsibility enhanced, when to all these is added the call of Heaven to a work of which the holiest are unworthy, and Heaven’s investiture with an office which might well constrain a seraph to exclaim, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Which of us who serves at the tabernacle, is awake to just apprehensions of this single thought! What a trust is this ministry! How solemn the account which must be given for it! If ministers remind others of their responsibility, may they not, in their turn, be also reminded of theirs 1 If they charge home their accountableness upon men of station and wealth; men of lofty calling, high associations, commanding aulhority, and controlling influence; shall not the solemn charge be brought home to tlicir own bosoms, who stand before their fellow-men as God’s ambassadors, and in his name show them the wav of life? But for him who has called us, and whose call we may not disregard; but for his grace that is sufficient for us, and his strength that is made perfect in human weakness; the office of a Gospel minister would be too heavy to be borne. God grant, that none of us may find to our cost that we had better have been any thing else; — that it had been better for us to have been intrusted v.ith the two talents, rather than the five; — better for us to have exchanged our responsibility even with the wicked and slothful servant, who hid his talent in the earth, because it is the one talent only for which he is responsible! Better, far better, to be the humble and unnoticed door-keeper in God’s house, than to have occupied the most enviable pulpit in the land, either for selfish and vile ends, or not to have occupied it with honesty, care, and pains.

There is nothins: which Christ’s ministers are called upon to watch over more cautiously, to cultivate more assiduously, and to exert more wisely and benevolently, than the power of the pulpit. What effort, what study, what prayer; — what faithfulness, what devotement to God and their work; — unwearied, repeated often, and repeated long aiul undiscouraged.

—become those who, from their vocation, exert so much influence on the character, the usefuhiess, the deathless destiny of their fellow-men! Ministers will meet this responsibility at the bar of God: — it will run parallel with their eternity.

When I say that I tremble for the ministers of the Gospel, I can truly say, that I tremble for none more than for myself. I would not be released from the responsibility; but I should be afraid to counsel any man to seeJc it, who has a hesitatinsf conscience or heart. The harvest is great, “and the laborers are few;” and I would “pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers into his harvest.” I would have no man enter the pulpit, whose heart and conscience will allow him to keep out of it. If, with an honest conscience, and a loving and satisfied heart, he can keep out of it, let him stay where he is. But if conscience urges him, — if a loving heart to his redeeming God and King, and to the souls he has purchased with his blood, constrain him, so that he cannot turn a deaf ear to God’s call; in the strength of the Lord God, and making mention of his righteousness, and his only, let him go to that sacred calling. If the Master thus “thrusts him forth,” he must go. With all the responsibilities of the work, he must go to it, and trust implicidy, — trust constantly, — trust cheerfully to the Master’s promised grace.

That imlpit! — what an attractive, — what a deliiihirul, — yet what a fearful spot! That preacher’s breath is constantly touching some secret spring, that shall set mind after mind in motion, whose pulsations shall be felt when the scenes of earth are forgotten. It is but a single spot, yet it speaks to a thousand generations. The living testify to its influence, and generations of the dead lie scattered around it, who will one day rise up and bear witness to the mighty power which it has wielded. What a scene will that be, when they thus rise! Who is prepared for it? Who can abide it? Who may abide “the day of his coming?” and who shall stand when he appeareth? On that vast mass of minds, and through all the narrow pathway of this low W’Orld, that pulpit is exerting its silent influences; and as God is just, he who exerts them shall give account. Some of the most solemn and aifocting disclosures of the Great Day of reckoning will consist in the discoveries it makes of the influence of the pulpit. Such a day will be a fitting winding up of these earthly scenes. Small and great, ministers, and their people, shall stand before God. Yes, it will be a fltting winding up of the scene, where this world has been the selected spot for man’s education for eternity, and vviiere the sanctuary and the pulpit have been the selected means of formiuf? the characters of men.

The inquiry, Why the pulpit is often so powerless? is one of great interest to a laborious preacher. We have no desire to find relief from the responsibilities which God has thrown upon his ministers; yet” are there some thoughts in relation to their want of success, which may furnish some relief to that depression of mind to which they are sometimes subjected.

The Scriptures teach us, that wherever the Gospel is faithfully preached, it produces widely different results. It is in perfect accordance with the nature of the Gospel, that it should be so. The truths which it discloses cannot be faithfully exhibited without making impressions, either for good or for evil, upon every mind to which they have access. Such is man’s intellectual and moral nature, that wdiere these truths are once resisted, they are more easily resisted afterwards, till eventually the human heart becomes impregnably fortified in its obduracy, and is abandoned of God. The same truths repeatedly uttered and rejected, serve only to excite and invigorate unhallowed emotions, to disturb lurking enmity, and to awaken slumbering wickedness. Men never sin so fast and with such vigor of thought and emotion; tlicy never become so precociously ripe for destruction, and prematurely fuel for the flames; as when their dry and fruitless branches are spread out under the resisted light, and scorching heat of heavenly truth. “We are unto God,” says the Apostle, “a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death unto death: to the other we are the savor of life unto life.”

This representation is abundantly confirmed by facts. In all ages thus far in the history of the world, there have been more who have treated the Gospel wutli indifference, opposition, and contempt, than have received it with confidence, gratitude and joy. From the preaching of Enoch to the preaching of the Apostles, and from the preaching of the Apostles to the present time; so far has it been from having had unmingled success, that while it has healed spiritual maladies in all lands, it has left more unhealed. Its ministers have met with disappointment, even where they had the most sanguine expectations. Like their Divine Master, they have been “set for the rising and falling of many,” It is not in their power to give it success. God is a Sovereign in the dispensation of his grace; “the wind bloweth where it listeth;” and he hath “mercy on whom he will have mercy.”

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There are instances in which, strive as much and earnestly as they will to fasten a sense of guilt on the conscience, they leave it unaffected. They can make no impression upon the levity and carelessness, the callousness and insensate obduracy of the carnal mind. Even where solemn impressions are made, the cares of the world spring- up and choke the word, and the fairest promise is blighted in the bud. They wield a two-edged sword, and where it does not wound to heal, it wounds but to destroy..

Nor may this want of “success be always attributed to their unfaithfulness. The incense of Paul’s services was acceptable to God, even where it was the savor of death unto death. Where the message is the message of God’s truth and grace, the message itself is acceptable; and where it is faithfully delivered, and attested by a consistent life and conversation, the Divine approbation is not withheld from the messenger. The field yields flowers and fruit that are swollen with the dew and redolent w ith the odors of heaven, even when trodden under the foot of men. And though in gathering the harvest, but here and there a sheaf may be found, while the field is covered with tares, the reaper shall come home with rejoicing. He has done a work for God which will not be forgotten, even thoiigli his sweetest hopes have suffered defeat. Other objects have been obtained by his ministry besides the salvation of men; nor shall his faithfulness lose its reward.

Jesus Christ has nowhere commanded his ministers to convert men. He has commanded them to preach his Gospel; to declare the whole counsel of God, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. This is their great concern, and for this they are responsible to their own consciences, to those lo hear, and him who sent them. It is a sad result indeed, where their message is rejected, and one over which ministers may well weep in secret places. But notwithstanding this, their preaching has not been lost. His great and glorious character who sent them, shines forth; his claims have been asserted; and all that is pure in his rectitude, alluring in his mercy, fearful in his wrath, and discriminating in his sovereign dominion, have, through their instrumentality, been seen and acknowledged. God is glorified in, and by his faithful ministers, though they make hard hearts harder, and blind eyes blinder. Every faithful exhibition of his Gospel makes known to this thoughtless world the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, and makes it known too, even where its results are so lamentable, to principalities and powers in heavenly places.

But while v, e say these things, we maj not suppress the remark, that the powerlessness of the pulpit is in too many instances to be attributed to ministers themselves. If in so saying, the writer reproaches himself, he has no wish to j’epel the reproach which may be due to him in common with others, or even beyond them. Men may preach the truth with all plainness and fidelity, whose own bosoms are not v.armed by it. They may preach for sinister and selfish ends, rather than that God may be exalted. They may be weak and uninteresting preachers, because they bestow little time, or thought, or prayer upon their preparations for the pulpit. They may loiter the week away, and the blessed day of God which they ought to hail with joy, finds them embarrassed and unfitted for their work. Weeks and years, and a life of toil, is what they may not think of; their great object may be to avoid the more weighty responsibilities of their calling, and their ingenuity tasked to its utmost to find out expedients by which they may meet these responsibilities with the least labor. Or if they are men of toil, it may be for themselves they are toiling; it may be for place, for fame, for care and competency, and not for Christ and (lie souls of men. They have no heartfelt impressions of the condition of those who are living without God and without hope, and no deep solicitude to lead them to repentance. Or if they have these sympathies, they are eA-anescent as the dew. They have little confidence in God, and little of that joy in him which is the strength of his ministers, as well as his people. The great object of their holy vocation does not fill their minds, engross their thoughts, and draw toward it their strongest and most ardent affections. And it is no marvel that such preachers complain of little success.

These are affecting and humblinof thoughts. Were those of us who minister at the altar more in the habit of inspecting ourselves, and searching our hearts, we should have less difficulty in ascertaining the causes of a fruitless ministry. But everlasting thanks to him to whom they are due, it is not in the unbelief of his ministers, to “make the faith of God of no effect!” His gracious designs will not be frustrated. Let the thought encourage his ministers that they plead for God, as well as for the souls of men. So far as they are faithful, his aims and theirs are one. O that we might more deeply feel the importance of the position we occupy, the work to which we are called, and the vows that are upon us! Paul said to the Corintliiaiis,” I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in timch Ircmbling.’’ Little do they know the heart of God’s ministers, who do not suppose that it habitually responds to this consciousness. If ministers are made to feel their own insufficiency, and if the churches are made to feel the insufficiency of their ministers, it is that both may learn that their help cometh from God.

There is great, nay unspeakable joy in the work of the ministry when it is attended with the power of God; but let it not be said that it is ever joyless. It were indeed a privilege to be able to say with Paul, “Thanks be to God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. And had we his spirit, we should oftener say with him, “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” If we may forget ourselves in thinking of our work, much more may we forget ourselves in thinking of our Divine Master. We should be happy ministers then, even though not always successful. And should we not be more successful? And then what joys! — no longer transient, no longer few and small, but rich and plenteous, dropping from heaven like the dew, coming down like the rain, flowing like rivers wdiose banks are full to the brim!

When ministers are most discouraged, they rarely iiltcr tlicir discouragements to the ear of man. They often feel that they stand alone, but rarely do they burden their people with their apprehensions; their course is a silent and uncomplaining course. Cut never ought it to be a discouraged one, — no, never. Let none of these things move us, — neither let us count our lives dear to ourselves, so that we may finish our course with joy, and the ministry we have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.

It is a wise arrangement of Divine Providence, that “one generation passcth away, rtnd another cometh.” The time cannot be long before the writer must retire from the field of labor, and leave it fresh and ripe for a glorious harvest. He knows the distance he has journeyed, and the path he is treading. He has bright anticipations of what is to take place when he himself is numbered with the forgotten dead. These days of declension and darkness will not continue long. If it were right that he should do so, he could envy the youthful ministry of reconciliation, who are entering upon their work at a period so rich in promise. The clouds of mercy are gathering thick over this lost world; — the times are full of promise; — this long protracted slumber is breaking up; — there are those now alive, and on the earth, who will see the signs of the Son

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of Man coming in power and great glory. Such a scene as is allotted to those who are just putting on their armor, is cheerless only when it is neglected. Nothing so certainly as cheerful toil, and a cheerful faith in things not seen as yet, will become a sweeter, and yet more sweet preparative for the joy of their Lord.