The Preacher: His Life and Work

“Separated unto the Gospel of God ’

IN the course of these lectures I am to speak on the general theme of “The Preacher: his life and work.” There is little or no need of introduction. The only prefatory word I wish to offer is this. I have been in the Christian ministry for over twenty years. I love my calling. I have a glowing delight in its services. I am conscious of no distractions in the shape of any competitors for my strength and allegiance. I have had but one passion, and I have lived for it — the absorbingly arduous yet glorious work of proclaiming the grace and love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I stand

3 before you, therefore, as a fellow-labourer who has been over a certain part of the field, and my simple purpose is to dip into the pool of my experiences, to record certain practical judgments and discoveries, and to offer counsels and warnings which have been born out of my own successes and defeats.

I assume that I am speaking to men who are looking upon the field from the standpoint of the circumference, who are contemplating the work of the ministry, who are now disciplining their powers, preparing their instruments, and generally arranging their plans for a journey over what is to them a yet untravelled country. I have been over some of the roads, and I want to tell you some of the things which I have found.

To-day I am to speak on the Preacher’s call and mission. It is of momentous importance how a man enters the ministry. There is a “door” into this sheepfold, and there is “some other way.” A man may enter as a result of merely personal calculation: or he may enter from the constraint of the purely secular counsel of his friends. He may take up the ministry as a profession, as a means of earning a living, as a desirable social distinction, as a business that offers pleasantly favourable chances of cultured leisure, of coveted leaderships, and of attractive publicity. A man may become a minister because, after carefully weighing comparative advantages, he prefers the ministry to law, or to medicine, or to science, or to trade and commerce. The ministry is ranged among many other secular alternatives, and it is chosen be cause of some outstanding allurement that appeals to personal taste.

Now in all such decisions the candidate for the ministry misses the appointed door. His vision is entirely horizontal. His out look is that of “the man of the world.”

Similar considerations are prevalent: similar maxims and axioms are assumed; the same scales of judgment are used. The constraining motive is ambition, and the coveted goal is success. There is nothing vertical in the vision. There is no lifting up of the eyes “unto the hills.” There is nothing “from above.” There is no awful mysteriousness as of “a wind that bloweth where it listeth.” A man has decided his calling, but “God was not in all his thoughts.”

Now I hold with profound conviction that, before a man selects the Christian ministry as his vocation, he must have the assurance that the selection has been imperatively constrained by the eternal God. The call of the Eternal must ring through the rooms of his soul as clearly as the sound of the morning-bell rings through the valleys of Switzerland, calling the peasants to early prayer and praise. The candidate for the ministry must move like a man in secret bonds.” Necessity is laid ’ upon him. His choice is not a preference among alternatives. Ultimately he lias no alternative; all other possibilities become dumb; there is only one clear call sounding forth as the imperative summons of the eternal God.

Now no man can define or describe for another man the likeness and fashion of the divine vocation. No man’s circumstances are exactly commensurate with another’s, and the nature of our circumstances gives distinctiveness and originality to our call. Moreover, the Lord honours our individuality in the very uniqueness of the call He addresses to us. The singularity of our circumstances, and the awful singularity of our souls provide the medium through which we hear the voice of the Lord. How strangely varied are the “settings “through which the divine voice determines the vocations of men, as they are recorded in the Scriptures! Here is Amos, a poor herdman, brooding deeply and solitarily, amid the thin pastures of Tekoa. And rumours come his way of dark doings in the high places of the land. Wealth is breeding prodigality. Luxury is breeding callousness. Injustice is rampant, and” truth is fallen in the streets.” And as the poor herdman mused “the fire burned.” On those lone wastes he heard a mysterious call and he saw a beckoning hand! For him there was no alternative road.” The Lord took me as I followed the flock, and said, Go, prophesy! ?:

But how different is the setting in the call of the prophet Isaiah! Isaiah was a friend of kings; he was a cultured frequenter of courtly circles; he was at home in the precincts of king’s courts. And through what medium did the divine call sound to this man? “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord.” Isaiah had pinned his faith to Uzziah. Uzziah was “the pillar of a people’s hopes.” Upon his strong and enlightened sovereignty was being built a purified and stable State.

And now the pillar had fallen, and it seemed as though all the fair and promising structure would topple with it, and the nation would drop again into uncleanness and confusion. But on the empty throne Isaiah discovered the presence of God. A human pillar had crumbled; the Pillar of the universe remained. “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord.” Isaiah had a vision of a mighty God, with a vaster sovereignty, moving and removing men as the ministers of His large and beneficent purpose. Isaiah mourned the fall of a king, and he heard a call to service! “Whom shall I send, and who will go for me? “One man fallen; another man wanted! God’s call sounded through the impoverished ranks, and smote the heart and conscience of Isaiah, and Isaiah found his vocation and his destiny.” Here am I; send me! ):

How different, again, are the circumstances attending the call of Jeremiah! There are liquids which a “shake” will precipitate into solids; and there are fluid and nebulous things in life, vague things lying back in the mists of consciousness, which some sudden shaking or shifting of circumstances can precipitate into clear intuition, into firm knowledge, and we have the mind and will of God. Yes, a little tilt of circumstances, and the mist becomes a vision, and uncertainty changes into realised destiny.

I think it was even so with Jeremiah. In his life there had been thinkings without conclusions, obscure moments of consciousness without clear guidance, broodings without definite vocations; but one day, we know not how, his circumstances slightly shifted, and his vague meditation changed into vivid conviction, and he heard the voice of the Lord God saying unto him, “Before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet.” It was a clear call; like lightning rather than light; and it was greatly feared, and reluctantly accepted.

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