The Happiness of Christ's Ministry
There is a romantic view of the clerical office, which may induce a man to assume it, without any religion; which regards only its social and literary appendages, and the status in society Vv’hich it secures, even where there is no establishment. Younger sons in England are frequently educated for the Church, as it is called, and spend their lives in a service for which they have no heart. Even though they may not follow the hounds, or belong to the dancing clergy,” they may look no higher than the literary accomplishments of their place. Coleridge has somewhere given an exquisite picture of a secluded, peaceful rectory, seen in this light. Look at the Memoir of Cary, the translator of Dante, by his son, and you will see what I mean. Both were clergymen: yet there is as little I’eligion in the work, as if it had been the life of an ancient Greek. The contribntions of this man to letters were vast, but to religion insignificant. Now let ns beware lest some thoughts kindred to these creep into our minds, and make ns look rather at the rej)ose, than the work, of the ministry. He grossly errs, who considers the life of an evangelist as other than a confiict. Yet it is happy; indeed I hesitate not to express my conviction, that the life of a faithful minister is the happiest on earth. Some there are, it is true, who are dragged into it, like a reluctant witness into court, collo obtorto, and who never possess any of its rewards: but there are many who have found it a heavenly service.
Li seeking the constituents of this happiness, you should not look at the accidents of the ministry, but at its substance; not at the quietude, respectability, emolument, or refining culture, but at the lifelong embassy from the Redeemer to lost men. The truest, safest, most abiding ministerial pleasures are those which come from delight in the genuine object of the ministry, the salvation of men. But there is a collateral blessedness, which we may not despise, since God has deigned to bestow it on his servants. Even this you will be most sure of attaining, if you have much love of Christ, love of the gospel, and love of souls.
The private life of a Christian minister ought to be a happy one. The apostles inform ns in what it should be spent, to wit, the word of God and prayer. Acts vi. 4. I should account it lost time to go about persuading you, that there is a hapj)iness in the study of great moral and religious subjects, especially of the word of God. To have this made the business of your days; to find your chosen solace enjoined as your duty to be shut up for life with prophets and apostles, nay, with Jesus Christ himself, speaking in the “living oracles,” to be perpetually drawing water from the wells of salvation; this is but a part of the minister’s joy. “While others must snatch time from exacting toils, for communion with God, he may devote whole days uninterruptedly to such contemplations and delights as we find recorded in the lives of Augustine, Edwards, and Brainerd; and may live among those gardens of spices, the odours of which hang about the pages of Binning and Rutherford. Catch but one strain from the experience of the latter, and tell me whether he were happy or not; it is from one of his letters: “O glorious tenants and triumphant householders with the Lamb, put in new psalms and love-sonnets of the excellency of our Bridegroom, and help us to set him on high! O indwellers of earth and heaven, sea and air, and O all ye created beings, within the bosom of the utmost circle of this great world, O come, help to set on high the praises of our Lord! O fairness of creatures, blush before his imcreated beauty! O created strength, be amazed to stand before your strong Lord of hosts! O created love, think shame of thyself before this unparalleled love of heaven! O angel of wisdom, hide thyself before our Lord, whose understanding passeth findingout! O sun, in thy shining beauty, for shame j)ut on a web of darkness, and cover thyself before thy brightest Master and Maker!” Though these are not professional flights of soul, yet who should enjoy them, if not those who are called to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of their life, to “behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple?” Psalm xxvii. 4. J^one of the private studies of the minister are absolutely peculiar; yet the opportunity for them is more remarkably his.
There is happiness in preaching. It may be so performed as to be as dull to the speaker, as it is to the hearers; but in favoured instances it furnishes the purest and noblest excitements, and in these is happiness. Kowhere are experienced, more than in the pulpit, the clear, heavenward soaring of the intellect, the daring flight of imagination, or the sweet agitations of holy passion. The declaration of what one believes, and the praise of what one loves, always give delight: and what but this, is the minister’s work? He is called to converse with the highest
92 THOUGHTS on pkicaching.
truths of which humanity can be cognizant, and, if God so favour him, to experience the noblest emotions; and this most, while he is standing “in Christ’s stead.”
I am persuaded, that previously to trial, no youngman can duly estimate the glow of public discourse as a source of pleasure. When the soul is carried by the greatness of the subject, and the solemnity of the occasion, above its ordinary tracts, so as to be at once heated and enlarged by passion, while the kindled countenances of the hearers, and the reflected ardour of their glance, carry a repercussive influence to the speaker; or when the tear twinkles in the eye of penitence, and weeping throngs attest the power of truth and affection; then it is that preaching becomes its own reward. This is more than rhetorical excitement and stage-heat; it is caused by Christian emotion. Call it sympathy, if you please; I am yet to learn what harm there is in this: it is legitimate sympathy. If a Christian minister ever has deep impressions of truth, we may ex^ect it to be in the pulpit; there, if anywhere, we may hope for special gifts from above; and these gifts are dispensed for the sake of the hearer, and are reckoned on, as graces, or tokens of individual piety. Yet they constitute a great part of the preacher’s happiness. They are not dependent on eloquence, in its common meaning; for they fall eqnallj to the share of the humblest, rudest preacher, provided he be all on fire with his subject, and bursting with love to his people. ‘No scholarship, filing, or varnish, can compass this; it comes from the heart: and many a minister has chipped at the edges of his sermon, and veneered it with nice bits of extract, only to find that its strength had been whittled away. There may be more awakening or melting, in a backwoodsman’s improvisation, than in all the climacteric periods of Melville, or all the balanced splendour of Macaulay. Certainly the delight of soul is on the side of him who is most in earnest. It is especially love that moves the souls of hearers, and love, in its very nature, gives happiness. It cannot be, that a man can be frequently the subject of those feelings which belong to evangelical preaching, without being for that very reason a happier man.
The better moments of Andrew Gray, Hall, and Chalmers, must have been snatches of heaven. But be not discouraged when I mention these great names: the more you refer the joy of preaching to its legitimate and gracious causes, the more you will see that it may exist independently of what the world calls eloquence. It is not only in the vast assemblies of a Chrysostom, a Bridaine, or a “Whitefield, that the service of Christ brings its sacred pleasures, but in Philip
Henry’s little xarisli of Worthenbnry, wHcli never numbered eighty communicants; or in the early morning-lectures of Komaine, when two candles lighted all the house. IT or is this happiness restricted to great and decorated edifices; it belongs to the itinerant missionary, who dismounts from his tired horse, and gains refreshment by dispensing the word to the gathering under the ancient oaks; or who meets his circuit of appointments in regions where the truth has scarcely ever been heard. I exhort you to seek your highest professional delight in preaching the gospel, so as to be looking forward to the blessed hour during all the week.
Little space is left for me to say that the minister of the gospel has a source of happiness in his parochial work and social communion. It is this, indeed, which distinguishes his calling, and is its grand prerogative. This brings him near to the hearts of his people, and, unless he betrays his trust, embraces him in their affections. The ministry may indeed be so discharged, as that the pastor shall have none of this: he sits with his hat and stick in his hand, makes a morningcall, or leaves a card: he is only a ceremonious visitor, from whom the children do not run and hide, only because they see him every day in the high-place. But the genuine bond is as strong and tender as any on earth, and as productive of happiness. Think of this, when yon are tempted to discontent. What is it that really constitntes the happiness of a residence? Is it a fine house, furniture, equipage, farm, large salary, wealthy pew-holders? lay, it is love. It is the affectionate and mutual attachment. It is the daily flow of emotion, and commingling of interest in common sorrows and common joys; in the sick-room, and the house of bereayement, at the death-bed and the grave, at baptisms and communions. These things may be in the poorest, humblest charge: then the “dinner of herbs” is better than “the stalled ox.” Growing old among such associations, the pastor becomes like “Paul the aged.” Let us strive after a happier, that we may have a more fruitful, ministry.
There is one occasion of joy, which is by no means rare in pastoral experience, and which ought in another of its aspects to be laid before you more at large; it is the season when souls are awakened and converted in great numbers. The revival brings with it the joy of harvest. Too commonly we are content to be like those who “glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.” IIow different is the case, when the wide fields are covered with golden ears! Then it is, that “he that rcapcth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.” John iv. 36. Where there have been several such ino:athyb THOUGHTS ON PREACHING.
erings, the pastor looks around iijDon the larger part of his clmrcli, as seals of his ministry, and in their turn they regard him with an inexpressible tenderness of filial attachment. Growing old, in such circumstances, he is the patriarch of all the younger generation; and, even when the fire of his prime has departed, can fix the attention and reach the heart, by means of this very relation. See what strength this tie may acquire, even where the pastor is young, in the account of McCheyne’s return to Dundee, after his mission to Palestine. It was a time of revival, and though he had not been himself the jDroximate instrument, he rejoiced in the fulfilment of the saying, “that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” This was only the repetition of scenes which occurred among our Presbyterian ancestors in the seventeenth century. Ministers and jdcople must have rejoiced together in uncommon degrees, to have endured the fatigue and protracted services of such occasions as are recorded. Under the preaching, for example, of Mr. William Guthrie, author of the “Great Interest,” hundreds of his hearers had walked miles to be present. It was their usual practice to come to Fenwick upon Saturday, spend the greatest part of that night in prayer, and in conversation on the state of their souls, attend on the Sabbath-worship, and on Monday return cheerfully to their distant homes. Those long sacramental services of our forefathers, comprising several days, and attended by thousands, sometimes excite a smile; but they remain on record, as monuments of the elevated affections of those who joined in them, and enjoyed them. Not only the people, but the ministers — may I not say especially the ministers — were happy in the fellowship thus enjoyed. We know from experience the blessed fraternity and mutual affection, cemented by holy joy, which 23revail in those parts of our church, where the meetings of ecclesiastical courts are still made seasons of relisiious service. Such community of interest in the highest good tends, beyond every thing else, to heal dissensions, and to exhibit ministers of Christ to his people in that union which, unfortunately, is not seldom interrupted. The expectation of such gratifications may be lawfully indulged.
After all, what is the scriptural statement of ministerial happiness? “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? “asks Paul; and answers, “Ye are our glory and joy! “1 Thess. ii. 19, 20. Seek happiness, my dear young friend, in contemplation of this reward. That moment will indemnify the minister for the losses of a whole life.” And is this the end,” he will exclaim, “of all my labours, my toils, and watchings; my expostulations with sinners, and my efforts to console the faithful! And is this the issue of that ministiy under which I was often readj to sink! And this the glory of which I heard so much, understood so little, and announced to my hearers with lisping accents and a stammering tongue! “Well might it be styled the glory to he Tevealed. Auspicious day! on which I embarked in this undertaking, on which the love of Christ, with a sweet and sacred violence, impelled me to feed his sheep and to feed his lambs. “With what emotion shall we, who, being intrusted with so holy a ministry, shall find mercy to be faithful, hear that voice from heaven, Rejoice and be glad, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready! ’ “With what rapture shall we recognize, amid an innumerable multitude, the seals of our ministry, the persons whom we have been the means of conducting to that glory!” ‘-
When you asked me for some advice respecting a course of ministerial study, you probably did not expect a series of letters so much like sermons as these have been. In due time, if your yatience should hold out, I hope to fulfil my original intention; but I desire that we may both feel more and more deeply that none of our studies will be directed aright, unless we begin with just views of the great object of our call-
* 1 Hall’s Works, p. 151.
ing. For this reason, I have Yentured to spend some time in setting forth considerations, which may serYe to awaken the true ministerial zeal, and to tm-n your wishes and hopes towards the right quarter.