FUNCTION OF THE TRUE MINISTER

THE FUNCTION OF THE TRUE MINISTER IS TO PREACH THE GOSPEL. Paul was not a politician, to turn the church into a party club, and the pulpit into a hustings — not a mere orator, to give his hearers an hour's entertainment; not a devotee of science; not a philologist, to spread out before immortal souls scholastic criticisms; not a mere moralist, to discourse of flowers that never grew around the Cross. No! his was a nobler and more difficult work, viz., to preach the gospel! To do this is — 1. To proclaim all the precious doctrines, promises, precepts, and duties recorded in the Scriptures. Some confine themselves to a few favourite topics. They are afraid to preach the whole gospel, lest its truths contradict each other. Away with such idle fears! One truth can no more clash with another truth than one sunbeam can quench another sunbeam. 2. To preach Christ crucified. Some excuse their non-preaching of Christ on the ground that He is not in the text. I should not like to live in a village from which there was not a road to London; and I should not take a text from which there was not a way to Christ. 3. To preach to all. A deacon once said to a minister, "If you go into that pulpit, you are only to preach to God's dear people." The minister replied, "Have you marked them all on the back, so that I may know them?" The gospel is a boon to a lost world, and I dare not monopolise it. II. THE TRUE MINISTER IS IMPELLED TO HIS HOLY VOCATION. Paul did not preach the gospel on the ground of expediency, or to gain human applause, but because of an irresistible inspiration, a celestial impulse. No minister is now called in the miraculous way Paul was, but every true minister feels the same necessity. John Newton was summoned from the deck of the slave ship to the pulpit. Thomas Scott threw aside his shepherd's frock to put on the mantle of the prophet. The true minister cannot help preaching. "If I were out of prison to-day," said Bunyan, "I would preach the gospel again to-morrow, by the help of God." You might as well try to uproot the mountains, roll back the rivers, tame the wild ocean, or arrest the stars, as attempt to silence the man whose mouth God has opened. It is said that ministers are all hypocrites; and when a specious professor stands unmasked the cry is raised, "They are all the same." Are they? Nay, there are thousands who would march bravely to the stake to-morrow, if it were necessary. III. THE TRUE MINISTER IS MISERABLE IF UNENGAGED IN HIS SACRED CALLING. To an unselfish mind personal security is not always perfect felicity. The apostle stood on the serene elevation of personal assurance. "I am persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ; but oh! this great heaviness for Israel — my kinsmen!" The man who would go to heaven alone shall never get there. Paul longed and laboured to save others. He thought on the multitudes that were dying in their sins. Christ bled for sinners — shall I not labour for them? He lived and died for me — shall I do nothing for Him? Perish the thought! (W. Anderson.)

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