qualities. Let the points I shall mention here come home to those who shall require them, but I assure you I have no special persons among you in my mind’s eye. We desire to rise to the highest style of :ministry, and if so, even if we obtain the mental and oratorical qualifications, we shall fail, unless we also possess high moral qualities.
There are evils which we must shake off, as Paul shook the viper from his hand, and there are virtues which we must gain at any cost.
Self-indulgence has slain its thousands; let us tremble lest we perish by the hands of that Delilah.. Let us have every passion :and habit under due restraint: if we are not masters of ourselves we are not fit to be leaders in the church.
We must put away all notion of self importance. God will not bless the man who thinks himself great. To glory even in the work of God the Holy Spirit in yourself is to tread dangerously near to self-adulation. “Let another praise thee, and not thine own lips,” and be very glad when that other has sense enough to hold his tongue.
We must also have our tempers well under restraint. A vigorous temper is;
not altogether an evil. Men who are as easy as an old shoe are, generally of as little worth. I would, not say to you, “Dear brethren, have a temper,”
but I do say, If you have it, control it carefully.” I thank God when I see a minister have temper enough to be indignant at wrong, and to be firm for the right; still, temper is an edged tool, and often cuts the man who handles it. “Gentle, easy to be entreated,” preferring to bear evil rather than inflict it, this is to be our spirit. If any brother here naturally boils over too soon, let him mind that when he does do so he scalds :nobody but the, devil, and then let him boil away.
We must conquer — some of us especially — our tendency to levity. A great[distinction ,exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity, which is a vice. There is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh, but trifles with everything; it is [flippant, hollow, unreal. A- hearty laugh is no more levity than a hearty cry. I speak of that religious veneering -which is pretentious, but thin, superficial, and insincere about the weightiest matters; Godliness is no jest: nor is it a mere form. Beware of being actors. Never give earnest men the impression -that you do not mean what you say, and are mere professionals. To be burning at the lip and freezing at the soul is a mark of reprobation. God deliver us from being superfine and superficial: may we never be the butterflies of the garden of God.
At the same tinny., we should avoid everything like the ferocity of bigotry.
I know a class of religious people who, I have no doubt, were horn of a woman, but they appear to have been suckled by a wolf. I have done them no dishonor: were not Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, so reared? Some warlike men of this order have had sufficient mental power to found dynasties of thought; but human kindness and brotherly love consort better with the kingdom of Christ. We are not to go about, the world searching out heresies, like terrier dogs sniffing for rats; nor are we to be so confident of our own infallibility as to erect ecclesiastical stakes at which to roast all who differ from us, not, ‘tis true, with fagots of wood, but with those coals of juniper:, which consist of strong prejudice and cruel suspicion.
In addition to all this, there are mannerisms, and moods, and ways which I cannot now describe, against which we must struggle, for little faults may often be the source of failure, and to get rid of them may be the secret of
success. Count nothing little which even in a sraM1 degree hinders your usefulness; cast out from the temple of your soul the seats of them that sell doves as well as the traffickers in sheep and oxen.
And, dear brethren, we must acquire certain moral faculties and habits, as well as put aside their opposites. He will never do much for God who has not integrity of spirit. If we be guided by policy, if there be any mode of action for us but that which is straightforward, we shall make shipwreck before long. Resolve, dear brethren, that you can be poor, that you can be despised. that you can lose life itself, but that you cannot do a crooked thing. For you, let the only policy be honesty.
May you also possess the grand moral characteristic of courage. By this we do[ not mean impertinence, impudence, or self-conceit; but real courage to do and say calmly the right thing, and to go straight on at all hazards, though there should be none to give you a good word. I am astonished at the number of Christians who are afraid to speak the truth to their brethren.
I thank God I can say this, there is no member of my church, no officer of the church, and no man in the world to whom I am afraid to say before his face what I would say behind his back. Under God I owe my position in my own church to the absence of all policy, and the habit; of saying what I mean. The plan of making things pleasant; all round is a perilous as well as a wicked one. If you say one thing to one man, and another to another, they will one day compare notes and find you out, and then you will be;
despised. The man of two faces will sooner or later be the object of contempt, and justly so. Above all things avoid cowardice, for it makes men liars. If you have anything that you feel you ought to say about a man, let the measure of what you say be this — -” How much dare I say to his face?” You must not allow yourselves a word more in censure of any man living. If that be your rule, your courage will save you from a thousand difficulties, and win you lasting respect.
Having the :integrity and the courage, dear brethren, may you be gifted with an indomitable zeal. Zeal — what is it? How shall I describe it?
Possess it, and you will know what it is. Be consumed with love for Christ, and let the flame burn continuously, not flaming up at public meetings and dying out in the routine work of every day. We need indomitable
perseverance, dogged resolution, and a combination of sacred obstinacy, self-denial, holy gentleness, and invincible courage.
Excel also in One power, which is both mental and moral, namely, the power of concentrating all your forces upon the work to which you are called. Collect your thoughts, rally all your faculties, mass your’ energies, focus your capacities. Turn all the springs of your soul into One channel, causing it to flow onward in an undivided stream. Some men lack this quality. They scatter themselves and fail. Mass your battalions, and hurl them upon the enemy. Do not try to be great at this and great at that — to be “everything by turns, and nothing long ;” but suffer your entire nature to be led in captivity by Jesus Christ, and lay everything at his dear feet who bled and died for you.
4. Above all these, we need spiritual qualifications, graces which must be wrought in us by the Lord himself. This is the main matter, I am sure.
Other things are precious, but this is priceless; we must be rich towards God.
We need to know ourselves. The preacher should be great in the science of the heart, the philosophy of inward experience. There are two schools of experience, and neither is content to learn from the other; let us be content, however, to learn from both. The one school speaks of the child of God as one who knows the deep depravity of his heart, who understands the loathsomeness of his nature, and daily feels that in his flesh there dwelleth no good thing. “That man has not the life of God in his soul,” say they,
“who does not know and feel this, and feel it by bitter and painful
experience from day to day.” It is in vain to talk to them about liberty, and joy in the Holy Ghost; they will not have it. Let us learn from these one- sided brethren. They know much that should be known, and woe to that minister who ignores their set of truths. Martin Luther used to say that temptation is the best teacher for a minister. There is truth on that side of the question.. Another school of believers dwell much upon the glorious work of the Spirit of God, and rightly and blessedly so. They believe in the Spirit of God as a cleansing power, sweeping the Augean stable of the soul, and making it into a temple for God. But frequently they talk as if they had ceased to sin, or to be annoyed by temptation; they glory as if the battle were already fought, and the victory won. Let us learn from these brethren. All the truth they can teach us let us know. Let us become familiar with the hill-tops, and the glory that shines thereon, the Hermons and the Tabors, where we may be transfigured with our Lord. Do not be afraid of becoming too holy. Do not be afraid of being too full of the Holy Spirit. I would have you wise on all sides, and able to deal with man both
in his conflicts and in his joys, as one familiar with both. Know where Adam left you; know where the Spirit of God has placed you, Do not;
know either of these so exclusively as to forget the other. I believe that if any men are likely to cry, “O wretched man that. I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” it will always be the ministers, because we need to be tempted in all points, so that we may be able to comfort others. In a. railway carriage last week I saw a poor man with his leg placed upon the seat. An official happening to see him in this posture,, remarked, “Those cushions were not made for you to put your dirty boots on.” As soon as the guard was gone the man put up his leg again, and said to me, “He has never broken his leg in two places, I am sure, or he would not be so sharp with me.” When I have heard brethren who have lived at ease, enjoying good incomes, condemning others who are much tried, because they could not rejoice in their fashion, I have felt that they knew nothing of the broken bones which others have to carry throughout the whole of their pilgrimage.
Brethren, know man in Christ, and out of Christ. Study him at his best, and study him at his worst; know his anatomy, his secrets, and. his passions.
You cannot do this by books; you must have personal spiritual experience;
God alone can give you that.
Among spiritual acquirements, it is beyond all other things needful to know him who is the sure remedy for all human diseases. Know Jesus. Sit at his feet. Consider his nature, his work, his sufferings, his glory. Rejoice in his presence: commune with him from day to day. To know Christ is to
understand the most excellent of sciences. You cannot fail to be wise if you commune with wisdom; you cannot miss of strength if you have fellowship with the mighty Son of God. I saw the other day in an Italian grotto a little fern, which grew where its leaves continually glistened and danced in the spray of a fountain. It was always green, and neither summer’s drought nor winter’s cold affected it. So let us for ever abide under the sweet influence of Jesus’ love. Dwell in God, brethren; do not occasionally visit him, but abide in him. They say in Italy that where the sun does not enter the physician must. Where Jesus does not shine the soul is sick. Bask in his beams and you shall be vigorous in the service of the Lord. Last Sunday night I had a text which mastered me : — “No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” I told the people that poor sinners who had gone to Jesus and trusted him, thought they knew him, but that they knew only a little of him.
Saints of sixty years’ experience, who have walked with him every day,
think they know him; but they are only beginners yet. The perfect spirits before the throne, who have been for five thousand years perpetually adoring him, perhaps think they know him, but they do not to the full. “No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” He is so glorious, that only the infinite God has full knowledge of him, therefore there will be no limit to our study, or narrowness in our line of thought, if we make our Lord the great object of all our meditations.
Brethren:, as the outcome of this, :if we are to be strong men, we must be conformed to our Lord. Oh, to be like him! Blessed be that cross on which we shall suffer, if we suffer for being made like unto the Lord Jesus. If we obtain conformity to Christ, we shall have a wondrous unction upon ore’
ministry, and without that, what is a :ministry worth?
In a word, we must labor for holiness of character. What is holiness? Is it hot wholeness of character? a balanced condition in which there is neither lack nor redundance? It is not morality, that is a cold lifeless statue.;
holiness is life. You must have holiness; and, dear brethren, if you should fail in mental qualifications (as I hope you will not), and if you should have a slender measure of the oratorical faculty (as I trust you will not), yet, depend upon it, a holy life is, in itself, a wonderful power, and ‘will make up for many deficiencies; it is, in fact, the best sermon the best man can deliver. Let us resolve that all the purity which ,:an be had we will have, that all the sanctity which can be reached we will obtain, and that all the likeness to Christ that is possible in this world of sin shall certainly be in us through the work of the Spirit of God. The Lord lift us all as a college right up to a higher platform, and he shall have the glory!
5. Still I have not done, dear brethren. I have to say to you,. go forward in actual work, for, after all, we shall be known by what we have done. We ought to be mighty in deed as well as word. There are good brethren in the world who are impractical. The grand doctrine of the second advent makes them stand with open mouths, peering into the skies, so that I am ready to say, “Ye men of Plymouth, why stand ye here gazing up into heaven?” The fact that Jesus Christ is to come is not a reason for star-gazing, but for working in the power of the Holy Ghost. Be not so taken up with speculations as to prefer a Bible reading over a dark passage in the Revelation to teaching in a ragged-school or discoursing to the poor
concerning. Jesus. We must have done with day-dreams, and get to work. I believe in eggs, but we must get chickens out of them. I do not mind how
big your egg is; it may be an ostrich’s egg if you like, but if there is nothing in it, pray clear away the shells. If something comes of it, God bless your speculations, and even if you should go a little further than I think it wise to venture, still, if you are more useful, God be praised for it. We want facts — deeds done, souls saved. It is all very well to write essays, but what souls have you saved from going down to hell? Your excellent
management of your school interests me, but how many children have been brought into the church by it? We are glad to hear of those special
meetings, but how many have really been born to God in]them? Are saints edified? Are sinners converted?
To swing to and fro on a five-barred gate is not progress, yet some seem to think so. I see them in perpetual Elysium, humming over to themselves and their friends, “We are very comfortable.” God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell. In traveling along the mountain roads in Switzerland you will continually see marks of the boring-rod; and in every minister’s life there should be traces of stern labor. Brethren, do something; do something; do something. While committees waste their time over resolutions, do something. While Societies and Unions are making constitutions, let us win souls. Too often we discuss, and discuss, and discuss, and Satan laughs in his sleeve. It is time we had done planning and sought something to plan. I pray you:, be men of action all of you. Get to work and quit yourselves like men. Old Suwarrow’s idea of war is mine:
“Forward and strike! No theory! Attack! Form column: Charge bayonets!
Plunge into the center of the enemy.” Our one aim is to sate sinners, and this we are not to talk about, but to do in the power! of God.