Our Savior affectionately puts this question three times to Peter: “Simon, lovest thou Me?” And three times Peter answers Him, “Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” What proof of love, then, does Jesus exact of Peter? Does He say: If thou lovest Me, chastise thy body by fasting and stripes, prophesy, work miracles, lay down thy life for Me? No, but “feed My lambs,” “feed My sheep.” This was to be the closest bond of Peter's devotion to his Master, and of the Master's affection for His disciple.
And our Lord declares that the reward of His disciples would be commensurate with the dignity of their ministry: “Behold,” says Peter, “we have left all things and have followed Thee. What, therefore, shall we have? And Jesus said to them, Amen, I say to you that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall [pg 393] sit on the seat of His majesty, you shall also sit on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And immediately after He adds that the worthy successors of the Apostles shall share in their felicity: “And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting.”[505]
I know that there are many in our days who deny that Priests possess any spiritual power—as if God could not communicate such power to men. I understand why atheists and rationalists, who reject all revelation, should deny all supernatural authority to the ministers of God. But that professing Christians who accept the testimony of Scripture should share in this unbelief passes my comprehension.
Has not the Almighty, in numberless instances recorded in Holy Writ, made man the instrument of His power? Did not Moses convert the rivers of Egypt into blood? Did he not cause water to issue from the barren rock? Did not the prophets predict future events? Did not the sun stand still in the heavens at the command of Josue? Did not Eliseus, the prophet, raise the dead to life? Why do we believe all these prodigies? Because the Scriptures record them. Does not the same Word of God declare that the Apostles received power to confer the Holy Ghost by the imposition of hands, to forgive sins, to consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ, etc. Is not the New Testament as worthy of belief as the Old? Has not Jesus Christ solemnly promised to be always with the ministers of His Church, “even to the consummation of the world,” strengthening them to repeat those miracles of mercy that were wrought by His first disciples? [pg 394] Can the God of truth be unfaithful to His promises? Is He not as strong and merciful now as He was in days of the Prophets and Apostles, and are not we as much in need of the Holy Ghost as the primitive Christians were? If God could make feeble men the ministers of His mercy then, why not now?
But should a Priest consider himself greater than other men because he exercises such authority? Far from it. He ought to humble himself beneath others when he reflects to what weak hands God assigns power so tremendous. He should remember what our Savior said to the seventy-two disciples, who, returning with joy from their first mission, cried out to Him: “Lord, even the devils are subject to us in Thy name.” But Jesus checked their vain-glory, saying: “I saw Satan like lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I have given you power ... but rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject to you; but rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven.”[506] The Priest does not forget that “the most severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule,”[507] and that “judgment should begin at the house of God.”[508] The words of the Apostle are present to his mind: “What hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?”[509] As well might the vessel that is filled with precious liquor boast of being superior to the vessel that is filled with water. The Priest knows full well that the powers he has received from God are given to him not to feed his own vanity, but to enrich the hearts of the faithful; and that, though instrumental in pointing out to others the way to heaven, he himself, unless adorned with personal virtues, will become a [pg 395] reprobate, like those unhappy Priests of Jerusalem who directed the Magi to Jesus in Bethlehem, but did not go thither themselves.
“I have planted,” says the Apostle, “Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. Therefore, neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.”[510] We perform the outward ceremony; God alone supplies the grace.
The obligations of the minister of God are, therefore commensurate with his exalted dignity.
The Priest is required to be a man of profound learning and of solid piety. “The lips of the Priest shall keep knowledge, and they (the people) shall seek the law at his mouth.”[511] The Lord denounces the Priests of the Old Law because they neglected to study the Sacred Sciences: “Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood for Me, and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”[512]
“To you,” says our Lord to His Apostles, “it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God, to the rest, in parables.” The Priests of the New Law, like the Apostles, are the custodians of the mysteries of religion.
Now we know that the knowledge of God's Kingdom is not imparted to us by inspiration or revelation. Christ does not personally teach us as He taught His Apostles. It is by hard study that the knowledge of His law is acquired by us. He does not lift us up on Angels' wings to the spiritual Parnassus. It is only by the royal road of earnest labor that we can attain those heights which will enable us to contemplate the Kingdom of heaven and describe it to others.