As to integrity in doctrine, enough has been said, we should imagine, to prove the true servant of Christ from the false, the Holy Scripture in its plainest sense being taken for our guide.
And who, you ask, is to say what the standard of Scripture doctrine is, and so to determine what we ought to teach? You must decide for yourselves. “I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what ye say.” “Wisdom is justified of her children.” Nothing can possibly be plainer than Holy Scripture. Pray for the Holy Spirit to be your guide in understanding it. We shall soon see, if we have Him indeed, “who is the Lord’s, and who is holy,”—without his judgments to convince us.
We must do the same with regard to ascertaining who have that true consistency of ministerial character and conduct which is laid down in Scripture, and are therefore those, whom we should “follow; considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”
Consider, brethren, what and where the power of godliness really is, and where the form; what and where is the most honest self-abasement, and where, on the other hand, the exaltation of man by means of office:—consider whether it be right to say, where the human commission is, there, and there only, all is right as to the Spirit; and not rather, where the Spirit is vitally proved to be, there, and there only, all is right as to the human commission: consider what is that dominion over the people’s faith, which is to be unselfishly repudiated; and who is their true servant, for Jesus sake, and the fellow-helper of their joy. Think whether it is indeed and beyond a doubt the fact, that you have yourselves “passed from death unto life,” and know what a wounded spirit is, and what the godly sorrow of a broken and contrite heart, and the agonizing conviction of being a sinner deserving eternal condemnation.
I will add nothing concerning the happier experience of a sure interest in Christ, of that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord,—and all the work of the Spirit in the soul of the believer; and of the love of Christ shed abroad in the heart. But such as this, is the personal character of the true minister of Christ, which ought to be a discriminating credential of the presence of the Spirit of God with us. O that we may have it in all its fulness and excellency!
2. The other point, which St. Paul appeals to in the text, is the effectual blessing of God upon ministerial labours. “Ye,” says the apostle, speaking of souls brought out of death into life by his means, “Ye are our Royal letters, which we carry out in our hearts, as ambassadors for Christ, to be read by, and spoken of unto, all men. Jesus ordained them on my behalf; I was the ministering hand by which He wrote; the Holy Ghost was with me, and indelibly impressed them on the tablets of your hearts; the character, and language are those which pourtray the new creature, the children of the living God, the heirs of everlasting glory.” He disclaims all sufficiency, not only to write, but even to conceive, what was written, except as it was given to Him by God, (a point they would readily admit,) and thus, in their conversion by his means, he had the clearest and strongest evidence that God was with him of a truth. So he says in another place, “The seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord: are not ye my work in the Lord?” And it is evident that this is a most essential, decisive, and therefore desirable, proof of our ministry being of God. I do not think we should by any means rest and be satisfied without it. I know that a minister may be a true prophet without always having this testimony; and though the Israel of God be not gathered by his means, his work is with the Lord, and his judgment with his God; and Isaiah says, “Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?” But this is the exception and not the rule. What are pastors and teachers for? Truly “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; opening men’s eyes, turning them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among all them which are sanctified, by faith that is in Christ.” [46] If these holy and heavenly purposes be not evidently answered by us, what are we better than others? If they be but feebly and equivocally answered, why are we not afraid, and put upon inquiry as to the cause, and upon prayer, most earnest prayer, that we may not be disowned both of God and man? What letters have we to show that we are not thus disowned? O that our gracious Lord and master may give us all imperishable seals of our apostleship in great numbers! Let us earnestly see to it that we obtain them. The double testimony of scriptural character, and of such seals given to our ministry, is irresistible.
But it may be asked, have not even false apostles their disciples, and sometimes many; Theudas, four hundred; Judas of Galilee, much people? [47] They have: but not of such sinners converted into saints, as evidently prove the operation to be of God; not such as would glorify God on the racks of persecuting torture; not such as would die martyrs in the flames, if called to it; nor such as, in peaceful departures, could triumph through faith in the Son of God, and rejoice in the certain hope of a glorious immortality. The happy and heavenly deaths of those who had lived upon the doctrines of Evangelical Protestantism are immortal and irresistible testimonies in favour of that sort of Christianity, as the truth of God. They constitute an evidence, which Anglo-catholics will never be able to produce. What were the latter days of Froude, their modern proto-saint, if not their proto-martyr? Where are their dying witnesses?
What do they in the formation of such characters as I speak of? Here, my honoured fellow-labourers in the Church of God,—the questions which I would put concerning them, allow me to put pointedly to you all. What are you really doing in the work of the ministry you have received of the Lord? Are you answering the purposes for which you were called to it? What can you do, by the grace of God? Can you convert a sinner from the error of his way? Can you give me the heart of stone broken down and melted into the humble and contrite heart? Can you display a compassionate and crucified Saviour, till men love Him fervently, and mourn for their sins which pierced Him? Can you heal a wounded spirit? Can you beautify disciples with Christian graces? Can you help the saints of God in their preparations for death and eternal glory, when Jesus shall come and receive them to Himself? Shall you then have any, of whom you will be humbly able to say, “Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given me! These are my letters of commendation! These are my joy and crown of rejoicing: while all the supreme and sovereign glory, O Christ, is thine!”
Thus let us examine and prove both ourselves and our work. And may God indeed make us able ministers of the New Testament; that we be not ashamed, but may rejoice before Him, at His appearing and His kingdom.
THE END.