Minister of the gospel

“ A minister of the gospel may not always be the central figure of that religious fervor which has come sporadically and spasmodically to men under many creeds, since man began to think aloud, to doubt and despair in public, and to pray in company. ”

“ A minister, therefore, that is a dispenser of the word and sacrament of the gospel, if he is a good man, becomes a fellow-partner in the working of the gospel; but if he is a bad man, he does not therefore cease to be a dispenser of the gospel. For if he is good, he does it of his own free will ”

“ A minister of the Gospel, an ambassador of the Lord Jesus, you bear a message of eternal life to dying men. Your work is to save perishing sinners from the miseries of sin and the wrath to come; your station is responsible, your work is arduous, but your reward is sure. ”

“ He pleaded that a minister of the gospel is not created officially, or ordained by a single church, that it is in the united wisdom of several churches and ministers that he is appointed to his work, and that it requires an authority equally general to try, acquit, or exclude him, as the evidence may demand. ”

“ His argument for the right of the Christian Minister to a temporal maintenance is wholly derived from the analogy of the Jewish Priesthood; this would, then, be no argument, if there were no analogy. His words are, “Do ye not know that they which Minister about holy things, live of the things of the altar? even so hath the Lord ordained, that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel.” Evidently the former Ministry is assumed to be the pattern of the latter. ”

“ The minister of the Gospel, whose mission is to man in his highest and holiest relations, must know the best that human thought has produced if he would successfully reach and influence the thoughtful and inquiring. ”

“ It is natural that the minister of the gospel who, as a human instrument, is very successful in winning souls to Christ should be “highly esteemed in love for his work’s sake,” and yet nothing exposes him more to the unjust criticisms and unchristian detractions of his less successful brethren in the ministry. ”

“ Earnest effort to become an able minister of the New Testament. The most solemn urgencies press on the pastor the duty of seeking the highest possible intellectual and pulpit power. The themes he unfolds are the grandest that can engage the thought of man or angel. The end to be secured—the salvation of souls—is the most momentous ever committed to a finite being. God will not hold guiltless the indolent, reckless minister who causes the Gospel to be despised and imperils the souls of his people by a careless, unstudied presentation of the message He has entrusted to him. ”

“ If, therefore, the gospel, which is Christ's, but so that a minister also may call it his in virtue of his office of administering it, can be received by a man even at the hands of an evil minister without danger to himself, if he does according to what he says, and not after the example of what he does, how much more may any one who comes in good faith to Christ receive without fear of contagion from an evil minister the baptism of Christ, which none of the apostles so administered as to dare to call it his own? ”

“ So that they were truly ministers of Christ sent forth to minister in his name to all who would believe, and by means of this ministry, and power, they could build up the kingdom of Christ among men, and establish his cause in the world. The gospel that men preach in these days have no such ministry or priesthood: the priesthood of modern times has no such power or authority. ”

“ No one but the Lord Christ can put a man into the ministry, as none but He can impart spiritual gift. It is utterly impossible for any one to be a minister of Christ unless He calls him and fits him for the work. This is so plain as not to admit of a single question. A man may be a minister of religion; he may preach the doctrines of the gospel, and teach theology; but a minister of Christ he cannot possibly be unless Christ calls him to, and gifts him for, the work. If it be a question of ministry inside the house, it is "whom his lord hath made ruler over his house." ”

“ All too often lay people assume that the problems of the ministry and of the church belong to the clergy alone. Many conscientious ministers today, erroneously assuming this responsibility, are confused as to what their role is. The problem of ministerial roles belongs to the whole church. It is not easy in this time of transition for ministers to be sure of what is expected of them. They sense or see clearly that the old images and patterns of the minister of the gospel do not fit the present time, and, therefore, are not safe ones to follow. ”

“ It is generally supposed that an ordained minister of the Gospel is a Christian. Whatever the faults, negligences and shortcomings of other people in other conditions of life, it is tacitly expected that the professing disciples of Christ, the priests, teachers and exponents of holy and spiritual things, should be more or less holy and spiritual in themselves. ”

“ I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Observe, The best of men have need to be awed into the discharge of their duty. The work of a minister is not an indifferent thing, but absolutely necessary. Woe be to him if he preach not the gospel, 1 Cor. ”

“ In the country districts the minister of the gospel is normally the associate and leader of his congregation and in close personal touch with them. He shares in and partially directs their intellectual and moral life, and is responsive to their spiritual needs. ”

“ His death is generally and deeply lamented, and he will long be remembered for the diligence, activity, and zeal with which he discharged the public and private duties of the ministerial office. He was very generally known as a most laborious and faithful minister of the gospel; and it was evident, That the uncommon exertions which he continually made for the spiritual and temporal welfare of his congregation Sprung from love to the work itself from compassion to perishing sinners.—and from a desire to promote the edification and comfort of those who believed. ”

“ And though we believe, that none ought to take the Office of a Minister, but he that is elected and ordained thereunto, yet we believe also, that it is the duty of all private Christians, in a brotherly way, out of the common bond of charity, to build up one another in their most holy Faith. And therefore let those [149] that fear the Lord, speak often one to another, especially in these evil daies: and strive together for the Faith of the Gospel, standing fast in one spirit with one mind. ”

“ Hence the Apostle says, “A measure of the Spirit is given to every man to p. 29profit withal;” every Minister of the Gospel, for some purpose in the Church; and it is a sad pity for good men to fall out by the way, seeing God has allotted every man his peculiar work; and one Minister never can do the work of another ”

“ During this as well as many other meetings for worship, I sat under religious exercise, but could seldom believe it required of me to take part in the public ministry. I often think, when many exercised brethren and sisters are present; there would be a danger of interrupting the true gospel order, if all were not careful to wait on the Great Minister of the Sanctuary. If we patiently abide under the rightly baptizing power, what we may apprehend preparing in our hearts for utterance may often be delivered by others, and we only have to say, as it were, Amen. ”

“ The most learned of its adversaries have never been able to fix on any period in the Christian Church, from the time of the Apostles to the Reformation, in which the ordination of men to the ministry of the gospel was considered to be vested in any other minister or ministers than a Bishop. ”

“ Foolishness, lightness, jesting, indulged in by the minister while preaching the everlasting gospel, is entirely out of place. Nor does this admonition apply entirely to the pulpit, but at all times, under all circumstances, a minister should be an example to the flock. Only thus can we ministers expect to obey God and fulfil our calling and accomplish God's will in the salvation of the world.
Those who are young in the ministry should not get discouraged because they have not fully comprehended and practised the different things herein set forth. ”

“ Now let Church judicatories judge and see whether or not such men can be fit for chusing of faithful ministers to take care of the poor flock of CHRIST, to feed them with knowledge and understanding: They cannot endure the strictness of religion themselves, as little can they endure to hear faithful ministers press home such things upon them. ”

“ Doubtless no young minister, no matter how consecrated he may be to the will of God, finds it easy to take his first step in gospel work. I was no exception to the rule. Twice already when I arose in the public assembly to bear witness to God's dealings with me, my testimony became an exhortation, and God spoke through me to the edification of the people; but I had so far done no preaching, and now that I had reached the decision to go with my brother into the active ministry, I was conscious of conflicting emotions. ”

“ Ministers differ in their abilities—some have greater and some less; but these all worketh that self same Spirit, who divideth to his Ministers severally as he will, for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.—This is the design of the Gospel Ministry. The breaking of these pitchers, that the light might appear, may be emblematic of the various trials and heart-breaking circumstances they meet with here below ”

“ Were it possible for every man and woman who pretends to be a minister of Jesus, to pass six months in any of the Training Colleges of the Salvation Army, then there should be fewer ministers, but far more useful, in the betterment of the world, than many of them that are under the present conditions. ”

“ Ministers are warned that they must attend to their own business, which is preaching the Word of God not so concretely or practically as to offend the “pillars.”
Just what is it, I wonder, that a minister may preach without hazarding his job? It is said persistently that the trouble with the church at the present day is that the ministers no longer preach the Word of God; that if Christian Truth were again taught with the old vigor, people would hear it gladly. ”

“ But yet this rather anomalous circumstance, that men who are generally supposed to be somewhat lax, at least, respecting the subject of an authoritative ministry, should also be often thought to give undue prominence to “the Sermon” of a minister, even beyond other means of grace; this, I say, only renders it the more important that we should understand clearly what men mean by a “ministry” in the Church,—what they consider its real powers and chief functions,—and what its special grace and blessing? ”

“ We give the substance of the canons as briefly as possible, but without any material omission, so that the reader may feel assured that he has the whole body of the legislation before him.
They decree that the ministers of God devoutly serve and minister to God, and intercede for all Christian folk; be faithful and obedient to their seniors (bishops, abbots, etc.) ; ready to help others, both Godward and manward; and be to their earthly lords true and faithful ”

“ As the most colourless of all official ecclesiastical titles, it is easy to see how the word minister has come to be applied to the clergy of Protestant denominations. The phrase “minister of religion” is wide enough to embrace any evangelical office, and has about it more of the savour of humility than “pastor.” ”

“ A day in thy courts is better than a thousand." It would do your heart good to see our good minister go up the pulpit stairs; he looks like a man that is going to plead with God on behalf of his people. After he has offered up a silent prayer, he looks round upon the congregation with so much affection, that you would think we were all his own children. He is always upon the one grand subject, as he calls it—Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ”

“ Gospel ministers are as necessary to the moral world, during the present state of things, as the sun, moon, and stars are in the universe. A church without such helps, would be like a firmament deprived of globular lights. Ministers, with the bright rays of heavenly doctrine, dispel the darkness of ignorance, chase away the clouds of error, scatter the mists of prejudice, disperse the fogs of vice, from the human mind. ”

“ Doe say, 'What hath the devil or his agents got by putting our great gospel minister in prison?' They prevented his preaching to a few poor pilgrims in the villages round Bedford, and it was the means of spreading his fame, and the knowledge of the gospel, by his writings, throughout the world. ”

“ They had authority when so directed by the Holy Ghost to ordain others to assist them in the work of the ministry, but, as commanded in Hebrews v: 5, 'No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron.' It is only by revelation and commandment of God that men are authorized to minister in His name. Modern ministers repudiate the doctrine of immediate revelation, and declare that there has been no divine communication by revelation since John received his vision on the island, Patmos. ”

“ With all the consequence and arrogance which assumed infallibility can induce, he maintains that none ought to be teachers of religion but those who are authorized, or otherwise specially inspired of God. According to his definition, an authorized minister is one who has passed through the ordeal of episcopal ordination, and what constitutes that authority is, the regular succession [Pg 92] from the times of the apostles to the present period. ”