Minister (religion)

“ The term 'regular minister of religion' means one who as his customary vocation preaches and teaches the principles of religion of a church, a religious sect, or organization of which he is a member, without having been formally ordained as a minister of religion, and who is recognized by such church, sect, or organization as a regular minister. ”

“ The minister is the teacher of the church; not a master; a servant to teach. A normal church is a body of men, assembling to promote religion, piety, and morality. Its business is, first, protective at home—to promote piety and morality in its own members ; and, second, it is diffusive abroad—to promote piety and morality in all the world according to its strength: for duty is proportionate to power to do; and where the power is little, so is the duty, where much, there great. So a church must protest against all wrong which it knows to be wrong; promote all right which it knows to be right. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The great principle of duty belonging to the minister in the pulpit, belongs to him everywhere; and the great principle of duty belonging to the minister, belongs to every man, woman, and child. There is not one religion for the man when he is in the temple, and another religion for the man when he is in the parlor or in the street. ”

“ The minister, of all the professional men, is most in need of ambition, a desire to please others and to help others, spiritual quality, humanitarianism, benevolence, faith, hope, veneration for the Deity, and for the supernatural elements of religion. ”

“ The minister preaches to grown men––a large proportion of them members of the Church––not a few of them office-bearers in its service, and competent, in consequence, to judge respecting both the doctrine which he exhibits and the mode of its exhibition; but it is children, immature of judgment, and extremely limited in their knowledge, whom the religion-teaching schoolmaster has to address. Nay, more: in choosing a minister, we may mistake the character of the man ”

“ Clement Sclater—the minister of her parish, recently appointed. He was a man between young and middle-aged, an honest fellow, zealous to perform the duties of his office, but with notions of religion very beggarly. How could it be otherwise when he knew far more of what he called the Divine decrees than he did of his own heart, or the needs and miseries of human nature? ”

“ The truth is, there is the greatest possible vagueness of belief, or rather opinion, respecting the Christian Ministry, in our times and country especially. There is, perhaps very generally, an indistinct impression, that something is required to make a man “a minister of the Gospel;” ”

“ 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. ”

“ This lofty conception of his call gave him unfaltering confidence in the truth he had to declare, inspired him with an ever-glowing zeal, rendered him immovable in the midst of defection and opposition, and willing to obliterate himself, so that the Gospel committed to him might be triumphant. The true minister, in the onerous task of dealing with human doubt and sin, feels the need of all the strength and prestige conferred by the conscious possession of Divine authority. ”

“ Wherever he goes he has a pulpit. Whether he eat, or drink, or whatever he do, he must do all for the glory of God, and the highest glory of God is Christ, and the highest honor of Christ is in Him crucified. A minister must always respect the proprieties of life; in honoring them he knows that appropriate model Man who, rising from the tomb, wrapped up the napkin that was about His head, and laid it in a place by itself. ”

“ Now, it is true that we hold, that an evil minister, incurring even deposition by our discipline, does not necessarily prevent the communications of divine grace to the souls of men in the ministration of the word and sacraments. ”

“ 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 ”

“ But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. ”

“ My earnest prayer is that you may soon be directed to the right man to be your minister, to one who shall unite all hearts and all hands, and carry forward the high and holy mission to which God has called you. He will find in me not a jealous critic, but a hearty ally in everything that he may regard for the welfare of this church. ”

“ For the apostle knew very well how proper it was for a minister to take heed to himself first rather than others—and this not only for the good of the minister himself, but also for that of those to whom he ministers. Now since the apostle said this to a bishop, who is under so great obligations to look after his sheep, how much better might it be said to the friars, who have this duty only through charity. ”

“ The power of the minister is not in the polish of his style, the pictorialness of his illustrations, the fervor of his manner, the order and arrangement of his discourse, but in his living connection with God and his capacity to act as a connecting-link between God and the human soul. ”

“ It is not wrong for me to say to you this morning that to the minister without a message, to the minister who has lost his holy boldness, to the minister who has anything less than a burning passion for souls, God cannot give his vision. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ The Minister’s Worthiness before God.—The state of grace is required in consecrated ministers when they minister solemnly and _ex officio_ in performing a Sacrament; for they act then as representatives of Christ, who is holy, and exercise most sacred functions which He appointed as means of holiness and which they were ordained to perform holily. The sin of unworthiness is a grave sacrilege. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Acts of the Minister.—As the minister acts as Christ’s responsible agent to whose wise discretion the dispensation of the Sacraments is committed, he must have at least the external attention of mind sufficient to perform all that the rite demands and the internal intention of will sufficient to make his ministry an act that is human, sacred, and definitely symbolical of the sacramental effects. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The ministers we plead for, are such as act, [214] move, and labour in the work of the ministry, not from their own mere natural strength and ability, but as they are actuated, moved, supported, assisted, and influenced by the Spirit of God, and minister according to the gift received, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God: such were the holy prophets and apostles, 1 Pet. ”

“ At what hour soever his Master comes, he is found busy at the work of the day. Ministers should not leave empty spaces in their time, lest their Lord should come in one of those empty spaces. As with a good God the end of one mercy is the beginning of another, so with a good man, a good minister, the end of one duty is the beginning of another. ”

“ However, it is the judgment of many others no less learned or pious than they, that in the same congregation where there are several ministers, he that excels in exposition of scriptures, teaching sound doctrine, and convincing gainsayers, may be designed hereunto, and called a teacher or doctor: he that excels in application, and designed thereunto, may be called a pastor; but where there is only one minister in one particular congregation, he is to perform, as far as he is able, the whole work of the ministry. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every true minister, then, watches, in the words of the apostle, for the souls of his people. An ordinary minister’s everyday work embraces many duties and offers many opportunities, but through all his duties and through all his opportunities there runs this high and distinctive duty of watching for the souls of his people. ”

“ A Christian minister is a person who in a peculiar sense is not his own; he is the servant of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to him. By entering on that sacred office he solemnly undertakes to be always engaged, as much as possible, in the Lord's work, and not to chuse his own pleasure, or employment, or pursue the ministry as a something that is to subserve his own ends, or interests, or as a kind of bye-work. He engages to go where God pleases, and to do, or endure what he sees fit to command, or call him to, in the exercise of his function. ”

“ The Ministry of the Spirit requires the Operation and Testimony of the Spirit.Secondly, All Ministers of the New Testament ought to be Ministers of the Spirit, and not of the Letter, according to that of 2 Cor. iii. 6. and as the old Latin hath it, Not by the Letter, but by the Spirit: But how can a Man be a Minister of the Spirit, who is not inwardly called by it, and who looks not upon the Operation and Testimony of the Spirit as essential to his Call? ”

“ The mere recluse whose life is with books and not with men, who deals with ideas and not with experiences, may utter an elegant, and even an eloquent, prayer; but he has no power to inspire and lead souls, in these acts of public devotion, to come with all their needs to the Throne of Grace.
In respect to the matter of prayer, the following cautions are to be observed: Avoid, (1.) Frequent references to self. The minister is the medium of the devotions of the people; whatever, therefore, cannot properly be uttered by the assembly should not, ordinarily, be uttered by the pastor. ”

“ What is a Minister? The word "Minister" means "a Servant"--and the ministers of God are God's servants. Now, of course every Christian man and woman is a servant of God. But ministers are men who are specially set apart, by His Holy Spirit, for their high and holy work. ”

“ But, besides being an interpreter of Scripture, a true minister fills the still higher position of a prophet. This congregation has asked you to become its [278] spiritual overseer. But a minister is no minister unless he come to his sphere of labour under a far higher sanction—unless he be sent from God, with a message in his heart which he is burning to pour forth upon men. An apostle (that is, a messenger sent from God) and a prophet (that is, a man whose lips are impatient to speak the Divine message which his heart is full of) every true minister must be. ”

“ The Priest not only ministers before God on behalf of his people, but he ministers to his people on behalf of God. In this aspect of the Priesthood, he ministers God's gifts to the laity. If, as a Priest, he pleads the One Sacrifice on behalf of the people, as a Minister he feeds the people upon the one Sacrifice. His chief ministerial duty is to minister to the people—to give them Baptism, Absolution, Holy Communion; to minister to all their spiritual needs whenever, and wherever, he is needed. ”