The Christian Ministry

by Charles Bridges

Thus the seven hours, which he usually gave to a sermon, proved so many hours of devotion to his soul, and a most effectual means of infusing life, warmth, and spirituality into his compositions. By this rule we shall never preach a sermon to our people, which, has not been previously made a blessing to our own souls.

We need to pray for them, as well as to preach to them—to bring our Ministry on their account before God.

Nothing will give such power to our sermons, as when they are the sermons of many prayers.

This spirit of prayer implies the renunciation of all dependence upon our best preparations, ministerial gifts, or spiritual habits; an acknowledgement of their insufficiency to qualify us for the discharge of our commission; and a simple dependence upon our Glorious Head for his present influence.

There will be inaccuracies: but generally the most striking things in my sermons are unpremeditated.

sermons obtained chiefly by meditation and prayer, "are weighty and powerful;" while those of a far higher intellectual character, by the neglect of prayer, are unblest.

If God drop not down his assistance, we write with a pen that hath no ink. If any in the world need walk dependently upon God more than others, the Minister is he.

Nor must we forget the work of subsequent as well as preparatory prayer—like

Our work is not over, when our people are dismissed from the house of God.

a systematic delivery of the doctrines of the Gospel is essentially requisite to the formation and gradual development of Christian principles; but it must be accompanied by many an earnest prayer for the effusion of some portion of that Divine grace, which, in primitive times, added to the church in one day three thousand souls.'

How delightful is our public work, when we taste a heavenly sweetness in our message!

It is the exercise of faith, the fruit of earnest persevering prayer, and accompanied with mighty energy upon our Ministry—enabling us " so to speak, that many believe." Such sermons ' have the blood of our Saviour.

and enables the Minister skilfully to set out his commission for the conviction of the judgment, the awakening of the conscience, and the solid instruction of the heart.

Labour in the preparation for the pulpit, as if our whole success depended on it. Pray, and depend wholly upon Christ; as feeling, that " without him we can do nothing."

it will be safe to ascribe all the honour of the success to the Heavenly agent, and to attribute to ourselves all the infirmities attendant upon the work.

THERE can be no question, that the preaching of the law in its true character and connection forms a constituent part of the Ministry of the Gospel.

But, as there is a legal mode of preaching the Gospel, so there is an evangelical mode of preaching the Law.

we ought greatly and highly to esteem the law. We must extol and applaud it in the highest degree, and (with St. Paul) we must count it good, true, spiritual, and Divine, as in truth it is.'

It discovers to them the holy nature and character of God; it informs them of their duty, and binds them to the performance of it.

It condemns also those who cast off its yoke.

Those indeed, who dispense with the law from their Ministry, acknowledge no medium of conviction but the cross.

Its cognizance of every thought, imagination, desire, word, and work, and its uncompromising demand of absolute and uninterrupted obedience, upon pain of its everlasting penalty—convince the heart of its guilt, defilement, and wretchedness, and leave the sinner without excuse and without help;

its covenant form enlarges his apprehension of the necessity, character, and excellency of the gospel!

The precept and penalty of the law explain therefore the necessity for the sufferings and death of Immanuel.

This glass exhibits to us indirectly, what the Gospel shows us in direct terms—our infinite obligation to the love of Christ for what he has become, done, and suffered in our place.

The uses of the law as a rule of life are most efficient means of promoting stedfastness and consistency.

The rule of the law also furnishes a daily standard of self-examination.

It lays him low in the dust; it confounds him for the sins of his services, as well as for his open transgressions; that he may " count all but dung and dross" in comparison of Christ;

The obligation of this law upon the Christian is immutable as the throne of God.

The proof of our love to the Saviour is the " keeping of his commandments;" which are none others than the precepts of the moral law, bound upon the Christian's heart with chains of the most powerful and attractive obligation.

It cannot therefore, be legal bondage, or indeed otherwise than evangelical privilege, thus to receive the law from the Saviour's hands, stripped of its condemning power, and regulating our affections, temper, and conversation to his glory.

in the too frequent defect of Christian sincerity, immortal souls perish as the melancholy victims of delusion.

As a covenant, the law brings men to Christ for deliverance from its tyranny. Christ returns them to the law as their rule : that, while they are delivered from its dominion, ("that being dead wherein they were held,") they " might serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." ' And thus they show their gratitude to him for his perfect obedience to it as a covenant in their stead, by their uniform obedience to it as a rule in his service.

We cannot indeed have too much of the Gospel; but we may have too little of the Law.

Indeed, all the prevalent errors in the Church may be traced to this source.

If Antinomianism be the relaxation of obedience from the perfect standard of the law of God, is not mere moral preaching a refined species of this unhallowed leaven?

This seems to imply the importance, in a Christian teacher, of a clear understanding of the law in all its connexions. And indeed the momentous matter of a sinner's acceptance with God cannot be accurately stated without a distinct view of the subject.

The law, partially at least, (as in the case of the heathens,) is discoverable by the light of nature; whereas the Gospel is " the hidden mystery of God," which could only be known by the light of Revelation.

The law contemplates man as the creature of God, as he was at the period of its first promulgation—" standing perfect and complete in all the will of God." The Gospel contemplates man as he is—a sinner, equally unable to obey, or to offer compensation for disobedience; guilty, condemned, helpless, lost.

They both inform us what we ought to be and do. But the Gospel alone provides the necessary resources, in union with the Son of God, and participation of a heavenly life derived from him.

In the one case, obedience is required on the penalty of death; in the other case it is encour...

the law condemns, and cannot justify, a sinner; the Gospel justifies, and cannot condemn, the sinner that believes in Jesus.

Every sentence of condemnation in Scripture belongs to the law; every sentence of justification forms a part of the Gospel.

The provisions of the Gospel are fully commensurate with the demands of the law.

Both have a commanding and condemning power. Both combine to " bring the sinner to Christ"—"the law indirectly—as a school-master," showing his need of him : the Gospel directly, exhibiting him in all points suitable to his need.

As both are transcripts of the Divine mind and image, both must be hated or loved together.

The preaching of John—partaking mainly of the character of the law—was ordained to prepare the way for Christ.

the law must be laid upon those that are to be justified, that they may be shut up in the prison thereof, until the righteousness of faith come—that, when they are cast down and humbled by the law, they should fly to Christ.

The faithful cannot profit in the Gospel, until they shall be first humbled; which cannot be, until they come to the knowledge of their sins. It is the proper function of the law, to call the consciences into God's judgment, and to wound them with fear.'

The field is not fit for the seed to be cast into it, till the plough hath broken it up; nor is the soul prepared to receive the mercy of the Gospel, till broken with the terrors of the law.