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September 4 - September 7, 2025
“What man on earth is so pernicious a drone [parasitic loafer] as an idle minister?”
And John Fletcher remarked well that “lukewarm pastors made careless Christians.”[2]
“Rash preaching,” said Rowland Hill, “disgusts; timid preaching leaves poor souls fast asleep; bold preaching is the only preaching that is owned of God.”[5]
How many souls have been lost for lack of earnestness, solemnity, and love in the preacher, even when the words uttered were precious and true!
We take for granted that the objective of the Christian ministry is to convert sinners and to edify the body of Christ.
If souls are not won, and if saints are not matured, our ministry itself is futile.
The question, therefore, which each of us has to answer to his own conscience is, Has it been the purpose of my ministry and the desire of my heart to save the lost and guide the saved? Is this my aim in every sermon I preach and in every visit I make?
Is it under the influence of this feeling that I continually live and walk and speak? Do I pray and toil and fast and weep for this? Do I spend and am I spent for this, counting it, next to the salvation of my own soul, my greatest joy to be the instrument of saving othe...
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“Ministers,” said Owen, “are seldom honored with success unless they are continually aiming at the conversion of sinners.”[6]
“With him,” says his biographer, “the commencement of all labor invariably consisted in the preparation of his own soul.
It is much to be feared that “we are weak in the pulpit because we are weak in the closet.”
Living in fellowship with a living Savior is what transforms us into His image and fits us for being able and successful ministers of the gospel.
And where it is not realized, we must examine ourselves with all diligence, in case the cause of the failure is in us, in our lack of faith, love, prayer, zeal, warmth, spirituality, or holiness of life – for by these the Holy Spirit is grieved.
When we can be satisfied to use the means without obtaining the end and speak of it as though we are submitting to the Lord’s will, we use a truth to hide a falsehood, exactly in the same way that those formalists in religion do.
At the same time, as we quietly talk of leaving the result to God’s will, we make use of a truth to cover and excuse a falsehood, for our ability to leave the matter is not, as we imagine, the result of heart submission to God but of heart indifference to the salvation of the souls we deal with.
in devotion has robbed it of its freshness and power. Daily, hourly occupation in the routine of ministerial labor has created formality and coldness. Continual working in the solemn duties of our office, such as dealing with souls in private about their eternal welfare or guiding the meditations and devotions of God’s assembled people, often with little prayer and little faith, has tended grievously to rob us of that profound reverence and godly fear that ought to possess and pervade us.
We have given a greater prominence to man’s writings, man’s opinions, and man’s systems in our studies than to the Word.
In one single quiet hour of prayer, the soul will often make more progress than in days of company with others.
We must not seek rest or ease in a world where He whom we love had none.
After lamenting the evils of his life and his ministry, a minister in the seventeenth century resolved to set about their renewal: (1) In imitation of Christ and His apostles and to get good done, I purpose to rise early every morning. (2) As soon as I am up, to prepare some work to be done with a plan of how and when to do it; then to engage my heart to it, and in the evening to hold myself accountable and mourn over my failings. (3) To spend a sufficient portion of time every day in prayer, reading, meditating, and spiritual exercises – in the morning, midday, evening, and before I go to
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(6) Once every week to spend four hours over and above my daily portion in private for some special causes relating to either myself or others. (7) To spend some time on Saturday evening for preparation for the Lord’s Day. (8) To spend six or seven days together, once a year, when most convenient, wholly and only on spiritual concerns.
It is a living ministry that our country needs, and without such a ministry, it cannot long expect to escape the judgments of God.
Some of us are young and fresh; we may still have many days in the providence of God. These must be days of strenuous, ceaseless, persevering, and, if God blesses us, successful toil. We will labor until we are worn out and laid to rest.
