He Grew Prayerless, Unwatchful, Self-Confident, Worldly and Proud!

He Grew Prayerless, Unwatchful, Self-Confident and Proud!

Although the evidences of a deteriorating piety in a minister may not be so conspicuous to the eye - they are not the less decided in their character, and painful in their consequences.

Externally, there may be nothing tending to awaken suspicion that the life of God in our soul is passing through a process of decline. The appropriate functions of our office are going forward with the utmost regularity and zeal; the study witnesses to the wearisome hours of hard reading and severe thought; the pulpit is regularly and ably filled; the ordinances are duly and seriously administered; and the pastoral duties are systematically and affectionately discharged.

And yet a faithful, honest, and close examination of our souls would probably detect an alarming distance from God in the habitual frame of our mind, coldness and deadness, gathering and congealing around the spirit, a waning love for, and delight in, our work, a decreasing sense of individual and ministerial responsibility, and a lessening apprehension of the nearness and solemnity of eternity.

To so great a degree may the anointing oil have evaporated from our minds - so formal, cold, and mechanical may be the spirit which the duties of our office are discharged - we shall be found to go forward in a work that might "fill an angel's hand, and that filled a Saviour's heart" - with but the slow and dying vibrations of the pendulum, when the power which first set it in motion has ceased to exist.

And oh! my brethren - with no power to move us, but that which is artificial; with no love to our work, but that which is professional; with no interest in its discharge, but that which is selfish; and with no desire of success, but that which spreads far our own petty fame - to what low, contemptible drudgery is our high office reduced! On galley slave could be more pitiable than we!

The falls of so many ministers, are awful and affecting warnings to those who think they stand. The bleak shores of eternity are strewed with the fragments of many a beautiful wreck - men who once stood high in the church - too high for their own safety - but who made shipwreck of their profession and their faith, and now serve as beacons of warning to those who follow. What do I see yonder? A spectacle over which demons have exulted, the church has mourned - and, if it is possible, angels have wept!

I knew him well. He was my compeer in age, my associate in study, the companion of my walks, the confidant of my bosom. His fine mind was redolent of thought, his bright eye gleamed with genius, his tall and manly form was fascinating in its appearance. Few men ever entered the Christian ministry with higher prospects, or awoke in the hearts of his friends, and of the church - richer, fonder hopes. He bid fair, as his sun arose to its zenith, to be a bright and a shining light. Distinguished posts of labor were offered to him. 

Crowds, eager to receive his instructions, clustered around his pulpit, drawn together by the tender, subduing eloquence of his lips.

But - he fell! and fell deeply, awfully! The church entrusted to him the keeping of the vineyards - but his own vineyard, he kept not. Laboring for the salvation of others, he labored not for his own. He grew prayerless, unwatchful, self-confident, worldly and proud - and by slow but certain and fatal degrees, he descended from his lofty eminence! His sun went down while it was yet day, and around him is now gathered in thick and solemn folds - the dark pall of guilt, of infamy, and of shame! "Bemoan him, all you who are around him;and all you who know his name. Say: "How the strong staff is broken, and the beautiful rod!" (Jeremiah 48:17).

~Octavius Winslow~
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What A Lesson Is Here For Ministers

"And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power" (1 Corinthians 2:4).

The word "enticing" is as we now say, "persuasive." It includes, therefore, every branch of skillful oratory, whether it be logical reasoning to convince our understanding - or appeals to our feelings to stir up our passions - or new and striking ideas to delight our intellect - or beautiful and eloquent language to please and captivate our imagination. 

All these "enticing words" of man's wisdom -the very things which our popular preachers must speak and aim at - this great apostle renounced,discarded, and rejected!

He might have used them if he liked. He possessed an almost unequalled share of natural ability and great learning - a singularly keen, penetrating intellect - a wonderful command of the Greek language - a flow of ideas most varied, striking,and original - and powers of oratory and eloquence such as have been given to few. He might therefore have used enticing words of man's wisdom, had he wished or thought it right to do so - but he would not. He saw the deceptiveness was in them, and at best they were mere arts of oratory. He saw that these enticing words - though they might touch the natural feelings, work upon the passions, captivate the imagination, convince the understanding, persuade the judgment, and to a certain extent force their way into men's minds - yet when all was done that could thus be done, it was merely man's wisdom which had done it.

Earthly wisdom cannot communicate heavenly faith. Paul would not therefore use enticing words. He would not use any of these enticing words of man's wisdom to draw people into a profession of religion -when their heart was not really touched by God's grace, or their consciences wrought upon by a divine power.

All the labor spent in bringing together a church and congregation of professing people by the power of logical argument and appeals to their natural consciences would be utterly lost, as regards fruit for eternity - for a profession so induced by him and so made by them would leave them just as they were in all the depths of unregeneracy, with their sins unpardoned, and their souls unsanctified.  He therefore discarded all these ways of winning over converts - as deceitful to the souls of men, and as dishonoring to God.

What a lesson is here for ministers! How anxious are some men to shine as great preachers! How they covet and often aim at some grand display of what they call eloquence to charm their hearers - and win praise and honor to self! Still others try to argue men into religion, or by appealing to their natural feelings. But all such arts, for they are no better, must be discarded by a true servant of God. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ, taking the things of Christ, and showing them unto us, applying the Word with power to our hearts, and bringing the sweetness, reality, and blessedness of divine things into our souls.

Unless we have a measure of the same demonstration of the Spirit, all that is said by us in the pulpit drops to the ground - is has no real effect - there is no true or abiding fruit - no fruit unto eternal life. If there be in it some enticing words of man's wisdom, it may please the mind of those who are gratified by such arts - it may stimulate and occupy the attention for the time - but there is ceases, and all that has been heard fades away like a dream in the night.

~J. C. Philpot~