Trait 10.

TRAIT 10.

The fidelity with which he announced the severe threatenings and consolatory promises of the Gospel.

THE worldly minister has neither the courage nor the tenderness of the true pastor. He is fearful of publishing those truths which are calculated to alarm the careless sinner; and he knows not in what manner to apply the promises of the Gospel for the relief of those who mourn. If ever he attempts to descant upon the consolatory truths of the Gospel, he only labours to explain what is nearly unintelligible to himself; and all his discourses on subjects of this nature are void of that earnest persuasion, and that unction of love which characterize the ministers of Christ. On the other hand, his dread of giving offence will not suffer him to address sinners of every rank with the holy boldness of the Prophet Samuel: “If ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you. If ye still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed,” 1 Samuel 12:15, 25. The faithful pastor, on the contrary, conscious that the harshest truths of the Gospel are as necessary as they are offensive, courageously insists upon them, in the manner of St. Paul, “Thinkest thou, O man, that doest such things, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” Know this, that “after thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God:” for “indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul of man that doeth evil,” Romans 2:3, 5, 9. “If every transgression,” under the first covenant, “received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first begun to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?” Hebrews 2:2, 3. “This ye know, that no unclean person, nor covetous man, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God: let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience,” Ephesians 5:5, 6. “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth,” viz. the Prophet Moses; “much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven,” viz. the Saviour Jesus Christ. “Wherefore let us serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire,” Hebrews 12:25, 29.

But though the true minister courageously announces the most severe declarations of the word to the unbelieving and the impenitent; yet he is never so truly happy, as when he invites the poor in spirit to draw forth the riches of grace from the treasury of God’s everlasting love. “God hath not,” saith St. Paul, “appointed us to wrath; but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thessalonians 5:9. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” 1 Timothy 1:15. “Ye are not come unto the mount that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest. But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith,” Hebrews 12:18, 24; 10:19, 22. “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us,” Romans 5:10; 8:32, 34. When these exhilarating declarations are found insufficient “to revive the heart of the contrite,” the evangelical preacher fails not to multiply them in the most sympathizing and affectionate manner. “I say unto you, “ continues he, “all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: for the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” Matthew 12:31; 1 John 1:7. “And by him all, who believe, are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses,” Acts 13:39. “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1: “for where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” Romans 5:20.

Such are the cordials which the faithful evangelist administers to those who are weary and heavy laden: precious cordials which the worldly pastor can never effectually apply; which he either employs out of season, or renders useless by such additions of his own, as are contrary to the spirit of the Gospel.