The Doctrines of an Evangelical Pastor.

THE PORTRAIT OF ST. PAUL. PART 2.

THE DOCTRINES OF AN EVANGELICAL PASTOR.

THE minister of the present age, being destitute of Christian piety, is neither able to preach, nor clearly to comprehend the truths of the Gospel. In general, he contents himself with superficially declaring certain attributes of the Supreme Being; while he is fearful of speaking too largely of grace or its operations, lest he should be suspected of enthusiasm. He declaims against some enormous vice, or displays the beauty of some social virtue. He affects to establish the doctrines of heathen philosophers: and it were to be wished that he always carried his morality to so high a pitch as some of the most celebrated of those sages. If he ever proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ, it is in but a cursory way, and chiefly when he is obliged to it by the return of particular days. He himself continues the same through all seasons; and the cross of Christ would be entirely laid aside, unless the temporal prince, more orthodox than the minister, had appointed the passion of our Lord to be the preacher’s theme during certain solemnities of the Church.

With the evangelical pastor it is wholly otherwise. “Jesus Christ,” he is able to say with St. Paul, “sent me to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the vain wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the false understanding of the prudent. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that the world by this wisdom, [this boasted philosophy,] knew not God, [but rested in materialism and idolatry,] it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe,” 1 Corinthians 1:17-21. The preaching of the true minister, which commonly passes for folly in a degenerate world, is that through which God employs his power for the conversion of sinners, and the edification of believers. It comprehends all that is revealed in the Old and New Testament: but the subjects on which it is chiefly employed are the precepts of the decalogue, and the truths of the apostles’ creed. They may be reduced to four points:

(1.) True repentance toward God.

(2.) A lively faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

(3.) The sweet hope which the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in the hearts of believers.

(4.) That Christian charity which is the abundant source of every good work.

In a word, the good pastor preaches repentance, faith, hope, and charity. These four virtues include all others. These are four pillars which support the glorious temple of which St. Paul and St. Peter make the following mention: “Ye are God’s building. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.”

By searching into the solidity of these four supports, we may observe how vast a difference there is between the materials of which they are composed, and that untempered mortar with which the ministers of the present day are striving to erect a showy building upon a sandy foundation. THE EVANGELICAL PASTOR PREACHES TRUE

REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD.

THE true minister, convinced, both by revelation and experience, that Jesus Christ alone is able to recover diseased souls, employs every effort to bring sinners into the presence of this heavenly Physician, that they may obtain of him spiritual health and salvation. He is fully persuaded that he who is not “weary and heavy laden,” will never apply for relief; that he who is not “poor in spirit,” will constantly despise the riches of the Gospel; and that they who are unacquainted with their danger, will turn an inattentive ear to the loudest warnings of a compassionate Saviour. His first care, then, is to press upon his hearers the necessity of an unfeigned repentance; that, by breaking the reed of their confidence, he may constrain them with the “poor,” the “miserable,” the “blind,” and the “naked,” to fall before the throne of Divine justice. Whence, after seeing themselves condemned by the law of God, without any ability to deliver their own souls, he is conscious that they will have recourse to the throne of grace, entreating, like the penitent publican, to be “justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” Romans 3:25. It is in this state of humiliation and compunction of heart, that sinners are enabled to experience the happy effects of that evangelical repentance, which is well defined in the fourteenth chapter of the Helvetic Confession. “By