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Soldiers of the Cross!
Spurgeon, "All at it" #2044. Acts 8:4, 5, 35.
Scarcely anything has been more injurious
to the kingdom of Christ than the distinction
between clergy and laity. No such distinction
was ever laid down by the Spirit of God.
"You are a royal priesthood." "He has made
us unto our God kings and priests."
In the Church of God there is no special
priesthood because all are priests.
We have made among ourselves a distinction
between ministers and others. But you are all
to minister! There are many ministries of one
form and another; and though God gives to
His Church apostles, teachers, pastors,
evangelists, and the like, yet not by way of
setting up a professional caste of men, who
are to do the work for God while others sit still.
All Christians are soldiers of the
Cross and all on active duty!
Every converted man is to teach what he knows.
All those who have drunk of the Living Water
are to become fountains out of which shall
flow rivers of Living Water. All are to proclaim
the Word and no one is exempted by another
form of service.
It is thought nowadays that a man must not
try to proclaim the Gospel unless he has had
a good education. But there is nothing whatever
in the whole compass of Scripture to excuse any
mouth from speaking for Jesus when the heart
is really acquainted with His salvation.
We are all called to make Jesus known if we know Him.
We must come back to the pattern of the original church.
Every Christian must be a herald of the Cross.
If you do not tell the Gospel, you are leaving
your fellow men to perish. Yonder is the wreck
and you are not sending out a life boat! Yonder
are souls starving and you give them no bread!
If we felt that blessed amazement which we
ought to feel when we think of Free Grace and
dying love, silence would be impossible.
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