The man and his
ministry
by J. C. Philpot
To judge of the ministry of a man of God, it is
neither sufficient nor fair to take one part or period of his preaching. It
must be viewed as a whole. What he was in youth, when full of life, warmth,
and zeal; what he was after a longer, deeper experience, when greater
maturity of life, and a riper judgment had softened what might have been
harsh, without impairing its strength and faithfulness; what he was in
declining years, when much family affliction was added to bodily infirmity,
and, as a ripened ear of corn, he was being prepared for the heavenly
garner. No due estimate can be formed of a minister's grace and gifts, power
and life, usefulness and acceptability to the Church of God, by taking him
only at one portion of his ministerial career. Take, as an instance, those
two eminent servants of God, Mr. Gadsby and Mr. Warburton. We only knew them
personally after they had been many years laboring in the vineyard. What Mr.
Gadsby was when he first went to Manchester; what Mr. Warburton was when he
first settled at Trowbridge, were both quite different from what each was
thirty or forty years after—not different in doctrine, not different in
experience, not different in any one vital point of the truth of God; but
different, as in nature a man of sixty differs from a man of thirty. Bodily
powers decline, the mind becomes less active, youthful zeal is, in a good
measure, cooled, and all this change exercises an influence on both the
man and his ministry.
Would it not be unfair, then, to take a man of God at his
first entrance upon the work, and say, "What this man now is, he ever shall
be; I form my judgment of him from what he now is, and I do not mean to
alter my opinion of him, whatever he may hereafter be, or however he may
himself alter? He is a boy now, and a boy he always shall be." But, view the
opposite extreme. Take the same man forty or fifty years afterwards. He is
now an old man, with many of the weaknesses and infirmities of old age. You
hear him now. "He is an old man," you say, "and always was an old man." Now
take him at another period—in middle life, when naturally and spiritually he
is in his prime, his youthful zeal moderated, his judgment matured, his
experience enlarged, but, the infirmities of old age not yet come on. Will
you now say, "I have him at last, just as I would have. He never was young;
nor ever shall be old; he always was, he always shall be in my mind, just
what he is at this present moment?"
But would this be fair any more than before? He might
still lack much of what was beautiful in youth, when his bow abode in
strength and the fresh dew rested on his tabernacle; he might still lack the
softened tone and affection, the gentleness and meekness of old age. Is it
not, then, unfair to take any one portion by itself; and must we not, if
possible, take the whole of a man's ministry, from first to last, before we
are in a position to form a right judgment upon it?
But we have another element from which to form a sound
opinion. There is no better testimony of a man's ministry than the
character of his hearers. If they are light, frothy, and vain, full of
doctrine in the letter, but devoid of savor and power, without a vital
experience of the things of God to humble and break them down into humility
and contrition, but puffed up with pride, ignorance, and self-conceit, is
there not the clearest evidence that such is their minister? "Like people,
like priest," is a proverb neither dead nor buried.
But take the converse; let them be a solid, weighty,
truly gracious people, many of whom are possessed of a deep experience,
others much tried and exercised, and others well established in the truth of
God who, as a body, can only permanently cleave to and love a ministry that
can feed, instruct, and comfort their souls. Show us this people for a
number of years cleaving closely in affection to one minister—it may be
idolizing him too deeply, and from the warmth and esteem they feel towards
him scarcely allowing there is any one but he who can feed the church of
God—but show us such a people, and take him with all his and all their
faults and failings; we will show you a savory well-taught man of God over
them.
This we view as one of the strongest testimonies, if not
the very strongest testimony, of what a man's ministry really and truly is.
Gifts may draw a crowd of light and flighty hearers; talent
and ability may raise admiration; friendliness and kindness
may engender affection; and strict consistency of life may procure
esteem; but none of these qualities singly, nor all combined will bring
together and keep together for a number of years, a body of gracious,
feeling, experimental hearers. To have such, a man must be able to feed the
church of God, and must be thoroughly commended to their consciences as the
mouth of God to their souls.