MANY men in these times and in the visible Christian Church hold the office of ministers of the Gospel of Christ; and yet reveal by the doctrine they teach and preach and by their personal conduct that they know not the Gospel nor the Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Saviour and Head of the Church. By their carnal fruits it may be judged in the light of Scripture that they have assumed this high office for one reason or another and have never been called thereto by a heavenly calling. It may be said, “Judge not that ye be not judged”; but we repeat, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The man whose teaching is unscriptural, who is a frequenter of the modern theatre, the dance, the concert, the card party, and a Sabbath-breaker into the bargain, etc., proclaims unmistakably that he was never called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ; nor to serve Him in the ministry of the Gospel. Many such there are to-day, and are a judgment upon the people of this land. The call to be a minister of Christ and to discharge all the New Testament functions of this holy office, is a divine, spiritual, and distinct call, directed and applied to such as are truly called, by God himself.
Conversion precedes the call to the Ministry of the Gospel. Those called to the ministry are such as have been first of all convinced of their unholiness and transgressions by the Spirit of truth, who have learned by divine teaching and solemn experience that by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified in God’s sight; that they deserved God’s wrath and anger both now and for ever; and who have been enabled by grace, penitently to flee from sin and wrath to the mercy of God in the suffering Redeemer, and by a precious God-given faith, to rest upon the righteousness and atonement of that same glorious Saviour. They have found Christ unto the salvation of their souls, are united to Him, have entered into the number of God’s children by faith in Christ Jesus and by the implanting in their hearts of the Spirit of adoption. The original disciples were first of all called to follow Christ and after a gracious obedience to this call, Jesus intimates that He would make them “fishers of men” (Matt. iv. 19). Saul of Tarsus was wonderfully converted and then called and commissioned to bear Christ’s name, by the Gospel, before the Gentiles, and Kings and the children of Israel. Doubtless these thoughts are familiar and hardly need stating as far as those who accept the Bible records are concerned. But readers will not be the worse of having this fundamental matter repeated inasmuch as there is frequent contact with unconverted ministers to-day, in hospitals, schools, colleges, at funerals, and in varied other ways also, and because of the sad fact that the ministerial office or garb does not necessarily bring us into fellowship with a converted man, in these times of formality and hypocrisy in religion.
There is need to guard against false notions as to what may constitute the call to the ministry of the Gospel. The warmth of the first love of a sinner newly brought to experience joy and peace in believing upon Jesus, and as a result such having lively desires for the salvation of others, this may in itself be unwisely mistaken for the call to the office of the ministry of the Word. A proper and commendable respect and admiration for the work of gracious and faithful ministers of Christ, may so affect a man as to give rise to aspirations after attaining to this weighty and solemn office. Yet these aspirations may be purely emotional and separate from a really spiritual, serious and scriptural consideration of the matter, and have nothing to do with a divine call to the ministry of the Gospel. Then the heart is deceitful above all things and there is no perfection here, for we find even the disciples of our Lord striving among themselves as to who should be the greatest. And so in the hearts of some, there arises more strongly than in others, a desire for place, power and authority in the religious world and in the Church of Christ. This is indeed a carnal and earthly incentive to seek after the place and duties of a minister of the Lord Jesus; and yet this is what has urged some men to boldly contemplate work to which they were never called and for which they were never fitted by grace or in providence. Men may have grace and no gifts at all essential to the discharge of Gospel duties. It were well that such would discover this in the kindness of the Lord before presuming, in any case, to indicate a mistaken desire to undertake the work. On the other hand, some may be possessed of a natural bent of mind toward religion and scriptural theology, and in addition be endowed with outstanding gifts of mind and speech, and yet utterly devoid of the grace of God in their hearts. Fallible men and lacking discernment, have asserted time and again in regard to such cases, “Here is a man with a call to the ministry and no mistake.” Indeed many a mistake has been made in just such cases. But we pass from these observations with the remark that the real call certainly does not originate with men.
It is God who calls and puts particular men into the ministry, who are where they ought to be. As Paul declares regarding his own case, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry” (I Tim. v, 12). The Lord knoweth them that are His, and also those among such in every generation whom He hath earmarked as chosen vessels to preach the Gospel of His grace and the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to administer the ordinances of His House and to bear the responsibility and burden of the government of His Church on earth. And those He has chosen, He will assuredly call to the ministry, as surely as He elected them to everlasting life in Christ Jesus and called them by His grace in His own time, unto salvation. We are sensible of the fact that the mode of God’s call to any man to be a minister of Christ, is a vital and serious subject for us to handle and we would desire to refrain from stating what will not bear the test of Scripture and experience. Therefore we state that ordinarily and generally God speaks by some passage of His Word, accompanied with divine authority to such as He calls to the Gospel ministry, indicating His mind to them and bringing before them their duty in this solemn and precious business. And whatever misgivings, fears and a deep sense of unfitness for the work may have tried and harassed some men, when God spoke to them, His Word prevailed by the power of the Holy Spirit to the effecting of a humble obedience to God’s call and commission to them as chosen vessels. And the scriptural authority a man may have for being an ambassador for Christ can be one of his strongest supports in the most trying and dark experiences which he may encounter for Christ’s sake. Then let such as go forward to this ministry look well to the origin and nature of their call. The Lord spoke to Ezekiel and said, “I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord” (Ezek. ii, 4). And to Jeremiah, the Lord said, “. . . For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak” (Jer. i, 7). And so the Lord sent, and called, these prophets to their life’s work. They took not the prophetic office unto themselves. Their call and authority were derived from heaven. We believe it to be so still in the case of all true ministers of the Gospel. And further, signal and peculiar providential circumstances may be so ordered by the Lord as to play their own part, along with a message from God’s Word, to guide and confirm one as to their being called to devote their lives and the talents God has bestowed upon them to the service of Christ in the ministry of the Gospel.
There are many obligations resting upon those thus called, relevant to their office. We can but indicate a few. They are obliged to study the Scriptures prayerfully and carefully and constantly that they may divide the Word aright. They have need to implore God to pour abundantly upon them “the Spirit of grace and supplications.” There can never be a God-honouring ministry without much secret prayer. Such ought to desire and cultivate the fellowship and friendship of those who fear the Lord and are of one mind, when and where that is possible. It is altogether inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel ministry for a man to hold aloof from the brethren and especially to wittingly avoid their fellowship. A man that expects to have friends must show himself friendly in the Church of Christ. God’s people are the best friends the young minister, and the old, can possess as far as men are concerned. Then the Scriptures enjoin such to be subject to their brethren in the ministry and to be subject one to another in humility and the fear of the Lord. This aspect of matters is clearly set forth in our Church’s Formula for license and ordination of those to be appointed to the holy office of the ministry. Ministers are not permitted to be a law unto themselves where the ecclesiastical order is according to the New Testament pattern. And lastly, we would point out that ministers of the Gospel belong to the Church and primarily to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. As Paul writing to the Corinthians declares, “For all things are yours; whether Paul or Appollos or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours” (I Cor. iii, 21, 22).