Ministerial Faithfulness Recommended and Enforced.

A sermon preached in Duke Street Gaelic Chapel, on Sabbath evening, 31st July, 1814, occasioned by the death of the late Rev Neil Macbride, minister of Kilmory, Island of Arran, by the Rev David Carment A.M. minister of Rosskeen.

The work of a minister of the Gospel is of such extent and importance, that we may well say with the Apostle, “Who is sufficient for these things?” It is of essential importance that all who engage in the work of the ministry should not only fear God, but be blameless before men; for in all the various relations of life no point of character has greater influence in giving weight to our decisions, and enabling us to discharge our duties with effect. In no case, however, is character of such vital importance as to him who professes to instruct sinners in the way of salvation; nor is purity of principle and of conduct less necessary, nor in any other situation is the want of it so calculated to produce extensive and lasting mischief in the world. The minister of religion should be eminently holy, scriptural in his principles, and active and zealous in his exertions to promote the glory of God and the good of man. But if, as men of like passions with others, we are influenced by no higher motive than a regard to external decency; if our desire merely be to earn a maintenance, and to pass smoothly through the world, we may indeed, to a certain extent, obtain our aim, and be held in estimation by men; but we are abhorred by God, nor can we expect that He will bless our labours for the attainment of that supremely important object, for which the ministry was instituted and the gospel given to men. Devotion to the cause of God is the glory of the ministerial character, and such God will assuredly honour. That friend whose loss we, in common with the Church of God, deplore, was eminent for devotedness to the service of God, and it is on account of this peculiar feature in his character that I have been induced to attempt what seems to me in too many instances to be a prostitution of the pulpit, and degrading in every view to the ministerial character—I mean portraying the life of deceased ministers. But here we are in no danger; we have many living seals of the apostleship of this eminent servant of Christ, and in what we may say, we may with the Apostle assert, that our record is true, and that we only declare unto you what we have seen and heard. I suppose there are few real Christians who have not, at one time or other, when musing on the recorded characters, not only of the primitive Christians, but of the departed worthies of our own land, been tempted to think either that we are not Christians, or that the picture drawn of the saints in primitive and early times was over charged, or at least not fully sketched as it ought to have been; but whatever may be in this, we have seen in the late Mr. Macbride, though not faultless or free from human imperfection, a living transcript of all that is praiseworthy in the Christians of other and earlier times. He lived continually with God, and he. lived daily for God, to serve him and to promote his cause on earth.

His character as a minister of the Gospel seems to me given in the passage just read, where the Apostle describes his own. In the words of our text we have,
1. The method the Apostle adopted in preaching.
II. The doctrines he inculcated.
III. The effects which were produced.
IV. The reasons which induced him to adopt this method of preaching.

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God: for I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
The time was, whether it now is, I shall not say, when ministers of the Gospel bent too low to the idol Reputation. If they sought it not at the stake, they sought it at the risk of leaving souls to perish for lack of real knowledge;— if they were doctrinally correct, and the rules of rhetoric attended to, all was well. They might offend the godly;— they might say what was little calculated to edify or amend the congregation, all was well if they had not offended against the theology of Turretine; or the rhetoric of Blair. I do not mean by this to cast contempt upon learning or study; but I treat contemptuously that learned ignorance of Christ and of the human heart, which tempts men to trick poor souls with tinsel, and who spend the precious time allotted for the service of God in attending to trifles, whilst the great object of Paul’s preaching, to win souls to Christ, seems totally forgotten or lost sight of. He adopted, he tells us, a different method, not because he was deficient in human learning, but because he had a higher aim than to acquire a name among men, and because every other passion in him was swallowed up by his zeal for the glory of God and good of souls; and his learning and talents were made subservient to this great end, teaching him to adapt his addresses to the understandings and feelings of his audience, and to use all plainness of speech on subjects where a false and flowery eloquence tends only to obscure, what shines most clearly when set forth in its native simplicity. In this our late reverend friend closely followed the steps of the great Apostle of the gentiles. In his estimation, the souls of men were too precious to be trifled with; he addressed himself to them as a dying man to dying men. In discarding all false ornaments, he did not discard the prominent truths of the gospel, but with all plainness brought them forth in all their length and breadth, and with all sincerity; and in the most simple, familiar, and pathetic manner, he expostulated with sinners. To the Christian he displayed in Gospel language, the grace and glories of the great Mediator, the freeness. and richness of divine grace, and the wonderful effects of the love of Christ to the fallen and guilty, race of Adam. To mourners in Zion he spake as one who knew experimentally their fear and feelings, their trials and temptations; and in his hands the the word became to all, converted and unconverted, Christian or hypocrite; a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, so that gainsayers themselves were often compelled to say, ‘The finger of God is here; and they who came to scoff, remained to pray.”
Let the foppish followers of what once was, and still is, by same considered fashionable divinity, look here and see if there is anything to their dry distinctions and acute argumentations at all comparable to this. He felt that he stood in the presence of God, pleading with men in Christ’s stead to be reconciled unto God. Everything, therefore, which was not calculated to forward the great, the only object in view, was disregarded, and Christ was all and in all in his heart and in his addresses. The enticing words of man’s wisdom were cast aside, and the warm, the animated, the affectionate address of a pure and feeling heart, full of love to God and benevolence to man, occupied that space in the service of the sanctuary, which the empty frothy declamation of the self-applauding orator usurps in the harangues of many pulpits. Such tricks are not befitting the pulpit; they will not be resorted to by the man of God, and to the people they prove a pure and unmixed poison, where discrimination exists not to reject the poisoned viands.

II. The Apostle not only describes the method he adopted in preaching, but also the doctrines he inculcated, and his personal feelings — his inward experience, whilst engaged in the work of the ministry: “For I determined,” he says, “not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.”

1. The doctrines he inculcated.
He came declaring the testimony of God, declaring that sinners had destroyed themselves, but now in Christ Jesus there was help. He came declaring that there was no salvation to sinners by the works of the law, and he explained and enforced that law in all its extent and purity, and brought its demands home to the consciences of sinners; but, as a minister of the everlasting Gospel, Christ crucified was his great theme.
In opposition to the prejudices of Jews and Greeks, he scrupled not to exalt a crucified Saviour, and to acknowledge him as his Lord and Master; and he tried by all means to bring guilty, ignorant, perishing sinners unto him for pardon and acceptance with God. He loudly proclaimed in the ear of the self-righteous Pharisee, that there was no difference before God in the act of justifying one sinner more than another; but “that it was a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came to save the chief of sinners.” These were the truths Paul declared; he had no modification of doctrine to suit the taste of the times. He had not one doctrine for the rich and another for the poor. He preached the same Christ, and declared the same truths to all—to the learned Greeks, the self-righteous Jews, and the ignorant barbarians; nor was his preaching without discrimination, for he warned the Christian, as well as reproved the sinner. All who knew our departed friend must allow, that he invariably declared to all who heard him the testimony of God; and he might have taken them all to record, when removing from them, that he was free from the blood of all men. Like Paul, he experimentally knew the truth and importance of the testimony of God. Like him, Christ was made precious to his own soul. He had no other consolation but the testimony of God, no other refuge but Christ, and therefore it was impossible he could direct to any other Saviour. Of course, whilst he dealt faithfully with sinners, and laid open the various deep deceits and lying refuges of the hypocrite, he was eminently tender in dealing with the awakened and afflicted conscience; and from his own experience in the school of Christ, he was peculiarly fitted for communicating comfort to mourners in Zion, and he seemed to possess peculiar discrimination in giving to each their due portion; for with all his charity he knew the heart of man too well, and he was himself too full of that spirit which feareth always to address large congregations as if they were all Christians. Instead of this, whilst he directed all to Christ as the only refuge for guilty men, he at the same time, in the language of the Apostle, warned all, saying, “Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall;” whilst to the almost Christian he declared the danger of his state, and exposed the deep delusion under which he laboured, so that none could say that he had deceived them with flattering words; and he might truly with the Apostle have said, “Being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.” 1 Th. 2:8.

2. The personal feelings and inward experience of the Apostle whilst engaged in the work of the ministry.
Though bodily weakness may be here included, I do not think the expression chiefly refers to this, but rather to the strong sense he had of his own insufficiency for the work, and for the proper discharge of the duties attached to his station in the Church of Christ. He was afraid, after preaching to others, he himself should be a cast away; and when he viewed the awful responsibility attached to his office, the importance of the doctrines he delivered, and the necessity he was under of being free from the blood of all men, no wonder if trembling mixed itself frequently with his joys. Farther, if we look into the Apostle’s recorded experience, we find the key to these expressions; we there discover that he was burdened with sin and tempted by Satan, and that his weakness was confessedly such that he had no strength of his own; only when he discovered by experience that he was weak, then was he strong through Christ strengthening him. This was eminently the case with our dear departed brother. He had a deep insight into the evils of his own heart, so that with all his attainments in the divine life, and living continually with God, he was still poor in spirit; yea, humility and dependence on God were such striking features in his character, that no man could be long in his company without discerning it; and though his labours were more abundantly blessed than those of any other man in our day, he still felt and lamented his own weakness. He trembled for himself, whilst he ascribed all the glory of the work to Him to whom it was due. But in him bodily weakness was seen and felt, a weakness most honourable to his character, and demonstrative of his zeal and assiduity in his Master’s service, as it was a consequence of his unwearied and almost unceasing labours in the service of Christ. In the first station which he occupied in the most rugged and remote corner of the northern Highlands, he travelled from hamlet to hamlet, over rocks and mountains, and amidst almost alpine snows, to mix with the sequestered family, to talk of Christ and instruct them in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God; and thus would he spend days and nights among them at a distance from home, contented with the simplest fare, and satisfied with such accommodation as the cottage of the poor, but kind-hearted peasant could afford; and I may say, for I was a witness of the fact, that he died in his Master’s cause; for his last illness was, humanly speaking, brought on by his exertions in attending and preaching at Loch Ranza, on that extra, I might say extraordinary, sacramental occasion, where I was his only ordained assistant, where he was laid on the bed of sickness never more to rise, till his pure disembodied spirit rose to the mansions of eternal bliss, to see and serve that Saviour whom he loved, and whom he had here so unceasingly served.

III. We are to consider the effects which accompanied the preaching of Paul: “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

The apostle Paul here does not seem to refer, at least chiefly, to those miraculous gifts he possessed, nor to those miraculous interpositions which took place in the conversion of some individuals, but to that divine power which was displayed in the success vouchsafed him in his ordinary labours, and to those rich manifestations of divine grace which accompanied these labours, and were a demonstration not only of divine agency, but of divine agency accompanying the declaration of the testimony of God by him, and of that wonderful power which changed the hearts of men, so as to render them the willing and devoted followers of that crucified Saviour whom heretofore they had despised and rejected.

In this respect, also, we may say that Mr Macbride’s ministry was attended with “demonstration of the spirit and of power.” He was indeed a chosen vessel to declare the testimony of God. It is known that his studies were begun and carried on under a strong and abiding impression that he would be honoured to preach the Gospel of salvation in his native island, then in a very dark and destitute state as to vital godliness. This impression remained when there was no human probability of seeing it realized. He was a Christian and a man of prayer before he became a minister; and he was indeed taught of God long before he commenced teaching others. He was first appointed to a mission in the Highlands, where his labours were abundantly blessed; and he has been heard to mention one sacramental occasion in that country on which there was a remarkable display of divine power in a very sensible manner, the fruits of which were abiding in many of the hearers. But it was in his native island that the Lord, in an eminent manner, blessed his labours for a period of twelve years. In “prophesying to the dry bones,” they were brought into shape and seemliness; and such were his exertions from the beginning, and such the power attending the preaching of the Gospel, that gross immoralities were almost totally suppressed, and an exterior decency preserved even by those who had attained to nothing else; but this was not all, many souls were from time to time converted, and many were added to the Church, so that the power of religion was seen and felt, not in his own parish only, but throughout the length and breadth of that extensive and populous island. Family worship was generally set up, and prayer meetings were held in almost every farm or hamlet. The work of God thus proceeded silently and slowly, but effectually for a time; but somewhat more than two years ago the Lord was pleased, as it seemed, in answer to fervent, and persevering prayer, to manifest his power in an extraordinary manner, so that many careless sinners were awakened, and the people of God filled with joy and peace in believing. The effects were visible, not only in many who had been utterly careless becoming eminently holy, but the work was also accompanied with bodily agitations, and strong outcries in many cases. To this I know strong objections were made by the wise men of this world, and by the whole herd of almost Christians, and even by some, of whom better things might have been expected; and though they never saw the work nor the subjects of it, they yet could gravely speculate upon the subject, and upon what ought, or ought not, to be done in such cases, and without inquiry, and without authority, they sat in judgment upon and condemned the righteous. Now I would just propose to such persons, and all who think similarly, a few questions for solution, and a few scriptural arguments for their serious consideration. I would ask them, Are they so intimately acquainted with the work of the Spirit of God, or the manner of his operation in all and every case, as to be certain that he never did or never will work in any way but the way with which they seem to be acquainted, and willing to prescribe to him? I would ask, Is there nothing in real religion, and the views the sinner often has of sin and of salvation through Christ, as much calculated to affect the mind and agitate the bodily frame, as there is in the common occurrences of life? And do we not often see the afflicted and bereaved shedding tears and crying out, and often in great bodily agitation, under the weight and pressure of mental agony? And do we not read of those who, through the agitation of sudden joy, were thrown into convulsions, or expired under the intensity of their feelings? I would observe, farther, that there are many passages of Scripture which cannot be satisfactorily explained in any other way, than by supposing that there shall be in the latter days a an effusion of the spirit as shall be attended with visible external effects on the bodies of men. “The Lord of Hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling-stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.” Zech. 9:15. “When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble.” Hab. 3:16. “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” Jer. 4:19. “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” Acts 13:41.

Again, I would observe, that we have in the account of what took place on the day of Pentecost, a proof of the fact of many crying out. But we shall be told that this was an extraordinary occasion: true, but who told the objectors that similar extraordinary occasions were never to occur, or who will pretend to say that the conversion of a sinner is not at all times an extraordinary work, or that there are not diversities of operations, though it is the same Spirit that also much affected, so was Paul himself; and in the 19th chapter of Luke, we find the disciples crying out through joy, and reproved by the decent Pharisees for their unseemly noise, and their conduct defended and approved by Christ. The leper also, Luke 17:15, and others, were similarly affected. Farther, I hesitate not to affirm, that in every age of the Church, and in almost every place where a great and remarkable revival of religion has taken place, and where divine influences were abundant, it has been invariably accompanied in a greater or lesser degree with bodily agitations, and with crying out in many of the subjects of such a work. I have one fact farther to state, which I deem conclusive, as facts can never be overturned by arguments however specious, or speculations however ingenious. It is a fact within my own knowledge, that several of the subjects of this work were at the time of the revival particularly and strictly examined by some of the most eminent, and most experienced and acute ministers of the day in which we live, and that the result of the examination was such as to satisfy them that the work was of God; but we go farther than this, we say to every unbelieving objector, ‘come and see; by their fruits ye shall know them.’

Many, indeed, of those who were the subjects of this work do bring forth fruits which abundantly testify that the work is of God, and I know no more certain way (objectors themselves being witnesses) of proving the genuineness of a work of this kind, than by bringing it to the law and to the testimony.

We do not, indeed, say that these things are essential to a work of grace, or necessarily connected therewith, or that many have not been thus affected who have shown that there was nothing spiritual or saving in what they felt, but we do contend that such appearances do often accompany such a work; and if this had occurred less frequently than it actually has in the Church of God, that the reality of the conversion of a sinner is to be judged of by its fruits; and we again say to all objectors, Come and see, and you will be compelled to acknowledge that the finger of God was here.

IV. The reasons assigned by the Apostle for adopting this method of preaching.

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” It was the testimony of God he declared —a testimony in itself of such importance, that those adventitious ornaments he discarded were unsuitable to the subject. It was too important a message to be trifled with, and occupied too much room in his heart and affections, to give way to those external decorations which might have pleased the gay and the thoughtless, but were unworthy of the subject, and in no way calculated to gain credit to such a testimony, which is most forcibly declared in its native purity and simplicity. What was really useful in human wisdom and learning, he did not affect to despise, but consecrated to the service of the sanctuary; but every thing which would have enfeebled or obscured the testimony of God, or degraded the witness, he wisely avoided in all his ministrations. His object was to exalt Christ, and not himself. He desired to present to the eyes and affections of his hearers a crucified Saviour, as the object of their love and the foundation of their hopes; and that which might have pleased the imagination without gaining the heart, he carefully avoided. He came not courting the applause of men, but seeking subjects and followers of the “ Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” His heart was so full of the glorious subject, Christ crucified; this was ever so present to his thoughts, that he viewed all other things as only of importance in connection with this. He knew the power of human eloquence on enthusiastic and unreflecting minds, either to lead astray or to gain the affections to the side of truth for a moment; but he wished the faith of his hearers to rest on a more sure, and solid, and permanent foundation than this; for when the faith of men has no better foundation than a vain admiration of the abilities of their teachers, it rests on a sandy foundation indeed; for what human oratory or mere moral suasion established, human oratory may overthrow, so that such persons are at the mercy of every bold and reckless theorist possessed of a plausible manner, or gifted with popular talents. Of course we see in such places as Glasgow the faith of many shaken in a moment by a new creed or a plausible theory, and their faith reposing only on a silly attachment to the manner or talents of some favourite and followed preacher, which will just last till another popular competitor enters the field and no longer. The eminent saint, whose memory we revere, closely followed the praiseworthy example set him by the great Apostle of the Gentiles. The testimony of God he deemed so important, as to outweigh every other consideration, and he never attempted to fritter down that testimony by accommodating his preaching to the taste or the caprice of the self-righteous or the sinner. He declared the truth fully, faithfully, and earnestly, and allowed no inferior consideration to divert him from his great design of bringing this testimony to bear on the conscience of the sinner, in all its power and convincing energy. He testified to every individual, according to his state, the truth as it is in Jesus, and he kept nothing back of what God had entrusted him with.

Farther, his doctrine differed from the doctrines of many who are styled ministers of the Gospel. He knew nothing in his preaching but Christ Jesus, and him crucified. He gloried in the doctrines of the cross, and whatever the particular truths were which he at any time promulgated, his grand, his leading, his ultimate aim was to persuade sinners to come to Christ, that they might have life. Whatever his subject was, Christ was all and in all. He loved him, and lived with him in private, and he delighted to speak of him and exalt him in public; and he did this that the faith of his hearers might stand on a better foundation than love to their teacher; for he was so meek and lowly, so full of love and of good works, that he was beloved wherever he went. He was the father, the friend, the counsellor of his people. His zeal was so mixed with meekness, his temper so heavenly, his conversation so spiritual, that even those who knew not the Master he served, nor understood the principle from which all this flowed, were yet, by feeling and seeing the effects, led to honour and love the servant; and as he lived, so he died, breathing benevolence to man, and full of faith in God, whom he now sees, and shall for ever enjoy.

Application 

1. It becomes you, as hearers attached to various ministers, to examine well and truly try the foundation of that attachment. Do you merely admire in them the enticing words of man’s wisdom? Are you captivated with mere external show, or does your attachment arise from the power and influence of that testimony which God has recorded in his Word, and which you are bound to attend to; and from that desire of knowing nothing in religion, or in the declaration of that testimony, but “Jesus Christ, and him crucified ?”

2. Are you attached to them because they are attached to Christ? Do you love them because they love the truth, and are ready to sacrifice every thing not for personal, or private, or political objects, but for promoting peace, and unity, and holiness amongst men; and because the influence of pure and undefiled religion is felt and seen in their daily walk and conversation; because they are the friends of the friends of Christ, and associate not with the infidel or the profligate, but reject with indignation all heretical and erroneous opinions, whilst they receive and approve of all who contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

3. Have you felt that power here mentioned, accompanying the preaching of the everlasting Gospel. for it is here that the generality err. They are captivated with the enticing words of man’s wisdom; not with the Gospel, but its garb; not with Christ, but with what they imagine the have received from Christ; whilst the word, as thus accompanied with demonstration of the Spirit and of power, is never so much as thought of. If they are instructed in the connection of doctrinal truths, and regular in their lives, the work of the Spirit with power is a strange sound in their ears, as being born again was in the ears of Nicodemus of old; and it is a strange work to their souls. Their religion consists in the belief of certain orthodox notions, in adhesion to a certain party, and a certain form of discipline, and worship, and external church order. They were never sick of sin, never wounded in spirit, never brought to cry earnestly and importunately for mercy and forgiveness; so that to them the beauty of Christ as King of Zion, and the glory of the gospel, have been hid; and they can see no beauty nor comeliness in Christ, why they should desire him, nor any need of a convincing and converting work of the Spirit of God in themselves or others.

In conclusion, if it is asked how Mr. Macbride became so eminently useful, and so highly favoured and honoured an instrument in the conversion of sinners, and in edifying and building up believers; I answer, not from superior talents or acquirements, not by courting popular applause, or bending to the passions or prejudices of his hearers; but he was a man of prayer.

His whole heart and soul was in the work in which he had engaged, under a solemn sense of the duties he owed to men, and the responsibility he was under to that God whose servant he professed to be. He had no other engagements, literary, scientific, sensual, or worldly. He did nothing, he spoke of nothing, he thought of nothing but his own proper ministerial work; and when ministers are similarly occupied, they may, through the blessing of God on their labours, expect similar success. May God bless his word, and to his name be the praise! Amen.