THE APOSTOLIC MINISTRY

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God

did beseech you by us: we implore you in Christ's stead--be
reconciled to God." 2 Cor. 5:20

In this truly wonderful passage, viewed in connection with its

context, are set before us with beautiful simplicity, yet with
surpassing grandeur--the theme, the design, and the method,
of the Christian ministry. The theme is God reconciling the
world to himself; a subject compared with which the
negotiations of hostile nations and the treaties which put an
end to the horrors of war, and bind in concord the fiercest
passions of humanity, are matters of only momentary and
limited importance. The design of the ministry, which is
strictly in harmony with its theme, is to bring sinful men into
actual reconciliation with God, on the ground of that system
of mediation through Christ which God himself has devised
and proclaimed. And its method is the earnestness of
persuasion addressed to the rebel heart of man, in order to
induce him to lay aside his enmity against his offended
Sovereign, and to accept this offer of a gracious amnesty.

The union and the harmony of these three views of the

ministry are singularly impressive—he who leaves out the
great scheme of Christian reconciliation from his habitual
ministrations, omits the divinely appointed theme; he who
does not supremely aim to bring sinners into a state of actual
friendship with God, falls short of the design of the sacred
office; and he who does not employ for the purpose all the
arts and means of persuasion, mistakes or undervalues the
divinely prescribed method of fulfilling its duties.

As the apostle is writing to a Christian church, it is perhaps a

matter of surprise to some that he should entreat them to be
reconciled to God, since by their very profession of religion
they must have been supposed to be already in that state.
Upon looking attentively at the passage as it stands in the
Bible, the reader will perceive that the pronouns of the
second person are in italics, intimating that they are not in
the original Greek, but are supplied in our English translation
to complete the sense; consequently any other word that
would accomplish this better may be substituted for them. If
therefore we put the substantive "men," instead of the
pronoun "you" in the first clause of the verse, and the
pronoun of the third person "them" for the pronoun of the
second person "you" in the latter clause, we shall avoid the
improbability of the apostle calling upon professing Christians
to come into a state to which they must be supposed to have
already attained, and the text will then show what he
intended to set forth, the usual manner in which he
discharged the functions of his momentous office. With this
alteration it would read thus, "As ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech 'men' by us, we implore 'them' in
Christ's stead to be reconciled to God." It is as if he had said,
"wherever we go, we find men in unprovoked hostility,
inveterate enmity, and mad rebellion, against God's holy
nature, law, and government—we carry with us, as his
ambassadors, the proclamation of mercy through the
mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ—we tell them that we are
appointed by God whom they have offended, and who could
overwhelm them with the terrors of his justice, to call upon
them to lay down their arms and accept the offer of eternal
pardon and peace—but we find them every where so bent
upon their sins, and the enjoyment of their worldly
occupations and possessions, that we are compelled to use
the language of the most vehement entreaty, and to beseech
and implore them in God's name, and in Christ's stead, to
come into a state of reconciliation."

The apostle not only used the most intense earnestness of

entreaty, as an expression of his own concern, but he told the
objects of his imploring anxiety that his importunity for their
welfare was but an imitation of, and a substitute for, that of
God himself; that his beseeching solicitation to them, on
behalf of their own salvation, was uttered in Christ's stead.
This is the most wonderful scene that the universe will ever
witness; a beseeching God, an imploring Savior, standing at
the door of the sinner's heart with eternal salvation in his
hand, knocking for entrance and begging to be let in; the
insulted Omnipotent Creator of the universe, beseeching a
worm, whom an exercise of his will could sink in a moment to
perdition, and his justice be glorified in the act, to accept his
pardoning mercy, and waiting year after year, in all patience,
for the sinner's reconsideration of his obstinate refusals. Be
astonished, O heaven, at God's unutterable mercy, and be
horribly afraid, O earth, at man's indescribable wickedness!
Here is the climax of God's divine love, and man's desperate
depravity. Divine benevolence did not reach its uttermost
when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross; that was reserved
for the scene before us.

I might with ineffable delight expatiate at length on this scene

of matchless mercy, but let me pass on to other applications
of the passage appropriate to the subject before us. And what
a view does it give us of the Christian ministry! It is
an embassy from GOD to man, and therefore most
dignified and honorable. I admit that it is only in a qualified
sense that the title and office of an "ambassador" for Christ
can be applied to the ordinary ministers of the gospel; but in
a subordinate sense it may be applied to them, since they are
ordained to do what he would do were he personally present;
they are to propose the same blessings, to lay down the same
terms of peace, as he would were he again on earth; and
therefore are, so far, his ambassadors. And if the honor of an
ambassador be in proportion to the power and glory of the
sovereign who employs him, what is the dignity of him who is
the ambassador of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! And
at the same time, what ought to be the sanctity of his
conduct, and the elevation of his character? If nothing
unworthy of the monarch who sends him, and the nation
which he represents, should be done by him who is
despatched on an embassy to a foreign court and people, how
vigilant and solicitous to do nothing unworthy of God and his
Christ, should he be whose business it is to negotiate with
man, the weighty affairs of judgment and of mercy from
heaven! If he bears the dignity of his office, let him associate
with it a corresponding dignity of character. How natural, how
just, how necessary, the reflection, "I am an ambassador for
Christ; what kind of person ought I to be in all holy
conversation and godliness; what should I be who represent,
so far as my office is concerned, the majesty of heaven and
earth!"

The ministry of the gospel is shown in this passage to be

an embassy of PEACE—this is its very designation, "the
ministry of reconciliation." Never was a more beautiful idea
expressed or conceived—nothing could be devised to throw
over the ministry the charm of greater loveliness. If in one
hand the preacher of the gospel carry the sword of the Spirit,
it is only to slay the sin; while he holds forth the olive branch
in the other, as the token of peace and life to the sinner. He
enters the scene of strife and discord to harmonize the jarring
elements, and goes to the field of conflict to reconcile the
contending parties. It is his to proclaim the treaty of man's
peace with God, to explain its terms, to urge its acceptance,
and to bring the sinner into friendship with his offended
lawgiver; to carry peace into man's troubled bosom, and
reconcile him to his own conscience; to cast out the enmity
and prejudices of his selfish and depraved heart, and to unite
him by love to his fellows; to calm down the violence of his
temper, and give him peace on earth, and at last to conduct
him to the realms of undisturbed tranquility in the celestial
world.

This is the minister's business! Angels hover over him in his

course, and chant over his labors their ancient song, "Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward
men;" redeemed men and women, saved by his
instrumentality from the wrath of God, and the turbulence of
passion, hail him in the language of the prophet, "How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings
good tidings, that publishes peace;" while the Savior himself
pronounces upon him the beatitude, "Blessed are the peace-
makers, for they shall be called the children of God." Honored
and happy man, minister of reconciliation, friend and
promoter of peace, the world knows you not, because it knew
not Christ; nor, perhaps, does even the church duly
appreciate, or adequately reward, your services; but even
now your work is its own reward—peace attends upon your
steps, and blessings spring up in your path.

But still it is an embassy of DIFFICULTY. It is to deal with

those who are unwilling to be saved, and to persuade the
sinful, proud, and stubborn hearts of men, to surrender to
holiness and grace. The minister carries the offer of infinite
and ineffable blessedness, but it is to men who have no taste
for that species of felicity. His were an easy office did he find
men every where predisposed to close with the proposals of
infinite benevolence; but wherever he goes he meets with
hearts not only indifferent, but hostile, to his message. The
parable which represents the excuses made for not coming to
the marriage feast, is still applicable to the children of men in
reference to the invitations of the gospel—men are as they
ever were, too busy, or too well satisfied with their
enjoyments and possessions, to care about salvation. They
are madly set upon the objects of the present world; they are
asleep, and need to be roused; careless, and need to be
interested; indolent, and need to be stimulated; and it is with
the greatest difficulty we can engage their attention to the
invisible realities of eternity. No one who leaves out of view
the desperate wickedness of the human heart, can form a
true estimate of the nature, design, and difficulties of the
pastoral office—and the reason why there is so little of hard
labor, and intense earnestness, and beseeching entreaty, in
the ministers of the gospel, is, that there is the lack of a deep
conviction, or proper consideration, of the resistance to their
endeavors in the sinner's heart, which is perpetually meeting
them.

This brings me to the subject of the present discourse, and

that is the NECESSITY of an earnest ministry. Nothing
less than earnestness can succeed in any cases of great
difficulty, and the earnestness must of course be in proportion
to the difficulty to be surmounted. Great obstacles cannot be
overcome without intense application of the mind. How then
can the work of the ministry be accomplished? Every view we
can take of it replies, "Only by earnestness." Every syllable of
the apostle's language replies, "Only by earnestness." Every
survey we can take of human nature replies, "Only by
earnestness." Every recollection of our own experience, as
well as every observation we can make of the experience of
others, replies, "Only by earnestness." This, this is what we
need, and must have, if the ends of the gospel are ever to be
extensively accomplished--an earnest ministry.

We have heard much of late about a learned ministry, and

God forbid we should ever be afflicted by so great an evil as
an unlearned one. We have been often reminded of the
necessity of an educated ministry; and in this case, as in
every other, men must be educated for their vocation; but
then, that education must be strictly appropriate and specific.
We are very properly told from many quarters, we can do
nothing without a godly ministry. This is very true, nor can
any truth bearing upon this subject be more momentous; for
of all the curses which God ever pours from the vials of his
wrath upon a nation which he intends to scourge, there is not
one so fearful as giving them up to an unholy ministry. And I
trust our churches will ever consider piety as the first and
most essential qualification in their pastors, for which talents,
genius, learning, and eloquence, would and could be no
substitutes. It will be a dark and evil day when personal
godliness shall be considered as secondary to any other
quality in those who serve at the altar of God.

But still there is something else needed in addition to natural

talent, to academic training, and even to the most fervent
evangelical piety, and that is, intense devotedness. This is
the one thing, more than any or all other things, that is
lacking in the modern pulpit, and that has been lacking in
most ages of the Christian church. The following sentence
occurs in a valuable article in a late number of the British
Quarterly Review—"No ministry will be really effective,
whatever may be its education, which is not a ministry
of strong faith, true spirituality, and deep
earnestness." I wish this golden sentence could be inscribed
in characters of light over every professor's chair, over every
student's desk, and over every preacher's pulpit. Condensed
into that one short paragraph is everything that needs be said
on this subject. I feel that every syllable I have to write would
be superfluous, if all our pastors, students, and tutors, would
let that one sentence take full occupation of their hearts,
possess their whole souls, and regulate their conduct. The
most I can hope to accomplish is to expand and enforce it.