Every preacher that becomes secularized, and ceases to employ his
energies in behalf of the poor, of mercy, of righteousness, of God, is
an immense loss to the world. There is no calculating or estimating
the difference in the condition of the world, in the day of judgment,
all growing out of the indolence or indifference of one man, though he
might see that he was effecting but little in his operations. Let any
man of reflection select a preacher of but humble abilities, who was
operating zealously in the great cause of truth only twenty years ago,
and trace the effects which a finite being can clearly see have grown
out of his labors, and he will be astonished to see how different the
present state of society would have been, had he relaxed his energies.
But, let his influence extend twenty years more, and where will be
its boundaries? Let it extend one hundred years and who could compute
it? But all this may be but a drop to the ocean of the vast train of
influences that would all have been lost by one man failing to act
his part. With this before us, is it strange that God should hold him
highly accountable?
But this is not the worst case. Let a man of talent, influence and
energy, fall from his station, and become an apostate and enemy, let
the cause be made to bleed and suffer from his want of reputation,
while he hurls back his javelins with all the malice and fury of the
Prince of the bottomless pit; and then, compute the change made in the
condition of the church and the world? No one, short of the Infinite
Being Himself, can compute the vast number that will be seriously
injured, in one century, by such a miserable being. Who, then, can tell
the difference his conduct can make in the condition of the world, at
the adjudication of all things? Let preachers, then, remember that they
are laborers together, and that no one can be lost without an injury to
all.