The pastor, in a true and important sense, is entrusted with the care
of the souls of his congregation; he is, therefore, under obligation to
use his utmost power for their conversion and sanctification, "warning
every man and teaching every man," that he "may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. i. 28). Paul said to the Ephesian
elders: "Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over the which
the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which
He has purchased with His own blood" (Acts xx. 28); and in exhorting
the people on their part to obey the ministry, he urges as a reason,
"for they watch for your souls as they that must give account" (Heb.
xiii. 17). This responsibility plainly includes: 1. _A personal life
such that it may constitute a fitting example._ The pastor is to be "an
example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in
spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim iv. 12). Thus, Paul ever referred
to his own life, not as perfect, but as publicly exemplifying the
Christian character, saying to the Philippians (Phil. iv. 9): "Those
things which ye have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in
me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you;" and to the
Thessalonians (1 Thess. ii. 10), "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how
holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that
believe." A defective, irregular life in the pastor neutralizes the
ablest efforts in the pulpit and may become a pre-eminent means of the
ruin of souls. 2. _Wise and faithful dealing with the individual souls
of his charge._ Paul went "from house to house," from soul to soul: he
"ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears," and he
proposes this as an example of ministerial fidelity, requiring the
pastor to be "instant in season, out of season." Evidently, he did not
regard the work of the minister as done when performed only in the
study and the pulpit: it included personal dealing with souls.
3. _Earnest effort to become an able minister of the New Testament._
The most solemn urgencies press on the pastor the duty of seeking the
highest possible intellectual and pulpit power. The themes he unfolds
are the grandest that can engage the thought of man or angel. The end
to be secured--the salvation of souls--is the most momentous ever
committed to a finite being. God will not hold guiltless the indolent,
reckless minister who causes the Gospel to be despised and imperils the
souls of his people by a careless, unstudied presentation of the
message He has entrusted to him. 4. _The faithful declaration of the
whole counsel of God._ He is to show distinctly the threatenings as
well as the promises of the Gospel, and the danger as well as the hopes
set before the soul. No subject is to be avoided because unpopular or
distasteful. No personal considerations are to prevent the plain,
distinct enunciation of all the words of God. Jehovah says to the
watchman: "If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that
wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at
thine hand" (Ezek. xxxiii. 8; iii. 17-21).
Pastoral responsibility, however, has its limitation. Christ does not
require of His servants impossible labor; but as they have received
their talents, so they are to use them, each "according to his several
ability." If faithful to his trust, the pastor is "unto God a sweet
savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish"
(2 Cor. ii. 15-17), and it is his right to feel he has "delivered his
soul" and is "pure from the blood of all men" (Acts xx. 26, 27). Such
was the ministry of Paul, a mere man, aided in this only by such Divine
help as is promised to every other servant of God. It is fidelity, not
success, which constitutes the limit of responsibility. Success belongs
to God. Paul plants, Apollos waters, but God gives the increase.
Jeremiah spoke with the earnestness and tenderness of lips inspired,
but he was unpopular, and, as men would measure, unsuccessful;
nevertheless, his name stands high among the ancient worthies, because
in that degenerate age he was faithful to his trust and work. Besides,
a minister's power is not measured by the immediate, outward result.
The powerful revival in which hundreds are gathered into the church
finds its occasion, indeed, in the peculiar gifts of some popular
preacher, but its real causes often lie hid in the quiet, patient toil
of other men differently gifted. Every man has his special adaptation
and work--one sows and another reaps--and only in the great harvest at
the end of the world will the actual results of each man's work appear.
Hence, Christ says to every servant of His: "Be thou _faithful_ unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Rev. ii. 10). Fidelity,
then, is the limit of responsibility; and the earnest pastor, who, with
heartfelt loyalty to Christ, has to the extent of his ability and
opportunity faithfully fulfilled his calling, may know assuredly that
he has the approval of the Master, and that awaiting him at the end is
the sure reward of the faithful.
+SECTION XIX.