01 - What is a Call Ministry
WHAT IS A CALL TO THE MINISTRY? BY REV. JAMES D. KNOWLES.
LETTER I.
Mr DEAR BROTHER I need not assure you that the subject on which we recently conversed is deeply interesting to my mind. The inquiry, Is it my duty to preach the Gospel? is one of the most important that can occupy your attention. I have wished that some person competent to the task would furnish the church with a judicious treatise on this topic. It would be most gratefully received by hundreds of young men, whose,minds are agitated by doubts concerning their duty. Such a treatise, too, would be a valuable assistant to pastors, both by reminding them of their duty to the young men in their respective churches, and by aiding them to perform that duty. The churches also need instruction respecting their obligations to seek out and cherish the gifts which may exist among their young members. But as such an essay has not yet appeared, you will allow me to suggest a few thoughts on the subject.
It gives me pleasure to know that you agree with me on the point, that sincere love to the Saviour is the first and indispensable qualification. If I had doubt whether you have been “ born of the Spirit,” I could not think of you in reference to the ministry, but should rather feel it my first duty to beseech you, in Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God. A man who has not scriptural evidence that his heart has been renewed, may be sure that it would be presumption to intrude himself into the ministry. No monarch would employ a rebel as an ambassador. Much less will the Saviour appoint an impenitent sinner to proclaim his Gospel. To such a man the words of the psalmist may be most emphatically applied: “ Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? seeing thou hatest instruction, and easiest my words behind thee.”
But, while I believe you to be a true Christian, I must exhort you, before you proceed further hi your inquiries concerning the ministry, to “make your calling and election sure” by a faithful application to your own soul of the scriptural tests of conversion. That it is possible to arrive at a well-grounded persuasion of our adoption that we may “ know that we have passed from death unto life “that we may enjoy the “full assurance of faith” is indisputable. Every Christian perhaps experiences occasional eclipses of his hope, because he is betrayed into sin, which darkens his understanding and disturbs his peace. But this is a different thing from that perpetual overshadowing of the soul of which some professing Christians complain.
They have some light, but the rays struggle through a cloud. They enjoy some hope, but it is faint and wavering. They have a little peace, but it is often disturbed by fears. Such a doubting believer is not qualified to plead the Saviour’s cause with men. He cannot confidently urge others to believe, while he himself has only a feeble faith.
He cannot speak persuasively of the excellence of that religion, the consolations of which he does not himself enjoy. He cannot comfort the mourner, guide the inquirer, and remove the doubts of the perplexed. The young man, then, who is inquiring concerning the ministry, must examine himself, not merely to be satisfied that he is a Christian, but to ascertain “whether his faith is sufficiently firm to enable him to go onward in the toils and conflicts of the ministry- with the confidence of Paul: “ I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Another fundamental point which you fully admit is, that there must be a call to the ministry. You believe that it belongs. to the Saviour alone to give pastors and teachers to his church, and to commission ambassadors to his enemies. You do not believe that every pious man, nor even every pious and well-educated man, has a right to become a minister. You believe that he whom God designs for the ministry will have a special intimation of the will of God, without which he must not presume to enter the sacred office. I will proceed, then, in my next to examine the nature of a call to the ministry. May the Lord preserve us from error, and guide us into all truth.
Affectionately yours.