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Voices of God and the Church.

say to him: "Has not God called you to preach ?" Sometimes these questions come so suddenly, and so unexpectedly, and so unlooked for, that the soul calls out: "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy ?" That which is discovered by one soon becomes known, manifest to all, and the church, in whatever way it may operate, opens for him the doorway leading into the ministry. It is the call of the church added to the conscious call that greatly strengthens the conviction of duty.

Many Scripture instances show us the beautiful correspondence of these voices. God called Bezaleel and Aholiab to work on the tabernacle, and filled them with the spirit of wisdom. Yet they were not authorized to commence the work until God informed Moses that He called them. Joshua was called by the Holy Spirit to lead Israel; and the call was also revealed to Moses, and he laid his hands upon him. When God's voice reached Samuel, it was a new experience. He thought Eli called him; and so the second and the third time he arose and came to Eli, who then perceived it was the Lord, and told Samuel to say: "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." Through Eli's voice Samuel learned God's call, and he doubted never afterwards. God called Saul, and sent Samuel to anoint him, when he would have hidden himself among the people. He called David, and Samuel poured the anointing oil on his head. The disciples were called originally audibly and visibly by Christ, the Head of the Church. Paul received his message not only from the lips of Jesus, but also from Ananias. Timothy received the gift of God and the call from the laying on of hands. There is not an instance in Holy Writ where a true man was ever anxious to bear the divine message. He always shrunk from it, hesitated, and trembled. Thus did Moses; thus did the prophets. Jonah fled, and would not go to Nineveh until after he had been well waled! I have known young men to leave their neighbourhood; their local churches; their associations in the East. I have found them wandering on the Pacific Slope; and scarcely had they reached their destination and engaged in social prayer, when some friendly voice said: “Are you not a preacher, and has not God called you ?

When the Church recognizes a young man, he should openly

Evidences of the Minister's Call. 33

and publicly prepare himself for the work of the ministry, and, according to his opportunities, let him secure the utmost qualifications which he can acquire. Sometimes a strange intermingling of benevolence and self-esteem urges a young man onward, and he fancies the world will go down to ruin unless he springs at once to the rescue. My advice to such young men is to get thoroughly ready. If you go out into the forest to fell trees, you would not consider that lost time which you spent in sharpening your axe. Is it not remarkable that Jesus never preached a sermon until He was thirty years of age? Yet the world was going to ruin! You reply: "Yes; but that was the age when the Jewish priest held his office, and Christ conformed to the Jewish thought and practice." That is true. Yet it is no less true that the Head of the Church ordained that the priest should not officiate until he was thirty years of age. I do not say all should wait so long. The pressing need of the Church and good judgment may indicate the need. No precise rule as to age or qualifications is laid down in the Bible. The Church and individual must decide the thing in every case. In different churches and in different ages of the same church the standard has varied. The early Scotch ministers had but limited training. Dr. South satirizes the Puritan preachers of his age, who, shut out of the universities, had few opportunities. The early Methodists were also obliged to get along with scanty training. If the West, when the rapid streams of emigration were pouring into it, had been compelled to wait for trained ministers, it would have become a mass of corruption and iniquity. But the times have changed, and more ministers are now knocking than can find room. God seems to say to the candidates, "Prepare to the utmost; " and to the churches, "Put only the picked men on guard." There are, then, three evidences of the minister's call: 1st. The man's own conscience; 2nd. The Church's approval and call; 3rd. The approval of God, as shown in the results of His ministry. These three all combined-the voice of conscience, the voice of the Church, and the attestation of God-then no man need doubt, and in the mouths of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

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Let me illustrate one form of this call by my own experience. Trained religiously, I reached a young man's years before making a public profession of religion. Occasionally, prior to my conversion, thoughts of the ministry sometimes flashed across my mind; but it was only a flash. After my conversion I was earnest for the welfare of others, and wanted to promote the interests of the Church and of humanity. The conviction grew upon me that I must preach; yet I tried to put that away, because I feared I could never succeed. I saw the greatness of the work, and the reproachful poverty connected then with the itinerant ministry. There were two special difficulties in my way. First, I had no gift of speech. My voice was poor, and in school I always shunned declamation. I firmly believed I could never make a speaker; and so chose the profession of medicine, which 1 studied three years in a professional school. I think I should have resolutely rejected the idea of the ministry except that it seemed inseparably connected with my salvation. I fasted, I prayed for divine direction; but I found no rest, until, in reading the Bible one day, I found a passage which seemed specially written for me: "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart; lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." I accepted it, and resolved to do whatever God in His providence should indicate by opening the way. I never lisped to a friend the slightest intimation of my mental agony; but I took a more earnest part in the church services. One Sabbath I felt a strong impression that I ought to speak to the people at night in prayer-meeting, as we had no preaching. I said to myself: "How shall I? For my friends will say I am foolish, as they know I cannot speak with interest." Especially I dreaded a certain old uncle, who had been a father to me, and superintended my education. While I was discussing this matter with myself in the afternoon, my uncle came into the room, and, after a moment's hesitation, said to me: "Don't you think you could speak to the people to-night?" I was surprised and startled. I asked him if he thought I ought. He said: "Yes. I think you can do good." That night, for some strange reason, the house was crowded,

Ministers are Divinely Elected.

35

and I made my first religious address to a public congregation.
It was not written. It was not very well premeditated. It
was simply an earnest outgushing of a sincere and honest heart.
My mother was a widow. I was her eldest son, and the only
child remaining at home. I feared it would break her heart to
leave her, and feared it would be impossible to do so.
One day,
after great embarrassment, I was induced to speak to my mother
on the subject of my mental struggles, and tell her what I
thought God required of me. I never shall forget how she
turned to me with a smile and said: "My son, I have been
looking for this hour ever since you were born!" She then told
me how she and my dying father, who left me an infant, conse-
crated me to God, and prayed that, if it were His will, I might
become a minister. And yet that mother had never dropped a
word of intimation in my ear that she ever desired me to be a
preacher. She believed so fully in the divine call that she would
not bias my youthful mind with even suggestions of it in prayer.

That conversation settled my mind. Oh, what a blessing is a sainted mother! To-day I can feel her hands on my head, and I hear the intonation of her voice in prayer. I was requested shortly afterward to preach a trial sermon; but I refused. The church said that if I did not preach a trial sermon they could not tell whether I was qualified. I replied that there was no order in the discipline of our Church which directed or even permitted such a sermon. I did not desire a licence to preach; but had fully promised God to obey the order of the Church, should it license me, and I should never try to preach until I was so licensed. Well, I was licensed and entered the pulpit. By the divine agency some souls were awakened and converted. By the grace of God I have continued to this day. You perceive that I believe in the divine election of ministers. So far you can count me a Calvinist. I believe, further, a man so selected should never turn aside to any other employment while health and the approbation of the Church continue. Should health and strength give way, he should turn to other duties. Should he find he was mistaken in his calling, should he find his services were not needed, better dig coal in the mine or break stone in

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the road than stand in the pulpit uncalled by God and unapproved by the Church. But, being approved and blessed, never turn aside. Let not temptations, dangers, wealth, or fame, allure you from the ministry. I have known men so called to abandon the ministry; and I have never known one to give it up for wealth who did not either become bankrupt, or make a shipwreck of faith before he died. You may be depressed, poverty may stare you in the face, but stand as the beaten anvil to the stroke. Do your duty, and verily you will be fed. God will care for you as long as the raven has wings, and as long as a widow in the land has a handful of meal in the barrel.

Think, too, of the Early Christians, of the noble line of martyrs and their sufferings. Then yours will sink into insignificance. Think how the great Apostle was imprisoned, and scourged many times. I see him gathering his garments around his lacerated shoulders, while he whispered: "None of these things move me." I see him taken to the edge of the city, and stoned. And as his friends raise him up, I hear them say, "Abandon this. They will kill you if you preach." And yet, as soon as his breath returns, he utters: "None of these things move me." I see him drawn out of the water, after having been in it a day and a night, lying on the beach, the water dripping from the long black hair. And his friends say: He will never preach again." But, as his pulse beats feebly, and his strength begins to return, I hear him say: "None of these things move me." And afterwards, when the elders of Miletus came down to meet him, and told him bonds and imprisonments awaited him, I hear him say, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith through the grace of God."

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Bonds and imprisonments did, indeed, await him. He stood before Nero; he was condemned to go out of his dungeon to die. Through Timothy he sends the joyous message: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me." Such a grand hero was the Apostle. Living and dying, one work he did-unmoved, unmovable; and to us he speaks, "Follow me, as I follow Christ."