Chapter Iii. The Enmity Of The Natural Heart Is A Main Cause Of The Lack Of Ministerial Success.
CHAPTER III. THE ENMITY OF THE NATURAL HEART IS A MAIN CAUSE OF THE LACK OF MINISTERIAL SUCCESS.
The office of the Christian Ministry might seem to command a successful result from the work. It is “the Ministry of reconciliation,” where the offended party stoops to make the first overtures of peace, and sends his ambassadors to “plead by them” and implore the rebels “in his stead, ‘Be reconciled to God.’” 347 Such a display of disinterested condescension, infinite humility, and compassionate tenderness, might be expected to give unresisted efficacy to the message. The rich fruits of everlasting love are brought to the door of those who are most deeply interested in it, and whose need of the blessing is inexpressibly great. Such a proclamation of mercy, given to men in guileless ignorance and urgent need, should meet with a ready and universal welcome. But here it meets with a resisting environment. The avenues of approach are barred against its entrance, and its success is limited within comparatively narrow bounds.
By the terms of the commission, the Gospel is “preached to every creature;” 348 but the disproportionate effect reminds us of the solemn and sententious349 declaration—“Many are called, but few chosen.” 350 If indeed we were “as many others, who corrupt the word of God”—if we wanted to lower its requisitions to a worldly standard, or to a corrupt heart, we would “have our reward” (purchased indeed at an infinite cost 351) in the praise of men. But if “we speak in Christ, with sincerity, as from God, in the sight of God” 352 renouncing the hidden things of dishonesty; not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifesting the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God,” 353—we must not wonder that we hear it repeated—“I hate him, for he does not prophecy good concerning me, but evil.” 354 Nor is this opposition confined to the world, so-called. In the professing church—a revulsion against the truth of God as a whole (such as Mr. Scott found manifested in rejecting the practical enforcement of Christian doctrine 355) marks the same principle of resistance. And
82 VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
indeed, ‘whoever pricks the conscience of his hearers closely, without producing repentance, will soon find them either absentees from his ministry, or unwilling listeners, if not open opponents.’ 356 Thus our whole course is a struggle against the mighty current of sin—flowing out of that restless bias of the natural heart, which upon the highest authority is declared to be “enmity against God.” 357
This hindrance, therefore, to the reception of the Gospel must not be placed to the Minister’s account. Ignorance, eccentricity, inconsistency, lack of conciliation and address, will indeed be an occasion to call forth this enmity. A defective exhibition of the spirit of the cross greatly aggravates the offence of the cross. But it must be remembered that the Ministration of the Gospel from an angel’s mouth would stir up the natural principle of degenerate man. What could be conceived more attractive than the combination of dignity, humility, patience, and love that marked the Ministry of the Son of God? Yet it was universally despised and rejected. His doctrine was most offensive to the natural prejudices of the unhumbled heart. His general statements were listened to with the interest of curiosity, and the desire of “hearing some new thing;” but their personal application to the consciences of his hearers—the certain reproach of his cross—the relinquishment of all that was held dear for his service—the prostrate submission required for the reception of his truth—all combined to produce “murmuring among themselves;” the complaint of the intolerable “hardness of his sayings,” and the resolution to abandon their temporary profession.358
The innate opposition existing between the substance and the objects of our Ministry, therefore offers a material impediment to our success. We speak to those, whose attention is already preoccupied, whose affections have long been pre-engaged, and whose “hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” The truth therefore never comes into contact with a sincere and honest heart. Enmity is the concentrated essence of man’s depravity. It is at once the cause and also the effect of that moral or spiritual darkness which shuts out the entrance of light, and offers difficulties to the process of “enlightening the eyes of the understanding,” unconquerable by any force short of heavenly influence. The power that “slays the enmity,” opens the heart to the perception, obedience, and love of the truth, and to a full possession of the inestimable blessings of our office.
THE POWER OF SATAN. 83