"Born of the Spirit;" or, Gems from the Book of Life. Zenas Osborne

to smoke in.

      It is time we had an anti-tobacco reform in the Presbyterian, the Baptist, and the Congregational churches.”

      Thank God there is one church, the FREE METHODIST, that has a pure ministry. They are not defiled by “narcotics.” None are received into the Free Methodist Church that use tobacco in any way, in the ministry or laity.

V.

       A Call to the Ministry.

       Table of Contents

      The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is a system of instruction. It contemplates the instruction of the ignorant until the whole world shall be enlightened; until the knowledge of Christ shall cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea. It makes provision for having this instruction perpetuated. God provides for every department of this stupendous work of bringing this wicked world back from her revolt to Christ and God. To this end the ministry were appointed. Under the old dispensation God appointed men to preach and teach. They were termed prophets. They spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. Enoch was a preacher. He taught the doctrine of a general judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and a just retribution for our conduct in this life.

      He taught the duty of repentance of all wrong deeds. He enforced his preaching by a godly life. “He walked with God!” “God spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness.” In these far off ages they were blessed with teachers. Abraham was a preacher of righteousness in his day. Other patriarchs said of him: “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” Samuel, Elijah and Elisha were of that number that taught the people.

      The Christian dispensation had in its very beginning teachers appointed directly by divine authority. Take one text among many: Eph. 4:11-13. “And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

      Again: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

      God has ordained that by a holy ministry the Gospel shall be preached, and the world brought back to Christ. Thus far the call to the ministry has been stated by way of preface. God makes choice of His own laborers for this, the grandest of all positions in this life, preaching the Gospel. We cannot take this responsibility upon ourselves, if we do we are simply hirelings, as is the case, we fear, with too many that occupy the sacred desk.

      Many, I have no doubt, have been called to the pulpit by their parents. They have looked upon the ministry as an exalted and an honorable position, and have entertained an all-absorbing desire that their boy should preach the Gospel. They may have been pious and devout people, but have made a very common mistake of supposing their desire to be the voice of the Spirit calling their boy to the ministry. In order to meet the obligations of the ministry, what God requires, and what the people demand, the call to this high and holy position must come from God. In these days of compromise and corruption there are too many pulpits, instead of being a light-house erected upon a dangerous coast, to warn the mariner of their imminent danger, giving an uncertain sound.

      God’s ministers have all been called into the ministry. They have not taken it upon themselves. It has come to them like an awful night-mare in the still hours of the night; when about their daily cares; sleeping or waking; journeying by land or sea; among friends or foes; whether suffering from poverty or abounding in wealth; woe is me if I preach not the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This will look like a stupendous job, almost like an insurmountable task to the person truly called of God to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. At the same time they will feel, O, how poorly qualified I am for such an undertaking. And the more they look at themselves the greater the burden seems to grow. To be an embassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen of Him, commissioned to treat with a rebel government, those in open rebellion to His divine majesty, is higher honor than was ever bestowed upon any other mortal. The crowned heads of this world might well envy the very smallest man or woman that wears the royal diadem that Christ puts on the brow of His servants. To me, there was always a sacredness connected with the ministry of Christ. From my earliest recollection I have looked upon the minister of God as occupying the very highest position and receiving the highest honor awarded to any of earth’s subjects; and how men thus called, can come down from so high and holy a calling to mingling in the rottenness of the day, is a profound mystery to me, and how men can consent to be put in a semi-nude state, cable-towed, hoodwinked, and then take upon themselves obligations too horrible for humanity, and by those professedly called to be a minister of Christ, to me is certainly incomprehensible.

      The Master says, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” When God calls a man to preach it embraces all there is of the individual, with all possible development: mental, moral and physical; so that the man of God will improve every chance of doing good and of getting good, including hard study for the development of the mind; practicing the laws of health for the development of our being for greater efficiency in the Master’s service.

      The word of the Lord is: “Study to show thyself approved unto God.” Success comes on this line of action. I believe that the minister should study and write as though the whole thing depended on this for success; and then he should pray as though everything depended on prayer; and when he gets into the pulpit he should trust alone in God the Holy Ghost as though entire success depended on help from above. On this line the stream of salvation will flow into the pulpit and into the pew, and the results will be the salvation of precious souls and the sanctifying of believers. Glory to God. Amen.

      We are to glorify Him with our physical powers, as these belong to Him. Hence, we will carefully study ourselves, the laws that govern our own being, eat and drink, labor and rest so as to produce the greatest development for His glory.

      The mission of the minister of Christ is of the utmost importance, because it has to do with those that must live forever with God and angels and the redeemed of earth in the world that is to come, or with those that reject Christ and everything that is good, and together are cast out into outer darkness, where the flames of their torment will ascend up for ever and ever. And then to think that a single word, or look, may change the destiny of a soul! Well might the apostle exclaim, “And who is sufficient for these things?” The Gospel must be proclaimed with great tenderness of spirit, and in deep love for the souls of those that are in their sins; love that is all aflame for the perishing. A minister should keep as near the head of the church as possible. He should pattern after the Master in simplicity, in naturalness, in literalness, in appropriateness and in holiness. As He is in the world, so are we, so clean and pure; morally speaking, the minister should be transparent—Christ shining out in all his ways—looking, speaking, doing the right thing at the right time and in the right manner. Speaking as one that must give an account in that day for words uttered. Looking like one that has been with Christ and learned of Him. How often a word from the man of God has been like the pouring of oil on the troubled sea. A man called to minister in holy things must remember that he is a peacemaker. In almost every place there is a marvelous chance to stir up strife. This must be avoided. “Study to show thyself approved,” says the apostle. Appropriateness is an essential element in the minister of God. A congregation of idiots could not appreciate a discourse on moral philosophy. Neither would a mass of unsaved men and women enjoy a sermon on entire holiness!

      Much labor has been lost, and the work greatly retarded, because of unwise action. Words, style, or the manner in which it has been presented, has been so presented, that opposition has been aroused, and the work of soul-saving has been greatly hindered, if not entirely destroyed.

      A great many have been driven from the penitents’ altar because of unkind treatment at the altar. They were sinners, to be sure, and came to the altar as such; and in their great distress of mind, before God had a chance to do much for them, some unwise person would, in commanding tones, ask them to pull off their feathers, gold, or something attached to their person. This would have been proper at the right time, but the