Preparation for the Work -- By: F. A. Cox

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 101:402 (Apr 1944)
Article: Preparation for the Work
Author: F. A. Cox


Preparation for the Work

F. A. Cox

1

The Christian ministry was with the apostles an all-absorbing passion. To the accomplishment of its great objects every faculty was devoted. They realized it as a high and holy vocation to which they were called of God,-a work of toil and difficulty, but of heavenly charity to which they willingly devoted health, energy and life. They deemed, and justly deemed, it to be an enterprise of such moment as to demand a peculiar consecration of spirit; involving, as they perceived, results which everlasting ages only could disclose.-Engrossed with this mighty project of winning souls to Christ, everything else sunk from view and was lost to consideration. Nothing which had relation merely to this life could awaken more than a transient emotion-it could excite no permanent interest. The transactions of this world, which ordinarily occupy so much attention, were but as bubbles on the stream of thought, breaking on the surface, and incapable of interrupting its flow. For this great cause-this only great cause, in their estimation, they lived, labored and died. In the promotion of it they had one purpose: so to discharge its duties, so to elucidate its spirit, so to accomplish its great intention-to labor in it with such a self-annihilating ardor, as to be ”accepted” of their Lord and Master. This being effected, everything else became at once indifferent;-their outward condition, their personal sufferings, their existence “in the body” or out of it,-whether they lived a few years or many, in joy or sorrow, in honor or reproach,-whether they lived in this world or in another, they had one object-

“wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Cor 5:9).

A proper estimate of the ministerial office will show that, in order to the effective discharge of its duties, every faculty with which man is endowed, and every holy principle which qualifies for the sacred function, must be early and assiduously cultivated. The intellect and the heart will find ample scope for exercise in a work which is conversant with the highest sublimities of truth, and contemplates the elevation of a world from its fallen state to the dignity of restoration to God, the sanctity of true religion, and the bliss of heaven.

The two classes of qualifications for the Christian ministry, the mental and the moral, have been frequently regarded, not only as distinct but incompatible. Some have insisted upon a right state of heart, as the exclusive requisite; and have pleaded, in support of their opinion, the illitera...

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