The Pastor: His Qualifications and DutiesHarvey, H. (Hezekiah)
Religion
The Pastor: His Qualifications and Duties
Harvey, H. (Hezekiah)
Pastoral theology
5. Some of the most eminent evangelists have used substantially the
same subjects through their entire career, at each repetition of them
adding to their clearness and force of argument vividness of
illustration and effectiveness of appeal. Rev. Jacob Knapp, whose work
has perhaps been surpassed in extent and power by no preacher of the
present century, adopted this method. The writer was with him in three
series of meetings, the first near the opening of his remarkable
career, the last about thirty years after, near its close, and in each
of these that distinguished revivalist used, for the most part, the
same subjects. But the advance in all elements of power was immense,
especially in the last repetition of his course. Few persons in the
vast multitude which gathered daily for six successive weeks to listen
to this, which proved the closing series of his life, can ever forget
the compactness and force of his reasoning, the graphic power of his
illustration, and the wonderful effectiveness in his application of
truth to the conscience and the heart. He had gathered into that series
of seventy-five or one hundred sermons the richest results of his
life-thinking and experience and had made most of them marvels of
power. This concentration of the whole force of the man on a few
sermons gives the evangelist great advantage in the pulpit and would
seem to be the dictate of true wisdom.
6. In his personal religious life the evangelist, while possessing
great helps, has a possible danger on the side of spiritual pride.
Moving constantly in the midst of revivals, he is liable to forget that
for the most part he is simply reaping where other men have sown, and
that conversion is but the culminating point in a long series of
influences of which his was only the last; and in the grateful
affection of revived Christians and of converted souls, which sometimes
rises to spiritual adulation, he may fail in that genuine humility
which recognizes all spiritual effects as the work of the Holy Spirit,
and may unconsciously assume an air of spiritual superiority painfully
in contrast with his obvious weaknesses. Power with God is thus lost,
and with it, power with men.
There is no ministerial office of higher responsibility or greater
usefulness than that of the evangelist. It has been filled by some of
the noblest and ablest men in the church of God--men "full of the Holy
Ghost and of faith," whose names are fragrant in the memories of
multitudes as heralds of salvation. Ordinarily, only experienced men
should enter it; for it requires a purity and strength of character, a
soundness of judgment, and a largeness of faith and patience, of
practical wisdom and knowledge of men, such as extended experience only
will give.
SECOND, TEACHERS.
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