Self-Caring Ministers
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and sacred things are placed upon a level with the common. God is
dishonored, His cause reproached, and the good work you might have
done had you made God your trust is marred. Had you preserved
the vigor of your powers to put the strength of your brain and entire
being into the important work of God without reserve, you would have
realized a much greater work, and it would have been more perfectly
done.
Your labors have been defective. A master workman engages his
men to do for him a very nice and valuable job which requires study
and much careful thought. As they agree to do the work they know
that, in order to accomplish the task aright, all their faculties need to be
aroused and in the very best condition to put forth their best efforts. But
one man of the company is ruled by perverse appetite. He loves strong
drink. Day after day he gratifies his desire for stimulus, and, while
under the influence of this stimulus, the brain is clouded, the nerves are
weakened, and his hands are unsteady. He continues his labor day after
day and nearly ruins the job entrusted to him. That man forfeits his
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wages and does almost irreparable injury to his employer. Through his
unfaithfulness he losses the confidence of his master as well as of his
fellow workmen. He was entrusted with a great responsibility, and in
accepting that trust he acknowledged that he was competent to do the
work according to the directions given by his employer. But through
his own love of self the appetite was indulged and the consequences
risked.
Your case, Brother R, is similar to this. But the accountability of a
minister of Christ, who is to warn the world of a coming judgment, is
as much more important than that of the common workman as eternal
things are of more consequence than temporal. If the minister of the
gospel yields to his inclination rather than to be guided by duty, if
he indulges self at the expense of spiritual strength, and as the result
moves indiscreetly, souls will rise up in the judgment to condemn
him for his unfaithfulness. The blood of souls will be found on his
garments. It may seem to the unconsecrated minister a small thing to
be fitful, impulsive, and unconsecrated; to build up, and then to tear
down; to dishearten, distress, and discourage the very souls that have
been converted by the truth he has presented. It is a sad thing to lose
the confidence of the very ones whom he has been laboring to save.