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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
grace before he shall speak to the people. With an unction of the Holy
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Spirit upon him, giving him a burden for souls he will not dismiss a
congregation without presenting before them Jesus Christ, the sinner’s
only refuge, making earnest appeals that will reach their hearts. He
should feel that he may never meet these hearers again until the great
day of God.
The Master who has chosen him, who knows the hearts of all
men, will give him tongue and utterance, that he may speak the words
he ought to speak at the right time and with power. And those who
become truly convicted of sin, and charmed with the Way, the Truth,
and the Life, will find sufficient to do without praising and extolling
the ability of the minister. Christ and His love will be exalted above
any human instrument. The man will be lost sight of because Christ
is magnified and is the theme of thought. Many are converted to the
minister who are not really converted to Christ. We marvel at the
stupor that benumbs the spiritual senses. There is a lack of vital power.
Lifeless prayers are offered, and testimonies are borne which fail to
edify or strengthen the hearers. It becomes every minister of Christ to
inquire the cause of this.
Paul writes to his Colossian brethren: “As ye also learned of
Epaphras our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ; who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. [Not an
unsanctified love of the smartness, ability, or oratory of the preacher,
but a love born of the Spirit of God, which His servant represented
in his words and character.] For this cause we also, since the day we
heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might
be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power,
unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto
the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light.”
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Ministers who labor in towns and cities to present the truth should
not feel content, nor that their work is ended, until those who have ac-
cepted the theory of the truth realize indeed the effect of its sanctifying
power and are truly converted to God. God would be better pleased to
have six truly converted to the truth as the result of their labors than to