Consecration
In order for a man to be a successful minister, something more
than book knowledge is essential. The laborer for souls needs conse-
cration, integrity, intelligence, industry, energy, and tact. Possessing
these qualifications, no man can be inferior; instead, he will have a
commanding influence for good.
* * * * *
Christ brought His desires and wishes into strict abeyance to His
mission,—the mission that bore the insignia of Heaven. He made
everything subordinate to the work that He came to this world to
accomplish. When in His youth His mother found Him in the school
of the rabbis, and said to Him, “Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us?
behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing,” He answered,—
and His answer is the key-note of His life-work,—“How is it that ye
sought Me? wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?”
[
Luke 2:48, 49
.]
The same devotion, the same consecration, the same subjection
to the claims of the word of God, that were manifest in Christ, must
be seen in His servants. He left His home of security and peace, left
the glory that He had with the Father before the world was, left His
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position upon the throne of the universe, and went forth, a suffering,
tempted man; went forth in solitude, to sow in tears, to water with His
blood the seed of life for a lost world.
His servants in like manner must go forth to sow. When called
to become a sower of the seed of truth, Abraham was bidden, “Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s
house, unto a land that I will show thee.” [
Genesis 12:1
.] “And he
went out, not knowing whither he went,” [
Hebrews 11:8
.] as God’s
lightbearer, to keep His name alive in the earth. He forsook his country,
his home, his relatives, and all the pleasant associations connected
with his earthly life, to become a pilgrim and a stranger.
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