Do
not judge a minister . . .
"Consider
carefully what you hear." Mark 4:24
It is sad to see how many preachers in our days,
make
it their business to enrich men's heads with
high, empty,
airy notions; instead of enriching their souls
with saving
truths.
Fix yourself under that man's ministry, who makes it
his
business, his work to enrich the soul, to win the
soul, and
to build up the soul; not to tickle the ear, or
please the
fancy. This age is full of such light, delirious
souls--who
dislike everything--but what is empty and airy.
Do not judge a minister . .
.
by his voice, nor
by the multitude who follow him, nor
by his affected tone, nor
by his rhetoric and flashes of wit;
but by the holiness,
heavenliness, and spiritualness
of his teaching. Many ministers are like
empty orators,
who have a flood of words--but a drop
of matter.
Some preachers affect rhetorical strains; they seek
abstrusities,
and love to hover and soar aloft in dark and cloudy
expressions,
and so shoot their arrows over their hearers'
heads--instead of
bettering their hearers' hearts. Mirthful things
in a sermon
are only for men to gaze upon and admire. He is
the best
preacher, not who tickles the ear--but who
breaks the heart.
"My message and my preaching
were not with wise and
persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the
Spirit's
power, so that your faith might not rest on men's
wisdom,
but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5
