Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

Avoid the error of those who are continually finding fault with their
congregations because more do not attend. Bring Christ with you, and
preach his truth in the love thereof, and you will never be without a
congregation, if God have any work for you to do in that place.
A preacher of the gospel should have nothing about him which savours
of effeminacy and worldly pomp: he is awfully mistaken who thinks to
prevail on the world to hear him and receive the truth, by conforming
himself to its fashions and manners. Excepting the mere colour of his
clothes, we can scarcely now distinguish a preacher of the gospel,
whether in the establishment of the country, or out of it, from the merest
worldly man. Ruffles, powder, and fribble seem universally to prevail.
Thus the church and the world begin to shake hands, the latter still
retaining its enmity to God. How can those who profess to preach the
doctrine of the cross act in this way? Is not a worldly minded preacher,
in the most peculiar sense, an abomination in the eyes of the Lord?
Let it be well observed that the preacher who conforms to the world in
his clothing is never in his element but when he is frequenting the houses
and tables of the rich and great.
The first preachers, historians, and followers of the doctrines of the
gospel were men eminent for the austerity of their lives, the simplicity of
their manners, and the sanctity of their conduct; they were authorized by
God, and filled with the most precious gifts of his Spirit.
He who makes use of God's gift to feed and strengthen his pride and
vanity will be sure to be stripped of the goods wherein he trusts, and fall
down into the condemnation of the devil.
He is not a seedsman of God who desires to sow by the wayside, and
not on the proper ground; that is, he who loves to preach only to genteel
congregations, to people of sense and fashion, and feels it a pain and a
cross to labour among the poor and the ignorant. The ambition which
leads to spiritual lordship is one great cause of murmurings and