"Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed." James wrote that line, and we can get much comfort from it. The Apostle who walked with our Lord and sat under His ministry associates himself and the church with the old prophet of a previous dispensation, in human infirmities. Ministers of today are much like ministers of previous days-just as weak, but no weaker; just as good, but no better. Say not the former days were better than these, for thou sayest not wisely-neither say the difficulties were greater. We today contend against the same allurements, same unbelief, "same worldliness, same forgetfulness of God, same tendencies to vanity, self-confidence, levity, moroseness, presumption, discouragement, envy, anger, resentment, duplicity, hardness of heart, uncharitableness," that have been found in all the past. Just as many false brethren, with the perils attendant, just as much care connected with the churches, just as many heart burnings and jealousies. The third chapter of Romans, ninth to the eighteenth verses, contains an indictment of human nature that is just as applicable to humanity today as when it was written. All the culture and education the world furnishes has not altered the carnal mind which is still enmity against God, and it is still true, "they that are in the flesh, and walk after the flesh, cannot please God." And all of these things are insistent in their opposition to godliness and impel the preacher to constant watchfulness and earnest prayer for the supply of the Spirit.
The world and the worldly church are not in love with holiness, with Bible salvation, or with full Gospel preachers. The preacher determined to go with God will find all Hell arranged against him, and in alliance with these worldly preachers, and worldly church-members. The more loyal he is to God, and the more faithful he is to his calling, the more he will be opposed. "Marvel not if the world hate you, it hated me before it hated you," Jesus said to His disciples. "Pick out the officers," is a rule with the devil when assailing the Church. Paul was "in labors more abundant," and as a consequence he was a shining mark for the fiery darts of the wicked one. A messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him that he might not be exalted above measure.
One of the preacher's difficulties lies in his temptation to be critical of his brethren in the ministry. Too often he "damns by faint praise." "It was a good sermon, but -- " If one cannot find something in a brother preacher to appreciate, let him not depreciate. Dr. Quayle says, "Depreciation is a shallow man's gift." "Of all the follies which wise men commit, not one is more folly mad than that view which supposes that by how much some brother minister is praised, by that much one's self is dispraised, or that by how much a brother minister is held in slight esteem, by so much the greater esteem will come to one's self. The facts of experience give the lie to all such meanness as this." He is a small man who depreciates his brother. "We know we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren" applies to preachers as well as laymen, and "love makes one appreciative." "To rejoice in another's success is both worthy a preacher's manliness and a good schooling for the heart." "Appreciation may be acquired, and blessed is the preacher who acquires it."
Another difficulty besetting the preacher is the temptation to boast of his own labors and the results, and it is all the more dangerous because of the numerous examples. There are few John Hatfields in the matter of writing reports. May his tribe increase and God be glorified thereby! We have grown weary of reports that told of "the greatest meeting the city ever saw." "Nothing like it in the remembrance of the oldest member." "The glory rolled and rolled, wave after wave of glory." "The whole country stirred for miles around." We call this temptation a difficulty because it is such a difficult matter for some to overcome it, but grace is free and we are prayerful and hopeful.
While the minister of the Gospel, called of God to preach, is "to speak as one that has authority," let him not play the part of boss. There are political bosses, and financial bosses, and family bosses, but the church boss is worse than all combined. "I am among you as the serving one" was the language and life of Him who left the glory that He had with the Father, to take upon Himself our nature and He should be our Example, and Exemplar. Authority, and especially spiritual authority, has been found to be a dangerous possession, and yet it belongs to the ministry. "Let no man despise thy youth," wrote Paul to a young minister. To another he wrote, "Those things speak, and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee." Popes are not needed anywhere; much less, then, in the Holiness Movement. Clothed with a little brief authority, men strut for their hour, puffed by love of place and the flatteries of place-seeking men and wily women. Paul, hard-headed old logician that he was, saw the danger, and said, "Put not a novice into the ministry, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil." Men who are called good, and are good, have often been puffed up when they ought to have been humbled in the dust. There never comes a time when a minister should fall "to walk softly before the Lord." The man in the pulpit should have convictions of his own, born of study of the Word, guidance of the Spirit, and communion with God, yet he should always be the pastor, the brother, the friend, the counselor, but never the boss.
Another difficulty in the ministry is discouragement, and of all the lean, blue demons Hell ever launched against the ministry, this is one of the meanest. The man of God has a right to look for results, but oftentimes he will find prejudice, ignorance, and indifference, to which are added pleasure-seeking and worldly prosperity, confronting him like a wall of adamant. We say worldly prosperity for the worldling of this hour is prosperity mad, and the great revivals of the past have often been in times of adversity. Men will act as though they cared nothing for these things, church-members will be full of carnality and averse to prayer and fasting, waiting before God in a devotional spirit. Good people around will be disheartened by the indifference and formality and say effort is useless. Then is the time for the preacher to encourage himself in the Lord"; to cry out and shout, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of Zion. While looking at his surroundings, he may be tempted to say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Let him "look up," until he learns "our sufficiency is of God." A valley of dry bones may be soon teeming with Spirit-born men and women, living witnesses to the power of God. Our God is faithful, and the man called to preach will have a measure of success that will make God glad and Heaven rejoice over souls won by the power of the Gospel.
