Isaiah 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction… Though the Gospel first began to be preached by the Lord, yet, as it was expedient that He should go away, He has instituted, and in every age preserved an order of men, for guiding others in the way of faith, of holiness, and of peace. I. A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE ADVANTAGES WHICH MEN DERIVE FROM THIS INSTITUTION. 1. Attend to the thousands who devote themselves to the service of the sanctuary, and whose characters are improved and ennobled by their previous studies. With what diligence and success, prompted by motives of piety and benevolence, do they search for the good way, that they may walk in it themselves, and teach and recommend it to others with advantage! Their gifts ripen and expand; their moral and religious excellences become distinguished. Giving themselves to the Word of God and to prayer, and, in subserviency to these, to inquiries after truth, to meditation, and to the perusal of useful human writings, their good resolutions strengthen; and their knowledge, wisdom, activity, and usefulness increase. 2. Public teachers often refine the taste, improve the genius, civilise the manners, and promote the literary pursuits of a nation. 3. Instructions from the pulpit greatly promote a virtuous behaviour. 4. Attend to the gentle, penetrating, beneficent effects of pastoral instruction, on the sorrowful, the disconsolate, the tempted, the doubting, the feeble-minded, the sick, and the dying. 5. Teachers are profitable as they spread and defend the doctrines of religion, and excite and cherish just sentiments of Divine things. 6. Pastoral instruction is a chief means which God hath appointed to rescue sinners from the ruins of their apostasy, and to interest them in His favour and friendship. II. But, must it not be acknowledged that CONGREGATIONS SOMETIMES DERIVE LITTLE OR NO BENEFIT FROM SERMONS, and that to their teachers much of the blame belongs? 1. Bad men regard the effect of what they preach with cold indifference, except in so far as worldly honour or interest is advanced by their seeming success; and efforts naturally are feeble and ineffectual, where desire is languid. 2. Sometimes a clergyman's behaviour is not visibly influenced by the doctrines and duties of religion. Men of small sagacity discern it, infer his craft and disingenuity, or conclude that they may imitate him without hazard. 3. The natural abilities, extent of knowledge, and persuasive talents, highly important in a teacher of religion, do not always accompany true piety. (J. Erskine, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: |
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