I. Two views may be taken of the minister of Christ as regards his personal condition in his work; and two totally different systems pursued, according as one or other of these views prevails. He may be regarded as a solitary being, who has abjured the world and its lies, and is simply and entirely bound to the office which he bears. He may be trained in strict self-denying discipline, and thus sent forth on his lonesome toil. It may be urged on the other side, that, fitted as the solitary minister may be, and has been proved, for certain portions of the work of the Church, he is by no means so fitted for her ordinary and normal requirements. The strength of a body of solitary men is rather theological and ecclesiastical than pastoral; and the ordinary work of the Church is undoubtedly pastoral. It is in the bosom of the family, in the unwitnessed growth of thoughts and habits of faith and purity and love; in the silent progress of enlightenment and confidence and kindly feeling, that the real advance of our holy religion is to be seen in the world.
II. Whenever this has been forgotten by the Church, consequences disastrous to religion have ensued. We cannot, therefore, too carefully recall to our minds the proper work and province of our most holy faith: that it is, not to propagate a system, not to disseminate a science, not to produce a uniformity of profession, but to change men's lives; to persuade men, by the agency of our exalted Saviour and Head, who is ever with us and helping us by His Spirit, of certain living facts which, if received by them, must bring about purity and holiness and love the reception of which cannot co-exist with a double heart and a hypocritical life. And to such an end who are the labourers? Not, in the main, the lonely student, standing aloof from society, identified in interest with an artificial organisation with which society has no sympathy. The minister of Christ who is to work on society should be himself a part of society, should stand in, and be a leader of, the same conflict in which all Christian society is engaged; whose influence will be not only precept personally illustrated, not only example in his family, but also which is a most important element in the matter will be extended and continued by the fact that he himself mingles in among the laity, those who have been born and fostered under his roof, and in the light of his Christian character.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. vii., p. 260.
References: Luke 10:9. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 225; F. Cooke, Church of England Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 15.Luke 9:13-16. W. Wilson, Christ setting His Face to go to Jerusalem,p. 112.Luke 10:17-20. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. xiv., p. 241; W. Wilson, Christ setting His Face to go to Jerusalem,p. 393; R. C. Trench, Studies in the Gospels,p. 246; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 107.