Acts 22:10

Acts 22:10

Choice of Professions the Capabilities of the Christian Ministry.

I. Who can overstate the capabilities of the Christian ministry? I know that preaching may be a very poor thing; a form to the speaker, and therefore a weariness to the hearer. With many sermons are a very byword of dulness. But depend upon it, preaching, however it may fail of its effect, has every possible chance still given to it. The machinery is ready for use; it needs but the hand to move, but the spirit to animate it. There is stillness, there is patience, there is expectation, in many there is desire too, a hungering and thirsting after edification, to which it ought to be a delight to minister, which it is a sin of sins wilfully to disappoint. Let more men of thought and culture, more men of mark and power, above all, more men of purpose and devotion, give themselves to the work, and one who knows something of our town and something of our country congregations may be listened to when he promises that such preaching shall never lack attention, that such preaching shall never lose its labour.

II. Well may the Apostle's question sound in our ears, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Is it indeed so, that any man of vigorous mind or of ample knowledge may at once transfer himself to the ministry? Is nothing wanted but vigour? nothing but a humane care for others? nothing but a disinterested aim and a willingness to forgo ease and honour? Must there not be something yet beyond these things, if a man would make full proof of his ministry? Yes; there is one thing on which if we dwell not it must be because its necessity is obvious: a true faith in God through Christ, a real devotion to Him, and a life cleansed, consecrated by His undwelling Spirit.

C. J. Vaughan, University Sermons,p. 17.

References: Acts 22:16. Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 57. Acts 22:21. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 184.Acts 22:22. E. White, Ibid.,vol. xviii., p. 280. Acts 23:11. J. H. Hitchens, Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 203; W. P. Lockhart, Ibid.,vol. xvi., p. 264; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 43.Acts 23:30. Ibid.,vol. ii., p. 99. Acts 24:5. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvii., No. 1632; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 324.Acts 24:15. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ii., No. 66. Acts 24:16. A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 249; Homiletic Magazine,vol. vii., p. 71.; L. Campbell, Some Aspects of the Christian Ideal,p. 29. Acts 24:24. Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 119. Acts 24:24; Acts 24:25. M. Nicholson, Communion with Heaven,p. 36.