_The office of a bishop._ THE OFFICE OF A BISHOP A GOOD WORK If a man desire the office of a bishop from right principles, he desireth. not a secular dignity--not a good benefice--not a post of honour or profit--not an easy idle life--but he desireth a work; a good work indeed it is: but still it... [ Continue Reading ]
_Likewise must the deacons be grave._ THE IDEAL DEACON I. Deacons should be of noble character (1 Timothy 3:8). 1. They were to be grave--_i.e._, of serious deportment--not sharing in the follies and gaieties of pleasure loving cities like Ephesus, but revered as men living in a higher and purer... [ Continue Reading ]
_Even so must their wives be grave._ THE PASTOR’S WIFE A good example is the pastor’s first ministry, and Paul associates the wife in this ministry, when he wishes the wives to be “grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.” This has been felt to be so important that in certain churches,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Husband of one wife._ A NEGLIGENT FATHER I was once the guest, says Mr. Moody, of a Christian man, whose children were turning out badly. One night a conversation took place about them; and with tears trickling down his cheek he said, “My four eldest sons turned out badly, and I am afraid that the... [ Continue Reading ]
_That thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God._ WHAT THE CHURCH SHOULD BE I. The glorious name of the Church--“The Church of the living God.” 1. It is called the Church. What is a church? It is an assembly; and a Christian Church is an assembly of faithful men;... [ Continue Reading ]
_And without doubt great is the mystery of godliness._ MYSTERY I shall deliver the nature of the thing itself in this definition, viz., that a mystery is truth revealed by God above the power of natural reason to find out or comprehend. 1. That it is a truth. By which we exclude everything from b... [ Continue Reading ]