Isaiah 24:2

And it shall be, as with the people, go with the priest

The mutual assimilation of minister and people

The minister makes the people and the people make the minister.

I. THE MINISTER’S INFLUENCE.

1. As a preacher and teacher--upon the conceptions of truth and duty, the understanding of the Word of God, and the practical conduct of the people.

2. As a man, in his own example and life.

3. As a pastor, in his pastoral intercourse with his flock.

4. As a public leader of reforms, etc.

II. THE PEOPLE’S INFLUENCE.

1. In getting him audience. Giving him their own ears and attention and gathering in others.

2. In making him eloquent. Gladstone says, “Eloquence is pouring back on an audience in a shower what is first received from the audience in vapour.”

3. In making him spiritual. They can encourage him to spiritual growth and culture; to earnest and edifying preaching. They can pray for him and help him to feel that they want and wish only spiritual food.

4. In making him a power for good. Aristotle says, “Truth is what a thing is in itself, in its relations and in the medium through which it is viewed.” Goethe says, “Before we complain of the writing as obscure we must first examine if all be clear within.” In the twilight a very plain manuscript is illegible. So the attitude of a hearer largely limits the power of a preacher; the cooperation of a Church member may indefinitely increase the effectiveness of a pastor’s work. (Homiletic Review.)

Preachers affected by their congregations

A few years ago, after a minister had been preaching in a Wesleyan chapel not far from my house, one of the older officials of the circuit began to talk to him of the glories of a past generation, and said with some fervour, “Ah, sir, there were great preachers in those days.” “Yes,” was the reply of the minister, “and there were great hearers in those days.” The answer was a wise and just one. If preachers form and discipline their congregations, it is equally true that congregations form and discipline their preachers. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

As with the buyer, so with the seller

Buying and selling

Buying and selling are of very ancient date. The earliest instance we read of occurs in the history of Abraham. The purchase made was a burying place; and is connected with the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Various nations and states have distinguished themselves at different times by their trade and commerce. In ancient times we may enumerate Arabia, Egypt, and especially Tyre--the crowning city where “merchants were princes--where traffickers were the honourable of the earth.” In more moderntimes we may mention Greece, Rome, Venice, the Hanse, Spain, Portugal, and above all Great Britain. Well might Napoleon Buonaparte call us a nation of shopkeepers. (R. W. Overbury.)

The relative duties of buyers and sellers

I. POINT OUT SOME OF THE EVILS BY WHICH THE RELATION BETWEEN BUYER AND SELLER IS VIOLATED. This relation is violated by every violation of those two important principles that lie at the foundation of all society--justice and truth. Justice consists in giving everyone his due; and truth or veracity in keeping our engagements, and avoiding lying and dissimulation. These principles and the relative duties arising out of them are violated--

1. By the practice of any and every kind of fraud in the transaction of business.

2. By the contracting of debts without any reasonable prospect of being able to pay them.

(1) But what is an individual to do who in the course of regular business finds himself, through the fluctuation to which every branch of trade is liable, insolvent at the end of the year? If he be a man of an honourable character and standing in trade, he will not want friends who are willing to lend him a sufficient sum to extricate him from his present difficulties, and to enable him to make a fresh trial under the blessing of God to succeed in that line of business which he has hitherto followed. But if, after having renewed the attempt, Divine providence does not see fit to succeed his endeavours, then from a false shame of appearing what he is in worldly circumstances before his fellow men, to keep on in business till he involve many others in ruin is most unjustifiable.

(2) Further, if an individual who has failed in another’s debt, should at any future time possess the means of paying his debts, we hold it that justice requires that he should so pay them.

3. Another way in which the relation between buyers and sellers is violated is, by making ourselves responsible for the debts of others, when we are not in possession of sufficient capital to warrant it.

4. By the very prevalent practice of underselling. Where does the injury fall? First, upon the poor operatives, who labour day and night by the sweat of their brow, to furnish conveniences and luxuries for the higher ranks of society, whilst their labour is remunerated at a price that hardly keeps them and their families from starving. The other party upon whom the injury falls is other tradesmen in the same line, who, shrinking from the use of such unscrupulous and oppressive means of realising large profits, lose either a part or the whole of their custom.

II. SHOW THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT.

1. In a secular view. The permanent prosperity of our trade, and consequently the temporal welfare of society depend upon the principles which pervade our business transactions. Every deviation from right principles inflicts injury somewhere, and in proportion to the extent of that deviation contributes to augment the sum of national distress. Nations, as such, are punished in this life--individuals hereafter. An invisible Being, too little recognised in the marts of trade, presides over our national affairs, and distributes or withholds national blessings in proportion as the principles of eternal truth and justice are practically acknowledged.

2. In a religious view. It has been well said, that “a Christian is the highest style of man.”

(1) A man who cares not by what means he obtains money, provided he succeeds in making a fortune, cannot be a Christian. The character and doom of such are too plainly written in Scripture to be mistaken for a single moment.

(2) We do not, perhaps, sufficiently reflect that the predominance of the love of gain is equally incompatible with true piety; although a feeling of justice and benevolence, joined with self-respect, may lead us to abhor and reject all that is dishonourable in business.

(3) Nor must we omit to observe, that whilst the habitual predominance of a worldly spirit is incompatible with personal piety, the too great prevalence of it is highly injurious. It either lifts a man up with vanity and pride, or it depresses him with anxiety and care; both of which unfit him for the service of God. In proportion as the spirit of the world prevails over the people of God, it stints their piety and usefulness, and counteracts the end for which they are constituted “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,”--“that ye should show forth the praises of Him, who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” (R. W. Overbury.)