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PART III.

CAUSES OF MINISTERIAL INEFFICIENCY CONNECTED WITH OUR PERSONAL CHARACTER.

PART III.

CAUSES OF MINISTERIAL

INEFFICIENCY CON

NECTED WITH OUR PERSONAL CHARACTER.*

THE writer is well aware of the extreme delicacy, consideration, and tenderness, which the treatment of this part of his subject requires of him. He can, however, truly state, that though for his personal profit he has diligently observed the Ministrations of his brethren, yet the material for remark which will now be detailed, is drawn rather from a painful acquaintance with his own deficiencies and temptations, than from a censorious scrutiny of others: and he trusts that it will be remembered, that there is a wide difference between exposing the defects of his brethren in the pride of self-gratulation, and between observing their failures in connection with a deep searching into his own heart, and for the purpose of bringing all into a condensed view for the common good.

The important influence, favourable or unfavourable, of our personal habits upon the Ministerial work is obvious. The character of the individual must have a prominent part in forming the minister, and therefore the causes that operate in the declension of the Christian life must have a considerable bearing upon this department of the subject. Particulars will now be specified.

* For some valuable papers on this division of our subject the reader is referred to the Christian Observer, 1822.

CHAPTER I.

WANT OF ENTIRE DEVOTEDNESS OF HEART TO THE

CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

THE paragraph (1 Tim. iv. 13-16) condenses in the smallest compass the most important body of appropriate instruction and encouragement to Ministerial devoteduess-" Give thyself wholly to these things that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." This was eminently the spirit of the Apostles-"We will give ourselves unto prayer and to the Ministry of the word,"--a resolution which exhibited the influence of Christian devotedness upon Ministerial success, in an important increase added to the Church.* The great Shepherd, indeed, who gave himself for, gave us to, the flock;† and there is no more responsible thought connected with our work, than the obligation of giving ourselves to our people, so that they shall be led to prize us as a gift from Christ. Oh! that we might be able to tell them-"We belong to Christ, and he has given us to you; we owe our whole selves entirely to you ; we are

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your servants for Jesus' sake;"§ we have given ourselves to the work, and we desire to be in it, as if there was nothing worth living for besides: it shall form our whole pleasure and delight. We will consecrate our whole time, our whole reading, our whole mind and heart to this service.' It will not be pre

Acts vi. 4-7.
Rom. i. 14.

† Comp. Eph. iv. 8–12.
§ 2 Cor. iv. 5.

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