triflers. Do you ever meet with lazy ministers? I have heard of them;
approval of this party, neither must we be silent upon an important
doctrine to avoid offending that clique. What have we to do with
idols, dead or alive? O brethren, if you go in for pleasing everybody,
you have indeed set yourselves a task! The toils of Sisyphus and the
labors of Hercules are nothing to this! We must not flatter men; we
must speak plain words, and words which conscience will approve. If
we please men, we shall displease our Lord; so that success in our
self-imposed task would be fatal to our eternal interests. In trying to
please men, we shall not even succeed in pleasing ourselves. To
please our Lord, though it may seem very difficult, is an easier task
than pleasing men. O steward, have your eye alone upon your
Master!
3. We shall not be found faithful stewards if we are idlers and
triflers. Do you ever meet with lazy ministers? I have heard of them;
but when mine eye sees them, my heart abhors them. If you plan to
be lazy, there are plenty of avocations in which you will not be
wanted; but, above all, you are not wanted in the Christian ministry.
The man who finds the ministry an easy life will also find that it will
bring a hard death. If we are not laborers, we are not true stewards;
for we are to be examples of diligence to the King's household. I like
Adam Clarke's precept: "Kill yourselves with work, and then pray
yourselves alive again." We shall never do our duty either to God or
man if we are sluggards.
Yet some, who are always busy, may still be unfaithful, if all that
they do is done in a jaunty, trifling manner. If we play at preaching,
we have chosen an awful game. To shuffle texts like cards, and make
literary essays out of themes which move all Heaven and Hell, is
shameful. We must be serious as death in this solemn work. There
are boys and girls who are always giggling, but who never laugh; and
they are the very image of certain ever-jesting preachers. I like an
honest laugh; true humor can be sanctified, and those who can stir
men to smile can also move them to weep. But even this power has
limits which the foolish soon exceed. It is not, however, of the
earnest eccentric that I now speak. The men I mean are sardonic and
sarcastic. An earnest brother makes a mistake in grammar, and this
they observe with a sneer; another devout believer errs in a classical
allusion, this also affords them pleasure. The earnestness and the
devotion go for nothing; or, rather, these are the secret reasons for
the contempt of these superfine and superficial critics. The gospel is
nothing to them; cleverness is their idol. As for themselves, these
gentlemen are mainly concerned to find out what will bring them
most honor in the philosophical school to which they belong. They
have neither convictions nor beliefs, but only tastes and opinions,
and the whole matter is a sport from first to last. I pray you, above all
things, to keep clear of the scorner's chair and the trifler's camp-
stool. Be seriously in earnest. Live like men who have something to
live for; and preach like men to whom preaching is the highest
exercise of their being. Our work is the most important under