Quiet Hints for Growing Preachers by Charles Jefferson

Author:Charles Jefferson
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

#14

Dishonesty

IF an honest man’s the noblest work of God, Satan’s ignoblest masterpiece is a dishonest Christian minister. Nothing so undermines the confidence of laymen in their spiritual leader as the slightest indication in him of double-dealing. No sin is more deadly and degrading to a man of God than insincerity.

“That one error

Fills him with faults;

makes him run through all the sins.”

If a man is crotchety he can be tolerated; if he is prejudiced or ignorant he can be borne with; he may be lacking in a score of qualities which men count desirable and still be a useful and an honored man. But who can endure a minister who cheats or lies? The gospel preached by such a man falls dead and deadening. Prayer on his lips seems blasphemy. A religious service conducted by him exasperates every heart which doubts him. Deplorable is the condition of a church which has in its pulpit an anointed rogue.

Deliberate and cold-blooded liars are not numerous in the pulpit, but there are many men there who lack a fine and scrupulous regard for truth. The ethical sense even in ethical teachers may become strangely blunted, and men of noble gifts and lofty purposes have a curious fashion of doing unexpected and indefensible things. A minister’s environment has a tendency to develop in him whatever germs of un-veracity preceding generations may have bequeathed him. Many things are expected of him and it is human to shrink from disappointing expectations. He is expected to know everybody with whom he has ever shaken hands. To speak a blighting, “No,” to a trustful, smiling individual who innocently asks, “Do you remember me?” seems an act of needless cruelty. The consequence is that there are ministers who remember everybody forever. They read Paul’s exhortation, “Lie not one to another” without wincing. A minister is expected to rejoice with everybody who rejoices and to weep with everybody who weeps, and it is the requirement of his office that he should give expression to these sympathetic feelings. Is it to be wondered at that his language sometimes becomes conventional and that his assertions occasionally have a hollow ring? To be deeply interested in a large number of human beings passing through a wide variety of experiences is possible but not easy, and men of narrow nature in using the broad and throbbing phrases of Christian brotherhood find themselves sometimes saying things which their heart does not follow. Human nature in many individuals is excessively fond of praise. Without it there is a coolness toward the church and preacher. How easy to pour the oil of adulation over the heads of these influential people until it runs down upon the beard even to the skirts of the garments! The habit of giving expression to genuine appreciation and merited commendation is both proper and lovely, but when politic adjectives and appeasing adverbs are scattered with a reckless disregard of truth, the preacher is securing an improvement in church climate at the sacrifice of his soul.

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