More from Wayland

Here is another quote from Frnacis Wayland in his book Letters on the Ministry of the Gospel. This quote comes from a letter entitled, "Is the Ministry a Profession?" As some of thecomments on the last post ntoed this is like a prequel to Piper's Brothers We Are Not Professionals. May we heed this biblical exhortation!

"The minister is an agent [of] Almighty God. He is appointed of God to perform a special service, and to God he is responsible. He may preach so as to please his congregation; they may pay him punctually and liberally; they may applaud his efforts, and be proud of his talents, while both he and they, in this very thing, are odious in the sight of God; and he, especially, who has undertaken the cure of their souls, may be fixing upon himself the doom of the unprofitable servant. God has sent him to deliver his message to this people; has he delivered it? He may have all the while been delivering something else, or he may have delivered something like it, but so modified to please his hearers, or gain for himself a reputation, that God never acknowledges it as his communication to sinful men. The command of the Master is, that he preach the preaching which the Spirit gives him, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear; and if he do not obey the command, however much men may applaud, he can expect nothing but the frown of an offended God." (p. 40-41)