The priesthood of Israel is referred to. No greater calamity could happen to a community than this.
I. A calamity to all parties.
1. To the priests. Few things are more painful to man than social contempt. It divests a man of esteem, confidence, and influence.
2. To the community. The highest educational instrumentality in a country is that which religious ministers are appointed to employ. In every way they are to cultivate the spiritual natures of their contemporaries. When they become socially contemptible, they are stripped of all power for this. The hearts of the people recoil from them with disgust.
II. A calamity to which the religious ministry is liable. There are moral elements at work amongst the clergy of all denominations which have a tendency to bring about this lamentable state of things.
1. Ignorance.
2. Greed.
3. Bigotry.
4. Sycophancy.
III. A calamity that is manifestly transpiring in our country. The decrease in the numbers of those who attend churches: the growth of a literature in thorough antagonism to the spirit and aims of Christianity: and the fact that the great bulk of the reading and thinking men of England stand aloof from all churches, plainly show that the pulpit of England is sinking into popular contempt. The ‘ salt” of the pulpit has lost its savour, and it is being trodden under foot with disdain and contempt. (Homilist.)
A minister’s inconsistency
A minister of Christ had been preaching in a country village very earnestly and fervently. In his congregation was s young man who had been deeply impressed with a sense of sin under the sermon. When the service was over, he sought the minister as he went out, in the hope of walking home with him. They walked together till they came to a friend’s house. On the way the minister talked about everything except the subject about which he had been preaching, though he had preached very earnestly, even with tears in his eyes. The young man thought within himself, “O! I wish I could unburden my heart and speak to him; but I cannot. He does not say anything now about what he spoke so fervently in the pulpit.” When they were at supper that evening, the conversation was very far from what it should have been; and the minister indulged in all kinds of jokes and fight sayings. The young man had gone into the house with eyes filled with tears, feeling as a sinner should feel; but as soon as he got outside he stamped his foot on the ground and cried out: “It is a lie from beginning to end! That man has preached like an angel, and now he has talked like a devil! “ Some years after, the young man was taken suddenly ill and sent for that same minister to visit him. The minister did not remember him. “Do you remember preaching at the village of--” said theyoung man. “I do.” “Your sermon was very deeply laid on my heart.” “Thank God for that,” said the minister. “Do not be so quick about thanking God,” said the young man. “Do you know what you talked of that evening, afterwards, when I went to supper with you? Sir, I shall be damned; and I shall charge you, before God’s throne, with being the cause of my damnation. Oh, that night I did feel my sin, but you were the means of scattering all my impressions and driving me into a deeper darkness than I had ever been in before!” Minister of Christ! this is a true narrative. It is a common sin. In how many thousands of cases the testimony of the pulpit has been undone by the after conversation by the way, or at the dinner or supper table, only “the day” will declare! O! the account that we ministers will have to render for the light, frivolous, frothy conversation on such occasions, by which immortal souls have been sent further from God or altogether lost! What eyes have been upon us, secretly taking note of all and receiving from us a deadly influence! What opportunities for God presented and lost by our unwatchfulness and frivolity! Minister of Christ, aim to live out of the pulpit what you have preached in it. If you preach Christ, live Christ. What men hear in the pulpit let them see at the dinner table and the visit. (F. Whitfield.)
Partial in the law.
An evil partiality
Thepossession of the law was the strength and glory of the Jewish priesthood. They had in it a Divine standard of human action, and it was their duty to maintain its authority, and enforce its requirements. Being selfish and corrupt they made their exalted position the means of gratifying their avarice; the vices of the rich were unreproved, the faults of the poor were severely dealt with. They “knew faces” (Hebrews). They were misrepresenting the character of God, bringing the law of God into contempt, and ruining the nation.
I. There may be partiality in the law on the part of those who administer it to the people. All righteous law is Divine. The principles of the decalogue underlie all just legislation. Administrators of righteous laws should feel that they are revealing and enforcing Divine, universal, and eternal realities. There should be no respect of persons. Partiality leads to--
1. Loss of confidence in constituted authorities.
2. Rebellion and anarchy.
3. The increase of crime.
Every Christian minister has to bring God’s law into contact with public vices and personal sins. This must be done fearlessly, faithfully, firmly, and impartially. He must not adapt it to men’s humours. He must not modify it to hinder its application to offenders of any social grade. He must present it as God’s unalterable standard, not his own. If he is “partial in the law”--
(1) He will confirm men in their sins.
(2) He will deceive and mislead them.
(3) He will be accounted responsible for their destruction.
(4) He will at last be rejected by God, and condemned by the people.
II. There may be partiality in the law in the estimates of men in social circles. The world is a court of justice. Society is always testing reputations and giving judgments. Men are oftener governed by prejudice than b; the desire to judge righteously. Society often applies God’s law according to its prejudices. Sometimes our application of the law is partial.
1. Because the person judged is, or is not, of the same religious persuasion as ourselves:
2. Because it is our interest either to hide or expose his faults.
3. Because we are already prejudiced favourably or otherwise towards him.
4. Because of his elevated or degraded social condition. This partiality leads to erroneous impressions, misrepresentations, unjust actions, and bitter feelings.
III. There may be partiality in the law in its application to ourselves. Men deal tenderly with their own sins. They hold the mirror of the law so as not to reveal them. They are willing to apply those commandments that do not condemn their particular vices. Faithful application of the law is seldom made. This is the cause of much ignorance of ourselves, much vanity and self-conceit, much folly and self-deception, much cherishing of sin, and persistence in it. By an impartial application of the law our sins are discovered, and we are led to Christ that they may be taken away. (W. Osborne Lilley.)
