1. Every true minister, then, watches, in the words of the apostle, for
the souls of his people. An ordinary minister's everyday work embraces
many duties and offers many opportunities, but through all his duties and
through all his opportunities there runs this high and distinctive duty
of watching for the souls of his people. A minister may be a great
scholar, he may have taken all sacred learning for his province, he may
be a profound and a scientific theologian, he may be an able church
leader, he may be a universally consulted authority on ecclesiastical
law, he may be a skilful and successful debater in church courts, he may
even be a great pulpit orator, holding thousands entranced by his
impassioned eloquence; but a true successor of the prophets of the Old
Testament and of the apostles of the New Testament he is not, unless he
watches for the souls of men. All these endowments, and all these
occupations, right and necessary as, in their own places, they all
are,--great talents, great learning, great publicity, great
popularity,--all tend, unless they are taken great care of, to lead their
possessors away from all time for, and from all sympathy with, the
watchfulness of the New Testament minister.
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