the pastor, in a true and important sense, is entrusted with the care of the souls of his congregation; he is, therefore, under obligation to use his utmost power for their conversion and sanctification, “warning every man and teaching every man,” that he “may present every man perfect in christ jesus” (col. i. 28). paul said to the ephesian elders: “take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the holy ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of god, which he has purchased with his own blood” (acts xx. 28); and in exhorting the people on their part to obey the ministry, he urges as a reason, “for they watch for your souls as they that must give account” (heb. xiii. 17). this responsibility plainly includes: 1. a personal life such that it may constitute a fitting example. the pastor is to be “an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 tim iv. 12). thus, paul ever referred to his own life, not as perfect, but as publicly exemplifying the christian character, saying to the philippians (phil. iv. 9): “those things which ye have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in me, do; and the god of peace shall be with you;” and to the thessalonians (1 thess. ii. 10), “ye are witnesses, and god also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.” a defective, irregular life in the pastor neutralizes the ablest efforts in the pulpit and may become a pre-eminent means of the ruin of souls. 2. wise and faithful dealing with the individual souls of his charge. paul went “from house to house,” from soul to soul: he “ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears,” and he proposes [p. 152] this as an example of ministerial fidelity, requiring the pastor to be “instant in season, out of season.” evidently, he did not regard the work of the minister as done when performed only in the study and the pulpit: it included personal dealing with souls. 3. earnest effort to become an able minister of the new testament. the most solemn urgencies press on the pastor the duty of seeking the highest possible intellectual and pulpit power. the themes he unfolds are the grandest that can engage the thought of man or angel. the end to be secured—the salvation of souls—is the most momentous ever committed to a finite being. god will not hold guiltless the indolent, reckless minister who causes the gospel to be despised and imperils the souls of his people by a careless, unstudied presentation of the message he has entrusted to him. 4. the faithful declaration of the whole counsel of god. he is to show distinctly the threatenings as well as the promises of the gospel, and the danger as well as the hopes set before the soul. no subject is to be avoided because unpopular or distasteful. no personal considerations are to prevent the plain, distinct enunciation of all the words of god. jehovah says to the watchman: “if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will i require at thine hand” (ezek. xxxiii. 8; iii. 17–21).
pastoral responsibility, however, has its limitation. christ does not require of his servants impossible labor; but as they have received their talents, so they are to use them, each “according to his several ability.” if faithful to his trust, the pastor is “unto god a sweet savor of christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish” (2 cor. ii. 15–17), and it is his right to feel he has “delivered his soul” and is “pure from the blood of all men” (acts xx. 26, 27). such was the ministry of paul, a mere man, [p. 153] aided in this only by such divine help as is promised to every other servant of god. it is fidelity, not success, which constitutes the limit of responsibility. success belongs to god. paul plants, apollos waters, but god gives the increase. jeremiah spoke with the earnestness and tenderness of lips inspired, but he was unpopular, and, as men would measure, unsuccessful; nevertheless, his name stands high among the ancient worthies, because in that degenerate age he was faithful to his trust and work. besides, a minister’s power is not measured by the immediate, outward result. the powerful revival in which hundreds are gathered into the church finds its occasion, indeed, in the peculiar gifts of some popular preacher, but its real causes often lie hid in the quiet, patient toil of other men differently gifted. every man has his special adaptation and work—one sows and another reaps—and only in the great harvest at the end of the world will the actual results of each man’s work appear. hence, christ says to every servant of his: “be thou faithful unto death, and i will give thee a crown of life” (rev. ii. 10). fidelity, then, is the limit of responsibility; and the earnest pastor, who, with heartfelt loyalty to christ, has to the extent of his ability and opportunity faithfully fulfilled his calling, may know assuredly that he has the approval of the master, and that awaiting him at the end is the sure reward of the faithful.
