A Good Suggestion

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 10, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 36.

A Good Suggestion.

The Advance of September 3 mentions that in a week more the majority of pastors will again be in their pulpits after their summer vacation, and in beginning their year's work it offers the suggestion “that the ministry should hold close to its special mission.” It thus continues:—

“There is no time for a scatteration of strength. There are many subjects which are interesting, but they are not profitable to the pulpit or the church in a time like this. The strong hold of the ministry on human nature is to be found in its distinctly religious element. Upon this element the minister must work. In the discussion of social, economic, and political themes, he has many rivals, often superiors. But as a religious teacher, bringing the great truths of repentance and forgiveness to the sinful, and the reality of the divine government and of spiritual life to the worldly, he has no rival. Here he has a mission with which the world can not dispense, a calling which makes his work of infinite importance to his people.”

The suggestion is a good one, but there should have been no need of its being given. “Preach the Gospel,” “preach the Word,” are the orders of God. Every pulpit ought to know it, and the religious press too. The work of the minister of the Gospel is the greatest work ever committed to man; and faith will not leave it for a lesser work. Politics have no place in the work of the ministry.