How fearful the responsibility of those who in any way guide souls! Greater never rested upon an angel of God. Gabriel was never intrusted with a more important work than is committed to the minister of Christ. To affect a soul—a soul whose lifetime may be as the lifetime of God, a soul that is either to rest for eternal ages in the bosom of God, or be lost to all eternity—to affect for good or evil one such soul is a work of stupendous magnitude. And from this responsibility the pastor cannot be released. He cannot throw it upon the one seeking admission to the church; he cannot throw it upon his friends; he cannot throw it upon the church. The servant of Christ is to instruct the applicant with all prudence and patience in relation to the nature of the new birth, the deceitfulness of the human heart, the wiles of Satan, and the great danger of self-deception.
This is his appointed work. Shall the minister of Christ, then, regard as of little moment interests so valuable that they required a divine sacrifice to secure them? Shall he neglect to instruct a being of such exalted character? Shall he trifle with such a priceless soul? What must be the guilt of that man who from considerations of personal ease, or from motives of policy, and under the most frivolous pretexts, neglects these most important duties, and leaves the ignorant and anxious soul all exposed to the imminent peril surrounding it? Nay, what must be the guilt of that man who for the sake of human applause—to gain the reputation of a successful minister—will prematurely introduce men into the church, encourage a false hope, and thus jeopardize souls? What must be his crime and what must be his doom, who thus builds up a reputation on the ruin of lost souls? "Better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the depths of the sea," than that he should continue such unholy work. "It were good for that man had he never been born."—Mr. Fory's Premature Church Membership.