The faithful minister has a present sight of Christ as his Righteousness. He is like John the Baptist. “Seeing Jesus coming unto him, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” Or like Isaiah, he saw “His glory and spake of Him.” His own soul is ever watching at Gethsemane and at Golgotha. Oh, brethren, it is thus only we can ever speak with feeling, or with power, or with truth, of the unsearchable riches of Christ! We must have the taste of the manna in our mouth, “Milk and honey under our tongue,” else we cannot tell of its sweetness. We must be drinking the living water from the smitten Rock, or we cannot speak of its refreshing power. We must be hiding our guilty souls in the wounds of Jesus, or we cannot with joy speak of the peace and rest to be found there. This is the reason why unfaithful ministers are cold and barren in their labors. They speak like Balaam, of a Savior whose grace they do not feel. They speak like Caiaphas, of the blood of Christ, without having felt its power to speak peace to the troubled heart. This is the reason why many good men have a barren ministry. They speak from clear head-knowledge, or from past experience, but not from a present grasp of the truth, not from a present sight of the Lamb of God. Hence their words fall like a shower of snow, fair and beautiful, but cold and freezing.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813 – 1843) Gospel Minister, Church of Scotland
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