attitude, namely toward the people of his congregation. It is defined in II Timothy 4:2, "Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doc trine.” The Amplified New Testament is helpful here, reading, "Keep your sense of urgency.” It is the responsibility of the true minister of Jesus Christ to be constantly on the job, alerting people to the urgent need of living “soberly, righteously and godly” in this generation so that by our example as well as out testimony there might be some “brands snatched from the burning” of cer tain eternal judgment awaiting all who reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour. The work of the minister of Jesus Christ in dealing with his congregation must be accompanied by yet another attitude which he should maintain toward the brethren, namely that of love. Our Lord said, in John 15:12, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.” The true minister of Jesus Christ will always manifest the love of the Lord Jesus Christ toward those with whom he comes in contact, even though he may be obliged to rebuke, exhort and correct those over whom he has spiritual over sight. Then the minister of Jesus Christ has a very definite responsi bility toward the unsaved. His attitude toward them must be of one who preaches the truth. He delivers the glorious gospel message as the only way whereby a person can be saved and have everlasting life. He must preach the message that "He that believeth on Him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). This message is to be proclaimed with all the Holy Spirit’s power to the end that "whosoever will” may be persuaded to come and drink of the water of life. Another attitude which the minister of Jesus Christ must main- r tain is one toward sin itself. This attitude is righteous indignation, a holy anger which will not condone sin in his own life or in the lives of those for whom he has any responsibility. Unfortunately today we have lost to a great degree this attitude toward sin in the human heart and in the world. The decadence evident in so much of the Protestant church today is attributable in large measure to the fact that the holiness of God and the heinousness of sin are no longer proclaimed from the vast majority of Protestant pulpits throughout the land. Before there can ever be a revival in a local church, in a denomination or in the Protestant church as a whole, we as a people must come back to the truths of the Word of God l concerning the nature and outworkings of sin in the human heart. This must begin with those individuals who hold in their hands the inspired Word of God and who are pledged to proclaim its truths from the sacred desk. Being a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ is a deadly serious business. Alas! we have made it a kind of tea party existence. !* May God help all of us who have been ordained to the highest and holiest calling that can ever come to a human being to accept the responsibilities attendant upon this calling and, once again, to proclaim with fearlessness and without favor, "thus saith the Lord.”
A man who travels has a special need, in far off places and away from home, to take his Bible with him. It will be, day after strenuous day, his guide, his solace, his courage and his strength. A Cambridge Bible has behind it a tradition of centuries of craftsmanship. The printing of Bibles is held by Cambridge University to be at once a duty and a privilege, undertaken and maintained with a full sense of responsibility.
AT ALL BOOKSTORES
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DECEMBER, 1963
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