Malachi 2:9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways… A minister of Christ had been preaching in a country village very earnestly and fervently. In his congregation was s young man who had been deeply impressed with a sense of sin under the sermon. When the service was over, he sought the minister as he went out, in the hope of walking home with him. They walked together till they came to a friend's house. On the way the minister talked about everything except the subject about which he had been preaching, though he had preached very earnestly, even with tears in his eyes. The young man thought within himself, "O! I wish I could unburden my heart and speak to him; but I cannot. He does not say anything now about what he spoke so fervently in the pulpit." When they were at supper that evening, the conversation was very far from what it should have been; and the minister indulged in all kinds of jokes and fight sayings. The young man had gone into the house with eyes filled with tears, feeling as a sinner should feel; but as soon as he got outside he stamped his foot on the ground and cried out: "It is a lie from beginning to end! That man has preached like an angel, and now he has talked like a devil! " Some years after, the young man was taken suddenly ill and sent for that same minister to visit him. The minister did not remember him. "Do you remember preaching at the village of —" said the young man. "I do." "Your sermon was very deeply laid on my heart." "Thank God for that," said the minister. "Do not be so quick about thanking God," said the young man. "Do you know what you talked of that evening, afterwards, when I went to supper with you? Sir, I shall be damned; and I shall charge you, before God's throne, with being the cause of my damnation. Oh, that night I did feel my sin, but you were the means of scattering all my impressions and driving me into a deeper darkness than I had ever been in before!" Minister of Christ! this is a true narrative. It is a common sin. In how many thousands of cases the testimony of the pulpit has been undone by the after conversation by the way, or at the dinner or supper table, only "the day" will declare! O! the account that we ministers will have to render for the light, frivolous, frothy conversation on such occasions, by which immortal souls have been sent further from God or altogether lost! What eyes have been upon us, secretly taking note of all and receiving from us a deadly influence! What opportunities for God presented and lost by our unwatchfulness and frivolity! Minister of Christ, aim to live out of the pulpit what you have preached in it. If you preach Christ, live Christ. What men hear in the pulpit let them see at the dinner table and the visit. (F. Whitfield.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. |
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