Let life be your commission, your well-spring and treasury on
all such occasions; else, you well know, there can be no begetting to
God: since nothing can quicken or make people alive to God, but the life
of God; and it must be a ministry in and from life, that enlivens any
people to God. We have seen the fruit of all other ministries, by the
few that are turned from the evil of their ways. It is not our parts, or
memory, the repetition of former openings, in our own will and time, that
will do God's work. A dry doctrinal ministry, however sound in words,
can reach but the ears, and is but a dream at the best. There is another
soundness that is soundest of all, viz. Christ the power of God. This is
the key of David, that opens, and none shuts; and shuts and none can
open: as the oil to the lamp, and the soul to the body, so is that to the
best of words: which made Christ to say, "My words, they are Spirit, and
they are life;" that is, they are from life, and therefore they make you
alive, that receive them. If the disciples that had lived with Jesus,
were to stay at Jerusalem till they received it; much more must we wait
to receive before we minister, if we will turn people from darkness to
light, and from satan's power to God.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94