"The Priests thereof teach for hire." EXPERIENCING much hindrance in seeking to bring sinners to Jesus, from their constantly imagining I must be doing so because I am "paid for it," and being reproached for "preaching for money" (which truly is to be seen on all sides in these last evil days), I have been led to consider the mischief done to the truth and to souls, through professing Christian teachers making a gain of the gospel of God,* and "preaching for money;" and I ask you, dear Christian reader, what do you think of this business-like and venal system of "a hireling ministry," which practically denies the words of the Lord Jesus, (“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, for your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things"? See also Matt. x. 8, "Freely ye have received, freely give;" and Luke xxii. 35, "When I sent you out without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? and they said, Nothing." Observe, having reminded them of this, He next tries their faith, which fails after all,(verses 36-38;) which distrusts God, which brings a reproach on Christianity itself, destroys testimony, and is a constant scoff to the ungodly; and not only so, but brings reproach on, and weakens the testimony of, even + Matt. vi. 32, 33. * 2 Cor. xii. 17, 18. those who from love to Jesus and to souls, and without reward save from God, seek to save perishing sinners from hell and Satan, and to win them for Jesus and heaven? Alas! how blunted hereby is the edge of "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;" how dull and cold sounds the Gospel in the ears of those who know it is gain to the preacher, and who feel, if they do not express, "Oh, what else would he say? he is paid for it, and must earn his money;" and I put it to the labouring brethren themselves, do they not often feel that somehow they are in a false position with regard to this matter? Gehazi was smitten by the Lord with leprosy because he interrupted the flowing out of blessing from God, free, unbought, to the seeking Gentile; making it appear as though the God of Israel was not a God of grace; a God who spurned man's wretched notion that His servant should be paid by man for any blessing he dispensed him from God; and this, too, in a Dispensation when earthly riches were His people's heritage and reward. The Lord also bitterly upbraids apostate Israel, because "The heads thereof judge for reward, AND THE PRIESTS THEREOF TEACH FOR HIRE, and the prophets thereof divine for money, YET will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us; none evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem (His own loved dwelling place) shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house (of the Lord) as the high places of the forest."+ Is there anything resembling this to be seen now? He says again, “Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought; neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought; I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand."* Can God speak plainer? Can he shew his mind more clearly? And what do we see everywhere now, in the Heavenly Dispensation, when His "kingdom is not of this world,”† when His people "walk by faith, not by sight?" The socalled "stewards of the mysteries of God," the teachers, and pattern-Christians, (as they are considered) scrambling and striving for “filthy lucre," and "hire for teaching,” through all possible means and appliances; patronage, ungodly men, government, &c., "having men's persons in admiration, because of advantage;"§ every one of them paid to dispense the Gospel of Christ, every one of them "teaching for hire," just as if the living God had never said these words! and so besotted are our minds, and so accustomed to it are all, that hardly any one dreams of its being hateful to God; and the poor unconverted lost world looks on, and sees in the very teachers and pattern-Christians nothing superior to itself or its ways; (I speak not of scandalous doings, which call down even the world's scorn and cry of shame, such, for instance, as the lately found out monetary transactions among the Bishops, (patterns of the patterns!) and the amassing of hundreds of thousands of pounds by merchants in spiritual things)—sees nothing above itself, out of it, beyond it, or independant of it; but beholds one man put to business that he may gain a living; and another man "put into the priests' office that he may eat a piece of bread,”|| and gain "a Living," if he can; one man paid for pleading in a gown at the bar for a criminal, and another paid * Mal. i. 10. + John xviii. 36. 2 Cor. v. 7. 1 Samuel ii. 36. for pleading in a gown at a church for God; one man's "profession" that of a hired, duly legalised manslayer, and another's" profession" that of a hired, duly legalised preacher; one man's money made by farming land, and another's money made by farming souls; much the lighter, genteeler, and more money-making business of the two. Now mark, it is not the world that "Plays such tricks before high Heaven," it is the professing Church, in which are many of the people of God acting, consenting unto, and helping forward this fearful "deceivableness of unrighteousness." Oh, how will the poor deceived, untaught world rise up in judgment against the men of this generation! Under the Law, when God designed to appoint a man to teach and exhort His people, He sent him into the wilderness; and there, living by faith, in trial and lonely converse with God, he was trained and fitted for his work: God "hid him in the shadow of His hand,"* and having made him "6 a polished shaft," He launched him forth, "mighty through God," to rebuke sinners and to "build up" saints; and we know with what power and what blessing, for "Thus saith the Lord," was his sole direction, and his sole authority. From 1 Cor. iv., and 2 Cor. xii., we may form some idea of His mode of training His ministers in the New Dispensation; but we now see man taking on himself to train and appoint his fellowman for God's work; they "heap to themselves teachers,"‡ as the Spirit expressly predicted they would; and such need not be "taught of God,"§ but must be taught of man; *Is. xlix. 2. +1 Kings xvii., xviii., xix.; 2 Kings ii., &c.; Luke i. 80; Matt. iii., &c. John vi. 45. 2 Tim. iv. 3. their necessary qualifications consisting in studying many Heathen authors, certain books of contradictory human opinions, termed "Theology," hearing lectures of men, &c., and answering questions (chiefly historical ones) from the Scriptures (which are not altogether left out of their studies); and thus are they fitted to be "priests unto God." And next (in most cases), because the Lord Jesus breathed on His Apostles and imparted to them the Holy Ghost, and also deputed to them (being those whom He had taught, trained, and destined for founders of His Church) power to forgive and retain sins, and appoint Elders and Overseers; now, even when the Dispensation (like all former ones) has utterly failed, and the Church is broken into sects and fragments, and even mixed up with the world; now, I say, a man-made Bishop, a poor sinner (even a pardoned sinner is not necessary), impiously takes the place of Jehovah-Jesus, and asserts God's power to impart the Third Person in the Trinity, and to make a sinner a "temple of the Holy Ghost;" and still further asserting the power of an Apostle to ordain, lays his hands upon the "Candidate," and fearless of the thunderbolts of Jehovah's wrath, takes into his mouth and repeats the very words spoken by the Risen Son of God! "RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST NOW COMMITTED UNTO THEE BY THE IMPOSITION (an awful imposition truly!) OF OUR HANDS; WHOSE SINS THOU DOST FOR 66 GIVE, THEY ARE FORGIVEN ; WHOSE SINS THOU DOST RETAIN, THEY ARE RETAINED," Thus are the rites concluded, and the poor man-taught teacher, deceiving and being deceived," assumes a right that henceforth his name "be had in reverence," and becomes accredited "teacher sent from God," a gift from a risen as a * John xx. 22. + See Note A, at the end, p. 39. |