| Soldiers of the Cross! Spurgeon, "All at it" #2044. Acts 8:4, 5, 35. Scarcely anything has been more injurious to the kingdom of Christ than the distinction between clergy and laity. No such distinction was ever laid down by the Spirit of God. "You are a royal priesthood." "He has made us unto our God kings and priests." In the Church of God there is no special priesthood because all are priests. We have made among ourselves a distinction between ministers and others. But you are all to minister! There are many ministries of one form and another; and though God gives to His Church apostles, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and the like, yet not by way of setting up a professional caste of men, who are to do the work for God while others sit still. All Christians are soldiers of the Cross and all on active duty! Every converted man is to teach what he knows. All those who have drunk of the Living Water are to become fountains out of which shall flow rivers of Living Water. All are to proclaim the Word and no one is exempted by another form of service. It is thought nowadays that a man must not try to proclaim the Gospel unless he has had a good education. But there is nothing whatever in the whole compass of Scripture to excuse any mouth from speaking for Jesus when the heart is really acquainted with His salvation. We are all called to make Jesus known if we know Him. We must come back to the pattern of the original church. Every Christian must be a herald of the Cross. If you do not tell the Gospel, you are leaving your fellow men to perish. Yonder is the wreck and you are not sending out a lifeboat! Yonder are souls starving and you give them no bread! If we felt that blessed amazement which we ought to feel when we think of Free Grace and dying love, silence would be impossible. |
Surrender to Christ and Be useful
