Book Review
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 3, no. 3 (July 1994)
An Earnest Ministry, the Want of the Times. John Angell James (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1993). Reviewed by the Rev. William Shishko, pastor of the Franklin Square, N.Y. Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
Church officers especially should remind themselves regularly that there may be an orthodoxy of doctrine but a heterodoxy of emotion. Jesus was Himself the embodiment of Truth (Jn. 14:6), but it is no less true that Jesus was consumed with a zeal for that Truth as God’s means of building His Church (Jn. 2:17).
The Christian Church has been blessed with many volumes which have sought to impress Christians in general and church officers in particular with the need of earnestness in the service of Christ. Within the Reformed tradition, Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor (currently reprinted by the Banner of Truth Trust) and Horatius Bonar’s Words to Winners of Souls (currently reprinted by the American Tract Society) stand out as model appeals. They should be staples in the literary diet of those who are set apart for Christian ministry.
Also in this category is the volume by John Angell James entitled An Earnest Ministry, the Want of The Times. The Banner of Truth Trust, a special friend for all lovers of the Reformed faith, has again done the Church a great service by reprinting this classic title. The fact that four editions of this work were published within a year of its publication in 1847 indicates both its demand and worth as a wakeup call in a day of ministerial lethargy. Its reprint and renewed availability in our day is most timely.
James, born in 1785, served as pastor of a Congregational Church in England for fifty-five years. He lived to witness the decline in effectiveness of pulpit ministry during the first half of England’s 18th century. Preaching had become powerless; ministers commanded little respect because of their mediocre and not infrequently dissolute lives. Cold rationalism was replacing fervent religion, beginning with ministers themselves. In short, James lived in a day just like our own. An Earnest Ministry was James’ seasoned call for ministers to be revived in their lives and service for the glory of Christ and the good of souls.
The reader of this volume will be challenged afresh with the very nature of Christian ministry, and the tried and proven means by which that ministry is to be carried out. Were such earnestness about even the component elements of ministry, i.e. prayer, preaching, and pastoral work, present among us, what revival it would bring in the impact of our ministries. “If the honour of an ambassador be in proportion to the power and glory of the sovereign who employs him, what is the dignity of him who is the ambassador of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; and at the same time, what ought to be the sanctity of his conduct, and the elevation of his character?” (p. 24).
James rightly exalts the place of preaching, filling the first half of his book with biblical and historical insights into the nature of earnestness in preaching. Ministers need to take particular stock of James’ material on “Earnestness of Manner in Delivery of Sermons” (Chapter VI). Without canonizing a particular (and sometimes artificial) “style” of earnestness, the author gives a wealth of thoughtful observations and sage advice that will help all ministers speak with “thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” The last half of the book, like Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor, treats the matter of earnestness in pastoral work. Like Baxter, James lacks an appreciation for the fact that all elders (not just “The Minister”) are to be involved in pastoral shepherding of the flock, cf. Acts 20:28, I Peter 5:2. Nevertheless, James’ exhortations are applicable to all elders who labor in their local congregations with a biblically formed sense of their duties. Though their secular callings will not allow them the time for devotion to ministerial work which is developed in these pages (sometimes with crushing effect), the motives and means to such earnestness, especially the necessity of divine influence, will stir all church officers to seek to attain the maximum earnestness in their individual service, and in their corporate testimony as a church.
This book is not a manual of church government, and should not be read as such. It is important to remember that zeal and earnestness always should run in the channels of good church order and submission to one’s brethren. Likewise, the modern minister (who apparently is possessed of a lesser reserve of strength and time than ministers of James’ day!) must assess realistically how he can be involved earnestly in all of the spheres of labor to which James calls him. I, for one, would wonder how I could do all of these things and still be one who “manages his own household well” [cf. I Tim. 3:5]. Nevertheless, his appeal to s-t-r-e-t-c-h oneself in the service of the One Who gave Himself even unto death for the salvation of His elect was a challenge I very much needed. I suspect that I am not alone.
I have never been able to understand why those who possess the truth (and the Reformed faith is the finest expression of the system of truth known as Christianity) could be so nonchalant about it. Our manner of treating issues of life and death will inevitably communicate more than the matter of our sermons. Is it any wonder that people will flock to hear the Arminian and the Charismatic who, at least, is earnest about what he (or she!) is saying? May God use John Angell James’ wake-up call to arouse us from our ministerial slumber, and make us arise to more earnest, hearty, and energetic service of the Lord of sovereign grace.