Rev. Manly Jr. on the Call to Ministry

This is an article I recently read while working on a paper about the call to ministry. I found it on the Nine Marks Website. I thought it was a great article by the Rev. Manly Jr. I found it encouraging/convicting to me personally as well as being a good resource for my paper. If you are interested in reading the rest click here.

"Perhaps it is objected that you have not remarkable talents. There is sometimes a mischievous and unholy pride lurking under this plea, notwithstanding its seeming humility; and it is, for a man’s own good, important that it be uncovered and abandoned. You would like, it seems, to be a great minister, attracting attention, applause, reputation; but have no heart for plain, humble, unobtrusive usefulness. Beware!

What are the facts in regard to real usefulness? The great majority of those whose labors God has blessed, have been men of no very remarkable talents. The Almighty could have endowed all his servants with eloquence, commanding oratory, intellect, learning; these are gifts entirely within his bestowment. But he has "chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty." We would not undervalue talent; we would not depreciate learning. We would have all our ministers to prosecute diligently the study of all things which may illustrate the Bible, and bring science in as the subservient handmaid to do homage to the gospel. But it will be a sorrowful day for our churches, when human learning is substituted for piety, or valued more than devotion and integrity; and when the humble, earnest Christian, who loves souls, and has the Master’s anointing for the winning of them, shall be rejected, or discouraged from entering the ministry because he may not come up to some arbitrary standard of scholastic lore.

Do you allege that you feel unworthy? Well you may; for in contemplating the various and extended requirements of the gospel ministry, an apostle could not refrain from exclaiming, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Self-distrust, modesty, diffidence, so far from being disqualifications are necessary prerequisites."