“It is my earnest prayer, my dear brother, that you may feed the Church of the Lord which he has purchased with his own blood; that you may make full proof of your ministry; be instant in season and out of season; teach exhort, and rebuke with all long-suffering and authortiy. Then, should you be spared to your flock, you will witness the fruit of your labours in a spiritual plantation, growing under your hand, adorned with trees of righteousness , the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified; and while, neglecting worldly considerations, you are intent on the high ends of your calling, inferior satisfactions will not be wanting, but you will meet among the seals of your ministry with fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers. Or should your career be prematurely cut short, you will have lived long enough to answer the purposes of your being, and to leave a record in the consciences of your hearers, which will not suffer you soon to be forgotten. Though dead, you will still speak; you will speak from the tomb; it may be, in accents more powerful and persuasive than your living voice could command.”
Robert Hall, Jr., “On the Discouragements and Supports of the Christian Minister: A Discourse, delivered to the Rev. James Robertson, at his ordination over the Independent Church at Stretton, Warwickshire” in The Works of the Rev. Robert Hall, A.M., 4 vol. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1854), I:154-155.
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Working out Salvation with Fear and Trembling 