Character of a Spiritual Leader, pt. 3
by Horatius Bonar (1809–1889)
[Here, we continue a study that enumerates the character traits of great spiritual
leaders. This study was written by Horatius Bonar, and is taken from the preface of
a book that he edited by John Gillies called “Historical Collections of Accounts of
Revival”. Mr. Bonar came up with this list of character traits by looking at the lives
of the people who lead the great revivals in history. In the first two parts of the
study, Mr. Bonar looked at the following traits: 1. They were earnest about the work of
the ministry; 2. They were bent upon success; 3. They were men of faith; 4. They were men
of labour; 5. They were men of patience; 6. They were men of boldness and determination; 7.
They were men of prayer; 8. They were men whose doctrines were of the most decided kind,
both as respects law and gospel. In this part, Mr. Bonar concludes the list of character
traits.]—Ed.
9. They were men of solemn deportment and deep spirituality of soul. Their lives and
their lips accorded with each other. Their daily walk furnished the best attestation
and illustration of the truth they preached. They were always ministers of Christ,
wherever they were to be found or seen. No frivolity, no flippancy, no gaiety, no
worldly conviviality or companionships neutralized their public preaching, or
marred the work they were seeking to accomplish. The world could not point to
them as being but slightly dissimilar from itself, or as men who, though faithful in
the pulpit, forgot throughout the week their character, their office, their errand.
Luther once remarked, regarding a beloved and much admired friend, “he lives
what we preach.” So it was with those much-honoured men, Stoddard, Shepard,
Mather, Edwards, Tennent, and their noble fellow-workers, whose names are in the
book of life. We extract the following account of Tennent’s life and doctrine from
the pen of Prince, another of the glorious band. It will illustrate some remarks
under the former head as well as this:
“He did not indeed at first come up to my expectation, but afterwards exceeded it.
In private converse with him, I found him to be a man of considerable parts and
learning; free, gentle, condescending; and, from his own various experience,
reading the most noted writers on experimental divinity, as well as the Scriptures,
and conversing with many who had been awakened by his ministry in New Jersey,
where he then lived, he seemed to have as deep an acquaintance with the
experimental part of religion as any I have conversed with; and his preaching was
as searching and rousing as ever I heard.
“He seemed to have no regard to please the eyes of his hearers with agreeable
gesture, nor their ears with delivery, nor their fancy with language; but to aim
directly at their hearts and consciences, to lay open the ruinous delusions, show
them their numerous, secret, hypocritical shifts in religion, and drive them out of
every deceitful refuge wherein they made themselves easy with the form of
godliness without the power. And many who were pleased in a good conceit of
themselves before, now found, to their great distress, they were only self-deceived
hypocrites. And though, while the discovery was making, some at first raged, as
they have owned to me and others, yet in the progress of the discovery, many were
forced to submit; and then the power of God so broke and humbled them, that they
wanted a further and even a thorough discovery; they went to hear him, that the
secret corruptions and delusions of their hearts might be more discovered; and the
more searching the sermon, the more acceptable it was to their anxious minds…
“And now was such a time as we never knew. The Rev. Mr Cooper was wont to
say, that more came to him in one week in deep concern about their souls, than in
the whole twenty-four years of his preceding ministry. I can also say the same as to
the numbers who repaired to me. By Mr Cooper’s letter to his friend in Scotland, it
appears he had had about six hundred different persons in three months’ time; and
Mr Webb informs me, he had had in the same space about a thousand.”
We might swell out these remarks upon the characteristics of the ministry of that
day, as illustrative of what a Christian ministry ought ever to be, and as in many
respects exposing and rebuking its defects in our day, but we must not unduly
protract our study. And, therefore, instead of any further comments of our own,
we add a few quotations from Whitefield’s Journals. The reader will see how they
bear upon the preceding statement regarding the Christian ministry.
“On Thursday, he preached the public lecture at the Old South. He had chosen
another text, but it was much impressed on his heart, that he should preach from
our Lord’s conference with Nicodemus. A great number of ministers were present:
and when he came to the word, ‘Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these
things,’ he says, ‘The Lord enabled me to open my mouth boldly against
unconverted ministers; to caution tutors to take care of their pupils; and also to
advise ministers particularly to examine into the experiences of candidates for
ordination. For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an
unknown and unfelt Christ; and the reasons why congregations have been so dead
is because they have had dead men preaching to them. O that the Lord may
quicken and revive them, for His own name’s sake. For how can dead men beget
living children? It is true, indeed, God may convert men by the devil, if He pleases,
and so He may by unconverted ministers; but I believe He seldom makes use of
either of them for this purpose. No, the Lord will choose vessels made meet by the
operations of the blessed Spirit for His sacred use; and as for my own part, I would
not lay hands [of ordination] on an unconverted man for ten thousand worlds.
Unspeakable freedom God gave me while treating on this head. In the afternoon, I
preached on the Common to about fifteen thousand people, and collected upwards
of £200 for the orphan house. Just as I had finished my sermon, a ticket was put up
to me, wherein I was desired to pray for a person just entered upon the ministry,
but under apprehensions that he was unconverted. God enabled me to pray for him
with my whole heart; and I hope that ticket will teach many others not to run
before they can give an account of their conversion. If they do, they offer God
strange fire.’
“He preached on Monday at Westfield and Springfield, and on Tuesday at Suffield,
to large audiences, and with his usual power. A little below Springfield, when
crossing a bridge, he was thrown from his horse, and ‘stunned for a while;’ but was
soon able to remount and proceed. At or near Suffield, he met with a minister,
‘who said it was not absolutely necessary for a gospel minister to be converted;’
meaning, doubtless, that though conversion was necessary for his salvation, it was
not indispensable to his ministerial character and usefulness. This interview gave
Whitefield a subject, ‘I insisted much in my discourse upon the doctrine of the new
birth, and also the necessity of a minister’s being converted before he could preach
Christ aright. The word came with great power, and a great impression was made
upon the people in all parts of the assembly. Many ministers were present. I did not
spare them. Most of them thanked me for my plain dealing. But one was offended;
and so would more of his stamp if I was to continue longer in New England. For
unconverted ministers are the bane of the Christian Church.’
“He preached with good success at Milford on Monday morning, and with less at
Stratford in the afternoon. He was still more restrained at Fairfield and Norwalk on
Tuesday, when the weather was cold, snow had fallen, and his hearers were few.
Yet he observed that some were affected, and believed the Lord never let him
preach in vain. His ride to Stanford, on Tuesday evening, was dark and rainy. That
night he was visited with a great inward trial, so that he was pained to the heart. He
was somewhat dejected before he went out of his lodgings the next morning, and
somewhat distressed for a text after he got into the pulpit. ‘But at length the Lord
directed me to one, but I looked for no power or success, being very low by my last
night’s trial. Notwithstanding, before I had preached half-an-hour, the blessed
Spirit began to move on the hearers’ hearts in a very powerful manner. Young, and
especially many old people, were surprisingly affected, so that I thought they
would have cried out. At dinner, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me again, and
enabled me to speak with such vigour against sending unconverted persons into
the ministry, that two ministers, with tears in their eyes, publicly confessed, that
they had laid their hands on young men, without so much an asking them whether
they were born again of God or not. After dinner, finding my heart much enlarged,
I prayed, and with such power, that most in the room were put under concern. And
one old minister was so deeply convicted, that, calling Mr Noble and me out, with
great difficulty (because of his weeping) he desired our prayers; for, said he, “I have
been a scholar, and have preached the doctrines of grace for a long time, but I
believe I have never felt the power of them in my own soul.” O that all
unconverted ministers were brought to make the same confession.’”
Such were the instruments. Such were the mighty things accomplished by them in
the strength of the Spirit of the Lord. In the different awakenings, there were
doubtless many things which proclaimed the frailty and imperfection of the agency
through which the Holy Spirit wrought His mighty signs and wonders. There were
things to remind man that the treasure was in earthen vessels. These revivals were
not without their blemishes. There might be errors, there might be imprudencies,
there might be excitement, there might be physical emotion; but still,
notwithstanding all that may be spoken against them, the hand of God was
manifestly there, awakening, deepening, extending, carrying forward the mighty
movement by which the walls and bulwarks of the prince of darkness were, in
many of his strongest fastnesses, shaken to their deepest base. The Lord gave the
word, and great was the company of those who published it, as well as of those
who received and obeyed it.
Nothing was to be seen but a faithful minister of Christ, surrounded by a small
band of praying ones, leading on the array against the prince of darkness! There
was no pomp, no display, no artifice, no carnal attraction. Yet the ranks of darkness
gave way before them, and multitudes owned the power of the simple yet resistless
words that fell from their earnest lips! How could the world but wonder at such
vast results, so disproportioned to the apparent cause? How could they but feel, if
they did not confess, that all this was the doing of the Lord?
As an illustration of how remarkably the work was of God and not of man, we
quote without comment the following passages:
“It is observable how, at this remarkable day, a spirit of deep concern would seize
upon persons. Some were in the house, and some walking in the highway; some in
the woods, and some in the field; some in conversation, and some in retirement;
some children, and some adults, and some ancient persons, would sometimes on a
sudden be brought under the strongest impressions, from a sense of the great
realities of the other world and eternal things. But such things, as far as I can learn,
were usually, if not ever, impressed upon men while they were in some sort
exercising their minds upon the word of God or spiritual objects. And for the most
part, it has been under the public preaching of the word, that these lasting
impressions have been fastened upon them.”
“Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion
and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the town, and among
persons of all degrees and all ages; the noise among the dry bones waxed louder
and louder; all other talk, but about spiritual and eternal things, were soon thrown
by. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world; it was treated
among us as a thing of very little consequence. They seemed to follow their worldly
business more as a part of their duty, than from any disposition they had to it. It
was then a dreadful thing amongst us to lie out of Christ, in danger every day of
dropping into hell; and what persons’ minds were intent upon was to escape for
their lives, and fly from the wrath to come. All would eagerly lay hold of
opportunities for their souls, and were wont very often to meet together in private
houses for religious purposes; and such meetings, when appointed, were wont
greatly to be thronged. And the work of conversion was carried in a most
astonishing manner, and increased more and more. Souls did, as it were, come by
flocks to Jesus Christ. From day to day, for many months together, might be seen
evident instances of sinners brought out of darkness into marvelous light. Our
public assemblies were then beautiful; the congregation was alive in God’s service,
every one earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the
words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were,
from time to time, in tears while the word was preached; some weeping with
sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the
souls of their neighbours. Those amongst us that had formerly been converted,
were greatly enlivened and renewed with fresh and extraordinary incomes of the
Spirit of God; though some much more than others, according to the measure of the
gift of Christ. Many that had before laboured under difficulties about their own
state, had now their doubts removed by more satisfying experience, and more clear
discoveries of God's love.”
When man proceeds to the accomplishment of some mighty enterprise, he puts
forth prodigious efforts, as if by the sound of his axes and hammers he would
proclaim his own fancied might, and bear down opposing obstacles. He cannot
work without sweat, and dust, and noise. When God would do a marvelous work,
such as may amaze all heaven and earth, He commands silence all around, sends
forth the still small voice, and then sets some feeble instrument to work, and
straightway it is done! Man toils and pants, and after all effects but little: the
Creator, in the silent majesty of power, noiseless yet resistless, achieves by a word
the infinite wonders of omnipotence! In order to loose the bands of winter, and
bring in the verdure of the pleasant spring, He does not send forth His angels to
hew in pieces the thickened ice, or to strip off from the mountain’s side the
gathered snows, or to plant anew over the face of the bleak earth, flowers fresh
from His creating hand. No. He breathes from His lips a mild warmth into the
frozen air; and forthwith, in stillness, but in irresistible power, the work proceeds;
the ice is shivered, the snows dissolve, the rivers resume their flow, the earth
awakes as out of sleep, the hills and the valleys put on their freshening verdure, the
fragrance of earth takes wing and fills the air—till a new world of beauty rises in
silence amid the dissolution of the old! Such is God’s method of working, both in
the natural and in the spiritual world: silent, simple, majestic, and resistless. Such
was the reformation! Such were the revivals in Scotland under our fathers of the
covenant! Such was the Kirk of Shotts on that memorable Pentecost, when the
unstudied words of a timid, trembling youth, carried salvation to five hundred
souls. Such was Ayr in its Pentecostal days, when from the lonely church at
midnight, there went up to heaven the broken sighs of that man of prayer, John
Welsh. And such was Northampton in later times, when Edwards watched and
prayed for its citizens, and when, from the closet of that holy man, there went forth
the living power that wrought such wonders there! “And is the Lord’s hand
shortened that it cannot save, or is His ear heavy that it cannot hear?” (Isa. 59:1).
(This concludes Mr. Bonar’s study)
© 1994-2017, Scott Sperling