Thomas Beveridge was born in 1749 in the county of Fife, Scotland, and assisted the eminent Secession Church minister Adam Gib at Edinburgh before being ordained in 1783 for work in the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania. He drew up the presbytery's Testimony for the Doctrine and Order of the Church of Christ, and labored as minister in Cambridge, New York from 1785 till his death in 1798. The following material is taken from an ordination sermon which he preached on October 31, 1788, in the hall of the University of Pennsylvania.

"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not." II Corinthians 4:1.

The work in which they are engaged, who carry the Lord's message to his church, is great, and quite above mere human strength. They are ambassadors for Christ; and, being men compassed with infirmity, they seem very unfit for such an high office. They are employed to deal with enemies, as though God did beseech these by them, and as in Christ's stead to pray these, "Be ye reconciled to God." This proposal of peace is often despised; yea, they who in the Lord's name make it, are for his sake exposed to reproach, to suffering, and to death. "Behold," says Christ to his messengers, "I send you forth as sheep among wolves." If we act with a single eye, and with an upright heart, "serving God with our spirit in the gospel of his Son," we may lay our account with much ill-will, and many sore thrusts to make us fall, among this adulterous and sinful generation. But, we must "endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." We are in the service, and under the care of a gracious master, who knows our frame, and will not lay upon us more than is meet; he hath said, "as thy days so shall thy strength be." "Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." "Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not."

The grace given to Paul made him shine as a star of the first magnitude in the New Testament church. It may be said of the other apostles, that they did excellently; but he excelled them all. He was eminent in faith; eminent for his knowledge in the mystery of Christ; eminent in abilities for the work of the gospel; eminent in zeal for the house of God; eminent for that holy fortitude, which made him so cheerfully hazard his life in the cause of Christ. "What mean ye," said he to his friends, on a certain occasion, "to weep, and to break mine heart, for I am ready, not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." He had, however, nothing save what he received, and nothing more than he needed. He was carried through his work as all the Lord's servants then were, and still are, by daily communications of strength from on high; and, therefore, he owns himself a debtor to mercy, as much, or more, than his brethren. "Seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not." Communications of grace are made to some saints more abundantly than to others; but those who have least shall not perish in the way; he who gathereth the lambs with his arm, and carrieth them in his bosom, will bring them safe to glory, "a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench," and those who have most will find, on many occasions, that they have use for it all.

"We all," says the apostle, "with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord." Therefore, adds he, seeing we have this ministry, which is so glorious, committed to us, we find life to ourselves in the word which we preach to others, and are upheld by that mercy which in the name of the Lord we proclaim to all the wretched, and poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. We are not only messengers to tell others of the Lord's goodness, but we are monuments of it ourselves; "troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."

The text leads us to speak, first, of the ministry of the gospel, next, of the peculiar trials which usually attend those who are employed in it, and lastly, of the mercy which preserves them from fainting.

I. Concerning this ministry:

The wisdom and glory of God is displayed in the committing of this ministry to men of like passions, with those to whom they are sent. We are not in this state fit for an immediate intercourse with the world of spirits. Therefore the Lord speaks to us by messengers, whose terror need not make us afraid, by messengers who themselves need that salvation they preach to others, and by messengers in whose weakness his strength is made perfect. God has taken some of our rebellious family, and sent them to tell the rest, that they have destroyed themselves, but in him is their help. Thus by instruments which appear contemptible in the eyes of the world, and who are in themselves most unworthy of such honorable employment, he destroys the kingdom of Satan, raiseth up the building of mercy, and brings sinners out of the depths of wretchedness; from the sorrows of death to reign in life by Christ, and with Christ for ever and ever. We are weak indeed, but we serve him who is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Most gladly therefore will we rather glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest on us.

II. Concerning the peculiar trials which attend this ministry:

This ministry sits very light on many who profess to be employed in it, They enter into it without fear, continue in it without care, and end their days in it without remembering that they ought to watch for souls as those who must give an account. Robbers come in, not by the door, and enrich themselves by spoiling the flock. Hirelings care not for it, and flee when they see the wolf coming. But those who are faithful in the service of Christ, are often sore pressed under their burdens. It is through much tribulation, that all the saints enter into the kingdom of God, and such of them as are called to the public service of the gospel, have commonly a double portion. They have a conflict to maintain against corruption remaining in themselves, and they have much trouble from the corruptions of other men, among whom they exercise this ministry. Sometimes through reproaches and sufferings, they are set forth as it were appointed to death; and are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. As to the peculiar trials and temptations which usually attend them, these things may be observed.

1. It is often a grief of heart to them, that they deliver the Lord's message to his church so weakly and confusedly, and sometimes with such manifest defects, as they fear may bring discredit on the work in which they are engaged. The Lord, on many occasions, leaves them so far as that they may well see their own insufficiency. He will have this saying engraved on the hearts of such as he makes useful, "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven." He will show all, that the excellency of the power attending the word is of him, not of them who preach it. He gives to his servants that they may give to the multitude; and sometimes he withholds from them, as a just punishment on those to whom they are sent, thus testifying that his spirit shall not always strive with them who despise his warnings. He may do to his messengers according to what he said to Ezekiel, when, like him, they are employed among a people joined to their idols. "I will," said he, "make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be a reprover unto them, for they are a rebellious house." Whatever the design be, the trial is severe, as it appears to the Lord's servants, an evidence of his displeasure at them, or at his flock, or at both. Ignorance and presumption may help some to speak confidently enough, while they neither know what they say, nor whereof they affirm; but the language which has a divine propriety, the message which bears the signature of God upon it, the liberty by which any are helped, in Christ's name, to speak a word in season to them that are weary, is the accomplishment of the promise, "I will cause the horn of Israel to bud, and I will give thee the opening of the mouth in the midst of them." It is from the spirit of the Lord resting on his servants. Paul found such need of aid from above in preaching Christ, that after exhorting the Ephesians to make supplications for all saints, he adds, "and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel."

2. They who are employed in the ministry of the gospel, may lay their account with this, that the Lord will not suffer those faults of theirs, which might be an evil example to his church, to pass without signal chastisement. He will forgive them, but for a warning to others, he commonly makes his displeasure as public as their trespass. Moses was very meek, above all the men who were on the face of the earth; yet the rebellious family of Israel did so provoke him, at the waters of Meribah, that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. His offence seemed small, according to the light thoughts men have of such matters; but the righteous judge was displeased with him, and that all might stand in awe and not sin, even Moses, admitted to such near and frequent intercourse with God, as no mere man on earth ever enjoyed, for his trespass, was excluded from the land of promise. When ministers of the gospel think on their former ways, they may often see some sad mismanagements chargeable upon them. Sometimes they speak what ought not to be spoken; the fire of corruption in others, kindling another such fire in them. Sometimes they are silent when they ought to speak, the fear of man bringing them into the snare. In a word, when they consider how much is required, and how little they do, and how many defects attend the little that is done, and what a pernicious and lasting influence their faults may have on the Lord's cause and flock, and how justly he might make them a profitable example to others in their sufferings, who have been an evil example to others in their sufferings, who have been an evil example to others in their sins — I say, when they consider these things, they are ready to adopt the Psalmist's language, "Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." The faith of God's everlasting covenant prevents them from fainting, for he will not cast off for ever; but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

3. They who are employed in this ministry, often labor in vain as to many, or even as to the most part of those to whom they are sent. In grief of heart they are constrained to cry, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" It is most discouraging to carry the Lord's message day by day to them who hear it as if they heard it not; being, so to speak, preached deaf, blind and insensible. "To whom," says the prophet, "shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold their ear is uncircumcised, they cannot hearken; behold the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it." Paul mentions two sorts for whom, and by whom, he was exceedingly grieved; and ministers of the gospel in the present time will find them very numerous: the first were ungodly men, pretending to be Christians. "Many walk," says he to the Philippians, "of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." The second were avowed despisers of the Lord's salvation; he tells the Romans, that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart, on account of his unbelieving countrymen; other afflictions passed away, but this remained to the day of his death, he calls it "a continual sorrow." Our Lord Jesus, in the days of his humiliation, tasted this affliction; he looked round him on an assembly of obstinate sinners with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts; and when he beheld Jerusalem, the city which killed the prophets, and stoned them who were sent to it, he wept over it, saying, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes." All his servants are in some degree conformed to him, in having this affliction to bear: the more intent they are in the Lord's work, it wounds their hearts so much the more to see the opposition made to it: the greater compassion they have for perishing souls, it is so much the more grievous to them, when they find, that in their ministry they are a savor of death unto death to them; their hearers stumbling at the word of life, and dashing themselves to pieces on the rock of salvation. It is well, however, if they can say, "Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded," we have not shunned to declare unto them, to whom thou didst send us, all thy counsel. The servant who is faithful, though his labors should be found unsuccessful, shall enter into the everlasting joy of his Lord.

Go to the next installment:
As We Have Received Mercy, We Faint Not: Part II