The revival of the Church seems to be closely connected with the condition of its ministry. Bridges sub-titled the study of the Christian Ministry, 'An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency', and, rightly used, it is well suited to promote a faithful and effective ministry.
Bridges begins by considering the general and personal cause of ministerial ineffectiveness, and goes on to examine comprehensively preaching and pastoral work.
"To enlighten the mind and affect the heart are the two main ends of the Christian ministry. The first demands wisdom and plainness, the second fervency, as the spirit of scriptural preaching. This combination exhibits the minister as 'a burning and a shining light'... imparting the spiritual light of divine truth, as well as the spiritual heat of divine fervour... Nothing, says Baxter, is more indecent than a dead preacher speaking to dead sinners the living truth of the living God."?
- Charles Bridges, in The Christian Ministry, p. 318.
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Christian Ministry, The: With an Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency is in the following collections:
