We dipped into the letters of John Newton in pastor’s meeting today. These two paragraphs laid us low. We would appreciate you letting these excellent thoughts guide you in praying for us.
Below are two paragraphs, both from letters Newton wrote to pastors. The first paragraph is about humility and lowliness as the most commending qualities in a minister of the gospel. The second paragraph offers penetrating insight into the question of who will be found to be the best Christian.
The Lord help us to discover SELF in all its various windings, to resist it by the sword of the Spirit, as we would the devil, for surely—self is his great engine of evil. It would be a fine thing to have the united knowledge of Paul and the eloquence of Apollos—so that we might be the tip-top characters in the foolish dispute among professors,“Who is the best preacher?” But I can tell you a finer thing, and more within our reach, because it is what the Lord invites even the lowest of the flock to seek for; I mean, the character to which the promise is made, “For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the contrite and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite!” Isaiah 57:15. Let the discourses of others be admired for ingenuity, learning, or pathos—but may we be ambitious that ours may savor of a broken and contrite spirit; then shall we be best able to commend a precious Savior, and then we may warrantably hope the Lord will not allow us to speak in vain.
Upon a supposition of degrees of glory, I would think it probable, the best Christian will have the highest place, and I am inclined to think, that if you and I were to travel in search of the best Christian in the land, or were qualified to distinguish who deserved the title, it is more than two to one we would not find the person in a pulpit, or any public Christian ministry; perhaps some old woman at her wheel; or some bed-ridden person, hidden from the knowledge of the world, in a mud-walled cottage, would strike our attention more than any of the ‘doctors’ or ‘reverends’ with whom we are acquainted. Let us not measure men, much less ourselves, by gifts or services. One grain of grace is worth abundance of gifts. To be self-abased; to be filled with a spirit of love, and peace, and gentleness; to be dead to the world; to have the heart deeply affected with a sense of the glory and grace of Jesus; to have our will bowed to the will of God; these are the great things, more valuable, if compared in the balance of the sanctuary, than to be an instrument of converting a province, or a nation! See 1 Cor. 13:1-3.