A Good Word before Vacation

Summer vacation (as well as a teaching trip to Regent College in Vancouver) begins next week.  As I anticipate laying down many of the burdens of pastoral care, at least for a little while, here is a salutary reminder of my calling, from Bishop Daniel A. Payne's "The Christian Ministry: Its Moral and Intellectual Character" (1859):

"To set aside figures and speak plainly, the ministers of Christ should ever have their souls filled with the love of their Master, so that like Him they may endure hunger and thirst, poverty and toils, reproaches and insults, persecution and death. In a word, they must have that love and that degree of it that nevere shrinks from the cross, giving to their souls the endurance of the ox, the meekness of the lamb, the courage of the lion, the innocence of the dove, the swiftness of the eagle, and the omnipotence of Him whose victory was greatest when He suffered most!"