Trouble and rest

I have a deep appreciation for the earliest Princeton men. Archibald Alexander, for example, mixes deep scriptural insight and wisdom, developed by assiduous study, with a rich and experimental piety, a happy blend too rare today. I have also been enjoying very much James Garretson's recent study of Archibald Alexander's esteemed colleague, Samuel Miller. It is entitled An Able and Faithful Ministry (Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk/Westminster), and manages to combine history and biography with instruction both incidental and intentional.

This is part of Miller's charge to Gardiner Spring on the occasion of his induction at Brick Street Presbyterian Church in New York City. The counsel still holds good:

In preaching the gospel, and in all your ministrations, whether public or private, set the Lord Jesus Christ himself before you, and next to him, his inspired apostles, as your models. Be not afraid to tell men, with all plainness, of their total depravity by nature, and of that state of condemnation and wrath under which they lie while strangers to the grace of Christ. Be not afraid to sound in their ears the thunders of Sinai, as well as the still small voice of Calvary. Be not backward to proclaim the humbling and self-denying, but most glorious, doctrines of free and sovereign grace, however unpalatable they may be to some, or whatever your fidelity may cost you. Warn men boldly of every danger. Strive to bring them off from every false foundation. Give them no rest till they are brought humbled and trembling to the foot of the Cross: and then, and not till then, pour into their bleeding wounds the oil of consolation, the balm of heavenly grace.