But what will I tell my children when they ask, 'Father, why don't you preach anymore?'" His body was trembling, and he could no longer hold his tears when he asked this pathetic question. This successful pastor and evangelist had fallen into immorality. His credentials had just been surrendered. His face was a picture of remorse and agony as moment by moment he became more fully cognizant of what this meant—the loss of all that was worthwhile in his life, the full trust and happiness of his home, and his service to the church he loved.
Sin is an awful thing! Sin does not pay! Sin is not worth it!
There are some women in the world who seem to delight in gaining the attention and affection of a prominent person. They are clever in arranging circumstances, planning associations, and suggesting warmer friendships. What a tragedy when a man loses his judgment, his loyalty to his family, his sense of sin, and slips into the scheme of the devil.
Sin looks so inviting, so fascinating, so charming, and so necessary for happiness at the moment or in the immediate future. But after it is committed it turns bitter, and leaves nothing but blight, ugliness, and suffering. No, sin is not worth it!
Before me is an eighteen-page letter from the wife of a once-leading minister who lost his way. It is evident that many tears were shed in writing the letter. This wife was appealing for help. She told how she would often awaken in the small hours of the night and hear her husband praying in another room, pleading with the Lord to return him to his ministry. She wrote, "He would give his whole life to be preaching again. God has forgiven him. I and the children have forgiven him. The church people here have forgiven him. Is there not some way that he can return to the work he loves so dearly:-
The letter was answered with all the sympathy, compassion, and understanding that could be found, but we were unable to offer her much hope that he could be restored to his former position as a leader in God's church. A man speaking for God, giving counsel for purity of life, must himself be the example (1 Tim. 4:12). This man's position of influence was vitiated. However, he could continue to be a witness for his Saviour as an active faithful layman.
Satan's special temptations are directed against the ministry. . . . He tries with all his ingenuity to lead them into sin, knowing that their office makes sin in them more exceeding sinful; for in committing sin, they make themselves ministers of evil.—Gospel Workers, p. 124.
Whatever one's responsibilities may be in the Lord's work, whether Bible teacher, pastor, executive, or evangelist, he must be clean. "Wash your hands" is the first order of the physical worker; "wash your soul" is the necessity of the spiritual worker. Ministers are chosen vessels for God's use, and must be pure, free from all manner of pollution to carry a sacred, holy message. "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord" '(Isa. 52:11).
F. B. Meyer used Isaiah 52, verse 11, as a basis of his remarks to a group of clergymen. He listed seven ways in which a man must be clean if he is to succeed in the work of the Master. In brief, they were:
- Clean in habits, in breath, in body, in the whole nature.
- Clean in appetite.
- Clean in alliances, making no compromise.
- Clean from worldly ambitions and aims.
- Clean from sinful pleasures.
- Clean from mere emotional religion.
- Clean morally.
To those who handle sacred things comes the solemn injunction, "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." Of all men, those who have been trusted and honored by the Lord, those who have been given special service to perform, should be circumspect in word and deed. They should be men of devotion, who, by works of righteousness and pure, true words, can lift their fellow-men to a higher level; men who are not unsettled by every passing temptation; men of firm, earnest purpose, whose highest aim is to gather souls to Christ.—The wife of a certain minister, who does considerable traveling away from home, asked him one day, "Are you ever tempted?" "Why," he said in surprise, "you never asked me that question before!" "Well," she inquired again, "are you?"
"No," he replied thoughtfully. "And I will tell you why. There are two reasons. First, when I am away from home I have memories of our love and happiness together—pure, sweet, clean, beautiful. And then I have the anticipation of returning home where you will welcome me in warm affection.
"My second reason is this: By the grace and power of God there is built around my life a bulwark of the gospel. Both of these influences are an anchor of my soul. I cannot do this wickedness and sin against my home, and against my God."
May the daily prayer be: 0 God, keep me pure. May my love for my wife and family become deeper and stronger with each passing day. Bless me with appreciation, tenderness, love, and understanding in the home. Cultivate within me an abhorrence of sin. Enable me to rise above the alluring, infatuating temptations of Satan. Grant that by Thy power I may acquire strength of will, moral stamina, and nobility of character. May I adorn my high calling with a love and passion for purity of thought, words, and acts. For this I earnestly pray.
A. C. F.
