A question may arise: for it has often arisen. That question is this: how may one know that he is called of God to preach the gospel. In answer to this question I submit the following extract from Francis Wayland's Principles and Practices of the Baptists, pages 103-4:

   "We believe that there is such a thing as a call to the ministry; that is, that a man is moved to enter upon this work by the Holy Spirit. This call is manifested in two ways; first, in his own heart, and secondly, in the hearts of his brethren. So far as he himself is concerned, it appears in the form of a solemn conviction of duty resting upon him with such weight that he believe it impossible for him to please Christ in any other way than in preaching the Gospel. He dares not, enter upon any other pursuit, until he has made every effort in his power to be admitted to this work.

    I beg these remarks to be remembered. They may be considered by many as obsolete and behind the age. It may be so, and yet the age may be wrong. There is a word of prophecy surer than this age or than any age. I know it is common to hear men, even among Baptists, talk of the choice of a profession, and of balancing in their minds whether they should be lawyers, ministers, teachers, or physicians. They will say, perhaps, they dislike the turmoil of politics, the hard and irregular labor of a physician, the monotony of teaching; they are fond of study, of writing, and of quiet mental improvement; and besides, they can enter the ministry, get married, and settle so much earlier and so much more easily than would be possible in any other profession, that they, on the whole, prefer it. Now, I would always dissuade such a man from entering the ministry at all. If he could, with just as clear a conscience, be a lawyer as a minister, let him be a lawyer by all means. The [Baptist] Church of Christ can do without him. He proposes to enter the ministry of reconciliation from merely selfish motives, and the Savior has no occasion for his services. He makes a convenience of the ministry of the Word; he uses it to promote his own objects; he is a hireling, whose own the sheep are not. If he begins in this way, in this way he will, unless the grace of God prevent, so continue. He will soon tire of his work and leave it for something else, or he will continue in it to shed around him on every side, the example of well-educated, cold worldly-educated, cold worldly-minded selfishness."

    Many absurd things have been said and written about a call to the ministry. It has been referred to as a miraculous direction of the attention to the work of preaching, consisting in part at least of an audible voice from heaven, commanding the person called to go and preach the gospel.

    I maintain that there is a call to the ministry, and that it consists in supernatural impressions in regard to the ministry - impressions made by the Holy Spirit. I do not mean merely that the heart is animated with a desire to glorify God in the salvation of men, but that the mind is exercised as to the promotion of the glory of God and the salvation of men, by means of preaching. Every Christian desires in a greater or less degree to do good, but those who are called to the work of the ministry are led to think of doing good in a particular way - by preaching the Gospel of Christ. They regard this as a great work - the most responsible under heaven - they tremble at the thought of undertaking it and still they feel that they must do it, or displease God and incur the disapprobation of the Savior, who died for them. If at any time they decide to dismiss from their minds all thought of preaching, they involve themselves in doubt as to their personal piety. The reason why they doubt most probably grows out of their inability to reconcile the idea of personal piety with a disregard of inpressions to preach, made by the Spirit of God. I believe in the old doctrine which led Paul to say, "Necessity is laid up on me; yea, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." He who is called of God to preach, does not feel that it is submitted to his discretion to preach or do something else. He feels he must preach - that it is the business of his life - that other things must be kept in subordination to the work of the ministry.

    It is proper to say too, that those called to the work of the ministry desire it, even though they tremble in view of its responsibilities. This, while it may seem paradoxical, involves no contradiction. "If any man desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work." - The ministerial vocation is in some of its aspects inviting; in others it excites fear and trembling. Nothing is more generally discouraging than a consciousness of disqualification for so great a work; but if he who is called could believe himself qualified, there is nothing in which he would take so much interest and delight as in preaching the Gospel of Christ.

    If it be asked, who is to decide as to a call to the ministry? I answer, those who are called, are the only judges of the exercises of the[ir] own minds and of the motives which prompt them to desire the ministerial work. Their hearts are invisible to the eyes of others. But in regard to ministerial qualifications others must judge. Aptness to teach is one of the preacher's requisites. Who can so appropriately judge of the existence of this requisite as those who are taught? The man himself must not decide. Will it be said that the decision of others may interfere with the call of God? I answer that a church in licensing one of its members to preach the Gospel - if the thing is done intelligently and properly - only recognizes in its notion the fact that God has called that member to preach. The church, so far from interfering with the call of God, endorses and sanctions it. If it is said churches sometimes err, I answer this is inseparable from human fallibility. Here we are obliged to leave the matter. A church is as apt to decide correctly as any other organization, and I think more so. At any rate, according to the New Testament, authority to preach the Gospel emanates under God from a [Baptist] Church of Christ. This is the plan established by the King in Zion, and it is the best plan.

==========================

[James Madison Pendleton {1811-1891} was a theologian and author, who pastored the First Baptist Churches of Hopkinsville, Russellville and Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Francis Wayland {1796-1865} was a northern Baptist and the President of Brown University, Providence, R.I.
This article is from the Tennessee Baptist newspaper, April 14 & 28, 1860.]
Republished by Ben Stratton as a J. H. Spencer Historical Society tract. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.

Baptist History Homepage