2019.06.03 Ministry Monday - An Able and Faithful Ministry (Garretson), pp204-235

Notes from Samuel Garretson's An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office. pp204-235

And a few choice quotes...

from p207 on the attraction and power of expository preaching

from p214 on the need for Christ-compelled men preaching as messages from God

from p218 on the superiority of directness, clarity, and organization over elqouence

from p221 on the importance of weighty earnestness in preaching

from p233 on the superiority of introducing from the text/context

from p235 on the superiority of using Scripture itself for illustrations

2019.05.06 Ministry Monday - An Able and Faithful Ministry (Garretson), pp172-204

Notes from Samuel Garretson's An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office. pp172-204

And a choice quote from p196:

2019.04.29 Ministry Monday - An Able and Faithful Ministry (Garretson), pp159-172

I've picked this one back up after a long hiatus. Rather than do a write-up each day, which discourages my posting, I'll just throw in a snap of whatever I've scribbled about the section, along with one of my favorite quote from the day.

Samuel Garretson's An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office. pp159-172.

And from p169:

2017.12.25 Ministry Monday - An Able and Faithful Ministry (Garretson), pp24-32

Today being Ministry Monday, we continue in Samuel Garretson's An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office.

Chapter 2

"O Lord, accept of my dedication! Fill me with thy love; prepare me for thy service; help me to be more and more like Christ, and more and more to glorify Christ! [...] Oh, the unutterable importance of having the care of precious, immortal souls committed to my hands! Father, give me knowledge--give me wisdom--give me strength, to perform my duties aright. Blessed Saviour, whom I trust I have chosen as the hope of my own soul, may I be strong in thee and in the power of thy might! Oh, help me to live, and study, and preach and act, like one habitually and deeply sensible that he must give account!"

--Samuel Miller, quoted in An Able and Faithful Ministry, p24

This chapter covers Miller's pastoral ministry in New York City from 1793 to 1803. It highlights how involved he was in the local and broader community.

Garretson includes an excerpt from a paper Miller gave on the necessity of a gradual plan for manumission of slaves that would include giving them intellectual and moral training so that they could function as honest citizens and truly be freemen (p27).

In 1798, an outbreak of yellow fever brought great suffering to the city, and though many fled, Miller stayed precisely to minister in the midst of it. What troubled him the most, however was that the people were not spiritually moved by the calamity and that he did not know of a single conversion that had come by means of it (p30). It alarmed him that he grew accustomed to this, and he worried that the providence that he observed to harden others might harden himself (p31).

As a member of a literary club, he wrote a two-volume history of the eighteenth century, for which he was awarded two honorary doctorates and membership in the Philological Society of Manchester, England (p32).

Finally, on a personal note, Miller finally married on October 24, 1801. 49 years of marriage to Sarah would produce ten children, four of whom would precede him in death (p33).

This chapter reminds of how ministry takes place in real-life circumstances, and of how ministers' souls and lives are subject to all of the same ills, afflictions, and joys as the people whom they shepherd. Surely, this is a wise and helpful design of God. It enables them to understand and attend to their flock better, and it causes their labors for the flock to be available to the minister for the care of his own soul.

The paper on manumission was interesting. 60+ years before the war of Union v.s. States, before the issue was being pressed for political and financial purposes, here was a northern minister publishing a much wiser approach to manumission than was eventually foisted upon the nation. One wonders how different the nation would be today if such wisdom had been followed.

2017.08.14 Ministry Monday - An Able and Faithful Ministry (Garretson), pp i-23

Today being Ministry Monday, we (re-)began Samuel Garretson's An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office.

Samuel Miller was the second founding professor of Princeton Theological Seminary. He, and that institution, were used mightily of God to preserve, strengthen, and grow the American Presbyterian churches faithfully, throughout the 19th century.

Prefatory Matters
The foreword (pp vii-ix) by William S. Barker basically whets our appetite for, and commends, the material.

Garretson does much of the same in the preface (pp xi-xiii), and also in the introduction (pp1-5), but in the latter he also helpfully outlines the book (Part 1, mostly biography; Part 2 mostly Miller's instruction on preaching and shepherding; Part 3, mostly Miller's instruction on the minister's character).

Chapter 1 content
Chapter 1, Heritage of Piety (pp8-23), begins with Miller's grandparents, then his father, John. Miller's formation came largely as a pastor's son, growing up helping his godly mother on the family farm. After his conversion at 18, he went to stay with a brother-in-law and sister while studying at the University of Pennsylvania. They, too, were very careful of his spiritual life.

As he finished his degree, and developed a sense of call to the minstry, various diary entries draw the picture of a man both well-educated and warm-hearted to God, often taking a day in fasting and prayer before the Lord. He reflected frequently upon the character of God demonstrated in His providence.

The sequence of tests and trials for him to enter even into licensure, let alone the ministry, suggest a time of much more carefulness about the quality of ministers than in the Presbyterian denominations with which I am familiar today.

The chapter concludes with Miller choosing from two calls that were available to him, deciding at last to accept the call from the United Presbyterian congregations of New York City.

The following were my favorite quotes from the chapter (they are actually from opposite the chapter's title page).

Chapter 1 quotes

"Doctrinal knowledge is apt to be undervalued by private Christians, and especially by the young. They imagine, according to the popular prejudice, that if the heart be right, and the conduct correct, the doctrines embraced are of small moment.  

This supposes that the heart of any one may be right, while his principles are essentially wrong; or that his practice may be pure, while his religious opinions are radically erroneous. But nothing can be more contrary both to Scripture and experience. The great Founder of our holy Religion declares that men are 'sanctified by the truth.'"

--Samuel Miller, quoted in An Able and Faithful Ministry, p8

"If the young, and even the thinking and serious portion of the young, were as careful to store their minds with elementary principles, and with clear, discriminating view of revealed truth, as they are with the best and most accredited elements of other sciences, we should not find so many hoary-headed Christians unable to defend their own professed principles, and led astray by the artful votaries of error."

--Samuel Miller, quoted in An Able and Faithful Ministry, p8