J.C. Ryle: The Honor of the Ministerial Office

"Let us settle it firmly in our minds that the ministerial office is an honorable privilege.  It is an honor to be the ambassador of a king.  The very person of such an officer of state is respected and called legally sacred.  It is an honor to bear the tidings of a victory such as Trafalgar and Waterloo before the invention of telegraphs.  It was a highly coveted distinction.  But how much greater honor is it to be the ambassador of the King of kings, and to proclaim the good news of the conquest achieved on Calvary!  To serve directly such a Master, to carry such a message, to know that the results of our work, if God shall bless it, are eternal, this is indeed a privilege.  Other laborers may work for a corruptible crown, but the minister of Christ for an incorruptible.  Never is a land in worse condition than when the ministers of religion have caused their office to be ridiculed and despised.  It is a tremendous word in Malachi: 'I have made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways' (Mal. 2:9).  But, whether men will hear or forbear, the office of a faithful ambassador is honorable.  It was a fine saying of an old missionary on his deathbed, who died at the age of ninety-six: 'The very best thing that a man can do is to preach the gospel.'"  (J.C. Ryle, Holiness)