The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 120

judgment falls, there shall be no "benefit of clergy." The four words of the text sonnd like a proverb (lea, xxiv, 2), We may justly view them 118 an apothegm respectin" the mutual relation of pastor and people. We read the word "priest" here" writ large" e.e "presbyter." We use it in its widest sense as denoting a minister of reliaion 0 -one who officiates in the sacred service of the Church. I. THERE IB A LIXENESS IN THE NATURE OJ.I' THINGS. In their relations to God and to their fellow-men, it is "like people, like priest." 1. 'The principle applies w matters of peraonal life, The priest is "taken from among men" (Heb. v. 1-3). He is by nature guilty, sinful, polluted, helpless, like every other mem her of the con!!fecration. If he be a true believer, he has been washed in the blood of Christ, and justifi;d by the grace of God, and made a partaker of the Spirit, like other believers. He is exposed to temptations, and prone to backslidings, as they are. He must" fight the good fight of faith," just like others. 2. The principle applies to social relations. A minister does not cease to be a man when he becomes a minister. He is to be "one that ruleth well his own house" (1 Tim. iii. 4). Like other citizens, he ought to interest himself in politics. The cause of liberty and righteousness, the redress of wrongs, and the elevation of the masses, should be specially dear to him. He must not allow himself to seem an emasculated man, who either has no opinions on public questions, or is afraid to avow them. 3. The principle applies to business habits. The priest is to eat his bread "in the sweat of his face,'' like other men. Observation of his habits ought not to produce the impression that he is without any eD.jrossing occupation. No man in the congregation should be busier. No other work makes so constant a demand. upon all the best energies of human nature as the work of the Christian pastor. 4. The principle applies to the matter of his work itself According to ihe spirit of New 'l'estament teaching, no hard-and-fast line is to be drawn between the Christian ministry and other useful occupations. The pastor ministers to a higher part of man's nature than the merchant does ; that is all. "Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col. iii. 17); that is the Christian law of work for all godly men a.like. The life of the priesthood has no halo around it which does not belong to the life of the peoplE!. 5. The principle applies to spi.ritool privileges. The pastor enjoys the blessings of grace in common with the people-all of them, and no more. He has the same access to God which other Christian men and women have; no other access, and no nearer. He does not belong to a sacerdotal caste. He is in no respect a mediator. The special application of the term" priest," as denoting one who offers sacrifice, is not for the Christian pastor. In that sense the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Priest of the Church. The one respect in which the pastor is a " priest to God" is that in which, as Archbishop Leighton has put it, "all Christians are God's clergy." 6. The principle applies to the final accou.nt. It shall be "like people, like priest," at the day of judgment. His reward, like theirs, shall be in proportion to his diligence, efficiency, and success. And, contrariwise, the punishments inflicted for indolence shall be equally impartial. This is the very point of the text: "I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings." This general principle is so obvious, and so constantly enforced in the teaching of the New Testament, that it seems strange that it should ever have been contravened. Yet the subversion of it has been one of the most cherished errors of the Christian Church. Is not the denial of this principle the corner-stone of the Papacy? The Romish Church exalts one man, and one class of men, to absolute control over the consciences of their fellows. And does not the ritualism of our time at home involve the same error? Ritualism might be harmless if it meant only an ornate and beautiful service; but, meaning as it does a return to sacerdotalism, and the fettering of the spiritual liberty of the Christian people, it is full of deadly poison. Many communions, also, which are free from the temptations to clericalism in its grosser forms, are often in danger of separating those responsibilities, on the part of minister and people, which God has joined together. E.g. do not some minds harbour the notion that a higher standard of piety is appropriate for the pulpit than what is necessary for the pew? And are there not some popular amusements which it is thought quite lawful for other members of. tho_ Church to indulge in, but which a minister is expected to abstain from, under penl ot being jL1dged an unspiritual man? 'l'here is, however, no mention in the Bible of ,\ broader and a narrower gaugo of righteousness. 'l'here, it is" like people, like pries I."  il8 TUE BOOK OF llOSl!:A.