The Minister's Self-Watch part 1Of 1st importance, that we are saved.

In many instances of young men put to a trade which they cannot endure, they run away to sea sooner than follow an irksome business; but where shall that man flee who is apprenticed for life to his holy calling, and yet is a total stranger to the power of godliness? How can he daily bid men come to Christ, while he himself is a stranger to his dying love? O sirs, surely this must be a perpetual slavery. Such a man must hate the sight of a pulpit as much as a galley-slave hates the oar.

And how unserviceable such a man must be. He has to guide travelers along a road which he has never trodden, to navigate a vessel along a coast of which he knows none of the landmarks! He is called to instruct others, being himself a fool. What can he be but a cloud without rain, a tree of leaves only. As when the caravan in the wilderness, all athirst and ready to die beneath the broiling sun, comes to the long desired well, and, horror of horrors! Finds it without a drop of water; so when souls thirsting after God come to a graceless ministry, they are ready to perish because the water of life is not found.

Better abolish pulpits than fill them with men who have no experimental knowledge of what they teach.

Can any reasonable man imagine that God should save men for offering salvation to others, while they refused it themselves, and for telling others those truths which they themselves neglected and abused? Many a tailor goes in rags that makes costly clothes for others; and many cook scarcely licks his fingers, when he has dressed for others the most costly dishes.

Believe it, brethren, God never saved any man for being a preacher, nor because he was an able preacher; but because he was a justified, sanctified man, and consequently faithful in his Master's work.

The Minister's Self-Watch part 2Of 2nd importance, that we are vigorously pious (or holy)

He is not to be content with being equal to the rank and file of Christians, he must be a mature and advanced believer; for the ministry of Christ has been truly called 'the choicest of his choice, the elect of his election, a church picked out of the church.'If he were called to an ordinary position, and to common work, common indolent satisfaction; but being elect to extraordinary labors, and called to a place of unusual peril, he should be anxious to possess that superior strength which alone is adequate to his station. His pulse of vital godliness must beat strongly and regularly; his eye of faith must be bright; his foot of resolution must be firm; his hand of activity must be quick; his whole inner man must be in the highest degree of sanity.

There are some works which we should never allot to the invalid or deformed. A man may not be qualified for climbing lofty buildings, his brain may be too weak, and elevated work might place him in great danger; by all means let him keep on the ground and find useful occupation where a steady brain is less important: there are brethren who have analogous spiritual deficiencies, they cannot be called to service which is conspicuous and elevated, because their heads are too weak. If they were permitted a little success they would be intoxicated with vanity - a vice all too common among ministers, and of all things the least becoming in them, and the most certain to secure them a fall.

Should we as a nation be called to defend our hearths and homes, we would not send out our boys and girls with swords and guns to meet he foe, neither may the church send out every fluent novice or inexperienced zealot to plead for the faith.

You must remember, too, that we have need of very vigorous piety, because our danger is so much greater than that of others. Upon the whole, no place is so assailed with temptation as the ministry. Despite the popular idea that ours is a snug retreat from temptation, it is no less true that our dangers are more numerous and insidious than those of ordinary Christians.

Your own observation will soon reveal to you a thousand snares, unless indeed your eyes are blinded.

If you will be leaders against him, he will spare you no further than God restrains him. He bears you the greatest malice that are engaged to do him the greatest mischief. As he hates Christ more than any of us, because he is the General of the field, and the "Captain of our salvation," and does more than all the world besides against the kingdom of darkness; so does he note the leaders under him more than the common soldiers, on the like account, in their proportion. He knows what a rout he may make among the rest, if the leaders fall before their eyes.

The labor of the Christian ministry is well performed in exact proportion to the vigor of our renewed nature. Our work is only well done when it is well with ourselves.

The Minister's Self-Watch part 3

Of 3nd importance, that our personal character agrees in all respects with our ministry

Here I would not alone warn you of sins of commission, but of sins of omission. Too many preachers forget to serve God when they are out of the pulpit, their lives are negatively inconsistent. Abhor, dear brethren, the thought of being clockwork ministers who are not alive by abiding grace within, but are wound up by temporary influences; men who are only ministers for the time being, under the stress of the hour of ministering, but cease to be ministers when they descend the pulpit stairs. True ministers are always ministers.

Too many preachers are like those sand-toys we buy for our children; you turn the box upside down, and the little acrobat revolves and revolves till the sand is all run down, and then he hangs motionless; so there are some who perservere in the ministrations of truth as long as there is an official necessity for their work, but after, no pay, no paternoster; no salary, no sermon.

Holiness in a minster is at once his chief necessity and his goodliest ornament. Mere moral excellence is not enough, there must be the higher virtue; there must be a consistent character, but his must be anointed with the sacred consecrating oil, or that which makes us most fragrant to God and man will be wanting.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam, 'To do what will most glorify God,' that is the line you must walk by.

Even in little things the minister should take care that his life is consistent with his ministry. He should be especially careful never to fall short of his word. This should be pushed even to scrupulosity; we cannot be too careful; truth must not only be in us, but shine from us.

We are watched by a thousand eagle eyes; let us so act that we shall never need to care if all heaven, and earth, and hell swelled the list of spectators. Our public position is a great gain if we are enabled to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit in our lives; take heed, brethren, that you throw not away the advantage.

Even in your recreations, remember that you are ministers. When you are off the parade you are still officers in the army of Christ, and as such demean yourselves. But if the lesser things must be looked after, how careful should you be in the great matters of morality, honesty, and integrity! Here the minister must not fail. His private life must ever keep good tune with his ministry, or his day will soon set with him, and the sooner he retires the better, for his continuance in his office will only dishonor the cause of God and ruin himself.