| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 6 |
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The preacher’s work is very sacred. What if he should not deliver his message correctly? In transmitting a telegraphic dispatch the operator made a mistake, left out just one little word. But the omission of that word changed the sense of the whole message. A large business transaction was involved, and great financial loss resulted. The company receiving and transmitting the telegram was held responsible for the consequences of the mistake.
The preacher stands between God and human souls. If in delivering God’s message he makes mistakes, leaving out words, or inserting words of his own, or putting the emphasis in the wrong place, thus changing the meaning of the message, who can tell what the consequences may be? It is of vital importance that the preacher should hold the pattern of sound words which he has received.
An edition of the Bible was once printed; and when it was ready to be distributed it was discovered that the word “not” had been left out of one of the Ten Commandments. The edition had to be suppressed and destroyed. Like care has not been exercised always by those who have undertaken to interpret the words of God to man. Sometimes they have left out words, or added words, not giving their message as God delivered it to them.
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