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David Alexander Wallace (1826-1883) served as a faithful minister of the gospel, as the first President of Monmouth College in Illinois, and as a Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). As the title of his memoir — A Busy Life — would suggest, Wallace was active in contributing to the good of the church in many ways throughout his ecclesiastical career. This memoir includes — besides his inaugural address, sermons, and other writings, his letters to a young minister, from which we highlight certain extracts here today. They reflect wisdom from pastoral experience which can enrich the ministry of faithful undershepherds still today.
For Wallace, author of What Must I Do To Be Saved, the gospel was at the heart of pastoral work. It was the raison d'être of what it means to be an ambassador for Christ, as he explains.
Your work as a preacher is to teach men the gospel of the grace of God. You may, on different occasions, give men instruction on other subjects, but this does not belong to your ministerial work. I have no hesitation in saying that you should confine yourself to this grand old subject. In illustrating and expounding the way of salvation through Jesus Christ you will find ample scope for all your powers, and enough to do to occupy all your time.
In respect to the gospel, I desire to impress upon your attention the importance of ascertaining precisely what it is, and of placing it before the people with the utmost fulness and clearness. One would think that the most careless reader of the Bible could not fail to know the gospel exactly. Yet, if you will talk a little with Christian people of aver- age intelligence, and note carefully statements which you will see in print and hear from the pulpit, you will find prevalent very indistinct and inadequate views of the subject. The preacher undertakes to prescribe for the spiritual diseases of his people, and lie ought to make his prescription correct in every particular. Study the subject carefully. Go to your Bible. Examine every scripture that bears on the gospel, every illustration of it, every allusion to it. Be sure that you have the full Bible doctrine. Beware of taking a part for the whole; of confounding things that differ, and of making distinctions where there is no difference. Study carefully the expositions which the great lights of the Christian church have given of it. Rest content only when you are assured that you have found the truth, and the whole truth on the subject. Having found it, use all diligence to teach it clearly to your people. If you adopt the methods of statement and illustration employed by any one writer, your preaching will become tame and uninteresting from sameness. If, however, you vary your modes of presentation to set forth the gospel in all the forms, under all the aspects, and with all the variety of the Scriptures themselves, your preaching will constantly be new and interesting. The more closely you follow the Bible, the more varied will your preaching be.
As believers must be encouraged not to forget their first love — Christ — ministers of the gospel will benefit from encouragement to remember their first duty: to lead sinners to Christ.
The first and great work of the gospel minister is to bring souls to Christ. The inquiring sinner, crushed under a load of guilt, needs Christ at once. We should point him to the Lamb of God, and exhort him to flee to him without a moment's delay. We should put nothing between the inquirer and Christ. We should put every obstacle out of his way. We should by all means help him to the only Saviour. He may reform his life, he may make a personal profession of faith, he may take his place with the people of God in all worship and all service, and still, if he is not in Christ, he is a child of wrath still under the curse. Hence, in this way do all you can to bring sinners to the Saviour.
Among his final remarks in the fourth letter, Wallace highlights an often overlooked aspect of pastoral ministry, which is that the work of a minister, though first and foremost is pulpit-centered (pertains to the public preaching), yet much of a minister’s work is done outside the pulpit, as a shepherd tends not only to the flock, but to all the sheep individually under his care.
There is a prevailing feeling that the whole work of the preacher must be performed in the pulpit. Hence many, to a great extent, excuse themselves from the more private preaching. This, however, is not according to apostolic practice. Paul in his address to the Ephesian elders speaks of having taught "publicly and from house to house," and of "warning every one, night and day, with tears." Thus he labored in the gospel of God. The most successful ministers in all ages have followed his example in this thing. My own observation has satisfied me that no part of one's ministry is so effective as the personal dealing of man with man. He who neglects it, fails to use one of the most important elements of power. Let me, therefore, press on you the importance of doing your utmost to attain excellence in this department of your work . Study it. Pray for wisdom, strength and grace to help you in it. Talk with old ministers about it, and avail yourself of the lessons of their experience.
Thus, Wallace encourages a young minister to get to know his people, young and old, their views, their needs, spiritual and otherwise, while he also encourages avoidance of the opposite error - to undervalue the primary place of pulpit work and thus to neglect the minister’s key mission. Preaching is first, but the congregation to whom a minister is preaching, whom he serves in the Lord, are people that a faithful shepherd must know and love.
Each of his letters to a young minister — and more to a theological student — are full of nuggets of wisdom gained through experience. There is great value in consulting with older ministers, and these letters reflect that truth. Bookmark Wallace’s memoir, A Busy Life, here, and whether you are an older or a younger minister, or a member of the flock, be encouraged in the Lord by Wallace’s focus on communion with Christ and love for the saints.
