Ordination, the True – Charles Spurgeon

THE Puseyite mind utterly fails to fathom the depth of horror which is contained in the idea of an unauthorized man preaching, and a man out of the apostolical succession daring to teach the way of salvation. To me this horror seems very like a schoolboy’s fright at a hobgoblin which his fears had conjured up. I think if I saw a man slip through the ice into a cold grave, and I could rescue him from drowning, it would not be so very horrible to me to be the means of saving him, though I may not be employed by the Royal Humane Society. I imagine if I saw a fire, and heard a poor woman scream at an upper window, and likely to be burned alive, if I should wheel the fire-escape up to the window, and preserve her life, it would not be so very dreadful a matter though I might not belong to the regular Fire Brigade. If a company of brave volunteers should chase an enemy out of their own county, I do not know that it would be anything so shocking, although a whole army of mercenaries might be neglecting their work in obedience to some venerable military rubric which rendered them incapable of effective service. But mark you, the shepherds, and others like them, are in the apostolical succession, and they are authorised by divine ordinance, for every man who hears the gospel is authorised to tell it to others. Do you want authority? Here it is in confirmation strong from Holy Writ: “Let him that hears say, Come,”—that is, let every man who truly hears the gospel bid others come to drink of the waters of life. This is all the warrant you require for preaching the gospel according to your ability.