r A 
 
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 Oak Street 
 UNCLASSIFIED 
 
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SINGLENESS OF AIM, THE CRITERION OF 
 MINISTERIAL FAITHFULNESS. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED AT THE VISITATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 aortf Msfyof) of iUrPeW, 
 
 HELD AT BAKEWELL, 
 
 JULY 14, 1853; 
 
 HENRY J. ELLISON, M. A., 
 
 Vicar of Edensor ; Domestic Chaplain to His Grace the Duke of Devonshire. 
 
 BAKEWELL : J. GOODWIN. 
 
 DERBY : BEMROSE. CHESTERFIELD : ROBERTS. ASHBOURNE : 
 HOBSON & SON. LICHFIELD : LOMAX. 
 
 LONDON : F . k J. RIYINGTON. 
 
When the request was made, at the Visitation, that the following 
 Sermon might be printed, the Preacher ventured to excuse himself 
 from complying with it, on the ground that the field of published 
 sermons was too widely occupied to justify additions from ordinary 
 sources. The request, however, has been followed by private re- 
 presentations from some of the Clergy then present, to which he 
 feels bound at once to defer, — and he puts it forth in the hope that 
 any little good which they have anticipated from its publication may 
 be realized. 
 
A SERMON. 
 
 Matt. vi. 22, 23. 
 
 u The light of the body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be 
 single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 
 
 “ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of dark- 
 ness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great 
 is that darkness.” 
 
 The sense of these words can be gathered only from a close 
 attention to the context. Our Lord had been speaking of three 
 of the chief acts of the religious life — almsgiving, prayer, and 
 fasting. In each case, He said, the true worth of the act would 
 be determined by the motive. The Pharisees did them “ to be 
 seen of men.” They “ had their reward ” in the praise they 
 coveted. His disciples were to do them to be seen of God 
 alone. Their reward would be yet to come. The different re- 
 ^ wards thus aimed at are described in the verse preceding the 
 ^text as “ treasures laid up ” — the one “ on earth,’* the other 
 C( in heaven and in the verse following the text the irrecon- 
 cileableness of the two is set forth under another figure, — the 
 impossibility of “ serving two masters, God and Mammon/' 
 «y The meaning of the intervening illustration, therefore, for such 
 
4 
 
 it is, is at once fixed : — what the eye is to the body, its medium 
 of light (kvxyos), that the motive — the thing aimed or looked 
 at — is to the whole course of life. If the motive be single and 
 right, the whole course is full of light (0cos). If the motive 
 be wrong, the whole course is full of darkness ; a darkness 
 which attains to its greatest intensity in those who have pre- 
 viously had the light. 
 
 That the words, though spoken generally, had a special 
 reference to the future ministers of the Gospel may well be in- 
 ferred. Not to mention that our Lord was addressing those 
 from whom the Twelve had just been chosen, and from whom 
 the Seventy were mainly to be taken, it is obvious that what 
 was true of ordinary Christians and their religious acts, would 
 be true in a higher degree of the ministry which was to com- 
 prise within itself the whole circle of those acts : — the value of 
 all would be determined by the motive which lay beneath them. 
 And it is this subject, — the necessity of singleness of motive in 
 the ministry , that I propose to bring before you to day. 
 
 I have selected it not without a consciousness that many 
 more attractive ones were thus being passed by. In an age in 
 which the Church is rapidly entering into new combinations, — 
 when science, on the one hand, is daily furnishing fresh facts 
 to assist in the interpretation of Holy Writ, and a sharpened 
 intellect, on the other, is preparing to put the very inspiration 
 of Scripture to the severest test ; when education has scarcely 
 passed from the region of pure experiment ; and the embers of 
 an expiring controversy are still, at intervals, shooting up their 
 angry flames ; and spiritual delusions, in new and monstrous 
 forms, are rearing their heads among us, — there are topics 
 enough of present ministerial interest, to throw all ordinary ones 
 into the shade. But the subject I have chosen seems to pre- 
 sent itself here with an appropriateness which is independent 
 of all circumstances, and will survive all time. We are met 
 together, nominally at least, to give account of ourselves to 
 
him who has been set over us as bishop and overseer of the? 
 flock of Christ. It is but the foreshadowing of another and 
 greater gathering, when we shall answer to the summons of the 
 Chief Shepherd of all. Then when our fellow Christians are 
 receiving their judgment as men , we shall be waiting for our 
 additional one as ministers. And that on which the verdict will 
 hang will be — the manifestation indeed of the outer life which 
 we have led, but this interpreted by the revelation of the inner 
 man of the heart. It is well that at times like this we should 
 anticipate the verdict, by turning our gaze inwards. Who is 
 the true Lord before whom, consciously or unconsciously, we 
 are bowing down ? 
 
 The. text, then, places before us in broad contrast, — 
 
 First, The directly opposite motives by which we may be in- 
 fluenced in our ministry. 
 
 Secondly, The effect of these, (respectively,) upon our whole 
 ministerial course . 
 
 I. And first, the motives themselves. 
 
 What the single and right one is, it is hardly necessary I 
 should mention here. It is the love of Christ , brought home 
 with power to our own hearts as penitent sinners, constraining 
 us — by the love we bear to him in return, and to our fellow men 
 for his sake — by our recorded vows — by our accepted respon- 
 sibilities, to labour for the souls he died to save; and en- 
 couraging us with the hope of the unspeakable rewards he will 
 give us at his appearing. A motive, to one who has realized 
 eternity, capable, it would be thought, of engrossing every 
 affection and determining the whole life ! 
 
 But, in opposition to it, first essaying to share its sway, and, 
 if admitted, soon prevailing to usurp it, appears the double 
 and evil motive. Shortly, it is the love of the present world. 
 In detail, it is the several forms which that love can assume. 
 
6 
 
 The love of money — -not for itself, but for the rank it gives, and 
 the enjoyment it procures : the vain-glory of the world — the 
 coveting its praises, the thirsting after its power, the eager 
 wish to be well spoken of by all : the sensuality of the world, 
 — in its milder aspect the love of ease, or pleasures, or domes- 
 tic enjoyments ; in its grosser one, the indulgence of fleshly 
 lusts* 
 
 Of each examples are given in Holy Scripture; of their 
 power, in the hands of the Tempter, to sap ministerial faith- 
 fulness, and ensure ministerial ruin. Of the simple covetous- 
 ness, Judas ; clutching his unhallowed gains — the bag from 
 which he pilfered , 1 and the thirty pieces of silver which he 
 received. Of its higher form, Balaam ; dazzled by the proffered 
 honours of the court of Moab, unable to resist “ the princes 
 more and more honourable ” 2 that came, and so, forsaking 
 the right way ; and with him Diotrephes, who “ loved to have 
 the pre-eminence /’ 3 Of the sensuality, Demas ; 4 shrinking 
 from the path of hardness that he might return to a life of 
 ease ; and Hophni and Pliinehas 5 passing from ease into 
 licentiousness, defiling the Lord’s people at the door of the 
 congregation. 
 
 Of each examples are given ; of each the type, we cannot 
 doubt, is being faithfully reproduced. And this with the dis- 
 tinct individuality which, now as then, attaches to the personal 
 life of each of us. For my temptation, Reverend Brethren, is 
 not your’s, nor your’s mine. It is probable we bring, each 
 one of us, the seeds of our future trial, born with us into the 
 world. It is certain that early influences, — parental training 
 or the want of it, — leave on us their distinct impress ; and our 
 strongly marked tendencies are brought with us into orders. 
 And upon these the Tempter works. Por a time they may be 
 
 (!) John xii. 6. (2) Numbers xxii. lo. (3) 3 John 9. 
 
 (4) 2 Tim. iv. 10. (5) 1 Sam. xi. 22. 
 
7 
 
 kept in abeyance. Youthful zeal, the sacredness of our new 
 position, the very gift conveyed to us by the laying on of hands, 
 all combine for a while to bring the world beneath our feet. 
 It is the flood time of holy effort. And if I pause for a mo- 
 ment, it is to remind my younger brethren in the ministry 
 that taken at its flood — the absolute and unreserved surrender 
 of themselves then made, the one true motive distinctly realized, 
 and all lower ones distinctly renounced, — a vantage ground is 
 gained for their future conflict, inappreciable in its extent but 
 to those who have made the trial, and have endured somewhat 
 of the hardness of the fight. 
 
 But often it is not embraced as it should be ; and then, after 
 a time, the second motive begins to appear. The grace of orders 
 has not eradicated nature's taint ; and, not watched against, 
 the inferior aim is first admitted as a parallel one ; and the 
 parallel one ere long predominates. Outwardly, there may be 
 no sign to indicate to us that we are missing the right way. 
 Zeal, fervour, self-denial, the natural gifts of eloquence — talent 
 — the power of influencing others, all may consist with divided 
 affections and an impure aim. To the single-minded labourer 
 they are the tribute which he daily lays upon the altar of God. 
 To the double-minded they are the incense which unconsciously 
 he is offering to self. Zeal for our own opinions, — our party, — 
 our church, will simulate zeal for the glory of God. Self-love 
 or self advancement may be the moving spring, when we are 
 seeming, to ourselves and others, to do great things for Him. 
 Our very strictness of life, in an age which happily demands 
 strictness of its ministry, and applauds it, may be but a re- 
 fined worldliness — an intense longing to have praise of men. 
 “ Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord," 1 said Jehu 
 to Jehonadab the son of Rechab. It seemed no idle boast. 
 He did the Lord's work, and did it well. But self was at the 
 
 (1) 2 Kings x. 16. 
 
8 
 
 bottom of all. He was weighed in the balance and found 
 wanting. The defective motive, stripped the action of all its 
 meretricious glare, and revealed the doer of it, in the eyes of 
 a heart-searching God, at best but a lover of the world. 
 
 II. I pass on then to the second point which the text sets 
 forth, The effect which these separate motives will have upon our 
 ministerial life . 
 
 1 . And first, if the motive be the single — heavenly — one, “ the 
 whole course will be full of light .” 
 
 The force of the metaphor must not be missed. What the 
 sun is to the world of nature, that God is declared to be to the 
 world of grace. “ God 1 is light, and in Him is no darkness 
 at all/’ God in Christ, therefore, the revelation of that light 
 to us. “ That was the true light that lighteth every man that 
 cometh into the world/’ 2 To be “ full of light,” then, is, in 
 truth, to be filled with Him . It is, in our measure, to see as 
 He saw and to speak as He spake. It is to have the spiritual 
 vision gradually cleared from the film of sin, till his unwritten 
 book of nature, as page by page its secrets are unfolded to us, 
 becomes instinct with evidences of his wisdom, power, and love ; 
 and his written word discloses to us, more and more clearly, as 
 we are able to bear them, the “ deep things ” of Him ; and* 
 then, speaking out of the abundance of an enlightened heart, 
 to lead others on to the paths we have ourselves explored. And 
 none are thus purged but those whose faces are turned full on 
 Him. It is “ the pure in heart ” that alone can “ see God /’ 3 
 
 But it is more than this. It is to labour as He laboured, 
 and to bear as He bore. I have spoken thus far generally : let 
 me transfer the case, my Reverend Brethren, at once to your 
 own experience. There have been times in the lives of most of 
 those I am now addressing — I know not why I should doubt 
 
 (1) 1 John i. 5. 
 
 (2) John i. 9. 
 
 (3) Matt. v. 8. 
 
9 
 
 that there are many here whose whole lives would bear the re- 
 cord — but times, at least, when the one undivided wish of your 
 heart has been, in every action and every thought, to labour 
 for your risen Lord. I appeal to those gracious seasons. Has 
 it not been, then , that all the opportunities of a painf ul minis- 
 try, as His was, have been gladly seized ; that the less pro- 
 minent of the ministerial labours, — the catechising the young, — 
 the visiting the sick, the care — the diligent, anxious care — for 
 individual souls, as one by one the plough of the Great Hus- 
 bandman passed over them, and prepared them for your spiritual 
 toil, — that these have been followed with all the zeal which the 
 more prominent and self-exalting ones have at other times re- 
 ceived ? 
 
 Has it not been then, that all the paradoxes of a suffering 
 ministry as His, and His Apostles', was, have at once received 
 their solution in you; that “ sorrowful," perhaps, you were 
 yet “ always rejoicing ;" 1 or “ poor, ” yet “ making many 
 rich ;" or “ having nothing, yet seeming to possess all things 
 content with your position because you felt it was fixed by Him • 
 accepting thankfully its difficulties as the appointed trials of 
 your faith ? And when, day by day, those you have laboured 
 for have opposed you with their “ contradictions," have you 
 not found it easy, — how easy, before, you could have scarcely 
 thought, — to endure as he endured, not “ striving," 2 but 
 “ as the servant of the Lord gentle unto all men, apt to teach* 
 patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves V’ 
 Add to this, then, that at such gracious seasons, when 
 a momentary perplexity has arisen, — some question of duty to 
 be determined, or some seeming advantage to be weighed, — 
 conscience has at once rung out her clear, sharp note, “ this is 
 the way, walk in it," 3 and has been as instantly obeyed ; 
 making you bold for Christ, willing to dare, or do, or risk all 
 
 (1)2 Cor. vi. 10. 
 
 (2) 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. (3) Isaiah xxx. 21. 
 
10 
 
 for Him ; — and what does it all amount to but this, that what- 
 ever of true “ light ” there has been in our ministerial path, 
 the light of wisdom, of holiness, of peace, it has been the 
 result of singleness of aim ; — that if the one were constant the 
 other would pour in upon us as a flood, our “ whole body 
 would be full of light ? 
 
 And that light can never be hid. The example of such a 
 life reflects itself back upon the flock we have to feed. They 
 look at what we are more closely than they care to listen to 
 what we teach. Imperceptibly they are led to imitate it. So 
 would a work be growing beneath our hands , — “ gold, 1 silver, 
 precious stones,” — to be tried indeed by the fiery trial of tempta- 
 tion now, and then in the day of wonders to be revealed, un- 
 burnt. So should we receive our reward. 0 words, surely, of 
 deepest meaning to those that can receive them, “ Light is 
 sown for the righteous, and joyful gladness for such as are true 
 of heart !” 2 0 promise most ull of hope to those who labour 
 
 for an eternal reward, “ They that be wise shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to 
 righteousness as the stars for ever and ever !” 3 
 
 2. But a darker vision remains to be considered. Singleness 
 of aim is lost, or never attained ; the influencing motive becomes 
 evil ; and then, the “ whole course is full of darkness.” 
 
 It is darkness of teaching . There is no spiritual discernment 
 to detect the hidden meaning of Scripture, and so its truths 
 are not perceived. There may be indeed the safeguard of creeds 
 to preserve from open heresy, but the orthodoxy which they 
 enforce is a cold and barren one. The stereotyped formulas of 
 party take the place of the “ proportion of faith what will 
 please is regarded more than “ to declare the whole counsel of 
 God.” And so, with truth first tampered with, not “ re- 
 
 (1) 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13. 
 
 (2) Psalm xcvii. 1 1. 
 
 (3) Dan. xii. 3. 
 
11 
 
 ceived in the love of it/* and then by the judicial act of God 
 ceasing to appear truth, we are allowed in some shape or other, 
 {< to believe a lie ;** or, for “ the doctrine which is according to 
 godliness/* are substituted “ dotings about questions and strifes 
 of words, whereof cometh/*— how much, it were well to reflect, 
 of the bitterness and harsh judgments which have found their 
 way into the controversies of our own day might be referred to 
 the self-love which has mingled with them in the guise of love 
 for truth , — “ whereof cometh envy, strifes, railings, evil sur- 
 misings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds.** 1 
 It is darkness of sin . Of sin mixing itself up with every 
 act of the daily life. Of holy offices profaned ; of the name 
 of God taken in vain; as our several motives may develop 
 themselves, of bosom sins bringing us into captivity; of ease 
 and sloth creeping over the life of one and paralysing his 
 ministerial usefulness ; of vainglory puffing up another and 
 bringing him into condemnation ; of intense longings for the 
 honour which cometh of men ; and all the darkness of disquie- 
 tude which follows on these, — if disappointed of discontent, if 
 gratified of pride ; of envy at the success of others, of rivalry, of 
 hate ; the impatience of results, too, to our labours ; the de- 
 spondency if these are delayed, the self-gratulation if achieved ; 
 and, withal, the inconsistencies, which in spite of every effort 
 to preserve appearances will mark the path of the double- 
 minded man , — “ unstable in all his ways.** It is this which, 
 taking its rise from infinitely small beginnings, spreads as a 
 leprosy over the ministerial life, till “ the whole head is 
 sick, and the whole heart faint/* and he who should have been 
 “ a burning and a shining light in the midst of a perverse ge- 
 neration/* becomes a stumbling-block to the brethren to cause 
 them to offend. 
 
 (J) 1 Tim. vi. 4. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
12 
 
 But it is, beyond all, the darkness of self-deception . “ Ther^ 
 
 is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof 
 are the ways of death / 5 1 Awful words to the professor of godli- 
 ness at all times ! Most awful to us, whose familiarity with holy 
 things may so easily bear the semblance of the actings of a holy 
 life; the perfunctory performance of a worldly profession so readily 
 pass for the faithful discharge of a heavenly calling ! It is this 
 darkness, more than all others, to which the text alludes, — “ if 
 the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness / 5 
 How thick the gloom, how impossible to retrace the steps, 
 when the voice of God within us has been first disregarded, 
 then silenced, then has seemed to encourage us in the way of 
 our own choosing. 
 
 So was it with Balaam . Commanded not go, and trying to 
 evade the command ; then permitted ; then, after providential 
 warning, seemingly encouraged to go, he ran eagerly after an 
 earthly reward, yet did not the less indulge his hope of a hea- 
 venly one. “ The word that the Lord putteth in my mouth that 
 will I speak 55 2 — “ Let me die the death of the righteous, 
 and let my last end be like his / 5 3 — at the very time when 
 God had forsaken him, and he was “ having ’ 5 the reward for 
 which his deceived heart had turned aside. 
 
 So was it with Judas . He listened to the Saviour’s words, 
 he lived in his daily presence ; he had the light, but he did 
 not follow it ; and it became to him the thick veil to blind him 
 to his true condition. He began with petty pilfering, and 
 spoke of his zeal for the poor. He betrayed the Lord, and 
 justified it to himself, — we cannot doubt, — by some supposed 
 religious necessity. All was darkness, self-deceit, till one lurid 
 flash of light came and lit up the depths of his darkened soul,— 
 “ I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood/’ 4 
 
 (1) Prov. xiv. 12. (2) Numbers xxii. 38. (3) Numbers xxiii. 10 
 
 (4) Matt, xxvii. 4, 
 
13 
 
 — and passed away again in a moment, to leave him in the 
 blackness of despair for ever. 
 
 So may it be with us. The time has not gone by when the 
 minister of Christ , — “ the man whose eyes are open/’— who, it 
 may be, has once seen the light, is tempted by worldly aims, 
 and little by little gives place to them, till in the sight of all 
 but himself — Mammon, and not God, — worldly treasure, not 
 heavenly, is the lord of his affections ; — and worse ! far worse ! 
 when those who should be “ examples to the believers of purity,” 
 may be seen abandoning themselves to the tyranny of a govern- 
 ing lust , — “ making the Lord’s people to transgress,” — 
 themselves alone unconscious of the depth of their degrada- 
 tion, and the fearfulness of their sin. 
 
 Reverend and dear Brethren, these are the dangers, which 
 in some shape or other, without the closest watchfulness, lie 
 before us all. Bear with me then for a few moments longer 
 while I remind you of one or two particulars in which this 
 watchfulness should be chiefly exercised. 
 
 And, first, let there be a constant scrutiny of our mo- 
 tives. Chiefly, indeed, of the sincerity of our own love for 
 Christ. All is lost if there be defect there. But, then, of the 
 lower aims which may be imperceptibly taking the place of this. 
 For this there must be habits of regular retirement from the 
 world. Seasons of special retreat there well might be for the 
 furtherance of such a work. But, if not these, ordinary seasons 
 the more carefully improved ; seasons of sacramental preparation ; 
 times of rest when we withdraw ourselves awhile from our labour ; 
 times of sickness when God withdraws us, — and when the retro- 
 spect of our lives will tell us what their general tenour has been ; 
 times above all of stated, daily, retirement, when the first be- 
 ginnings of any particular defection may, at once, be perceived. 
 And if the pressing calls of an active life be urged as an objec- 
 tion to this, the answer is not far to seek ; there is no life of 
 
14 
 
 effective activity without retirement ; the very urging of the ob- 
 jection is perhaps the strongest proof of the necessity of the 
 rule. 
 
 iVnd then, secondly, the presence of inferior motive once dis- 
 covered, or the very tendencies to it perceived, let the course 
 be a prompt and decided one, — to set ourselves to mortify it- 
 That prayer will be the first essential to this all will see, — long 
 and patient wrestling with God in prayer it will have to be, as 
 the roots of the evil tendency are the more deeply struck : but 
 besides this there must be the constant efforts of a vigilant self- 
 controul. It may be that the very exercise of natural gifts may 
 have for a while to be restrained ; lawful gratifications to be de- 
 clined ; opportunities which others may freely accept without 
 detriment to their moral nature, by us to be passed by, — till 
 “ every high thing is cast down, and every thought brought into 
 captivity to the obedience of Christ.” 1 
 
 But the time will come, when, beneath such a discipline, self 
 is crushed, and He firmly enthroned in our hearts ; and then 
 we may go forth, unshaken by the world’s applause, undazzled 
 by its gifts, to lay out every talent for Him and His glorious 
 work, — able to say with one of old, “ God forbid that I 
 should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
 whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” 2 
 
 And, lastly, in all, and with all this, let us keep continually 
 before us the realities of the promised reward. u Who is that 
 faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over 
 his household, to give them meat in due season ? blessed is that 
 servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing, 
 verily I say unto you, he will make him ruler over all his 
 goods.” 3 To be a ruler in heaven ! To receive u a prophet’s 
 reward” ! Who can estimate aright the greatness of the prize ? 
 
 [1] 2 Cor. x. 5. 
 
 [2] Gal. vi. 14. 
 
 [3] Matt. xxiv. 45. 
 
15 
 
 Brethren in the Lord Jesus, you who, erewhile, have struggled 
 with the mysteries of your moral being ; who have recognised 
 in the very temptations that beset you — in the soarings of the 
 intellect, the intensity of earthly passion, the cravings for 
 power, the covetings of wealth, — the last faint trace of a princi- 
 ple that once was divine ; the principle heavenly, that it reached 
 out to something above and beyond itself ; the application of it 
 corrupt, that it had turned aside from its legitimate object ; — 
 meditate, often meditate, on the “ glory that shall be revealed.” 
 There shall be knowledge and power, there, that shall amply sa- 
 tisfy ; riches, there, that shall bring no sorrow ; love, there, that 
 shall fill the soul. But they are reserved for those who, here, 
 have returned, in Christ, to the true aims of their first creation ; 
 who in Him have learned to discipline their intellect, and con- 
 secrate their powers, and restore their love , — to God . 
 
 Life is short. The day is hastening on. To us most blessed 
 time, if, when “ labours ** are being brought to light, and 
 hearts are being laid bare, and the shallow judgments of this 
 world are being reversed — many that were last found to be first, 
 and first last — and to the unfaithful and worldly servants, not 
 the plea of wonderful works that they may have done, not the 
 presence of souls that they have been instrumental in saving — 
 of the flock that had applauded their labours, or the crowds 
 that had hung upon their words — will avail to save them from 
 the Pharisees* doom, “ Verily I say unto you they have had 
 their reward/* — we who are gathered here, you who listen and 
 I who speak, should be found to have been “ faithful in our few 
 things *’ here, and so fitted to be “ rulers over many things ** 
 in His kingdom. 
 
 J. Goodwin, Printer, Bakewell,