I want you to think about the great difference we have in ministers such as Henry Scougal of the late 1600’s and that of today, especially regarding of the concern of people’s souls. What if pastors and elders today cared to practice this (see below)? Would sin be as rampant in the professing Church? Would many more be genuinely saved? How would this affect the preaching – less man centered and more God centered?

Even more so, than thinking about the difference of ministers today verses yesteryear, how will we as individuals respond on a personal level in the “normality” of everyday life to what we read below?

“He (Henry Scougal) had a high estimate of the value of catechising, and was very diligent in the practice of it. He also attached great importance to the firm, yet meek administration of discipline, saying, ‘that is was an edged tool, and they had need be no fools who meddled with it.’ He thought that ministers should not miss a day in which they do not treat personally and in private with some of their people about the affairs of their souls.”

-pg. 31, The Life of God in the Soul of Man