“Your district of fifteen or twenty families is a little world, or rather a church in miniature. There are all ages– the little children, the young men, the fathers.
And there are all varieties of temper and disposition and spiritual state– the careless, those at ease in Zion, the anxious, the newborn believer, the fretful, the desponding, the lively, the peaceful, the rejoicing, the steady, the excitable, those who have left their first love, and those who are pressing toward the mark.
There are Peters and Thomases, Marys and Marthas, Pliables and Stand-fasts, Little Faiths and Great Hearts; and among them there is a constant change going on. Your one specific for all cases is, ‘Looking unto Jesus’ (Heb. 12:2). For saints and sinners, He is the one thing needful.
For ourselves and for our people, the balm of Gilead and the living Physician are our all in all. Looking to Him, we are lightened, we are humbled, we are sanctified, changed into His image from glory to glory, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeping our hearts and minds.”
–David Dickson, The Elder and His Work, Eds. George McFarland and Philip Ryken (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1883/2004), 81.
