We Should Not Let Them Alone

“He that seeth on man sick of mortal disease, and another only pained with the toothache, will be moved more to compassion the former, than the latter; and will surely make more haste to help him, though he were a stranger, and the other a brother or a son. It is so sad a case to see men in a state of damnation, wherein, if they should die, they are lost forever, that methinks we should not be able to let them alone, either in public or private, whatever other work we may have to do.”

~Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

Compassion for the Unconverted

“The work of conversion is the first and great thing we must drive at; after this we must labor with all our might. Alas! The misery of the unconverted is so great, that it calleth loudest to us for compassion.”

~Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

Careful Pastors

“Doth not a careful shepherd look after every individual sheep? And a good schoolmaster after every individual scholar? And a good physician after every particular patient? And a good commander after every individual soldier? Why then should not the shepherds, the teachers, the physicians, the guides of the church of Christ, take heed to every individual member in his charge?”

~Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

Heeding the Flock: Know Every Person

“To this end it is necessary, that we should know every person that belongeth to our charge; for how can we take heed them, if we do not know them? We must labor to be acquainted, not only with the persons, but the state of all our people, with their inclinations and conversations; what are the sins of which they are most in danger, and what duties they are most apt to neglect, and what temptations they are most liable to; for if we know not their temperament or disease, we are not likely to prove successful physicians.”

~Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

Leading to Clean Water

“When we have led them to the living waters, if we muddy it by our filthy lives, we may lose our labor, and they be never the better.”

~Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (ch2)

Pastors Self Neglect

“He cannot succeed in healing the wounds of others who is himself unhealed by reason of neglecting himself. He neither benefits his neighbors nor himself. He does not raise up others, but himself falls.”

~Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Ch2)