"Don't even take along a walking stick,
 nor a traveler's bag, nor food, nor money.
 Not even an extra coat." Luke 9:3

Jesus charges His apostles, when He sends
them forth, to study simplicity of habits, and
contentment with such things as they have.

These instructions contain a lesson for all
time. The spirit of these verses is meant to
be remembered by all ministers of the Gospel.
The leading idea which the words convey is,
a warning against worldliness and luxurious
habits.

Well would it be for the world and the Church
if the warning had been more carefully heeded!
From no quarter has Christianity received such
damage as it has from the hands of its own
teachers! On no point have its teachers erred
so much, and so often, as in the matter of
worldliness and luxury of life.

They have often destroyed, by their daily lives,
the whole work of their lips. They have given
occasion to the enemies of religion to say, that
they love ease, and money, and worldly things,
far more than souls.

From such ministers may we pray daily that
the Church may be delivered! They are a living
stumbling block in the way to heaven. They are
helpers to the cause of the devil, and not of God.

The preacher whose affections are set on . . .
  money,
  and dress,
  and feasting,
  and pleasure seeking,
has clearly mistaken his vocation.

He has forgotten his Master's instructions.