BV 4010 .J65 Johnson, Herrick, 1832-1912 The ideal ministry The Ideal Ministry The Ideal Ministry HERRICK JOHNSON, D.D. Professor of Homiktics and Pastoral Theol- ogy y Auburn Theological Seminary , 18^4-80 ; McCormick Theological Seminary, i88CHigo6 New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1908, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: lOO Princes Street To the memory of my beloved wife^ who walked with 7ne through all the years of my ministry^ sharing with me its joys and sorrowsy its trials and trinviphs ; whose songs of trust have winged the feet of the hoicrs, and whose '* voice in the twilight^^ has made many a piece of my patch- work seem worth while y this ^' Ideal Ministry ^^ is most lovingly dedicated. H. J. Foreword IDEALS are inspirations, incentives to effort, calls to come up higher. They fill us with a blessed discontent of the past, and stir us with an eager longing to do better things. They make a dead level impossible in any calling. Of all men, the man in the ministry is the one who should have ideals. The ideal " consecration," the ideal "life," the ideal "steward- ship," the ideal "Church," the ideal "kingdom," — he can tolerate nothing less than these. They are set before him by his Lord. For the attainment of these God-appointed ideals, one of the God-appointed means, and the chief, is the ministry of the Word of God by the man of God. And in the prosecution of this ministry, the ideals of it we hang up in our sky, if worthy, though they may shame our past, will nevertheless prove incentives to higher things. So that idealizing in the ministry is not theorizing, nor ballooning, nor getting lost in the clouds. It is lifting a standard. In the reverent use of apostolic words, it is " forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things w^hich are before, and pressing on towards the goal unto the prize " of an ideal ministry in Christ Jesus. That this book may be helpful to such a ministry and stimulative to homiletic effectiveness, is the hope and prayer of the author. 7 Contents PART ONE THE IDEAL MINISTRY I. Its Permanent Function : Preaching II. Its Supreme Aim : Perfect Manhood in Christ Jesus ....... III. Its Ruling Spirit : Love IV. Its Subject- Matter : The Word of God V. Its Preeminent Business : Preaching Christ VI. Its Central Theme : Christ Crucified . VII. Its Eternal Sanctions : Everlasting Life and Death ...... VIII. Its Cooperating Agent : The Holy Spirit 1 1 27 35 43 53 65 81 89 PART TWO RELATED IDEALS IX. The " Call '* to the Ministry X. The Student in the Ministry XI. The Minister's Study XII. The Law of Adaptation XIII. Preaching Old Doctrines in New Times XIV. The Method of Answering Questions XV. Methods of Preaching XVI. Kinds of Discussion XVII. Sermon Plans Illustrative of Different Kinds OF Discussion ...... 9 lOI 119 135 157 175 185 199 241 257 10 Contents PART THREE THE SERMON xvm. Its Ideal Definition . . . . . 273 XIX. Its Ideal ** Constants " ... 285 XX. Its Ideal ** Immediates " . . . . 309 XXI. Its Ideal ** Cardinals " ... 331 XXII. Its Ideal Topics ..... 347 xxin. Its Ideal Qualities of Style . 375 XXIV. Its Ideal Delivery .... 407 XXV. The Ideal Sermon ..... . 441 XXVI. The Crucial Question in Applied Theology : Why are not More Souls Brought to Christ BY THE Sermon? ..... 463 Index ........ 479 PART ONE THE IDEAL MINISTRY THE IDEAL MINISTRY— ITS PERMANENT FUNCTION : PREACHING SYLLABUS Introductory. — Certain great ideas have given the gospel ministry its peculiar glory. The great winners and builders of souls have been dominated by these ideas. One of these determining ideas is preaching as the permanent function of the ministry. 1. The dictum of a certain school of art as to whether it shall ' ' preach. ' ' 2. "What Christ intended for His Gospel. (a) He meant it should be preached. (&) He meant the living preacher. 3. "What preaching really is. 4. Other agencies help tell the story, but preaching is the norm in gospel evangelization. 5. Some signs that seem to forecast the decadence of preaching. 6. Over against these is the living Christ saying to the living Church, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." 7. From this high premise these things follow : (a) "When preaching is out of date, Christianity will be out of date ; for the word preached and the living Christ are tied together for all time. (&) No modern device of human wisdom, no social settle- ment or sociological movement can supplant the preaching of the "Word. (c) By this sign we conquer. The order is the King's, and is backed by all of heaven's authority and power. id) If the sermon has become a "back number," the fact of preaching is not what's the matter, but the kind of preaching. The divine command is, "Go ye into all the world and preach." Let the answer be, in Rome or Athens, in town or country, in the seats of high culture or in the heart of pagan con- tinents, "'As much as in me is,' always and everywhere, I am ready to preach." THE IDEAL MINISTKY— ITS PERMANENT FUNC- TION : PREACHING IN every calling there must be belief in its great value before there can be intense ardour in its prosecution. It is not in the nature of mind to be stirred deeply by what it deems a trifle. Patriots are not born of low ideals. The things for which a man is willing to die are great things to him. The poet thinks no other art like his ; he calls it divine. So, too, the painter and the sculptor ; they have exalted conceptions of their work. Hence they come to their canvas or marble all aglow, with an enthusi- asm that burns within them. And the canvas and the marble catch their spirit, and glow and breathe and speak under their touch. If an artist thinks meanly of his art, it will be mean art that is born in his studio. So, a conception of the gospel ministry as merely a respectable means of livelihood — a kind of bread and butter conception — will beget a tame ministry. If it is thought to be godlike, the godlike will appear in the heavenly doing. It behooves us, therefore, at the very outset of our discussion, to inquire what those vital features of the gospel ministry are that set it apart from every other ministry, and that stamp it as superior to every other ministry. And if we find there are such features, then to grasp these several ideas, to weigh them, and 13 14 The Ideal Ministry to come under the spell of their charm and power so that they shall cease to be mere intellectual beliefs, and become vitalized spiritual forces, is to be on the sure road to an ideal gospel ministry. What, then, are those ideas, unique and matchless, transcendent in their worth and of eternal conse- quence, that give the gospel ministry its peculiar glory and sanctity ? They are : Its permanent function ; its supreme aim ; its ruling spirit ; its subject matter ; its preeminent business ; its central theme ; its eternal sanctions ; and its cooperat- ing agent. The ambassadors for Christ who have hitherto come nearest to an ideal gospel ministry have been stirred the most mightily by these ideas. This has been the characteristic mark of their stewardship. They have widely differed in many respects — physically, intellec- tually, temperamentally, emotionally. The giants in Israel that have done great things for God — that have had wide hearing and multiplied victories — have not all been intellectual giants. Some have been distin- guished for wide scholarly research ; some have had a soaring imagination ; some have been logic on fire ; some have been signally endowed with sanctified com- mon sense. What strong contrasts between Paul and Peter, Augustine and Chrysostom, Calvin and Me- lanchthon, John Knox and John Bunyan, Spurgeon and Beecher, Brooks and Moody, Finney and White- field, Jonathan Edwards and Gypsy Smith ! But these all, and a multitude more of winners and builders of souls, were alike in this — they intensely believed in, and were supremely dominated by, the several ideas that are here named as stamping and distinguishing Its Permanent Function 15 the ideal gospel ministry. Let us consider them in the order named : The Ideal Ministry — Its Permanent Function : Preaching. 1. " Thou shalt not preach" is the first and great commandment of that school of art which believes in "art for art's sake." " Go ye into all the world and preach " is the last command of Him who came to seek and save that which is lost. The dictum of the art school is open to challenge. The order of the King admits of no debate. And it makes preaching the permanent function of the gospel ministry. If the exclusive business of art is to " hold the mirror up to nature," if art is to " exhibit alike the vices and virtues of the age," " but must not take sides " ; if " the moment a moral or an immoral inten- tion obtrudes itself, that moment the artist begins to fall from grace as an artist " ; and if in art " all things are permissible in their place and proportion," ^ then art, of course, must not and cannot preach. It is merely imagination's drag-net for the good and the bad, the clean and the filthy, the pure and the vile, the angelic and the devilish. All the weird witchery of evil and subtle seduction of lust that appears in nature and society may be put upon canvas, provided the canvas is true to its mission as " a mirror," and provided the vicious and the virtuous are given their due proportion. But that this would play havoc with morals, we all know. There is a great deal in nature and life that should not be seen in a mirror. Why should not art * John BurroTigbs, " TUou Shalt Not Preach," ^^^aiific Monthly^ August, 1899. i6 The Ideal Ministry preach, if it will ? It has glorified, to many a soul, a truth of God. But let it beware how it preaches, lest it change the truth of God into a lie. If, as the author already quoted says, " Dante makes hell fas- cinating by his treatment," then Dante not only preaches, but puts a false tone in his colouring ; for he and the divine Artist do not agree. Christ makes hell dreadful and damning by His treatment. 2. Whether, however, this dictum of art, "Thou shalt not preach," is accepted or rejected, there can be no shadow of doubt as to what Christ intended for His Gospel, {a) He meant it should he preached. He commanded its preaching. He bade His disciples to " go into all the world and preach." " Make disciples of all nations " is His final and perpetual charge. By " the foolishness of preaching " salvation coraeth. " Preach the word " is the apostolic injunction. Along this road the Church has pushed to her world-wide conquests. She has gone everywhere, preaching the Gospel. And through all the ages since Christ first called men to Christian ambassadorship the preaching of the cross has been to " them that are being saved," " the power of God." As it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be. The Founder of Christianity made no mistake when He staked its triumphal progress down through time and its victorious consummation at " the end of the world " on " the foolishness of preaching." He chose the agency in full view of the puissant forces and changed conditions of these later centuries. (b) And He meant the living preacher. " Go ye into all the world." He knew, as no one else knew, the might of truth in personality. The consummate Its Permanent Function 17 flower and power of revelation was He Himself — God^ manifest in the flesh. Prophecy ! teaching ! vision ! type ! earlier theophanies ! — whai were these compared with Him ! How they faded away in the presence of the glory and power of truth embodied in His divine person ; and that person " in the flesh," face to face with men, sympathetic to their need, sorrowing with them, touched with the feeling of their infirmities, the Spirit of the Lord upon Him, anointed to preach the Gospel ! Here is the perpetual warrant for God's great ordinance of gospel proclamation. 3. To he like Christ, to stand in His stead and sjyeah in His hehalf sensible of a divine commission, jpersuaded that we are His ambassadors, not hy infal- lible sacerdotal selection, not hy the marlcet law of de- mand and supply, hut hy immediate, internal, and ef- fectual call of God / and thus persuaded, to tahe the truths of Holy Scripture and unfold, illustrate, amplify them for enlightenment and persuasion, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to have them intensified hy profound personal conviction, fused in the fires of one^s own soul, poured upon waiting ears and hearts from lips touched with God^s altar-fire, and accompanied hy every possible adjunct of effective posture and gesture and voice — this is preaching. 4. Other agencies that help tell the story. Symbol and sacrament do indeed preach for God. Music and architecture, by their rhythmic song and silence, make proclamation of the everlasting word. The wheels of organized Christian activities help spread the Gospel. The ubiquitous press with its prodigious enterprise, scattering its leaves as the drops of the morning, wings the divine message to millions. Cross-signed lives and l8 The Ideal Ministry transformed characters tell the story of redemption. And surely the Bible, without note or comment, brings Christ to many a soul. But no one of these, nor all of them, is " preaching " in the official sense of Christian ambassadorship, and in complete obedience to the great commission. The full-orbed glory of the meaning of the Master, in bidding us preach His word, we do not see until we see a living man before living men with the nameless and potent charm of intense personality so crowding into his speech, as he preaches Christ crucified, that it becomes the power of God. The total of human personality cannot be represented by white paper and black ink. The total of truth can- not be preached save in and through personality. The man behind the word ; the word in the man ; truth in and through the person — this is the norm in gospel evangelization. It would seem, therefore, as if the business of preaching were to be the conspicuous and absorbing business of the Church of God until the end of the gospel age. 5. Yet we cannot shut our eyes to some signs in the sky, seeming to forecast the decadence of preach- ing. Dr. Storrs, not long before his death, in two notable articles,^ discussed " The Future of the Prot- estant Pulpit in American Society," and noted im- pressively the facts that looked like prophecies of waning power. He named as some of these : the preacher no longer regarded as speaking oracularly ; the doubtful or critical attitude of mind towards the preacher and his words ; the prodigious multiplication of objects of absorbing interest; the ever-hastening 1 The Independent, April 20 and 27, 1899. Its Permanent Function 19 rush of our modern life ; the dense massing of popula- tion in our cities ; the break in the continuity of city church life through increasing exodus into the country each year for a period of weeks and months ; the les- sened power of copious and sonorous public speech — this decline in eloquence being marked at the bar and in parliament and assembly as well as in the pulpit ; the Sunday newspaper, as attractive to multitudes as a novel of society or a drama on the stage ; and the recent criticism of Scripture, conveying the impression of its uncertain authority, and making pulpit teaching less commanding than it was. Now some of these points might well be challenged, some might be shown to be ephemeral, some might be given an opposite significance, some might demand, not abstention from preaching, but change of method and a study of adaptation. 6. But concede their validity, give them all their full weight, and over against them we place the old yet ever-present need of man, the cry of the soul, the sense of sin, the ineradicable responsibility of person- ality, the human conscience, the unchanging conviction of the truth of immortality, the unbridged gulfs in any evolution without God, the history of Christianity, the historic Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the present immanent living Christ ! And to meet this need and answer this cry, and take sin's burden off, and restore the divine image to personality, and make the bird in the bosom sing sweetly, and prove that it is blessed to die, here is this living Christ saying to His living Church, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.''^ 7. From this high premise these things follow : 20 The Ideal Ministry ia) It follows, that whatever the signs of the times, whatever the adverse conditions, whatever the dark problems of city life, whatever the results of modern criticism, if it should ever come to pass that preaching is out of date, then it will have also come to pass that Christianity and Christ are out of date ; for in this last command of the Master the word preached and the living Christ are tied together for all time. The divine order is, " Go preach My Gospel," and the divine promise is, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (])) It follows, secondly, that no modern device of human wisdom, no possible agency of any sort can supplant the preaching of the Word or subordinate the preaching to any other means of gospel conquest. , And by preaching is meant not simply, nor chiefly, printing Bibles, or holy living, or the use of chant and ritual, but the public, authoritative, personal proclama- tion of the truth of God to men by a living man. Such preaching as Paul meant when, facing corrupt Corinth, he said to the Christians there, " I am de- termined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ " ; or when facing imperial Rome, he said, " As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also " ; or when itinerating the pagan provinces, he went everywhere triumphing in Christ Jesus. Such preaching as Peter's — not so much when he wrote his two epistles of consolation for the world's bruised and broken hearts, but rather when under the power of God at Pentecost he poured his ardent spirit down the channel of public speech and won three thousand souls to Christ. Such preaching as Timothy was charged with when he was apostolically Its Permanent Function 21 enjoined to ^''preach the Word / he instant in season^ out of season y reprove, rehuhe, exhort with all long suffering and teaching^ This is New Testament preaching. It is no hazy thing, as if it were a misty and mystic conglomerate of all influence for Christ. We know what it is. It has a boundary. It can be defined. It is God's chief instrument of conquest. And history shows us that fidelity to it marks the rising Church ; that infidelity to it marks the falling Church. Nay, more : it is the test and sifter of all modern panaceas that are offered to heal the world's bleeding hurts. You may know the nos- trums by this unfailing sign : Do they make con- spicuous and luminous the preaching of the Word ? Do they set forth Christ crucified as the only power of God unto salvation? If they do, they are of God. But look at the so-called " social settlement," that is silent in all its public speech as to the gospel settle- ment for sin. Look at the sociological movements that swell with reform and shrink to the last degree of littleness at any thought of spiritual regeneration, so that there is no room for the new birth in their remedial agency. Look at Christian Science, that preaches more often the word of a woman than the word of the Master. There is danger even in some of our best-meant devices of gospel propagandism that they subordinate, and so dishonour, God's ordained method of reaching and saving men, by retiring the preaching of the Word and bringing to the front with bustling activity and iterated emphasis the loaves and fishes of a mere material and social life. We want clean streets, and fine parks, and good drainage, and 22 The Ideal Ministry municipal reform. But Paris has all these. Is Paris any nearer clean hearts ? Mark this, O ye heralds of God! You cannot hasten the millennial glory by making the Church of Christ a vast soup-kitchen, or club-house, or lecture- ship platform, with a gospel attachment. The New Testament is a message. First of all, and of tenest of all, it must be delivered. Go, preach. {c) It follows thirdly, that by this sign we conquer. How could it be otherwise ? The order is the King's. And it is the one distinctive order that He distinctly, backs by a limitless amplitude of power. " All au- thority is given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, into all the world and preach. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." How can preaching fail with such backing ? Shame on the Church that will fly to other measures in despair of this ! There ought to be no standing-room on earth for a preaching coward. Men of the ministry, do we really believe Christ is behind this thing ? Do we believe His hand is on all heaven's forces, and earth's, too, as He bids us go and preach ? Then never shall we be lured or driven to anything that will make it seem as if we were tremb- ling for our pulpit throne. Let us plan for and wel- come organized activity, helpful adjunct, Christian en- deavour, men's clubs, social pact, help for God's poor, the enthusiasm of comradeship. But in the midst of all these let us set preaching, chief, supreme, regnant, and give it our utmost toil, our consuming zeal, our heart's blood, as the heaven-ordained instrument and agency by which salvation cometh. If we find we cannot "raise the dead in thirty minutes"; if the Its Permanent Function 23 dense population of a great city confronts us with its awful problems and its dark despair and its seething mass of pollution, making the case look desperate for truth and righteousness ; if a hostile criticism looks up at us with conscious authority, threatening to lessen the authority of God's Word and to make the pulpit seem " a piece of antiquated lumber" that has had its day and should cease to be, God forbid that we should run to the wish-wash and tow of some modern reforma- tory device of man to get our case. Let us preach on ; that's our business ; that's the King's business. We are not going to raise these dead souls, thrice dead and buried in the godless worldliness of our modern life ; Ave are not going to pierce this blackness of darkness of city pollution with the radiant beams of transform- ing day ; we are not going to answer the critics and make defense of the truth — by abandoning preaching and running to " settlements," and soup-kitchens, and carpenter shops, and sanitariums, and bath-houses, and sacred concerts. {d) It follows, fourthly, that, if the sermon has be- come a back number, ih^fact of preaching is not what's the matter, but the kind of preaching. And we may have to tear our kind to shreds and trample it under our feet, and cry to God for another kind, before the dead come forth, or the city's stench grows sweet, or the critics join both in intelligent and believing ac- ceptance of the Word of God as the only infallible rule of faith and practice. When the preacher, charged to feed the flock of God and to rescue the perishing, gets a chief reputation for scholarship, and no reputation whatever for spiritual power — when the consuming joy of such a preacher is 24 The Ideal Ministry to go on long and eager microscopic research in mat- ters of speculative interest, but of no practical value — then look out for a theological mummy. We shall have him — plenty of him — dead and dry. But do we not want scholarship in the ministry ? O yes, we want the finest scholarship. An empty mind has only one gift — what Spurgeon once called " a hideous gift " — the gift of saying nothing at great length. But does not this advocacy of " preaching " as the permanent, conspicuous function of the ministry tend to narrowness ? By no means. We are running no tilt against breadth of scholarship in the ministry. We want broadness ; but we want it of a particular kind. Surely not the blanket and barn-door variety that keeps forever broad and flat ; but the kind that can be focussed and concentrated and made to bear mightily on the brains and hearts and wills that wait upon the preacher Sabbath by Sabbath to hear what message he has from God. Let special fondness for this or that study be tested by the help the study renders in achieving the supreme aim of preaching, or in master- ing and making effective its subject-matter, or in doing its preeminent business. And let the curb and bit be put resolutely on any linguistic bias, or delight in philosophic speculation or passion for antiquarian re- search, from which the preacher returns with reluc- tance to his God-ordained work of ministry, as if it were a monotonous drudgery, which he would fain get through with as soon as possible, that he may go back again to his favourite fields of study. " Go ye into all the world and preach,'''^ is the divine order. Let the answer be : In Rome or Athens, in town or country, Its Permanent Function 25 in the seats of high culture or in the heart of pagan continents, in the palaces or in the slums, *' as much as in me is," always and everywhere, I am ready to preach. II THE IDEAL MINISTRY— ITS SUPEEME AIM PERFECT MANHOOD IN CHRIST JESUS SYLLABUS 1. It is in aim that secular aud sacred public speech radically differ. Secular public speech aims to move the will. Sacred public speech aims to move the will Godward. 2. Scriptural confirmation : (a) This is what Christ gave Himself to the Church for (Eph. 4 : 11, 12). (6) This is the exact meaning of the "Great Commis- sion " (Matt. 28 : 19, 20), Go ye and make and teach disciples. Rescue men from spiritual death, and build them up in spiritual life. 3. While this is being done, many other things will be done : Social conditions will be revolutionized ; governments will be made pure ; clean homes and streets and politics will be the universal order ; the kingdom of heaven on earth will at last witness, in its completeness, to the manifold wisdom of God. 4. The God-appointed means for all this is the Preaching of the Word, constituting the ministry of Reconciliation and the ministry of Sanctijication. No other ministry for a man of God or a church of God. 5. Two things made impossible by the presence of this supreme aim — (a) That the sermon should be prepared with only the sermon in view. (6) That one should think lightly of homiletic toil. II THE IDEAL MIMSTRY— ITS SUPREME AIM : PERFECT MANHOOD IN CHRIST JESUS THE supreme aim is perfect manhood in Christ Jesus. The preacher's finished work is not a finished sermon, but a Christlike soul. He constructs a sermon that he may reconstruct a man. Salvation is his weekly purpose ; not reformation, not social improvement, not intellectual uplift, not aesthetic delight, but salvation in its broad Scriptural sense. 1. It is just here that sacred public speech differs radically and fundamentally from secular public speech. Secular public speech aims to move the" will. Sacred public speech aims to move the will God ward. This is its vital function and distinguishing characteristic — persuasion to a divine life and to growth in that life, " unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4: 13). True preaching is thus the truly divine art ; for it ties to art this supreme exalted aim of transforming men into the divine image. The speech of the pujpit that does not have this in view is not preaching. It may be learned in exegesis, critical in commentary, profound in philosophy, and richly historical, and so be instructive. It may have wealth of illustration and imagery and beauty of rhetorical form, and so be pleasing. But this is only 29 30 The Ideal Ministry to be at the level of any other art or authorship, — contributive of instruction or pleasure. It is not a true gospel ministry, unless the vital function of persuasion to divine life is in it as an end distinctly aimed at. This is not disparaging instruction nor ignoring emotion. It is only insisting on a certain use of in- struction and emotion. Preaching is teaching — it must give instruction, of course. Truth must be unfolded. Mere hortatory ad- dress is beating the air. Of Christ who claimed to be divinely anointed to preach the Gospel it is said in Scripture, " He opened His mouth and taught." Alas, some of His professed representatives in the pulpit never get beyond the open mouth. But to teach is vital. The point of emphasis now is the Mnd. It must be oratorical teaching, looking beyond mere in- struction. The will ! The will ! To be f orevermore reaching and moving the will, so that it shall be more and more like the will of God — this is the end of all true gospel ministry ; the function of every sermon. Preaching must also give pleasure. It is an art — the divinest of arts. It must be exhibitive of rhetor- ical and moral beauty. But the differentiating feature of sermonic art is that it does not stop with pleasing the aesthetic sense and kindling emotion. It looks on beyond the emotion and, through that, strikes at character. Not art for art's sake — to give pleasure ; but art for the souPs sake — to give more likeness to Christ. Not the mere art to win by, but to win to godlike things. So it is ; a true gospel ministry means, first and last and always, perfect manhood in Christ Jesus — both rescue work and constructive work, freeing men not Its Supreme Aim 31 only from sin's penalty but from sin's power and sin's pollution until at last they are complete in Christ. And so it is, winning souls and building souls are alike and forever the work of every man who has the care of souls. 2. Mark now the Scriptural confirmations of this truth : (a) The Scriptures expressly declare that this is what Christ gave Himself to the Church for — " that He might present it to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing " (Eph. 5 ; 27). And the Scriptures expressly declare that this is what God calls men to the ministry for : " for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ " (Eph. 4 : 11-12). The Westminster Confession of Faith em- bodies this biblical idea in its declaration that " to the Catholic visible Church Christ hath given the ministry for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life to the end of the world " (Confession, Ch. XXY : 3). (h) And this is the exact meaning and scope of the great gospel commission (Matt. 28 : 19-20). There are just two things in that last command the official ambas- sadors of Christ are told to do. They are to go into all the world and " make disciples," and they are to " teach " these disciples " what Christ has commanded." The first is rescuing men from spiritual death. The second is building them up in spiritual life. This is comprehensive of the entire work of the gospel ministry ; the sum and substance of the great gospel commission. 3. Of course, while this twofold work is being done, 32 The Ideal Ministry many other things will be done — many glorious things. Social conditions will be revolutionized ; governments will be made pure and peaceable ; right- eousness will increasingly prevail ; ethical values will have wider and wider recognition ; clean homes and clean streets and clean politics will come to be the universal order ; and the kingdom of heaven on earth will at last witness in its completeness to " the mani- fold (the variegated) wisdom of God." Christ will then see to the full of the travail of His soul — see it in its complete and splendid realization — and be satis- fied ; and all creation will join in the anthem : " Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost." This will be the final and blessed consum- mation. 4. But meanwhile, and down to " the end of the age," the God-appointed means to the attainment of this mighty triumph is the preaohing of the Word. And this constitutes that double gospel ministry so often re- ferred to in Holy Scripture — namely, the ministry of reconciliation and the ministry of sanctification. There is no other ministry for a man of God or a Church of God. As to the ministry of reconciliation or the work of rescue : We are under the order of the great com- mission to " make disciples." We are bidden to go out and "compel " men to come in. In the spirit of our blessed Lord we are " to seek and save the lost." As to the ministry of sanctification, or the work of structure, Paul tells us it is proclaiming Christ ; " admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Its Supreme Aim 33 5. Mark now how the presence of this supreme aim in preaching makes two things impossible : (a) It makes It impossible that a sermon should ever be prepared with only the sermon in view, for the end is not a new sermon but a new man, and the sermon is a means to that end. How has it been with the world^s great orators ? Surely they did not have great ora- tions in view, but living men and mighty issues, when they prepared their immortal speech. And Raphael was not intent on a magnificent picture, so much as on a lofty ideal, that should stir and uplift human hearts, when he painted the Sistine Madonna. Tempted and overborne of the devil must be the preacher who deliberately sets about to prepare sermons as such, with no reference to the work they are to do. He must beware of an idolatry of sermons — fine sermons, show sermons, great sermons. Sermons are tools. (5) A second thing made impossible by the presence of this supreme aim in preaching is the thinking lightly of sermonic toil. Sermons are tools, indeed. Never- theless, what work they do ! And, therefore, what tools they ought to be ! How exquisitely tempered and fashioned ! How fitted to the needs and con- ditions of that pliant, and yet resistant, and some- times defiant element upon which sermons are to do their work — the spirit of man ! Unlike secular dis- course, which aims at influencing for a particular measure — to secure a vote, a verdict, a present im- pression, or an elevation of taste or judgment — sacred discourse strikes at the very seat and soul of character. A new creature in Christ Jesus is its first and last and supreme intent. And this is Redemption's intent. And thus the sublime purpose of God's whole plan of 24 The Ideal Ministry salvation crowds itself into every true sermon. Tie tliat idea to sermon-making — have it distinctly associated with every effort of gospel ministry — let it be grasped all along the process of pulpit prepara- tion— and a " fire in the bones," a passion for souls, is as sure of birth as day is when the sun comes forth out of his chamber. Ill THE IDEAL MINISTRY— ITS RULING SPIRIT : LOVE SYLLABUS Love in God gave birth to the wondrous plan. Love in Christ gave up everything to give us everything. Love in the Holy Spirit leads him to brood and strive even vs^here He is grieved and resisted. Love is the whole law ; love is the gift of gifts. Faith must work by love. Truth must be spoken in love. Eloquence is * ' sounding brass ' ' without love. Knowledge is " nothing " without love. Self-sacrifice, even to the giving of one's body to be burned, is of no profit if love be absent. " Truthing it in love " is the very heart of the gospel ministry. It is Jesus coming unto His own, when He knew His own would not re- ceive Him. It is standing in Christ's stead, with Christ's spirit, be- seeching men to be reconciled. This love is a growth. We cannot resolve ourselves into it or get it by a spasm. Association, meditation, contemplation — this is the secret. Ill THE IDEAL MINISTEY— ITS EULIKG SPIEIT : LOVE IT is preeminently the spirit of love — an absorbing love for Christ and truth and men. Love gave birth to the plan of redemption, and love floods the whole scheme. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for it. Christ so loved the world that He gave up everything to give us everything. The Holy Spirit so loved the world that He came to stay in the midst of it pollution and here He broods and broods even where He is grieved and wounded and rejected. The whole law is in this : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Clearly, love is the commanding commandment. Love is the gift of gifts. Faith, Hope, Love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. An ideal gospel ministry — any real gospel ministry — is impossible without it. It is an atmosphere — pervasive, vital. The man who seeks to give this Gospel to dying men must have faith, but it is a faith which " worketh by love." He must speak God's truth, but he is to be always heard " speaking the truth in love." He must be profoundly in earnest, but his earnestness is to be by the con- straining power of love. And his work of ministry will be true and Christlike as it is bathed with a su- preme affection. It is true of no other vocation as it is of this. A 37 38 The Ideal Ministry- lawyer can make a great legal plea without love. It is a matter of intellect, pure and simple. What saith the law ? A physician may be a great practitioner without love. Keen, thorough, searching diagnosis of diseases is not dependent on a state of heart. Hear Paul on this matter. He was the apostle of brains, scholarship, high culture. He could mass arguments and drive truth home by logical process, as could few men of his own time or of any time. Well, this trained intellectual athlete takes the things that are prized most among men — eloquence, knowledge and self-sacrifice — and he says of eloquence : " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love^ I am become sounding brass ! " And he says of knowledge: "Though I know all mysteries and all knowledge and have not love, I am nothing." And he says of self-sacrifice : " Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing " (1 Cor. 13). And this was no mere theory with this mighty man of God. He did not carry it about with him as a patent, for occasional exhibition. It dominated all his thinking. It coloured all his preaching. It was the secret of his power. Many are accustomed to look upon the apostle as intensely fond of the austerities of rigid and relentless doctrine, and of choice the en- thusiastic champion of the harder and severer side of truth. But while he was indeed a great reasoner, he was also a great lover. While he grappled with great doctrines, he also got a deathless hold of men's hearts. The truth is, no man of all the apostles felt more deeply, loved more devotedly, gave himself to Christ and His Church and souls with a greater passion of Its Ruling Spirit 39 affection than Paul. His love sometimes glows and burns in his epistles until everything else seems con- sumed in the fiery flood of it. Now it bursts forth in a very riot of tumultuous passion ; now it calms itself in a deep of almost infinite tenderness. He warned men night and day, but he warned them with tears like his Master. He was swept out to men and into them, as by a passion for their welfare. He poured out such treasures of desire, such passionate longing, such deep, strong, tender, self-surrendering love as no- where else has expression in human language, except from Him who " spake as never man spake." Whether he wrote to Ephesus, or Colosse, or Thessalonica, or Philippi, or Kome, it was all one way. His love, his yearning, tender, tearful love and sympathy, broke out everywhere. You, young men in the ministry or on your way to the ministry, who are ambitious, and rightly ambitious, to be great scholars, great reasoners, great intellectual forces in the kingdom of God, here is your model — Paul ! In logical force, in mental grasp, in sweep of reason and imagination, he had no equal in the apos- tolate, and has had scarcely an equal among men. But listen ! To the Church in Thessalonica he writes : " Being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were become very dear to us," and " ye know how we dealt with each one of you as a father with his own children " (1 Thess. 2 : 8, 10). And to the Church at Corinth he writes : " I seek not yours but you. . . . And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less ? " 40 The Ideal Ministry (2 Cor. 12: 15). Think of the tears this man shed, of the prayers he poured out of his yearning heart — prayers richer and deeper than his arguments — think of his joy in being a fool for Christ's sake, of his will- ingness to be *' all things to all men " that he might win some. Love and sympathy bent him to every need of human nature. Henry Ward Beecher thus paraphrases Paul's noble avowal : " I know how to fit myself to every sinuosity and rugosity of every single disposition with which I have to deal. You cannot find me a man so deep or so high, so blunt or so sharp, but I would take the shape of that man's dis- position in order to come into sympathy with him, if by so doing I could lift him to a higher and a nobler plane of life." " Truthing it in love " — this is the heart of gospel ministry ; this is the ruling spirit in all true preaching — the distinctive quality without which both messen- ger and message are as light without heat, as body without soul. It is the reaching out of the heart to bless others, whether they be lovely or unlovely. It is Jesus coming unto His own, when He knew His own would receive Him not ; pouring into the world's heart the great and mighty passion of sympathizing and suffering love, that He might glorify its baseness and change its enmity to friendship. It is standing in Christ's stead, with Christ's spirit, to beseech men to be reconciled. Tempered by an affectionate tenderness, then, must all preaching be, to reach and move men. And this rare, godlike quality is a growth. Its dominance in the soul must come by cultivation. We cannot re- solve ourselves into it. We cannot get it by a spasm. Its Ruling Spirit 41 t But it belongs to preaching as fragrance to the violet, as beauty to the rainbow, as guilelessness to Je§ys. ' Cold and hard and repellent is a gospel ministry \vitl>-* * out it. God pity the students of His mysteries who go to their work with little or none of the glow of this love in their hearts. They can preach the hard things of revelation, the severest truths of God, with acceptance and power, with this ruling spirit in them, dominating their speech, glorifying their calling, and giving even to " the terrors of the Lord " a tearful pathos. But they will be as those who beat the air if thev have it not. Is it asked how the spirit of love may be deepened and developed until it completely possesses the preacher? Association, meditation, contemplation — this is the secret. Be often at Calvary. Stay near the cross. Look up into the face of the Crucified. If you would be moulded into the image of His divine passion — hathed in the spirit and power of His sacri- fice— this is the way. Kothing will so stir and feed this divine and holy love and bring it to supremacy in the soul. " The immediate intuition of the great Atonement arms the preacher with a wonderful ten- derness and power of entreaty. Other doctrines are powerful, but this carries him beyond himself, and fills him with a deathless affection for God and the soul of man." ^ iHomiletica," Dr. W. G. T. Shedd, p. 255. IV THE IDEAL MINISTRY— ITS SUBJECT-MATTER : THE WORD OF GOD SYLLABUS What to preach, a more vital matter than when, or how, or by whom. I. Three things, fairly considered, go far to settle this question of what the man of God is to talk about in his official ministry. (a) His position— a herald. (6) His commission — to preach the Gospel. (e) His aim — to make men like Christ. II. Mark the vast variety of Holy Scripture. III. Hence the folly of tampering with Holy Scripture : (a) By unduly spiritualizing Scripture. (6) By using Scripture by accommodation, (c) By resorting to shifts and twists to get an "uj)- to-date ' ' message. IV. From these promises four things follow : (a) "What a text for a sermon should be : Never a pretext, ib) What fidelity to the text will secure : (1) The greatest variety (2) The best exegesis. (3) The most Scriptural instruction. (4) The most honour to the Spirit. (c) What selecting and announcing a text is doing : (1) It is virtually saying, "I bring you to-day the Word of God." (2) It is determining the leading of God's spirit. (3) It is selecting a remedy best adapted to the actual need. {d) What the minister needs in determining this varied Sab- bath ministry. To choose texts wisely he must " walk with God." IV THE IDEAL MIKISTEY— ITS SUBJECT-MATTEE : THE \YOED OF GOD WHAT to preach is a more vital question than when, or why, or by whom. If the supreme aim of an ideal gospel ministry is perfect manhood in Christ Jesus, then the thing that will make that manhood is the thing to preach : When Jesus said to His disciples, " Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," He did not mean the truth as it is in philosophy or science or the stars. When Jesus prayed, " Sanctify them by Thy truth," He did not mean any truth, for He added, " Thy word is truth." And " preach the Word," is the repeated and positive injunction of prophet and apostle and Jesus. I. Three things, fairly considered, go far to settle this question of what the man of God is to talk about in his oflBcial ministry. They are : his ofl&ce, his com- mission, his aim. {a) The preacher's office : He is called in the Word of God a herald, a proclaimer, a public messenger. The herald does not create his message. He carries the message of the power that sends him forth. He is simply the medium by which the message is trans- mitted. He is to explain the message, to render its true meaning ; but it is utterly beyond his province to add to, or to take from, the message with which he 45 46 The Ideal Ministry has been entrusted. vThe preacher is God's herald. And as such he has God's message to deliver — neither more nor less. He is also called in Scripture an aiiibas- sador. An ambassador represents his government ; has his instructions ; knows his government's wishes. To go beyond them, means instant rebuke or recall. The preacher is an ambassador for Christ, his King, the King of kings. He is shut up to his instructions. What the Word of God authorizes him to preach, that he is to preach. Anything else is recreancy to a great trust. ih) The preacher's commission : It is found in the last words of instruction given by Jesus to His disciples : " Go ye, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.'''' And again : " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." That this is what all preachers for all time are to teach is evidenced by the added words of Christ: " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world " (Matt. 28 : 20). So every man commissioned to preach has his instructions. He is to go every- where, as those early commissioned heralds and ambas- sadors went, " holding forth the word of life." It was this that whole cities " came out to hear." It was this that " mightily grew " and " prevailed." It was this that " was not bound." It was this that was " living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, pierc- ing even to the dividing of soul and spirit " (Heb. 4 : 12). It was this that led men to cry out, " What shall we do to be saved ? " And it was this that answered that cry and gave them a Saviour. As then, so ever since, and now and forevermore. Its Subject-Matter 47 It is the Gospel alone that is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth. And not the Gospel aj a social cult, or an ethical value, or civic re- form, but the Gospel as a salvation from sin and death, whose centre and soul is the Lord Jesus Christ, whose symbol is an uplifted cross, whose rectifications go to the very roots of character, and whose issues are ever- lasting. And this points straight to the third of the three things that go far to settle the question as to what the man of God is to talk about. (c) The preacher's aim : It is, as we have already seen, the GospeVs aim — perfect manhood in Christ Jesus. He is to search for and find his man, and then build him up in Christ. Not all truth can do that. The truth of science, the truth of art, the truth of any social cult, might make a man learned, artistic, a para- gon of polite breeding, but it could not take his sin away, or free him, by so much as one guilty stain, from sin's pollution, or loose him the slightest from sin's power, or lessen, by one day or hour, his sentence to sin's final and eternal doom. The divine order is Preach the Word ! Preach the Word ! The subject-matter of all true gospel min- istry is Holy Scripture : the Word of God. II. Mark the vast variety of Holy Scripture. " Is not My word like fire, saith Jehovah, and like a ham- mer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? " (Jer. 23 : 29). It is '' sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4 : 12). It is a high tower, whereunto we may continually re- sort. It is a shield against the fiery darts of the ad- versary. It is a balm in Gilead, kept by the Good 48 The Ideal Ministry >^ Physician for sin-sick souls. It is God's comfort to all that mourn, " giving a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness " (Isa. 61 : 3). What want is there it cannot meet ? What burden is there it cannot lighten, or help to bear, or take away ? What sin is there for which it has not expiation and atonement? What sorrow is there it cannot heal? How its doctrine of God's fatherhood has brought the wandering prodigal back to the Father's house ! How its doctrine of for- giveness has hushed feuds ! How its uplifted cross has drawn men ! How its divine dpyij thundered from the pulpit, has arrested some persecuting Saul, breath- ing out threatenings and slaughter and led him to cry for mercy ! How this sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, has cut clean through many a Pharisaic refuge of lies and shown the whited sepul- chres to be full of dead men's bones and all unclean- ness ! There is not a kind of man, or a state of heart, or a twist of conscience, or a sophistry of reason, or a pride of intellect, or a lust of the flesh, or a hell of hate, or a rottenness of social condition to which the subject-matter of Holy Scripture has not made success- ful appeal. III. Hence the folly of tampering with Holy Scripture. If this is the varied, diversified, many- sided subject-matter of Holy Scripture, placed by the Holy Spirit to the hand of every minister of the Gospel — what possible justification can there be for the mutilations, the twists, the perversions, the accommodations of God's Word, and even the substi- tutions for that Word, that, alas, are all too common in pulpit discourse ! There has thus been generated a Its Subject-Matter 49 liberty in the use of Holy Scripture that has degen- erated into a lawless license. (a) By unduly spiritualizing Scripture. From Jacob's crossing his arms over two of Joseph's chil- dren to bless them, has been drawn the subject : " There is no blessing but under the cross." Some spiritualiz- ing is justifiable ; God's Word warrants it. Some temporalities of the Old Testament are typical and prophetic of the spiritualities of the New Testament. Jesus Himself spiritualized ordinary events : *' Behold, a sower went forth to sow." To go as far as the Scriptural record goes is well. But men have gone wildly beyond and spiritualized everything. Origen was wildly extravagant here ; and he has had many imitators. Even Augustine was very often at fault. He is represented as spiritualizing the bread, the fish, and the egg which Christ supposes a child to ask of a father. " The bread," gravely says Augustine, " is charity ; the fish is faith, which lives amidst the bil- lows of temptation, without being broken or dissolved ; the egg is hope, because though the egg is something, it is not yet the chicken." But we need not go to the fathers for this absurd allegorizing. Swedenborg ran riot at this business. Fondness for novelty, the desire to appear original, the temptation to draw spiritual lessons from every- thing, have conspired to perpetuate this attempt to make God's Word mean what it does not mean. (h) And the use of a text by accommodation is an- other way in which topics have found an unwarrantable place in the ministry of the Word. Even Dr. George Campbell, author of " Sacred Eloquence," took a lie of the devil — " Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and 5© The Ideal Ministry evil " — and from that text discussed the future glory of the Christian. The appearance of Jesus walking in the garden at the break of day on Easter morning has been used as a basis for discussing " the benefits of rising early and taking a walk before breakfast." And in my own knowledge, the words so full of pathos and tears — " And when He drew nigh He saw the city and wept over it" — were the text for a sermon on " the relative advantages of city and country life." With such inexhaustible riches of subject-matter as are in the Word of God, what possible justification can there be for accredited heralds and ambassadors of Jesus Christ resorting to such shifts and twists of Holy Scripture to get an up-to-date message for the times ! Yinet goes not one whit too far in saying : " No human book has in this way been so tortured and sported with as Holy Scripture." Indeed, such frivolities of imagination, such vain conceits, and freaks of foolish fancy, such utterly unwarranted liberties, would never have been tolerated in connec- tion with any other book. Think of a company of lovers of Shakespeare sitting at the feet of a lecturer announced as an exponent of the text of this dramatic genius, and the lecturer taking such liberties with that text as ministers are known to take with the text of Holy Scripture! The Shakespearean exponent would either be hooted from the platform or be left to talk to vacant seats. Hear the weighty words of Austin Phelps, that prince of rhetors, who gave such glory to Andover : " One abuse invites another ; one abuse justifies another ; the principle of a slight abuse is the principle of an extreme abuse." ^ And here is Burton's ^ Phelps ! ' ' Sacred Khetoric, ' ' p. 109. Its Subject-Matter 51 wise and witty word on textual fidelity : " How far may we use texts and passages rhetorically rather than exegetically ? Does the Bible like to be dragged in to assist oratory in that way, even though it be sacred oratory ? Is it sacred oratory, with these devices scattered along through it ? And when you come to preach from a text, may that text be made to do a duty it never thought of till you got hold of it, and had a present and particular good you wanted to ac- complish by its teaching? Of course anybody can see that we must not stand up and squarely say, * Dearly beloved, this text teaches so and so,' when it does not. We may say : * It suggests to me the fol- lowing twelve heads,' and then go on to make our whole discourse on those twelve heads. There is no lying in that ; but how must that text feel all this while? Doubtless, it is flattered that an educated and cultivated and religious man is so crammed with sug- gestions by its humble self. At the same time, must not that text be mournfully remarking in its own mind, now and then : * But I have a meaning of my own (so I always supposed) a God's meaning ; and on the whole I should be pleased if you would make a thirteenth head on that, and let me serve to that extent, as my original self ; and not as a mere suggestor.' " ^ lY. From these premises four things follow. (a) What the text which is placed at the head of a sermon should be. Never a jpretext — but a true word of Scripture, the surface of which is to be pierced, the secrets of which are to be unlocked, the thoughts of which are to be unfolded, and the lessons of which are to be practically applied. * Burton : *' Yale Lectures," p. 339. 52 The Ideal Ministry (5) What this fidelity to the text will secure : Fi- delity to the text will secure the greatest variety in preaching, the best exegesis, the most Scriptural in- struction, the best honour to the Spirit, and, hence (the conditions being in all respects the same), the most success in winning and building souls. (c) What selecting and announcing a text is doing : Here are some of the things it is doing. It is virtually saying to the people, " This is the Word of God I bring you to-day." It is interpreting God's providential deal- ings with His people week by week. It is determin- ing the leadings of God's Spirit Sabbath by Sabbath. It is choosing the spiritual food best fitted to meet the present actual spiritual need of the flock of God. It is selecting the remedy most perfectly adapted to the changing symptoms of the diseased and sin-sick souls committed to his charge. {d) What the preacher needs in determining this varied Sabbath ministry ; He needs care and prayer at this initial point in the work of the week. He needs familiarity with Holy Scripture. He needs knowledge of the people to whom he ministers, and sympathy with them. He needs a spirit quick to catch every breath of the Divine Spirit, and to take instant note of the wise and gracious direction of that Spirit. To choose texts wisely one must walk with God. V THE IDEAL MINISTRY— ITS PEEEMI:N^ENT BUSINESS : PREACHING CHRIST SYLLABUS Introductory. — The Jews and the Greeks of Paul's day were types of two permanent classes, showing two distinct tendencies, to be met now as then, not by signs nor by wisdom, but by preaching Christ. 1. Our times in special need of a clear understanding of the meaning of the phrase, " Preaching Christ." (a) Christianity has so won its way that men are wearing its name without possessing its essential spirit. (6) Another spirit of the times voices itself in the cry, "Back to Christ." Give us less doctrine and more Christ — less Paul and more Jesus. 2. To preach Christ according to the Scriptures is to preach Him as God and man, perfect in both natures, God manifest in the flesh, the supreme gift of divine love and the power unto salva- tion from sin and endless death, by atoniiig, expiatory sacri- fice, through faith. {a) Before all else, in preaching Christ, there must be a true conception of the person of Christ. He is a man — a perfect man, knowing no sin. And He is God as well as man — God manifest in the flesh. (6) What brought Him here ? Two things : a great love and a great purpose. He is therefore to be preached as the supreme gift of divine love and the power unto salvation. - C ^ ^ • / ^, (c) But salvation from what? From sin and endless death. This must be preached if Christ is preached. (d) And to save how? By atoning, expiatory sacrifice. Salvation is by this road and by no other. Preach- ing a divine incarnation, for divine instruction and example and sympathy, if it stop there, is not apostolic preaching. (e) And to save through what instrumentality ? Through faith alone. THE IDEAL MINISTEY— ITS PEEEMINENT BUSINESS : PEEACHING CHEIST WE have seen that an ideal gospel ministry must have for its subject-matter, " all Scripture." But while " every Scripture inspired of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteous- ness " (2 Tim. 3 : 16), is not some Scripture so funda- mental to faith, so vital to spiritual life, as to demand first and chief place in any true gospel ministry ? The inspired record of the early Christian Church gives us complete answer to this question. That record bulks large with one thing — 2)reaching Christ. " Every day in the temple and at home, they ceased not to preach Jesus the Christ " (Acts 5 : 42). Philip went down to a city of Samaria and preached Christ (Acts 8 : 5), Saul was scarcely a convert when straightway he preached Jesus, that He is the Son of God (Acts 9 : 20). '^ We preach Christ crucified," Paul said to the Church at Corinth, — " Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God " (1 Cor. 1 : 23, 24). And as if that were not enough he added, " I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified " (1 Cor. 2 : 2). Clearly those early preachers made it their pre- eminent business to preach Christ. And the business of their day, is the business of our day. The times have changed, but the desperate needs of dying men 55 j;6 The Ideal Ministry- have not changed. The blessed truths of the Gospel of the Son of God have not changed. The Jews and the Greeks of Paul's day were types of permanent classes of men. They showed two distinct tendencies which have had manifestation ever since, leading to a false, one-sided materialism, and a false, one-sided rationalism. They are present to-day — active, bold, aggressive in their demands. And to-day, as in apos- tolic times, these two tendencies are to be met, not by signs nor by wisdom, but by preaching Christ. 1. Our times in special need of a clear understand- ing of the meaning of the phrase " preaching Christ." {a) Christianity has so fought and won its way to the world's recognition, that men are wearing its name without possessing its essential spirit. There is abroad an unmistakable desire on the part of men to be counted as Christians. They hotly resent the charge of " infidelity " ; and the answering charge of " bigotry " rings through the air. Thomas Buckle, fterbert Spencer, and lesser lights, with similar tend- encies, have been classed as in the Christian ranks of our age. Men who look upon the Bible as they look upon Plato's Phaedo or the Koran of Mohammed, do not hesitate to call themselves Christians. Men who boast of being members of no sect nevertheless claim to be Christians. We hear those who are fond of de- claring their faith in the absolute religion, indulging in a style of negation concerning definite religious truth that leaves no ground to stand on. They do not worship the Bible nor yet Christ, they say. They do not go to church. What of that ! The great thing is to be a Christian. We have an absolute Christianity, a broad church Christianitj'', a liberal Christianity, a Its Preeminent Business 57 Christianity not willing to assert that Christianity is the only true religion ! Yerily we need to reproduce and bring out boldly the sharp outlines of the old faith. Can a man believe anything, and yet preach Christ ? Still another spirit of the times voices itself in the cry, " Back to Christ ! " " Give us less doctrine and more life ; less Paul and more Jesus ! " Surely, there is imperative need that we understand what it is to preach Christ. If an ideal ministry is to follow apos- tolic example and not know anything among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, these vague notions and this hazy iadefiniteness as to what this phrase, " preaching Christ" means, must give w^ay to exactness of thought and precision of speech. Let us grasp its scope, its true significance, its vital facts and truths. Let us weigh our words as those who are buying the truth. The very innermost substance and soul of the preacher's message are here. 2. To preach Christ according to the Scriptures is to preach Him as God and man^ ])erfect in hoth natures^ God manifest in the fleshy the supreme gift of divine love^ and the power unto salvation from, sin and endless death^ hy atoning^ expiatory sacrifice, through faith. (a) Before all else there must be a true conception and presentation of the person of Christ, if He is to be Scripturally preached. He is in the Christian system, and the soul of it, as no personality ever was in a cause. " I am the Way ; " "I am the Truth;" "I am the Life ; " " I am'the Door ; " " I am the Light of the world ; " " I am the Resurrection and the Life." " Come to Me." " Be- lieve in Me." " Follow Me." " No man cometh to 58 The Ideal Ministry the Father but by Me." It were easier to untwist all the beams of light and to get at and expunge one of the colours fixed there of God, than to get the person of Christ out of the Gospel. But what kind of a person is He who is so insepa- rably connected with this Gospel that if you take Him out you take its heart out ? He is a man — a tempted, tried, suffering man, touched with the feeling of human infirmity ; a real man of body, soul and spirit, of flesh and blood. Otherwise, He could not die, and so meet and conquer death. " Since the children are sharers in flesh and blood. He also Himself in like manner partook of the same " (Heb. 2 : 14). He is a perfect man. If there is human flaw in the Man of Nazareth, He is just like other men, and the whole scheme fails. If He ever sinned, He needs a Saviour, and cannot be the sinner's Saviour. He claims for Himself freedom from sin: " I do always those things that are pleasing to the Father " (John 8 : 29). " The prince of the world cometh and hath nothing in Me " (John 14 : 30). He is tempted, but never yields to temptation. He bids men repent, but He never repents. He is the Lamb without blemish — the Just One, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. But He is God as well as man : God manifest in the flesh — a divine incarnation. He claims equality with the Father. He asks men to trust Him as they trust God ; to honour Him as they honour God. He does not invite discipleship ; He commands it. He lays His hand upon all the dearest and most treasured loves of the human heart, and demands a superior love, saying : " He that loveth father or mother more Its Preeminent Business 59 than Me is not worthy of Me." He claims divine pre- rogatives. He accepts without rebuke the glowing confession of Thomas, " My Lord and my God." Clearly he who preaches the Scriptural historic Christ must preach Him as a divine-human person- ality— God manifest in the flesh. (h) But what was behind this strangely constituted personality ? What led to this marvel of marvels — God manifest in the flesh ? Two things — a motive and a purpose. The motive was love ^' the purpose was sal- vation. The love was for a lost world ; the salvation is from sin and death. Here then are two things more that must be preached, if Christ is preached. First, He must be preached as the supreme gift of divine love for a lost world. The sufficient and blessed warrant for this is that deep word of Scrip- ture : " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life " (John 3 : 16). "Jesus Christ tasted death for every man." "We can- not preach Christ according to the Scriptures without preaching Christ's " whosoever " invitation. We can- not preach Christ according to the Scriptures without preaching the love of God as sufficient for, as adapted to, and as taking every legal obstacle out of the way of, every sinner of all the w^orld, and as on these grounds to be freely offered to every sinner of all the world. If Christ is preached, this love of God will have no limitation of race or caste or colour. But a second thing must be preached, if Christ is preached. Christ must be set forth as the power unto salvation from sin and endless death. 6o The Ideal Ministry > If love was the motive of the marvellous manifesta- tion— God manifest in the flesh — the purpose was sal- vation. The angel said to Joseph concerning the child that was to be born of Mary, " Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." He was given to the world " that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish." His own great, solemn, assuring, authoritative word is : "I know Mine own and Mine own know Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish." Jesus Christ is a Saviour. He did not come, therefore, simply or mainly, with a system of education or of reformation, but with a system of salvation. The gospel system of ethics is transcendently above any other ethical system, and to those who are in Christ it is an ideal rule of life. If, however, the Gospel is simply a scheme of morals to correct men's conduct then the divine incarnation was superfluous. But the Gospel is infinitely more than a code of ethics. It is a supernatural, rescuing force, not of the world nor of the ruin in the world ; but a power from without, from above. It is God moving in the midst of the ruin, come in the person of Christ to seek and save. And to save, not from misfortune so much, not from trouble, not from ignorance, not from sorrow, but from sin, the fountain and source of all these ills ; and from endless death as the penalty of sin. Sorrow is the badge of all the race, and Chris- tians must wear it, like all the rest. But the Gospel sanctifies sorrow, gives the conquering spirit in sorrow, and makes joys flash from the very swing of it. To preach Christ, therefore, is to preach Him as a Its Preeminent Business 6l Saviour from sin — God manifest in the flesh is the power unto salvation from sin and endless death. But to save how ? After what manner ? Through what instrumental agency ? On what ground ? Where does the gospel record put the power of Christ to save? The answer is clear and unmistakable. Holy Scripture does not leave this vital matter in even the least shadow of doubt. Christ is a Saviour from sin and death through His atoning^ expiatory sacrifice. It is Christ as crucified that must be preached if He is to be preached accord- ing to the Scriptures. The salvation is a salvation through suffering. The redemption is a redemption by blood. Preaching God manifest in the flesh as a divine teacher, with divine credentials, come to teach divine truth and to exhibit divine life : preaching that satisfies itself with presenting the divine assumption of human- ity, for divine instruction and divine guidance and divine example and divine sympathy, if it stop there, is not apostolic preaching. Eloquent laudation of the character and life of Christ will not suffice. The added recognition of Him as a divine incarnation, leaves still a mutilated Gospel. Even the presentation of His death, as the sacrifice of love in innocence, and as an expression of suffering sympathy, is not enough. The " moral " theory of the atonement is a truth of the atonement, but not the whole truth. There must be recognition of Christ's death as an expiation for sin. So, the sacrifice of the cross is not merely suffering in behalf of others. Many a mother has suffered even unto death, in behalf of her wayward, sinning child. 62 The Ideal Ministry- Many a father has broken his heart over the cry, " Where is my wandering boy, to-night ? " But no amount of a father's suffering or a mother's sorrow has ever taken away a child's sin. This is the differ- ence between the sacrifice of Christ and all other sacri- fice— and the difference is immense. Between the two a great gulf is fixed. Just one thing more is involved in this preeminent business of preaching Christ ; namely, that He be preached as the power of God unto salvation, only and solely " through faith.'''' He that helieveth shall be saved. The justifying righteousness of the Son of God must be so presented that it shall be apprehended by faith^ as the first act of the sinner, antecedent to penitence and love. No right feelings can have birth in a sinner's heart, save as they are awakened by ap- propriate objects. A crucified Christ alone can waken penitence for sin and love for the Saviour. Faith alone can accept Christ as crucified — looking believingly to Him as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Faith is the root of love. We cannot love aright where we do not trust. And penitence is the tear in the eye of faith. Christ must therefore be so preached that YLh justi- fying righteousness shall be offered to faith and ac- cepted by faith — not offered to penitence ; not to love. If the sinner wait for penitence and love he will wait in vain. Faith is the hand of the heart that reaches out and takes. Free justification without any antece- dent whatever, save its acceptance by faith — this is the vital necessity in preaching Christ. He that helieveth shall be saved. Trust is the entrance-gate to eternal life. [N'ot prayers, nor tears, nor works; not self- Its Preeminent Business 63 denials ; not walking miles on a Malabar coast with spikes in one's slioes, nor swinging with hooks in one's living flesh as the pagan heathen do ; not giving up outward flagrant sins and going to church and contrib- uting to good causes, as the Christian heathen do. "Just as I am without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come." This is " the way " that must be preached, if Christ is preached. Let us again hear the sum of the whole matter : The preeminent business of an ideal ministry is preach- ing Christ as God and man, perfect in both natures, God manifest in the flesh, the supreme gift of divine love, and the power unto salvation from sin and end- less death, by atoning, expiatory sacrifice, through faith. If less than this, it is not in entire and absolute fidelity to Jesus Christ. If less than this, the truth may have been preached, but not the whole truth. But is there not something that holds supreme place in this preeminent business of preaching Christ ? Is there not a central theme so vital, so profound, so far- reaching, so transcendently important, as to have no rival in the claims it makes for conspicuity, emphasis, and indispensableness in God's plan of salvation for lost men ? We must find our answer in Holy Scripture. VI THE IDEAL MmiSTRY— ITS CENTRAL THEME : CHRIST CRUCIFIED SYLLABUS • 1 . In the preeminent business of preaching Christ there is a central theme, so vital and far-reaching as to have no rival in the claims it makes for conspicuity and emphasis in God's plan of salvation. That theme is Christ crucified. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments runs a crimson thread. ( a) The first word of Messianic prophecy points to a suf- fering Redeemer, and the first word of the New Testament is " Behold the Lamb of God." And the song of the ransomed heavenly host is, ' ' Re- deemed by blood." (6) The incarnation was in order to crucifixion, (c) The resurrection points back to the crucifixion. Christ could not stay in the tomb and be a Saviour. {d) The ascension is another witness. Christ must not die again, if He would prove Himself Lord of life and death, (e) His ceaseless intercession has its sole warrant in His crucifixion. 2. By this sign the Church has conquered. Not by an ethical Christ, or a sociological Christ, or a civic-righteousness Christ, but by a crucified Christ. (a) It was this the early Christians lifted aloft after their Lord ascended to glory. (&) It was this that made the Reformation host invincible, (c) It has been this that has studded history with the mighty triumphs of redemption. 3. This is not only the indispensable condition of an ideal gospel ministry : it is the crucial test of any gospel ministry. VI THE IDEAL MINISTKY— ITS CENTRAL THEME: CHEIST CEUCIFIED A CAREFUL reading of the Scripture makes it clear that there is a central theme, holding unrivalled place in the Word of God, and that this central theme is Christ crucified. It is upon this truth and fact that Holy Scripture puts the emphasis with singular and marvellous iteration. Prophet, apostle, and Jesus Himself point to the sacrifice as the central fact in the redemption scheme. (a) The bloody sacrifices of the Jewish ritual were types and symbols of what should be at the end of the ages, when Christ should be manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9 : 26). Isaiah tells us with pathos and tears of a coming Messiah as " a man of sorrows," " despised and rejected of men " : that it '' pleased the Lord to bruise Him," to " make His soul an offering for sin," to " wound Him for our transgressions," and " bruise Him for our iniquities." And this crimson thread that stretches through the Old Testament colours all the warp and woof of the New Testament. (b) The first thing we hear from the lips of John the Baptist as he sees Jesus is this : " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Paul tells us God set forth Christ Jesus to be a propitiation " by His blood " ; and that we are 67 68 The Ideal Ministry " justified " *' by His blood," and have " redemp- tion through His blood." Peter assures us we are " redeemed with precious blood, even the blood of Christ." John speaks of the blood of Christ as cleans- ing us " from all sin." And what is the Lord's Sup- per but a sacrament wherein, as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we do " show the Lord's death till He come." Listen to Jesus Himself : " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." And the inspired writer adds : " This He said signifying by what death He should die." From Christ's own lips therefore we have the distinct avowal that it was by His death — not by His incarnation, nor by His doctrine, nor by His miraculous deeds, but by His death — that He was to have His redemptive power, and draw men to Him. Look now into heaven with the vision of John of Patmos : " Who are these with white robes, and palms ? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the hlood of the Lamb ! " Catch the notes of the new song sounded out in heaven's hallelujahs : " Worthy art Thou, O Lamb of God, to receive blessing and power and glory and honour, for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." Go search the Scriptures, or God's book of Provi- dence, or heaven itself for any other note of redemp- tion, and you will not find it. Whom did the apostles constantly preach ? Christ incarnate ? Christ the great teacher ? Christ the moralist ? ]^ay, verily. Paul says, " We preach Christ crucified." And he Its Central Theme 69 came to the Church at Corinth " determined not to know anything else." To the materialistic Jews this was a " stumbling block." To the rationalistic Greeks it was "foolishness." They did not like it. And the materialists and the rationalists do not like it now. But to the saved then, and to the saved now, Christ crucilied is the " power of God and the wisdom of God." " Far be it from me to glory," is Paul's triumphant word, " far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The cross, the blood, the death, the propitiation, the sacrifice, the crucifixion — surely, it is upon this the Word of God throws the tremendous emphasis. Everywhere in these Scriptures the cross is lifted up ; every page is splashed with the blood. Look where we may, we find a sign-board pointing to Calvary and the crucifixion. The four great facts in the gospel record — the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Ascen- sion and the Intercession of Jesus Christ — that form what may well be called the gospel quadrangle, have as their centre an uplifted cross. They face that cross, point to that cross, have no worth and no significance apart from that cross. Take John's deep saying that tells us of the incarnation : " In the beginning was the Word . . .* and the Word was God . . . and the Word was made flesh." Why this marvellous birth ? We are expressly told why. " Since the chil- dren are sharers in flesh and blood He also (Christ) Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their life- time subject to bondage " (Heb. 2 : 14, 15). In other yo The Ideal Ministry words He was born that He might die. Incarnation was in order to crucifixion. Men, it is true, are saying differently. They are making the incarnation and the life chief, and the death incidental. They are magnifying the incarna- tion and minimizing the crucifixion. Well, let us not abate the exceeding great glory of God incarnate — God manifest in the flesh. It is the wonder of the ages — an integral, essential part of the divine and wondrous plan of redemption. It was a stupendous act of divine condescension for God to send " His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh," as the apostle puts it, but the condescension and humil- iation are seen to go deeper far, when the apostle adds that God sent His own Son in the likeness of sin- ful flesh as " an offeringfor sin!''' This was the end, of which the manifestation in the flesh was the means. In other words, Christ partook of flesh and blood that He might die, and, through death, bring the devil to nought, and deliver the sinner. There were other ends of the incarnation, beyond a doubt. It hallows childhood. It tells mothers to give over anxious thought about their dead babes. Christ was a babe. Can He ever forget a mother's love and kiss ? Did He not say, " Of such is the king- dom of heaven " ? The incarnation also hallows la- bour. " The son of a carpenter ! " What a world of significance there is in that phrase I How impossible that true Christianity should have no sympathy for the men that toil. The incarnation also gives '' the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It shows us a great High Priest, " touched with the feeling of our infirmities." But all these ends Its Central Theme 71 are secondary and subordinate. The chief, conspicuous, transcendent purpose of God manifest in the flesh was that through death redemption might come. " It be- hooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, ... to make propitiation for the sins of the people." {6) The resurrection of Christ is another sign-board pointing to Christ crucified. As the incarnation looked forward to the crucifixion, so the resurrection looks backward to the crucifixion. Paul says, " It is Christ Jesus that died ; yea, rather, that was raised from the dead." This makes it seem as if resurrection must come to pass, or crucifixion will be of no avail. And now that Christ has died, it certainly is an absolutely indispensable thing that He should rise again. For, if Christ be not risen, preaching is vain and faith is vain, and, reverently be it said, the cross is vain. Jesus must not stay in the toinb ! The sepulchre must be emptied and emptied by Himself, in His own in- herent power as Lord of life and death. Let us see why. In the first place, Christ had committed Himself. He had said, " I am the resurrection and the life." He had said, " Destroy this temple " — meaning His body — '* and in three days I will raise it up." He had also said, " No man taketh My life from Me. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again." But there He is on the cross, in the hands of His enemies, after all His declarations of power. They are railing and jeering at Him. They are saying, " Let us see if no man can take the life of this im- postor and blasphemer ! " They are sneeringly re- 72 The Ideal Ministry minding Him of what He had said : " Ha ! Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save Thyself and come down from the cross, that we may see and believe." He Himself cried out, " My God ! My God ! Why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " Some other cries came from Him : " Father, forgive them ; " " Into Thy hands I commend My spirit ; " " It is finished." And He was dead. His cause seemed lost. If ever on earth there was ap- parently utter failure, it was there at Calvary. They took Him from the cross, dead. Suppose He had re- mained there, dead ; His body turning to corruption, and nothing more heard of Him ! Who would have believed that He was Lord of life and death, if He had died and turned to dust in the tomb like all the rest of us ? So He came forth from the grave in proof of His divine mission. He was "declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead " (Kom. 1 : 4). The risen Christ points to the crucified Christ, and says to all who belong to Him : " I died that you might live ; and, behold, I live that you may never die." But where is He now, this once born, and dead, and risen Saviour ? He is at the right hand of God. How did He get there ? Did He die again and go by death's road? Never. That would have throvvn doubt on the resurrection. That would have made the crucifixion an ordinary tragedy. That would have left the incarnation a delusion or a dream. {d) Jesus Christ must not die again. And He did not. This is the way He went back to His Father's house : One day " He led His disciples out until they were over against Bethany, and He lifted up His hands Its Central Theme 73 and blessed them. And it came to pass while He blessed them He parted from them ; a cloud received Him out of their sight." He was taken up into heaven ; and He " sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." How sweet and calm and simple and beautiful. Nothing spectacular. No parade. No gorgeous display. No retinue of angels. The glory was in the thing itself. It befitted the Lord of life and death. He had once been down in the valley of the shadow of death ; He had entered its awful gloom. And having died, the just for the unjust, and made spoil of death and robbed the grave of victory, He must needs go home this conquering way. It was a way of power and victory. It hushed the jeers and ribald taunts of men who shouted at His cross, " He saved others ; Himself He cannot save." And it cast a new glory on the crucifixion. Mark the immediate effect upon His disciples. When Christ died they were disheartened. They knew not what to do. They " thought it had been He which should redeem Israel." And He was dead. They were filled with sorrow. Peter got back at his old trade, and went a fishing. But when Christ ascended from Olivet, and they saw Him no more, were they sad and troubled ? Did they have a shadow of doubt of His redeeming power ? That ascension illumined the cross. It pointed to Calvary. It emphasized the crucifixion. Christ, " when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever^ sat down on the right hand of God (Heb. 10 : 12). {e) And no w for the last great fact in the redem pti ve scheme. Christ's intercession — which way does that point? The writer to the Hebrews says that Christ 74 The Ideal Ministry " because He abideth forever hath His priesthood un- changeable. Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them " (Heb. 7 : 24, 25). And the basis for this per- petual intercession is the crucifixion. " Once, at the end of the ages, hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself " (Heb. 9 : 26). This is the ground of His plea before God. It is on the basis of His crucifixion that He makes His interces- sion. " They are Mine," is the word of His heavenly advocacy. ''I bought them with My blood. I laid down My life for them. I went into the blackness of darkness of that crucifixion hour that I might save them from the hour and power of darkness. Thou didst covenant with Me, that if I should die they might live. They are Mine ; and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. And I am glo- rified in them." If Christ had not died, and so pur- chased redemption for His people, He would have no case at heaven's court. And so it is : Incarnation, Eesurrection, Ascension, and Intercession^ all point to crucifi^xion. They all join with John the Baptist saying, " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Surely, surely, the central theme of an ideal gospel ministry is Christ crucified ! 2. And by this sign the Church has conquered : Not by an ethical Christ or a sociological Christ, or a civic-righteousness Christ, but by a crucified Christ. The times of her aggressive spiritual force, when she has multiplied her victories as the drops of the morning, have been the times when she has lifted up the cross Its Central Theme 75 and preached a crucified Saviour, and said to men — burdened, troubled, weary, sin-sick — "Behold the Lamb of God I Look and live ! Believe and live ! " (a) It was so with those early Christians who saw their Lord pass up to glory. When a cloud received Him out of their sight they " returned to Jerusalem with great joy," the Scripture record tells us. And from Jerusalem they went to the ends of the earth, " glorying in the cross," preaching " Christ crucified," who had entered into heaven itself now and forever to appear before God in the behalf of those whom He had " bought with a price." Under the inspiration of this blessed belief they met mad mobs, they faced wild beasts. AVhen their bodies were flung into the flames, they said to the quivering flesh, " Be still, O flesh, and burn." And they died with the prayer on their lips, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." They went everywhere preaching Christ crucified. They determined not to know anything else among men. They gloried in nothing but the cross (Gal. 6 : 14). By and by, alas, the symbol of that cross came to be substituted for the reality of it ; penance took the place of " the blood," the " crucified one " was hidden beneath a mass of forms and rites and fasts and cere- monial observances. Jesus was crowded out by Jesus' mother. (h) Then the Protestant Keformation burst upon the world. That moral and spiritual revolution was simply a restoration of Christ to His supreme place in the min- istry of the Word, as the crucified one. The doctrine of justification by faith alone led the sinner straight to Calvary ; and there, at the foot of the cross, he looked 76 The Ideal Ministry up into the face of the crucified Christ and found a Saviour. And again the Church was mighty to the pulling down of Satan's strongholds. (c) So it has ever been. Call the roll of the men of God who have cut wide swaths, who have been conspicuous as winners and builders of souls — Melanchthon, Knox, Luther, Edwards, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Robertson, Finney, Maclaren, Hall, Moody and a multitude more — and see whether the men who have preached Christian ethics and Christian socialism and Christian civics, and made these and like topics central in their ministry, have been any match, in spiritual power and spiritual victories for the men whose central theme has ever and con- spicuously been Christ crucified! Did a Gospel of Christian socialism, or a Gospel of Christian ethical precepts, or a Gospel of educational culture ever turn any community upside dovvn, or bring any great multitude to Christ, or make any church a har- vesting-place for souls ? I^ever. They are impotency itself, in the presence of the god of this world ruling in an unregenerate heart. Are then a sociological Christ and an ethical Christ and a civic righteousness Christ of no value in the gospel ministry ? Of abso- lutely no value whatever except as they are adjuncts to the crucifixion— fringes in the rohe of Chrisfs righteousness woven in the loom, of suffering^ side- lights to that central sun that flung out from Calvary its heams of light and life upon a world of darkness and death. Nothing but " Christ crucified " is " the power of God and the wisdom of God. Is any ideal gospel ministry possible without it ? Is any gospel ministry possible without it? Suppose every man Its Central Theme 77 now at this preeminent business of preaching Christ should challenge his own record as to the place given in his ministry to "Christ crucified." If he should go, in the light of God's word, and led by the Holy Spirit, to a review of his past, what would he be likely to find as distinctively and unchallengeably manifest in his ministry of the Word; not impliedly manifest back somewhere in the hidden depths of his own conscious- ness, but openly manifest to the sight of men? Would it be that here is a man who intensely believes " there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved " (Acts 4 : 12), and who is determined not to know anything among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2 : 2), and who glories in nothing save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been cruci- fied unto Him and He unto the world ? (Gal. 6 : 14). 3. Surely this is not only the indispensable condi- tion of an ideal gospel ministry ; it is the crucial test of ANY gospel ministry. But let us be swift to say, this is no narrow limita- tion of the gospel message. It is as high as heaven, as deep as hell, as wide as the universe. The cross is the radiant centre. Out from it stretch the radii. However remote the circumference, lines drawn from it anywhere verge towards the centre. The preacher does not need and should not have any preaching to the " times," or to the " occasion," that shuts out Christ or hides His cross. The power of the ministry, that shall meet the yearning and heart-hunger of men, that shall uplift humanity and bring it back to God, is not in rites and ceremonies, not in imposing ritualistic forms, not in robed prelates and superfluous benedic- 78 The Ideal Ministry tions, not even in organized agencies and wise plans and skillfully directed activities ; nor is it in preaching to the day, nor in preaching science or philosophy — the power is not in any or all of these. ISTor is the power so much in truths and doctrines; but in the truth and the doctrine. There is but one. All the wisdom, all the love, all the forgiveness and the ten- derness and the patience and the pathos and the power of God are in that word — Christ crucified. We may be sure this is not restricting preaching to any narrow field, nor compelling any monotonous repetition. This will be the apprehension only of him who has failed of comprehending the cross of Christ in its relation to God, and eternity, and the divine law, and the human soul, and duty, and destiny. " The maturest and ablest men in the Christian minis- try will testify with tears of delight and thankful- ness that the gracious mystery of redemption by the cross has ever more grown before the vision of their reverence and love until it has filled all things with its mournful, holy and infinite glory. They will testify further that the cross of Christ is the only key which can open the secrets of human history. Apart from that cross is confusion without hope, ... a the- ology without religion, a temple without a God. . . . In holding up that cross over the whole field of human sin and want, the finest powers may be exercised and exhausted," evoking from men dead in sin, penitence, loyalty, service, devotion, sacrifice, and lifting them up to a life hid with Christ in God. Moreover, to preach Christ is to preach all the per- fections and glories of God Himself ; for in Christ dwelt, and dwelleth, all the fullness of the Godhead Its Central Theme 79 bodily. The glory of God is seen nowhere else as in the face of Jesus, He being *' the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person." Power belongeth unto God, but in Christ is the ex- ceeding greatness of His power manifesting itself not simply over inanimate material things, but over living souls — the highest and sublimest display of^power. Wisdom belongs to God. But to preach Christ is to preach God's wisdom in preeminence — His "manifold wisdom." For it is written, " Unto the principalities and the powers in heavenly places shall be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which He pur- posed in Christ Jesus." God is glorious in holiness ; but His holiness finds its intensest and most transcendent expression at the cross. Justice^ too, is God's essential attribute, but he who would set it forth to men must preach Christ crucified, in whom the inviolability of the justice of God has its chief expression. But while Christ is the power, the wisdom, the glory, the justice, the truth of God, so that no preacher can dwell on these divine attributes without being led straight to Christ's cross for their climax and culmina- tion, there are some divine attributes that cannot be known at all, with any clearness, away from Christ. The infinite pity, the boundless compassion, the match- less and exhaustless sympathy — nature is silent about these ; creation gives no sign. They can only be preached as Christ is preached. To preach Christ to man as He is by nature, is to make profoundest exhibition of the illimitable need of man. Whence this august being, and why His tragic 8o The Ideal Ministry death, if man is not under a fearful condemnation I What balance is there for this power of an endless life with which Christ came, but this power of an endless death under which man is placed ! Preach the law, and it is only man's schoolmaster to bring him to Christ. Preach duty, and it sends the sinner who cannot discharge it to Him who was obedient unto death for the sinner's sake. And to preach Christ to the believer is to preach all the gifts and graces of godliness as they are of Him and in Him, who is made of God to every disciple wis- dom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemp- tion. Faith, love, joy, peace, humility, patience, gentleness, life itself, are all of Him as He is seen, appropriated, fed upon. Believers are complete in Him, built up in Him, transformed more and more into His likeness, as He is preached to them, and they behold His glory, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory. Endless are the sides and aspects in which He stands related to His people. Preaching Christ, monotonous ! Then infinite variety is monotonous. The preacher who thinks so should cry to God to open his eyes. For when the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. VII THE IDEAL MINISTEY— ITS ETERNAL SA:N^C- TI0:N^S : EVEELASTII^G LIFE AND DEATH SYLLABUS ' * Sanctions ' ' — not in the ordinary sense of approving, but in the deeper sense of enforcing authority. No other speech of man save preaching has God behind it. No other is mighty with the power of endless life and death. 1. He who gave these sanctions their widest, deepest significance, is He who came to seek and to save. 2. His coming and the way of His coming are a proof of the limit- less sweep of the two eternities. 3. He speaks with the same degree of poaitiveness of the one as of the other. 4. He makes the one as everlasting as the other. 5. But it was on the side of life and glory He loved most to dwell. And He says with an infinite tenderness and pathos that the way we treat Him makes the difference — whether we become heirs of God to an inheritance incorruptible, or are paid the wages of sin, which is eternal death. VII THE IDEAL MINISTEY— ITS ETERNAL SAXC- TIOXS : EVEELASTmG LIFE AXD DEATH ANOTHEK of the great and mighty ideas con- nected with the preaching of the Gospel, and that tends to uplift and glorify it as the ideal ministry, is the eternal sanctions. It will be under- stood that this word " sanctions," is not here used in the ordinary sense of apjyroving^ but in the deeper sense of enforcing authority. No other speech of men has God behind it. And no other speech of men is mighty with the power of endless life and death. Every other word and work is of man, and has to do with time. This is of God, and has to do with eter- nity, and goes far to decide it for every soul it touches. What other message is there that men dare carry on their lips to other men, and say to them, " This is a savour of everlasting life or of everlasting death to you ? If you believe the message you will be saved. If you do not believe it you Avill be lost." 1. First of all, let it be distinctly borne in mind that He who gave these sanctions their widest and deepest significance, is He who came to seeJc and save. He did not come as a prosecuting attorney, represent- ing government and law, to make out a case against us. But seeing the case against us. He came to pro- vide a warrant and base for His unceasing and effectual advocacy in our behalf. He saw us " partakers of 83 84 The Ideal Ministry flesh and blood," and He came to be one of us, to as- sume our human nature, not to thunder accusations and send us on to perdition ; but to die in our behalf, to destroy Him that had the power of death, and to deliver us who were otherwise doomed to eternal bondage. And it is this Lord Christ, Son of Mary and Son of God, come " in the likeness of sinful flesh," yet without sin, who speaks the most clearly and weightily and frequently of these eternal sanctions. From no other lips have they fallen so often and so unchal- lengeably. It is this lover of our souls, this seeker and Saviour of the lost, who tells us most plainly what it means to be lost. It is His parables of the Lost Sheep, and the Lost Coin, and the Lost Boy, and the Lost Rich Man that reveal with a vividness and intensity beyond the possibility of human language to surpass, not only heaven's deep concern for the lost, but what a fearful thing it tnust he to he lost ! 2. Christ's coming and the way of His coming are a proof of the limitless sweep of the two eternities. Why should He who came from God and went to God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, and who was the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person — why should He walk that path of tears and blood until at last in utter anguish of soul the cry was wrung from Him, " My God ! My God ! Why hast Thou forsaken Me," if no great issues hung in the balance, and ever- lasting life and death are figments of the imagina- tion ! Why should Christ come " in the power of an endless life," if the power of an endless death is only a fancy or a dream. That anguish of Calvary must have some justification. Its Eternal Sanctions 85 3. Christ spake with the same degree of positive- ness of eternal death as He did of eternal life. His own representation of the final judgment is unmis- takable : " These shall go away into eternal punish- ment, but the righteous into eternal life " (Matt. 25 : 46). To privileged Capernaum He said : " It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." And beholding Jerusalem He wept over it, saying, '* O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, . . . how often would I have gathered thy children . . . and ye would not — henceforth your house is left unto you desolate." He said there would be at the last those applying for admission to heaven to whom He would say, "I never knew you ; " " Depart from Me ; " " The door is shut ; " " I^one of those which were bidden shall taste of My supper." If these are not finalities, then finality never found expression. 4. Christ represents the death and the life as alike everlasting. He applies to each the terms that mean " without end." Neither the words nor their setting indicate suspension of punishment, any more than sus- pension of reward. If the life continues right on, the death continues right on. If the life is spiritual, the death is spiritual. And spiritual death, here or here- after, is not extinction of being, but of well being. Moreover, the Gospel does not coin the punishment or make the sinner. Men are sinners. And there the punishment is. Hell therefore has not been built by the Gospel. There is a hell, Gospel or no Gospel. Does the headlight of the locomotive make the jaws of death into which the express train plunges because of a misplaced switch ? The danger is there and im- 86 The Ideal Ministry minent. And the headlight only tells the engineer he is swiftly approaching it. Sometimes the telling is too late. But the light of the cross flashed on the pathway of the sinner is never too late, if heeded. Heeding that light makes the difference. What we do with Christ makes the difference — whether we be- come heirs of God to an incorruptible inheritance, or are paid the wages of sin, which is eternal death. 5. But it was on the side of eternal life, its exalta- tions, its visions, its exceeding and eternal weight of glory, Christ loved most to dwell. And here He put the infinite pathos. In the parable of the talents we hear Him saying to each of the labourers who had gained anything by their talents, " Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord^ And the parable of the Pounds tells the same story : " Thy pound hath gained ten pounds ; have thou authority over ten cities.''^ And in that marvellous picture of the last scene, painted with Christ's own pencil, hear Him say- ing to the righteous, " Ye blessed of My Father, in- herit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda- tion of the world. For I was hungry and athirst and in prison, and ye ministered unto Me." And when they answer, Lord w^hen saw we Thee hungry and athirst and sick and in prison? The King shall answer, ''Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these least, My hrethren, ye did it unto MeP What wonderful promotions ! What marvellous stimulants ! What awe-inspiring and restraining motives ! If everlasting life and death enforce any- thing, if the love of God and the wrath of God have Its Eternal Sanctions 87 any significance, if God is not playing with our hopes and fears, and if Calvary is indeed an infinite sacrifice instead of an ordinary death of an ordinary criminal, then there is nothing so deep and so high and so mighty as the Gospel's eternal sanctions. And preaching is weighty with the word of endless life and death. "Who is sufficient for these things?" it may well be asked. Neither Paul, nor A polios, nor Cephas, nor an angel from heaven alone, even though perfect man- hood in Christ Jesus be the supreme aim of the min- istry, and love its ruling spirit, and the Word of God its subject matter, and preaching Christ its preemi- nent business. There is still a divine accomjpanhnent^ vital to spiritual ^ower and victory. VIII THE IDEAL MINISTEY— ITS COOPEEATING AGE:NT : THE HOLY SPIEIT SYLLABUS Introduction. — In the prosecution of great worldly business enter- prises, there is often a silent partner. In the business of winning souls and building them up in Christ, there is always a silent partner. "It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." 1. This silent but mighty cooperating Agent in preaching can never be seen, though He can always be consulted. His co- operation is through faith not sight. 2. His cooperation in the work of the ministry is assured by ex- ceeding great and precious promises. 3. His specific cooperation in the construction and application of the sermon : (a) It marks the substantive difference between "preach- ing, ' ' and all eloquence born of the natural powers of man. (&) It is along the lines that are vital to spiritual power in the ministry. (1) In producing conviction of sin. (2) In begetting the new creature in Christ. (3) In exhibiting Christ for comfort, stimulus or rebuke. (4) In shedding abroad the love of God in the heart. (c) It starts with the selection of a theme or text, and continues throughout the entire construction and delivery of the sermon. Through the whole process the Holy Spirit may be, and should be, a cooperat- ing agent. VIII THE IDEAL MINISTKY— ITS COOPERATIIs^G AGENT : THE HOLY SPIKIT IN the prosecution of great worldly business enter- prises, there is often a silent partner. In the business of winning souls and building them up in Christ Jesus, there is always a silent partner. In the worldly business, the silent partner is often the most efficient. In the business of the kingdom of God, the silent partner is always the most efficient. Indeed there is no efficiency apart from Him. It is "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." 1. This silent mighty cooperating agent in preach- ing the Gospel, can never be seen, though He can al- ways be consulted. He is never behind locked doors, but we can never take Him by the hand. Com- munion with Him is always a blessed possibility : but He will never say to a doubting soul, as Christ said to doubting Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger." The cooperation must be through faith, not sight. In further confirmation, that the Spirit's coopera- tion is through faith, hear the Master's word to His disciples while He was with them in the flesh : "It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I go, I will send Him unto you." Why expedient ? Clearly, His body was in the way. It localized the 91 92 The Ideal Ministry kingdom, and the kingdom is by eminence a kingdom of spirit, where locality is nothing, and life is every- thing. So it was better for the Spirit to come than for Christ to stay. The touch of the hand is as nothing to the sight of the soul. 2. The Holy Spirit's cooperation in the work of the ministry is assured by exceeding great and precious promises. " If I go," said Jesus to His disciples, "I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) unto you, and when He is come. He will convict the world in respect of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. . . . He shall guide you into all truth. . . . He shall glorify Me for He shall take of Mine and de- clare it unto you (John 16 : 8, 13, 14). The Comforter whom the Father will send in My name — He shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you " (John 15 : 26). '' The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5 : 5). "We know not how to pray as we ought — but the Spirit helpeth our infirmity — maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God " (Rom. 8 : 26, 27). 3. The Holy Spirit's specific cooperation in the construction and application of the sermon. Everything in the structure of a sermon may be referable to human powers. But if it be genuine spiritual discourse, it has come from natural powers only as " enlightened, sustained and made adequate to the result " by the Holy Spirit. {a) This makes the substantive difference between preaching and all eloquence born simply of the natural powers of man. Even the commonest operations of spiritual life, such as prayer or the reading of God's Its Cooperating Agent 93 "Word, are profitable only as the Spirit has part in them. We read the letter only, without Him to aid in the reading; and prayer is empty and vain speech, un-, less He help our infirmities and teach us how to prayJ But this high and holy work of preaching, unfolding divine truth, analyzing and developing Scripture texts that are the very mind of God, " speaking as God's mouth the infinite things of the Spirit," — can it be anything else than divine-human work ? Take away the cooperating agency of the Holy Spirit in the analysis of the text, the preparation of the plan, and the rhetorical construction and actual delivery of the sermon, and what is it, what can it be, but simply natural discourse — a human product, and not a divine- human product ? The mere use of the letter of God's Word does not lift the discourse out of the natural into the spiritual realm. It is only when He, the Holy Spirit, preaches that we have true preaching. (p) This cooperation of the Spirit is along the very lines that are vital to spiritual power and victory in the ministry of the Word. (1) The preacher would produce conviction of sin by his sermon. But this is the Spirit's specific and exclusive office. He alone can do this initial thing in the process of making a man a new creature in Christ Jesus. So the preacher will seek the Spirit's guidance in his choice of a tool suited to the specific need ; and His guidance also in the unfolding and application of the truth. (2) But suppose conviction is alread}^ wrought, and the preacher is now after instant and absolute sur- render— a new creature in Christ Jesus. " Except one man be born be cannot see the kingdom of God." 54 The Ideal Ministry But born of whom f The Holy Spirit ! And straight to Him the preacher goes for His cooperation, in the preparation of the sermon that shall be adapted to bring to pass this great thing. (3) But again ; the object of the preacher may be to bring vividly to the sight and heart of a child of God some beauty or glory of Christ for his comfort or stimulus or tender rebuke. Here again the preacher comes upon a blessed office of the Spirit. It is the glory of the Spirit to glorify Christ. And so the preacher turns to the Spirit, and seeks His help in the making of the sermon that is designed to exhibit new beauty in Christ Jesus that we should desire Him. (4) Or again, the preacher would magnify and make more potential in his people's hearts God's boundless love. And again he turns to the Holy Spirit for His special help in this blessed business ; for he knows that " the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.'^'* {c) This cooperation of the Spirit in the preaching starts with the selection of a theme, or the choice of a text, and continues through the meditation on it, the elucidation of it, the construction of the discourse, and its actual delivery. It is not simply there, at the contact of the sermon with the hearer's heart in the public assembly that His aid is to be invoked and expected. Throughout the whole process He is a cooperating agent. Ignore this and we are left to naturalism in the most important department of ministerial toil. Let the preacher believe it, get thoroughly possessed with the conviction that in the entire ordering, as well as in the issues, of horailetic preparation for the pulpit the Spirit of God has a Its Cooperating Agent 95 cooperating agency — tliat the mightiest agent in the universe is silentl}^, constantly, lovingly working with him in all the process of the sermon, and in all the conduct of the public service, and what intensity of devotion will be given to it ! A zeal, in temper with the Holy Spirit's zeal — which must be as Christ's ^vas — will be the preacher's as he studies and analyzes and plans in the prosecution of his preparation for the Sabbath and the sanctuary. The Summary Let us now once more call the roll of this mighty succession that makes up the ideal ministry, and that stamps the proclamation of the Gospel as the tran- scendent work of this world. Preaching is its jper- onanent function / bringing men to Christ and mak- ing them like Christ is its supreme aim ; love is its ruling spirit', the "Word of God is its suhject-7natter j preaching Christ is its jpreeminent business ^ Christ crucified is its central theme; everlasting life and death are its eternal sanctions ; and the Holy Spirit is its cooperating agent. The Searching Interrogatives Suppose now we change these affirmatives into interrogatives, and that they lie there on the study table of the man of God, and look up into his face for answer every week as he begins his work of ser- monizing. The first question that faces him is. What is my permanent^ paramount function in the pulpit ? It is preaching — first, and last and Silwsiys— preaching. To this God has called me. I have been given a 96 The Ideal Ministry message, and I am to deliver that message ; with every variety of style indeed, with every help of logic and illustration ; but I am to deliver the message. Teaching is not preaching, unless it is oi^atorical teach- ing, aimed at the will. Instruction is not preaching, except as instruction means, first and last and always, persuasion. Exegesis is not preaching, though exe- gesis may be, and often should be, used in preaching. An exegesis, however learned and exhaustive and evangelical, is not a sermon, though it may con- tribute to the effectiveness of the sermon. Nor is commentary preaching. We may have whole pages and books of commentary, critically explaining the text, unfolding its meaning, freeing it from miscon- ception, and yet have not one word of preaching. Exposition and application; enlightenment (^^^^^t*- suasion / the intellect and the heart ; the conscience and the will — these are the marriages that must take place in the purpose of the preacher, to constitute true preaching ; and that must take place in the consciousness of the hearer to constitute effective preaching. " Is the sermon done?" was the question asked of a hearer, as he stepped from the sanctuary. "No," was the answer, "it is only preached. It still remains to be done." The great thing in preaching is to get the sermon done, by getting it transmuted into character, and translated into life. The second question supposed to look up at the preacher and to challenge answer, as he begins his weekly sermonic work, is this : What is my supreme aim in this weelc^s sermon f Is it to bring a sinner to Christ, or to make a Christian more Christlike ? It must be one or the other or both, to constitute Its Cooperating Agent 97 true preaching. Distinctly is my sermon for next Sunday to be planned so as to secure, in some distinct and definite way, more perfect manhood in Christ ? The third question facing the preacher, as he gets ready for next Sunday, is this : Is love my ruling spirit in the preparation of this sermon ? Love for God for whom I preach, love for the souls to whom I preach, love for Christ whom I preach, and love for the truth it is given me of God to preach ? How the mere ambition for literary fame, for eloquence of speech, for scholarly repute, for any kind of rep- utation whatever, born of this world, and time, would shrivel up and be consumed in the fire of this consuming love, if it were once and unchallengeably the ruling spirit of his ministry. Another question that looks appealingly up from the study table into the preacher's face for answer, and that should have clear and unhesitating reply, is this : Is my suhject-matter the Word of God f Is it God's Word I preach to-day — a clear, unchallenge- able, " Thus saith the Lord " ? And it goes without saying that the use of a Scripture text is no answer to this question. For, as we have already seen, a text may be torn from its nexus, and made to mean what the Holy Spirit never intended it should mean, when He placed it in the Scriptures. The text of the sermon may be the very letter of God's Word, and yet the sermon preached therefrom may have no scriptural warrant whatever. How easy it is, in the interests of a good purpose, to twist the Word of God to suit that purpose. How every preacher should watch his soul, and cry to God to keep him from making his own will God's will. g8 The Ideal Ministry Still another question that should have answer, in that first morning hour in the study: Is jpreaching Christ ray jpreeminent husinessf Am I showing it in my weekly ministry ? Does this sermon show it ? Not that every sermon should specifically and tech- nically preach Christ ; but that a succession of ser- mons should show trendy and that all sermonic roads should lead to Christ. And a question more vital if possible than all the others named, should look up in the preacher's face and get answer, viz.. Is the central theme of rny min- istry Christ crucified f Is my preaching prevailingly pointing men to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world ? The preacher knows. He can tell. If he has any doubt about it, his record will tell. Let him go back and see. Has the cross been often uplifted in his pulpit ? Has he made it clear to his hearers, by every possible variety of representation, and by every pressure of argument and appeal, that there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby they can be saved ? Then there is the question as to the Gospel's eternal sanctions / the things that give authority to the mes- sage, and make preaching tremendous with the possi- bilities of everlasting life and death, as they are wrapped up in the Gospel's acceptance or rejection. Have these eternal sanctions any rightful place in the preaching bidden us of God ? Did Christ make any room for them in the midst of His own marvellous, tender, solemn beseechings and warnings ? Then we must make room for them in our preaching, or be recreant to truth and to Him. What place have we given them ? Much place ? Little place ? Any Its Cooperating Agent 99 place ? No change of times or seasons, no feelings of love or pity or compassion, no conditions of refinement and culture can justify silence, where our blessed Lord has spoken — with divine and matchless tenderness in- deed ; with tears and a broken heart indeed ; but He has spoken, and with a fidelity we must try to equal, if we would tell His whole story. We never can preach His Gospel^ if we hide His cross. There is no heaven to the preacher who can be silent about hell ! And the crucifixion was a butchery, if it is not a dreadful thing to be lost ! Blessed be God, there is another question looking up into the preacher's face, in the quiet of his study, as he begins his sermonic work. And he asks himself, Who is with me in this mighty business f And the answer comes from the Lord's own lips. He had told the disciples He was going away, and sorrow filled their hearts. And He said, I will not leave you com- fortless. It is expedient for you that I go so that the Holy Spirit may come, and He will abide with you for- ever. And it will be His blessed business to " teach you all things," and to " bring to your remembrance all that I have said unto you." " He shall bear wit- ness of Me." " He will convict the world in respect of sin, of righteousness and of judgment." " He shall guide you into all the truth." " He shall glorify Me." And so the Holy Spirit is here. He is here to stay. He is the silent partner in this business of preaching. He is to take of the things of Christ and show them to us. All the riches of grace and glor}^ in Christ incon- ceivable. He is to open to us. And our preaching is to be not by might, nor by power, but by the Holy Spirit : convincing of sin, convincing of righteousness, convinc- loo The Ideal Ministry ing of judgment, transforming men more and more into the divine image from glory to glory, until they are set before the presence of God's glory with ex- ceeding joy. Should a sermon ever be prepared with- out the sermonizer's first asking and answering these questions ? What is my aim in this sermon ? What am I handling ? What is my spirit ? By what is my word enforced? Who is with me in the mighty business ? The ideal ministry indeed ! How peerless its claims 1 How limitless its possibilities ! How superb its permanent function ! How lofty its aim ! How godlike its spirit ! What a Christ it preaches ! What a cross it lifts up 1 What everlastingness it puts into its inescapable alternatives! And what a partnership with God it furnishes in the person and presence and power of the Holy Spirit ! These are the great and mighty ideas that are in- dissolubly connected with the work of preaching, that uplift and glorify the homiletic art, and that are fitted to arouse a lofty enthusiasm in its prosecution. What are mortal daubings on canvas when painting can be done with eternity for a background ! What are Thorwaldsen's and Michael Angelo's chisellings in marble when sculptured souls, wrought into the very image of Christ, may be the immortal product of our toil ! What is it to make poems and orations that shall kindle only natural emotions, when sermons may be made that shall put a new song in the mouth and a new joy in the hearts of redeemed millions — the song to be sung and the joy to be felt forever and ever I PART TWO EELATED IDEALS IX THE ^^CALL" TO THE MINISTEY SYLLABUS I. What is the "call " to the ministry? (a) It is of God ; uot of mau. {b) It is immediate ; uot through a church or bishop, (e) It is iuterual ; the direct ageucy of the Holy Spirit on the heart. (d) It is effectual ; the called of God to the ministry get iuto the ministry. 1. Argument from Scripture. (a) The call to the sacred office under Old Testament dis- pensation was God's exclusive prerogative. (6) Christ made it His exclusive prerogative while on earth. (c) In every recorded case the "call" was immediate, personal and effective. ((/) The Church is to pray that He will continue to call. (e) Having ascended on high Christ answers this prayer, and continues to give the Church pastors and teachers. (/) The Scripture record, after Christ's ascension, shows that the "call " is now by the Holy Spirit, but still immediate, personal and effective. 2. Argument from the nature of the case. (a) The supreme head of every government appoints the persons that represent it. (b) Difference between God's call to a spiritual office and His call to an ordinary occupation. 3. Argument from the testimony of the Church. (a) Apostolic Church held that the "call " is by the Holy Spirit. (b) Churcli of Reformation so held. (c) Post-Reformation Churches characterized as evangelical have so held. II. How is the "call " certified to the individual ? (a) By the conviction that one ought to preach. (6) By the desire to preach. (c) By the possession of the natural qualifications — physical, intellectual and spiritual. (d) By the approving judgment of the Church. IX THE -'CALL" TO THE MINISTRY IS there a special call to the gospel ministry ? How is this call certified to the individual ? Very much more depends upon the answer to these questions than may at first appear. One's view of the ministry not anly, but his fitness for it and his efiiciency in it, will be largely determined by the view he takes of the call to the ministry, and of its proper authentication. If we hold that the divine call is through an infallible Church, whose voice is always and everywhere God's voice, then we have a ministry of priests whose authority consists in a certain sacred something that has come to them through the laying on of hands, and we are swung to the extreme of sacerdotal dogma. If we hold that the call is not, either in kind or degree, different from God's agency with reference to any other occupation, then we have a ministry that can be entered and left almost at will, and we are swung to the opposite extreme of license and the purest naturalism. What is the call to the ministry f It is of God, im- mediate, internal, effectual. It is of God^ not of man — divine, not human. It is immediate, not through a church or bishop. It is internal, the direct agency of the Holy Spirit on the heart — not external, as in providential cir- cumstances. 103 104 Related Ideals It is effectual. The called of God to the ministry get into the ministry. 1. Argument from the Scriptures In proof of this special, divine call our appeal should be taken first to the Scriptures. Do they fairly war- rant the view here taken ? To the law and the testi- mony. It cannot be questioned that God exercised over the sacred offices of the Mosaic dispensation an exclusive proprietorship. He did not assign to the mass of His people their several occupations. But He did dis- tinctly call and set apart certain persons to official spiritual service. It was " the word of the Lord " that came unto the prophets, and from Samuel to Malachi they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Aaron was named of God for the High Priesthood. And in Hebrews 5 : 14 it is expressly declared, " I^o man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron." When Christ was '^ made a High Priest forever," and " offered a sacrifice once for all," the sacrificing human priesthood was abolished. But the prophetic office, barring the predictive element, was perpetuated. While Christ abolished the priesthood, He established a ministry. He personally selected and called a cer- tain number to follow Him. He gave them personal instruction, and charged them alone with certain spir- itual and official functions. His final commission was twofold: they were to go into all the world and r)ialce disciples^ and they were to teach these disciples. In other words, they were to bring men to Christ, and then to build them up in Christ (Matt. 28 : 19-20). The "Call" to the Ministry 105 In proof that this evangelizing and teaching ministry was not simply apostolic we have the promise added to the charge: " Lo, I am with you alway, ^t>^7i unto the end of the world.'*'' To provide for the perpetua- tion of this ministry, and in proof that the agency of the Lord is jpersonal and vital in j)utting men into it, we have twice from Christ's lips this impressive com- mand, " Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest " (Matt. 9 : 38 ; Luke 10 : 2). So this command not only lays perma- nent obligation on the Christian Church thus to pray, but it just as truly indicates Christ's exclusive preroga- tive in sending men into the ministry. It is therefore not lineal descent nor an infallible Church, but the Lord Himself that designates who shall preach. But how ? In what way ? Is His agency indirect and providential ? Or immediate and spiritual ? The Scriptural record after the ascension seems clearly to indicate the latter. The first point in proof is the call and appointment of Matthias (Acts 1 : 15-26). One hundred and twenty disciples were met together, and at the suggestion of Peter they took the necessary steps to fill the place of Judas. They selected the two men who probably alone of that company possessed the requisite qualifications ; i. e., men who had been with the disciples all the time the Lord went in and out among them, and who could thus witness to His life and death and resurrection. They then prayed their ascended Lord that He would show which of these two He had chosen. And giving lots for them, the lot fell upon Matthias. It is objected that this whole proceeding was with- out divine sanction, and simply another proof of lo6 Related Ideals Peter's forwardness. In support of this objection it is said that the Holy Ghost was not yet given, that Matthias was never afterwards mentioned, that it ex- cludes Paul from the number of the twelve. To this it may be replied : (1) The Holy Ghost had been given (John 20 : 22), though not in the copious measure and miraculous way of Pentecost; (2) If Matthias is never again mentioned, neither are most of the other apostles ; (3) Paul was never numbered with the twelve as Judas' successor, but was distinct in his office as the apostle to the Gentiles. In proof of direct divine sanction, we have (1) The fact that the record is spread out in the inspired nar- rative with great fullness of detail and without a hint or suggestion of disapproval. Is it at all likely that an unciutliorized proceeding would here and thus be recorded? (2) After the death of Judas and until this choice of Matthias the apostles are called " the eleven " (Matt. 28 : 16 ; Mark 16 : 14 ; Luke 24 : 9, 33) ; after this choice, and before Saul's conversion, they are called " the twelve " (Acts 2 : 14 ; 6 : 2) . (3) The in- spired record expressly says of Matthias, " He was numbered with the twelve apostles." This, of itself, fixes Matthias' place, and so stamps his call as of God. Paul also was directly called of God. Over and over he states this fact : that he is an apostle by the commandment of God (1 Tim. 1 : 1), by the will of God (2 Cor. 1 : 1), that Jesus Christ put him into the ministry (1 Tim. 1 : 12), that he received his min- istry of the Lord Jesus (Acts 20 : 24). The Holy Ghost said (Acts 13 : 2), " Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." The "Call" to the Ministry I07 This was at Antioch where Paul was publicly or- dained along with Barnabas as a missionary to the heathen. Furthermore we have this Scriptural statement that when Christ ascended up on high, " He gave gifts unto men," and " He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers : for the perfecting of the saints ; for the work of the ministry ; for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11, 12). That this divine call is effectual^ all these Scriptures go to prove. They show not only that the Lord calls, but that the call is specific and personal, always to the individual, not general and to the mass. Hence, the selection is proof of the divine wish and purpose, and carries with it the idea of effectualness. Moreover, every man called, of whom we have record in Scrip- ture, was made to obey the call, though at first reluc- tant and even opposed. Moses remonstrated until the anger of the Lord gave an imperativeness to the call that silenced his opposition. Jonah sought to flee the divine call, and was landed in the belly of hell, till he repented and gave the call heed. The record is of obedience in every case. Whom God wanted to preach His Word, He got to preach it. We have, then, established by Scripture these points : {a) That the call to sacred office, under the Old Testament dispensation, was God's exclusive prerogative, (b) That Christ made it equally His ex- clusive prerogative while on earth, {c) That in every recorded case the call was immediate, personal and effectual, {d) That the Church is to pray that He will continue to call, {e) That having ascended on lo8 Related Ideals high He answers this prayer and continues to give the Church pastors and teachers, {f) The Scripture record, after Christ's ascension, shows that the call is now by the Holy Spirit, but still immediate, per- sonal and effective. The mode of the divine call has changed. The fact of the divine call remains. The call is no longer audible, for this is the dispensation of the Spirit. God, the Spirit, does not speak to the out- ward ear. His call is inner and silent, to the ear of the soul, but as immediate, personal and effectual as was Christ's when on earth. Those who hold to the contrary must show some Scriptural authority for their belief. They should be able to point to some statement of the Word declaring a change in the divine method of getting a ministry. 2. Argument From the Nature of the Case This argument is not used to sujpjjort the Scriptural argument, but to show that the two are in perfect harmony. By a sound, enlightened judgment on the case, we are brought to the same conclusion, as we are by the Word of God. The supreme head of every government appoints the persons that represent it. They are styled min- isters, ambassadors, heralds. They stand in the name of the power appointing them ; their business is not their own. They are called, chosen and sent. They never go merely of their own option. An ambassador without direct and sovereign appointment is an ab- surdity. ISTow, the preacher of the Gospel is named an am- bassador, a herald, a steward, a minister. But how The "Call" to the Ministry 109 can he be these without a commission, an appoint- ment ? And from whom but Christ, the head and king of the Church ? Does not right reason demand that he who declares himself an ambassador for CJirist^ so that it is as if God spake by him and he were in his king's stead, must hold a commission consciously from his divine sovereign, or be guilty of blasphe- mous presumption ! In reply to this it may be said. Let it be granted that Christ calls men to the ministry to be His am- bassadors : He also calls them to other occupations. God, in His providence, has a place and a work for every one of the subjects of His kingdom. To this the sufficient answer is. There is a manifest difference between God's providential agency and His spiritual agency, and between ordinary occupation and a spiritual office. The spiritual office has been cre- ated by Christ, the work in it depends upon the imme- diate presence and power of the Holy Spirit, and the call to it is therefore manifestly different from the call to occupations that are solely of man. Further- more, we do not pray that the Lord would send forth lawyers, physicians, merchants, mechanics. We are commanded to pray that He would send forth minis- ters. The supply for the former we know may be left to take care of itself. The supply for the latter cannot be so left. Yet why not, if God's agency is the same in either case ? A spiritual call concerns itself with spiritual things. God, by His Spirit, calls to a spiritual office. A providential call con- cerns itself more immediately with temporal things. God, by His providence, calls to an ordinary occu- pation. no Related Ideals 3. Argument From the Testimony of the Church The voice of the Church is not necessarily and always the voice of God. But if the Church, in all her best ages and branches, has been agreed in hold- ing the call to the ministry to be by the Holy Ghost, the fact does very greatly strengthen the conviction that this is the teaching of Scripture. That the apostolic age so held is proved by Scrip- ture. The form of a spiritual call to the ministry was maintained in the Church through the first centuries though the reality was ere long and often disregarded. This is clear from the forms of ordination used even after the development of a hierarchical theory of a priesthood. The words of the Greek Church were, " The divine grace which helpeth them that are weak and supplieth that which lacketh chose this godly deacon to be priest." " The Constitution of the Holy Apostles," a spurious work, whose date cannot be certainly fixed, but which doubtless appeared some- where in the very early centuries, appointed this prayer for ordination, " Grant by Thy name, O God, who searchest the hearts, that this Thy servant whom Thou hast chosen to be a bishop," etc. It early came to pass, as Chrysostom of the fourth century declares, that men were selected and advanced to the priestly dignity for causes which ought to have prevented them from passing over the pavements of the Church. Hence monasticism, the best life of the Church hidden in monasteries, through the corruption of the priesthood ; monks called by eminence religious ; the clergy called secular or worldly, not having taken upon themselves the vows of poverty. The sacerdotal The "Call" to the Ministry ill idea had become dominant, the sacraments, being exaggerated and perverted, and the preaching and teaching function almost wholly set aside. Growing out of this was the invention of the mass, the doctrine of transubstantiation, additional sacraments, priestly absolution, the confessional. With the Reformation the true idea of a call to the ministry was restored. We hear Luther, commenting on Jer. 23 : 31, after this fashion : " Await God's call. Meantime be satisfied. Yea, though thou wast wiser than Solomon and Daniel, yet, unless thou art called, avoid preaching as thou wouldest hell itself." Calvin held the same view. The Reformers of the Church of England, in arranging the formula for ordination, compelled each candidate to express his belief that he was " inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost " to take upon himself the holy office. And Bishop Burnet (last of seventeenth century) writing of this says : " Our Church must be construed to intend by this that it is only Christ that sends, and that the bishops are only His ministers to pronounce His mission." Further, if any candidate says, " * I trust so,' that yet knows noth- ing of any such motion and can give no account of it, he lies to the Holy Ghost, and makes his first approach to the altar with a lie in his mouth, and that not to men but to God." If such a view of the call to the ministry had been always cherished by the Church of England, Leigh Richmond would never have been obliged to utter the sad lament, '' The national Church groans and bleeds from the crown of its head to the sole of its feet for the daily intrusion of un- worthy men into its ministry." The Wesleyan Refor- mation brought to prominence again the doctrine of a 1 1 2 Related Ideals personal divine call. Whitefield held that any min- ister, before he undertakes to preach, should be able to say, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel." The Methodist Episcopal Church requires every man enter- ing her ministry to say he is moved by the Holy Ghost. Vinet, of the French Protestant Church, says : " We must be called of God. A call to a min- istry which is exercised in the name of God, can emanate only from Him. . . . Whether external or internal the call ought to be divine." And the Presbyterian churches, holding to the Westminster Confession of Faith, all declare that the Word of God is to be preached only by such as are duly " ap- proved and called to that office" {^Larger Catechism^ Ques. 158, with Scrip, proof). It is thus seen that, just as the Church has risen from impurities and cor- ruptions in all her periods of restoration in all ages, has she emphasized the idea of a spiritual call to the ministry. History thus shows that the Church holding faith- fully to this doctrine has had the purest and god- liest ministry ; that just as this idea has been lost sight of has corruption crept in, leading either to the extreme of sacerdotalism or to that of naturalism. By this threefold argument, therefore, — by the argument from Scripture, the argument from history, and the argument from the nature of the case, — it is made clear that he who enters the ministry should have a divine commission behind him, as he is sent of God ; a divine summons before him, as he is called of God ; and a divine conviction within him, wrought of God. Ought any man to take upon himself the vows The *'Call" to the Ministry 113 of ordination who cannot reverently make the very words of the Master his own, and by the grace of God trustfully say, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gos- pel " ? The second great question now claims our attention. If there is this special call of God to the ministry, how is this call certified to the individual f The first element in the certification is the convic- tion that one ought to preach the Gospel. This sense of duty or prevailing feeling of obligation is vital. And it is not simply negative — the absence of any conviction of obligation to engage in some other pursuit. It is the grip of a " Thus saith the Lord." At the outset, the conviction may not be very strong, or deep, but it should come at last to amount to a " Woe is me if I do not preach," seizing the mind with an im- periousness amounting to something like an inner com- pelling violence. No man should dare be guilty of stepping towards the Christian ministry whose mind is a blank concerning this matter, so far as a sense of obligation goes. In any case, and for any occasion, the conviction should be lodged more or less clearly in the consciousness. The direct and efficient cause of the conviction is the Holy Ghost. The occasions, coincident with the conviction and leading to it, may be various, as used by the Spirit. Favouring circum- stances, sense of adaptation, considerations of useful- ness, providential indications — these may be incidents and attendants instrumental. But these are not the call, nor are they the efl3.cient cause of the conviction. If they were, then every gifted young man in college with scarcely an exception should feel himself called 114 Related Ideals to the ministry, and we should have no eminent Chris- tian lawyers and statesmen and jurists. Why should not every Christian young man of good parts and powers be reasonably sure of greater usefulness in directly preaching the Gospel than in any other way, provided always he had the gifts ? And the gifts that would make him a good lawyer are the very gifts needed for the ministry — viz., facility of speech, apt- ness to teach, discrimination and administration. It was not Paul's fitness, or taste, or circumstances, or any consideration of greater usefulness, that based his *' Woe is me." It was God^s call — I must preach. A second element certifying to the divine call is the desire to preach the Gospel. This may antedate con- viction, or it may follow. The desire may be present when there is great doubt as to fitness, or when cir- cumstances may seem to hedge up the way. When it exists and continues^ without any conviction, and the man enters the ministry with no profound feeling of duty, then it befits the candidate to consider whether the desire is not born of selfishness and the devil, in- stead of love to God. The man whose preference stands alone, without anything to bind him to his path but the inclination of his own heart, ought to ask him- self if he is not treading on holy ground with sandalled feet. Two questions, asked and answered, will test desire and go far to determine its genuineness and worth. 1. Is it a desire for the ministry itself? or for something in the ministry that suits the taste ? The ministry furnishes splendid opportunity for the exer- cise of oratorical gifts. The ministry is favourable to the indulgence of a taste for literature. The min- The "Call" to the Ministry 115 istry assures of social standing and of association with the most intelligent and refined. But these are things in the ministry, incident to the ministry. They are not the ministry. The ministry is the divine business of rescuing souls and building them ujp in Christ to the glory of God. It is this that we should desire, to have our desire any authentication of the divine call. 2. Is the desire to preach to others unaccompanied by any longings for personal holiness and nearness to God ? If so, this of itself should cast serious doubt upon the motive prompting it. True desire for the ministry will grow fervent as the spirit grows fervent. And as the time draws near for the desire to be realized the heart should be found hungering for deeper spiritual experiences of divine grace, and leap- ing to enter upon the ministry as these experiences are had. A third element certifying to the divine call is the possession of the natural physical and mental qualifi- cations. Any serious defect of voice, unfitting for effective public speaking, any serious bodily infirmity, any looseness of mental machiner}^ constituting a radical and incurable defect, should be evidence that the following of some other pursuit would be more likely to honour God and to be in the line of His purpose. A fourth element, certifying to the divine call, is the approving judgment of the Church. This publicly corroborates and authenticates individual conviction. It is certainly an element of considerable importance in defining and settling one's duty. For the personal judgment may be blind and partial. There may be a sense of conviction and an honest, earnest desire, along ii6 Related Ideals with real unfitness, because of mental defect or idio- syncrasy. And this defect may not be patent to the candidate, though very plain to others. Duty in such case is imperative. The Church should deal kindly but frankly with the candidate, and make known the adverse judgment. This adverse judgment should suggest a doubt of fit- ness^ beyond all question ; and lead to a careful reexain- ination of the grounds of the coiimction that one ought to preach, and of the motives prompting the desire to preach. If the conviction remains and the desire too, then the candidate may go on, in spite of even the judgment of his best friends. If the ought in his bosom take on an imperiousness, and be of God, the man will get into the ministry and God will vindicate his right to be there by the power he shall wield with God and man. The bearing of this discussion of " the call " to the gospel ministry, on ministerial character and eflBciency, is at once apparent. Thoroughly possess a man with the conviction that he has been summoned to preach the Gospel by a direct divine agency, moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon himself the office of a bishop, and it cannot fail of spiritualizing all his activities and uplifting his whole life. If he feels that God has called him into the ministry in a way in which men are called to no other pursuit, then at once and for- ever it is to him a peculiarly sacred, a divine work, not to be undertaken and prosecuted, save with an active and absolute consecration, and to be secularized or made subservient to selfish interests or ambitions at the peril of his soul. But if he is where he is, prompted by considerations The "Call" to the Ministry 117 of ease, or literary indulgence or oratorical ambition, or social possibilities ; or if he is where he is, the mere child of circumstances, drifted into the ministry with- out any profound conviction or burning desire to glorify God in holding up to dying men a crucified Christ, and in beseeching them, with a great yearning, enfolding tenderness and love, to be reconciled to God — O the pity of it all ! And the shame ! And the sin ! He may still preach in a perfunctory, me- chanical way, the letter of the Gospel. But his real nature will surely find a voice. And inevitably from one and another of his hearers will come the words, " What you are speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." And what patience, what courage, what steadfastness, what power must be born of the conviction of being called of God ! He who can say, ''Lord, I heard Thy call. It was Thou that didst send me " — what can he fear to do or dare or suffer ! ^ ^See "Yale Lectures," by Burton, on "resounding" and "unre- sounding " calls, p. 33. X THE STUDENT IN THE MINISTRY SYLLABUS Introductory. — Spirituality is the vital trait of ministerial character, but truth is for the mind. Ministers are to handle this truth : to be apt to teach. 1. The basic elements for an ideal student in the ministry. 2. The quality of intellectual character. (a) Profundity rather than brilliancy. (6) Intensity rather than versatility. 3. Certain powers of mind will mark the ideal student. (a) He will be receptive. (b) He will be attentive. (c) He will be concentrative. (d) He will be assimilative. (e) He will be many-sided. 4. Certain habits of mind will mark the ideal student. (a) The habit of diligence. (&) The habit of thoroughness, (c) The habit of method. 5. Yet in all this he will not know one secret of the Almighty, unless led in all his studies, by the Holy Spirit. X THE STUDEJ^T m THE MINISTRY SPIRITUALITY is the vital trait of ministerial character, and should be conspicuously manifest in the whole realm of thought, feeling and life. "Without it the biggest brain, the tenderest sensibility, and the intensest activity are as withes of tow in smit- ing sin or resisting the devil, or making Christ's king- dom come. ISTo mere intellectual grasp of the things of God can give spiritual discernment or spiritual power. But God's truth is for the mind. God's ministers are to handle this truth. They are " to reason of righteousness, temperance and judgment." They are to be " apt to teach," to be *' thoroughly furnished," " handling the word of truth," and they are " to give diligence to present themselves approved unto God " in this business. How then shall we characterize the ideal student in this gospel ministry ? Are there some definite things that we can take hold of and group together, and ^x in our minds as distinctly of value in helping us to an ideal standard ? 1. The basic elements for an ideal student in the ministry. Let us say at the very outset that intel- lectual eminence^ however desirable, is not essential. The ministry furnishes ample room for the most dis- tinguished mental gifts, but they are not indispensable 121 122 Related Ideals to an ideal ministry. Given, however, a mind to y)hich truth can easily he made intelligible^ a mind capahle of hnprovement^ a mind with nothing radically wanting in its working machinery, and a mind com- petent to make truth intelligible to others^ and we have the basic elements for an ideal student in the ministry of the Word. But defect at this point is radical de- fect, and the inevitable result would be pulpit im- potency, except as God worked perpetual or frequent miracle. ]^o young man thus handicapped should be allowed to enter the ministry, whatever his im- pressions of a " divine call." 2. As to the quality of intellectual character pos- sessed by the ideal student in the ministry : {a) it should \iQ j^rofound xdX\iQiV than brilliant. The brilliant gifts lie more at the surface. And the best qualities of mind — its truest, fullest capacity — cannot be developed b}'" the cultivation of the measur- ably superficial. The minister should seek a mental development likely to ensure permanence of influence rather than present popular impression. He is to stand conspicuously before the same community for years — three, five, ten, twenty, thirty and possibly fifty years. What a record of fidelity ! And how impossible of realization except as he establishes him- self as a power over others, not only by his godly walk and conversation, but by laying the foundations of his intellectual character broad and deep ! Is not the lack of this one of the secrets of the frequent changes and disgraceful " short-stops" in the pastorate ? While therefore the play of fancy, the sparkle of wit, the charm of vivacity, and all the ready and nim- ble mental parts and powers, are by no means to be The Student in the Ministry 123 ignored, the student's chief and distinguishing concern in an ideal ministry will be the development of the profounder parts of intellectual character that give depth and breadth. (h) Another quality of intellectual character to be coveted and cultivated is intensity rather than versa- tility. A big receiving capacity that takes things in without doing much thinking about them, is incom- parably inferior to a narrow sesophagus, admitting only what can be thoroughly digested. The ideal student will dare to be ignorant of some current popu- lar knowledge, that the best things may be thoroughly mastered. Let the intellectual character be marked by choiceness and intensity, even at the expense of variety. Avoid the foible of omniscience ! And now having laid the foundations and issued the cautions, let us look at the ideal student, whether on his way to the ministry or in the ministry, whether at the door of college or seminary, or just entering upon, or in the full prosecution of, his life-work as a preacher of righteousness and servant of the most high God. 3. Certain powers of mind will mark the ideal student. (a) He will be receptive. Eagerness to know, thirst for knowledge, is his first and vital quality. He is open-eyed, open-minded, open-hearted, ready to be taught. All the avenues to his mind are unimpeded, inviting approach. No self- sufficiency, no " big-head." When a man is swollen with vanity, little else can find room. To be smitten with an immense conceit, is to be as impervious to ideas as a peacock is to the song of the lark. The bubble must somehow be pricked and the self-assurance abated. 124 Related Ideals An old Scotch clergyman of great learning and great common sense, had a young sprig in theology preach for him one Sabbath. The sermon was am- bitious, soaring, inflated, blown full with oratorical wind ; and when, after the sermon, the old Scotch minister rose to pray, he said : " O Lord, bless Thy young servant, and prick him with the Holy Ghost, and let the gas out." To be emptied is the road to fullness. For national illustration of this truth see Japan. Some fifty years ago she determined to make room for whatever she could find among the nations that was better than she herself possessed. She flung wide her gates and nailed them open. She welcomed mis- sionaries. Auburn Seminary sent missionary Verbeck through that open door. He, with others, was ad- mitted to the counsels of the nations. He helped shape her new convictions and laws. To-day Japan is work- ing out the best ideas of the leading civilizations, and is the surprise of the world. Look at China by contrast. For centuries she was shut in by a conceit and self-sufficiency that mounted to heaven — stagnant, lethargic, unprogressive, her gates nailed shut. But under Japan's inspiring example, even China is opening her eyes. Her great national wall of exclu- sion and prejudice is breaking down. She is becoming receptive to modern ideas. She is entering into the parliament of the world, and ere long she may be the foremost of powers in determining the currents of history. As the nation, so the man. Not the least of the fruits of those social jubilees of mental victory which The Student in the Ministry 125 we call our " "World's Fairs," is the opportunity they furnish for open, teachable minds. The man that visits them, eager to know, is the man that leaves them greatly enriched in stock. The ideal student any- where is the receptive student. (h) The ideal student will be attentive. He not only takes things in but knows them as they enter. He is observant, detailed, definite, and there- fore intelligent : not careless, hurried, superficial, and therefore still ignorant. Whether the study be by text-book, lecture, sermon, or original research, the profit of it will be as the attention given to it. If eye and mind are held to whatever is in hand ; if the will commands eye and mind as its servants, and compels them to be at their posts, wide awake, attent, discerning — the unfailing result will be knowledge. And not only knowledge, but self-mastery and power. A student knows what he has seen or read or studied who knows it after this fashion. Charles Dickens says it is a truth holding equally good of his own life, and of the life of every eminent man he ever knew, that " the only safe, serviceable, cer- tain, remunerative, attainable quality, in every study and in every purpose, is the quality of attention." " My own invention or imagination," he adds, " such as it is, would never have served me as it has, but for this commonplace, humble, patient, daily-labouring, drudging attention." Here, in part at least, is the secret of that power which made Charles Dickens so remarkable as a delineator of character. Wherever he went, this quality was at its post. It gave him points of insight into character. It discovered little idiosyncrasies. Where other men would see nothing 126 Related Ideals and go away empty, he would often see a wealth of things, and pass on laden with great spoil. Why do some students know so much more than others ? Why are some students able to tell what they know so much more accurately than others ? Attention — lack of attention ; that's the chief secret. There will be differences in native brain power, of course. But this " commonplace, humble, patient, daily-labouring attention," as Dickens calls it, accounts for the most of the contrast. And this is possible of at- tainment by every mind fit to be in the gospel ministry. " But the lecture is dull." What of it ? *' And the lecturer is uninteresting." What of it ? Attention ! That's the divine order. Say to the wandering mind, disposed to go wool-gathering, " See here ! Listen ! The business of this hour is to listen. That's your business. Do your business." It is wonderful what mastery this will at last give the student over his ow^n faculties. But it is more wonderful what discoveries it will make of unguessed worth in the book or the subject or the man studied. Professor D wight of our college days stopped his lecture one day because he saw one of the class busy w4th a strange device on the blackboard by which the student sat ; and the professor made that incident the occasion of a talk on the value of attention. It im- pressed us profoundly. The next Sabbath some of us put the talk to the test. We applied it to the sup- posedly dull, prosy preacher down in the old stone church. We listened. We compelled ourselves to listen. It was a revelation. That preacher grew helpful, suggestive. And he became a formative force to us through the rest of our college life. The Student in the Ministry 127 (c) The ideal student will be concentrative. This quality is akin to the last : but it means some- thing more. It is the faculty of using one's faculties^ focusing them, commanding their combined service for a specific result. It is also ih.Q faculty of using one's materials — massing these materials, having them at command through the law of association and relative suggestion, and arranging and ordering them in the interests of climax. It is that which gives intensity to thought and speech. Some men are walking libraries of digested information, but they do not know how to focus their learning. Some men have great vehemence of speech, but their vehemence has no solid backing to give it the concentrated essence of power. It is the concentration of materials, and the concentration of mental powers in the use of these materials, that give to speech intensity and that spell power and victory. (d) But again ; the ideal student will be assimila- tive. The true student is not a passive receiver. Truths and facts are not taken into his mind as coffee into a bag. The coffee comes out of the bag just as it went in. And whether the coffee goes in or comes out, the bag remains the same old bag. But ideas with the ideal student are compared, studied, digested, assimi- lated, and so taken up into the chyle and blood and fibre of the mental and moral man. And the man is another, a richer, a more fruitful man for each day's study. It is this kind of studying that has increased effi- ciency, widened capacity, multiplied agency. It has found " tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones." It has peopled seeming solitudes, 128 Related Ideals and drawn nourishment from the arid breast of rocks. It is the kind of study that makes what a man studies his own. And out of the assimilating process is born that which blossoms at last into poem, or song, or picture, or law, or invention in art, or help to in- dustry, or truth of reformation, or soul-searching sermon that finds the lost and brings him home to God. (e) But again: the ideal student will be many- sided, seeking the development of every part of his nature. The life-work to which a student for the ministry is looking forward, is many-sided, and he must be many- sided. The vast and varied need he is to face every Sabbath and study every week can only be met by a well-rounded man. Some of his flock will want the rigid steps of logic ; some the airy flights of rhetoric some will want imagery ; some, plain matter of fact some, simplicity ; some, profundity ; some, illustration some, demonstration ; some, poetry ; some, history some, the minutest details ; some, only broad generali- zations. Therefore proportion, symmetry, balance, and not bulge, will mark the ideal student. He will aim to be well rounded. He will compel his dislikes to become likes, his prejudices to become preferences, if the dis- likes and prejudices keep him from fields where he can get discipline or stock. Hence an ideal student in the ministry cannot he a specialist. The very word suggests limitation, nar- rowness. It is contraction in order to concentration indeed ; but contraction nevertheless. Of course specialists are desirable and useful — yes, absolutely in- The Student in the Ministry 129 dispensable. But they are not the best material for the Christian ministry. It is too wide and varied for a specialist. All humanity's needs are to be met by this ministry. The man of God is to be all things to all men that he may win some. Can you by any possibility think of Jesus as a specialist ? Is not the very idea incongruous ? If you say, Jesus is outside human limitations, and not to be cited in this connection, take Paul, and judge if by any possibility he could have been a specialist, and at the same time have kept his many-sidedness and rare adapt- ability. He was always and everywhere anything to anybody that he might bring somebody to Jesus Christ. He could and did preach both to the Athenian philosophers and the rudest barbarians. His imagina- tion was as lofty as his reason, and he used each with rare adaptation and power. His heart was as big as his head. His prayers were as mighty as his argu- ments. His love wrapped poor sinners about with an almost infinite tenderness ; yet he was a very Jupiter in the searching and scorching vehemence of his righteous indignation. Think of his handing over the shepherding of the Ephesian flock and the care of their souls to some young parish assistant like Timothy, while he gave himself exclusively to thundering from his Ephesian pulpit ! How impossible ! Hear his own strong, conclusive word on this mat- ter: "To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews. ... To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak. I am become all things to all men that I may by all means save some " (1 Cor. 9 : 20-22). Surely sub-division of labour may be carried too far. 130 Related Ideals Admit that pin-heads are a necessity. We can't well get on without them. But think of a man's giving his whole life to the making of pin-heads ! Now we do not need to be told that there are makers of intellec- tual pin-heads, and that they sometimes get into the theological seminary and even into a professor's chair. But these are no patterns for men who have given themselves to the varied and manifold work of the ministry. No ! The ideal student in the ministry will be full-orbed. The specialist may be a good, helpful and instructive preacher. He never can be an ideal preacher. The very exactions of his specialty make this impossible. 4. The ideal student will also be marked by certain habits of mind as distinguished from certain powers of mind. {a) The habit of diligence. This word, as the etymology denotes, means not only industry, but industry inspired and sustained by love. " The only secret of true industry in our work," says Trench, "is our love of that work." It is not the compelled service of a man constrained to duty by a sense of obligation or the lashes of conscience. And it is a far remove from the industry of the galley slave. Toil with delight, work with the heart in it, cheery industry ; this is diligence. And this glad assiduity should be fixed and marked. It should begin in " the secret place," when one is alone with God. It should make its presence felt in the hours of stud}^ It should accompany the preacher to the pulpit, and go with him out in the parish. Indolence in the secret place of devotion is the death of effectual prayer. The mQU who have been The Student in the Ministry 131 mighty with God, used all diligence in the devotion of " the still hour." They toiled at their praying, and loved the toil. Indolence in the study arrests mental growth, and leads finally to intellectual apathy if not atrophy. No amount of natural gift can be a substitute for persistent mental activity. Indolence in the pulpit leads to easy, good-natured, lazy, perfunctory preaching. Indolence in the parish leads to a sauntering, superficial, social indulging, fit- ful pastoral visitation. Genius is a good thing. But the habit of diligence is a far better thing. Spurts and bursts and spas- modic exhibition of natural brilliancy may temporarily dazzle, and may temporarily succeed ; but the faithful, earnest and affectionate discharge of all duty will secure the most enduring results and bring most honour to God. A loitering, lazy minister is one of the saddest of anomalies ; and his wasted hours and op- portunities will make a terrible arraignment when ac- counts come to be settled. (h) The habit of thoroughness, will also mark the ideal student. The temptation is urgent and constant with the minister to spread his reading and study over a wide field, in view of its manifest desirableness and often its seeming necessity. But quantity at the expense of quality has little value in it. Better far less work with the fullest justice, than more work indifferently accomplished. A mill may be stopped by too much water as well as by not enough. To have a limited field and to be an authority in it, is better than to have a wide field and be an authority for nothing. 132 Related Ideals > Thoroughness ! Throughness ! It will make a man stand before kings. {c) Method will also characterize the ideal student. One can carry twice more weight when it is compact and well-arranged. One can do twofold more work where method rules, than where disorder reigns. It is systematic toil that has changed the face of the world. Months of precious time are wasted in precious minutes. And a life without a plan will inevitably be crowded with wasted minutes. One half hour saved each working day of the year, seems a comparative trifle rescued from loss. And many a minister, heedless of these half hours, is wondering where his time goes, and is sighing for more. But these half hours slipping from him every day, as if of small account, make up a total in ten years amounting to Jive hoiors of study each day for one entire year. In other words, a year of study has been lost in ten years of daily wasted half-hours. Method has a season for everything, and hence there is no loss of time by confusion. Method prevents waste by indecision and hesitation as to what ought to be done next. Method prevents waste by aimlessness. Method makes every stroke tell, and go to the furtherance of some predetermined plan. Yet method should not he inflexible. No plan of life, no distribution of time, no methodical arrange- ment of work should be so rigid as to dispense with judgment and make a man a machine. " The man that never breaks a rule Is little better than a fool." The Student in the Ministry 133 6. And now let it be said with all possible emphasis that a student in the ministry may be all that has been named — receptive, attentive, concentrative, assimila- tive, many-sided — and he may have the habit of dili- gence and thoroughness and method ; and yet be totally unfit for conveying God's truth to dying men. There are secrets of truth he can never know unless he is taught, and led of the Holy Spirit. Filled of the Spirit, illuminated by the Spirit, he must be, or be a blind leader of the blind : the truths he daily faces and handles proving mere cold intellectual notions, gotten into his head ; and never, never the faintest approach to spiritual dynamics vitalizing his speech and life. He may have been glib in the recitation room, rattling off the letter of the doctrines of God ; he may have been the banner man of his class, and won a fellow- ship, and gone to Europe for post-graduate scholarly work; and he may be now a perfect storehouse of Greek and Hebrew roots, and loaded to the full with the fruits of original research, and yet not know one secret of the Almighty, unless day by day he has found his way to God and prayed, " Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law," and has gotten that prayer ansioered. The deep necessity^ the everlasting condition^ the crowning glory of the ideal student is this — that he he led in all his studies hy the Holy Spirit. XI THE MINISTER'S STUDY SYLLABUS Introductory. — Local conditions may put limitations on choice; nevertheless common ground may be found for basis of judgment. I. As to locality or place where. (a) The study should be easily accessible, yet free from ordinary intrusion. (6) Needs no outlook, but should have good exposure. II. As to size. Thinking does not want much space ; brain cells are not big, but they are roomy enough for the widest and deepest thinking. The very words we apply to "the study" such as "den," "workshop," "retreat," in- dicate its limitations. III. The books in an ideal study. (a) Books that will open up the varied mines of truth are desirable. (J) Books that will help in seeking and finding the great spoil of Scripture are indispensable. IV. Books that should grow in the ideal study. A scrap-book; a commonplace book; a text-book ; a lec- ture-room-talk book ; and a record book. V. Buying books. (a) Buy first the essential helps in critical study, and the recognized standards. (6) Buy no book because it is cheap. (c) Buy no book merely on a publisher's notice. VI. Reading books. (a) Read with pencil in hand ; mark striking passages ; make marginal notations. (6) "Abandon as early as possible the childish dream of reading everything." (c) Object of reading should determine manner of read- ing. (1) For general drift, read rapidly ; (2) For style, read carefully; (3) For suggestion, read thoughtfully; (4) For exact information, weigh every word; (5) For devotional pur- poses, yield to the current of religious emotion ; (6) For relaxation, read according to mood. VII. Studying books. (a) Read first of all preface, table of contents, and intro- duction. (6) Be sure to understand the author as reading proceeds. (c) If author fails to convince the judgment, reader should pause and find out at what points he and author differ and why. (d) Compare author with other authors on same subject. VIII. It is in the spiritual realm the ideal study comes to its crown and glory as the minister's " Mount of Vision." IX. Value of revolving bookcase and hanging ahelf. > XI THE MIOTSTEE'S STUDY THE ideal student is naturally suggestive of the ideal study. But they do not necessarily go together. Conditions make strange bedfel- lows. Stress of finance, lack of room, parish adjust- ments put limitations on choice, and make absolute ideals sometimes impossible, even in so seemingly limited a matter as a ministerial workshop. And an ideal study for one man might be far from ideal for another man.^ Nevertheless, it must surely be possible to find common ground for a basis of judgment on this im- portant matter, and where at least common agreement may be reached, as to much that shall go to make up an ideal study. I. Its Locality. The jplace where is a matter of no little importance. Shall it be in the church ? or in the home ? In de- termining locality two things are to be kept in view : that the study must be easily accessible and yet must ^ "Dr. Storrs had three studies. His home study was a small room, with a few books, at the end of the parlour hall, in the quiet, red-brick house in Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn. In the Long Island Historical Society, of which he was founder, president, and constant inspiration, he had his private room up-stairs, with attendance upon his needs and with thousands of books at his hand. But the favourite study was in his beloved church in Remsen Street, in the rear, up one flight of broad steps, where the great trees shaded the windows softly. There he would be nearly every day, reading, thinking, deep in study." 139 1^0 Related Ideals he free from ordinary i7itrusion. Emergent occasions will, now and then, and sometimes frequently, arise in the parish, making an immediate interview with the pastor almost a necessity. If he is perched in a steeple-loft or tower, with the door below locked, he may miss meeting a real necessity or a golden op- portunity. Moreover, a study outside of, and at a distance from, the home, necessitates many incon- veniences to the home and the family. On the whole, the preponderance of reasons seems in favour of the home, as the place for the ideal study. But while thus easily accessible, it should be ab- solutely free from ordinary intrusion. Never should it be an open family highway. And never a place for a romp of the children, except by special appointment or permission. For some holy intimacies, in connec- tion with the child-life, it should be kept especially sacred. It would grow hallowed in memory, and un- speakably precious, in the progress of years, if known as the place for the family altar. As to an outlook, it needs none. It is the room of all others for inlook. It is a study. And what does a study want of scenery, whether of mountain or river, landscape or sea ? Intellectual and spiritual insight, the man of God is there for. Vision — vision of God and of God's truth. He enters his study to delve in books, to commune with the great minds of the past and the present, and to look long and lovingly into the glass of the Word to discover some new revela- tion of his Lord there. He is not after flowers and fields, and stretches of beautiful landscape. His face is heavenward, God ward. He would see " the King in His beauty." The Minister's Study 141 But the ideal study will have a good exposure^ that two things may get into it which are absolutely vital to its ideality ; viz., sunshine aiud pure air. Let it be flooded some time in the day, whether morning or evenintr, with God's blessed sunbeams, and let it be flooded all the day with God's pure air. A gloomy study is not conducive to a hopeful spirit. And a close atmosphere is the occasion of many a dyspeptic sermon. II. The Size of the Ideal Study The very word, " study," suggests retirement, quiet, concentration, absorption. Thinking does not want much space. The immense sweeps of thought do not feel the confinement of four walls. Brain cells are not big, but they are roomy enough for the high- est, widest, deepest thinking. The very terms we apply to " the study " suggest this same idea. It is the minister's " den " — his " workshop " — his " re- treat." Think of a "den" taking up the biggest space of any room in the house. Think of a " work- shop " with auditorium proportions. Think of a minister's " retreating " to a great council chamber. But does not a growing library demand more and more room ? Certainly. But not by expanding the " study." Let the books find more shelf-room out in the adjacent hall, in the reception room, anywhere for convenient use. A great library needs large spaces, and must have them. An ideal study is a den. III. The Books in an Ideal Study A study is nothing worth without hooks. Every minister of the Gospel expects, in the course of time. 142 Related Ideals to surround himself with books. And he purposes, by the grace of God, to grow more and more familiar with the Book of books. Every minister should there- fore have a study that will help him to be something of a bibliographer, and very much of a hihlicist. To be a bibliographer, versed in the general knowl- edge of books, is well. To be a biblicist, versed in the knowledge of the Book of books, is indispensable. To delve in the various mines of truth is desirable. To seek and find the great spoil of Scripture is vital. Therefore, while seeking to be a scholar, the preacher should be, by eminence, a biblical scholar. In this department, his knowledge of books should be ex- ceptional. He should make it a specialty. It is the sine qua non of an ideal ministry. Weakness here, is weakness at the foundation. Ignorance here, is inexcusable folly. The Bible is not only the preacher's daily manual of devotion, but his great and only book of subjects ; his authoritative letter of instructions ; his one exclusive treasury of spiritual truths. Everything that can throw light on this should be at his command. Necessity may compel him to let other departments go. But for neglect of this department, there can be no necessity. First of all, therefore, the books vital to an "ideal study " will be critical apparatus, biblical helps, the literature that directly conduces to biblical learning — the books that tend to make the minister a devout, able, scholarly student and preacher of the mysteries of God. These should be known and, as far as pos- sible, possessed by every minister of the Gospel. After these, in importance, will be books of phi- losophy, history, science and art, of general literature, The Minister's Study 143 of poetry and fiction, of social and civic life, of com- merce and industry, of labour and capital. But all tliese, and all otiier acquisitions in the ideal study, will be for the one purpose of making the student a more effective preacher of God's Word. All culture will be subordinated to professional eflSciency. The ideal student in the ideal study will sink the man of learning in the preacher. He will determine that no charms of secular erudition, no alluring paths of classical literature, no popular *' ologies " or *' isms," shall tempt him to their pur- suit, if from them he may not, in some way, learn how better to declare God's truth to dving: men: that if they cannot help him to that, they shall not have either his time or thought. And he will test all study by this question. Will it contribute to the effi- ciency of my ministry ? He will arrest the reading or the investigation that absorbs his time, without correspondingly fitting him for his chosen work. He will resolutely put under foot all desire for the fame of secular authorship. In everything under- taken with books, he will keep the one sacred object in view — better preparation for the great, unspeak- able work of preaching the Gospel and saving the lost. No pursuit of science, histor}^ or literature for its own sake ; no reading of any book, no grap- pling with any social, civic, or religious problems, save for some good reason connected with his ministry. ly. Books that should grow in the ideal study — a scrap-book, a commonplace book, a text-book, a lecture-room-talk book, and a record book. These five books cannot be found at the bookstore. ISTo money can buy them. They are products of expe- 144 Related Ideals rience ; records of work done and to be done ; in a sense, personal histories and prophecies. They can- not be made to order. They are growths. They are blank-books when a minister begins with them. They will become bank-books, before he is through with them, with ever-increasing balance to his credit upon which he can draw at will, if they have been kept with any kind of discriminating care. The scrap-hooJc ^ should be the receptacle of every chance newspaper article deemed for any reason worth preserving. The article or paragraph should be cut out as soon as read, and placed loosely in some drawer or pigeonhole ; otherwise, it is likely to be forgotten or lost. The pasting may be deferred for an accumulation of articles, and some leisure half-hour. This book may be a sort of hodge-podge. But clas- sification is better, even of scissorings — as for ex- ample : (1) Incidents ; (2) Illustrations ; (3) Statis- tical items — (<^) Of crime ; (h) Of charities ; (c) Of intemperance, etc. ; (4) Scientific items ; (5) Eccle- siastical items ; (6) Poetry. A great many things to point a moral, or to fortify a possible position, or to give vividness to a desired impression, may be laid away in a scrap-book. If he who picks up a pin is sure to find some use for it, he who seizes and lodges for safe-keeping a floating, but significant, fact or figure, will be sure to find some use for that. If, in addition to the general scrap-book, a personal * The envelope system may be thought a better scrap-preserver, and it has its advantages. But for ease of reference and security of preser- vation the scrap-book is perhaps preferable. Either, if rightly used, will do the business. The Minister's Study 145 scrap-book* is kept, it will be found to be frequently and happily serviceable. Personal participations in public functions, discussions, controversial and other- wise, travels, vacationings, comments on public events, criticisms of one's self, public appearances, exchanges, etc. — all these, with tlieir dates, will be of very con- siderable value in the coming years ; correcting many a memory, confirming many an impression, even some- times settling what might otherwise have proved a very serious controversy ; and above all, perhaps, renewing some hallowed, tender associations that left their deep impress without perpetuating their details. The commonplace hooh should be for the minister's own miscellaneous and fleeting thoughts, suggested by reading and observation, or the fruit of chance medi- tation. Many a good thought is *' born to blush un- seen," because it is neglected and forgotten almost with the hour of its birth. If it were given verbal dress, and put away in a commonplace book, it might not grow, but it would keej>, and some day it would be of service. Into this book should also go the strik- ing thoughts and terse sayings of others, heard in public speech or gotten from books only temporarily at one's command. The text-booh should be paged and indexed, and should have a classification of topics ; appropriate space being ^If the author may be permitted a personal note, he would say that he has five such personal scrap-books in possession, compiled chiefly by her who has shared all the duties and delights of his minis- terial life, and that these personal scrap-books have been not only valuable helps to memory, where accuracy of statement was valuable, but illuminating in reminiscence, sacred in many an association, and profitable both for their commendation and rebuke. 146 Related Ideals assigned to each topic. Then, whenever in reading, hearing or meditating, a text of Scripture stirs the mind with fresh and special interest, it should immedi- ately be transferred to the text-book under the ap- propriate topic, together with whatever theme or thought or plans of treatment have been suggested with it. In this way, varied and valuable materials will, in time, be gathered for future sermons. The lecture-roomrtalk hook. This should contain the salient points of every talk made in the mid-week service, or on miscellaneous occasions. Any talk of this kind worth making is ^vorth preserving. It may be subsequently elaborated, and made the foundation and substance of a sermon. It would certainly pre- vent the often dangerous tendency of running in a groove, or harping on one string. The book might w^ell have at least three divisions ; mid-week prayer-meeting talks ; Sabbath-school talks ; miscellaneous talks. The record hook. This should be aside from the church records, and for the minister's own use and possession. It should contain a record of sermons by texts and topics, numbered in the order preached, a record of marriages performed, of baptisms, and, above all, a record of the names of those received into the church on profession of faith, as having been born to God under his ministry ; this last being one of the most sacred associations of life. These are the books that should grow in every ideal study. y. Buying Books In hiiying books for the ideal study, no extended list can be authoritatively given. Tastes differ — fields differ. ThQ personal equation is an important matter. The Minister's Study 147 The immediate needs and the permanent needs are to be considered. In general, it may be said the essential helps in critical study, and the recognized standards, are of the first importance. Books that bear directly upon the study of the Scriptures, and that make up the minister's critical apparatus and helps in exegesis, are the sine qua non of an ideal study. No book is to be bought simply because it is cheap. A book for which is seen no special use, is dear at any price. Haste to have a large library makes lots of waste. You cannot get an ideal library hy the yard. Standard books of reference should be bought as far and as fast as possible. They are always needed. But a few books for which there is seen immediate need will be worth a thousandfold more to the preacher than many books hurriedly got together, and often under real financial stress, prompted by the foolish ambition of starting with a fine library. The ambition is born of parade and show. What are books to a man, if he does not get inside them ? The books of an ideal library, it may be further said, will not be bought merely on a jpiihlisTier* s notice^ no matter with what flourish of trumpets her- alded. This is by no means an implication that pub- lishers are dishonest ; but they are not always the best judges of their own wares. The approving judgment of time is the best judg- ment. But this cannot always be ^vaited for. Re- liable book notices — scholarly, thorough, impartial — are a great help in book-buying. And some publish- ing houses, some periodicals, and some papers, both secular and religious, have an established reputation 148 Related Ideals in this department. At least two such authorities in book-reviewing should be subscribed for, and will have warm welcome to every ideal study, and they will not need to knock in order to get in. Charles Wentworth Diike, the founder of The Athenmum, and an important influence in the develop- ment of modern English literature, once said, " A library is nothing unless the owner be a living cata- logue to it." And, illustrative of this, is the story of what his son's wife once wrote to him : " There are all your old Juniuses, looking so smart you will not know them ; bound according to your own instruc- tions ; no two alike. What a dandy you are without knowing it ! a real dandy at heart ! " To which he answered, " Half-truth, half-error. I am a dandy, but quite conscious of it. . . . You have drawn right conclusions from wrong premises. My Junius volumes are bound, *no two alike,' that I may know each one at a glance. But I admit I have a sort of social life in my books. They stand to me in degrees of rela- tionship. I feel to some of them as towards old friends. ... I have a heartful acquaintance with some of them. . . . They were once weighed against gold. . . . Many and many a day have 1 tramped the same streets to get a glimpse of the same treasure, turned and returned, and at last with des- perate resolution carried it off with triumph." This suggests a reported mot of Euf us Choate's, that " the greatest pleasure in life is buying a book you cannot afford." YI. Reading Books {a) In reading books, read with pencil in hand. Mark striking passages. If important, repeat the The Minister's Study 149 reading. Make marginal notations that will readily strike the eye when the leaves are turned again. And pay all heed to the wise words of Broadus : (J) " Abandon as early as possible the childish dream of reading everything." ^ (g) The ohject^ in reading books, should determine the manner of reading. If reading for the general drift, read rapidly. If for style, read carefully, with an eye to the structure of the sentence as connected with the impression produced. If for suggestion, read thoughtfully, pausing to allow the mind play. If for exact information, weigh every word, stamping it upon the memory by a fixed and undivided attention. If for devotional purposes, drop all criticism and yield to the current of religious emotion. If for relaxation, read as the mood inclines ; only be sure to guard against an overdose. " Excessive recreation is de- struction." In the matter of studying books, certain things seem to deserve emphasis as connected with the ideal study. Suppose a book is selected for special study : What steps shall be taken to secure thoroughness ? In any ideal study, will not these following points have place ? {a) Kead first of all and very carefully the preface, the table of contents and the introduction. These will give at once the reasons for the work, the plan of it, and the approach to it — three things that ought to be of real service in any proper understanding of a book worth studying. {b) Let the student be sure he understands the author as he proceeds. He who bolts books as some * ** Preparation and Delivery of Sermons," Broadus, p. 124. 150 Related Ideals men bolt food will ruin mental digestion. And be who passes a point or a page of an autbor witbout knowing just wbat be means, will be likely to be in a fog, or something worse, through the entire remaining discussion. Pause, therefore, and review till the meaning is perfectly apprehended. Frederick W. Robertson so studied Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Butler, Jonathan Edwards, that he could ssiy they had passed, like the iron atoms of the blood, into bis mental constitution. He once wrote : " I have got a small, popular book on chemistry, which I am read- ing now, of one hundred and sixty pages. I have read little else for a fortnight : but then I could bear an examination on every law and principle it lays down." A distinguished English barrister. Sir Edward Sugden, gave the following as the secret of his pro- fessional success : " I resolved, when beginning to read law, to make everything I acquired perfectly my own ; and never to go to a second thing till I had entirely accomplished the first." Such a man never skims ; never flits over the surface ; thoroughly under- stands as he proceeds. (c) If the author does not carry the student's judg- ment, let the student find out exactly at what point he and the author differ, and why. This will be likely to reveal either the author's fallacy, or his own. (d) Compare the author studied with other authors on the same subject. Light from various sources can- not fail of illuminating the field of discussion. And this comparison of author with author will familiarize the reader with diverse and conflicting views, and lead to a broader and more comprehensive judgment. But it is in the spiritual realm, in the possibilities The Minister's Study 151 of devotional ujplift and spiritual vision and power^ that the ideal study coraes to its crown and glory ! It should be oftenest the minister-s mount of vision, his inner secret room, where he keeps tryst with his Lord, his ford-Jabbok wrestling-place, his laboratory, his holy of holies. Here he will meet God — here, or nowhere. Here he will grow familiar with the sword of the Spirit, that he may go out and use it to cleave souls asunder. Here he is to commune with the great minds of the past, so that, in the intellectual and spir- itual fellowship thus furnished, he may be the more enriched for his work. Here he is to get upliftings and inspirations, sometimes making it seem as if he were caught up to the third heaven. Here he is to bring to God the great needs of his people — their hungerings, battlings, defeats, heartaches, and personal histories. Here he is to think for them, plan for them, pray for them, with strong crying and tears, and when away from all human presence, face to face with God and eternity. Here he is to kneel with the bur- den of still unsaved souls, and cast his burden on the Lord, to find the Lord mighty to save. Here he is to prepare his bow and select his arrow from the quiver, and get it winged of the invisible God, that it may go straight home to some sinner's heart. O what throes of labour, what toil of brain, what struggle and anguish of spirit, what joys unutterable, what visions of God, what victories of faith, have toil- ing, praying, wrestling ministers of Jesus Christ ex- perienced in their studies ! There they have climbed the heights and got into the secret place of the Most High, and taken Jacob-like hold of God, saying, " I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me." 152 Related Ideals So what the study is to every pastor, he will be likely to be to his people. If the study bring revela- tion to him, he will bring revelation to his hearers. If there he gets power, in the pulpit he will have power. If he finds nothing in the study, the people will, ere long, find nothing in the pulpit. Hence, the " ideal study " will have a shelf or section given up wholly to books designed for, and adapted to, spiritual nurture and the life of the soul. Of course, a Bible will be in this section — preferably di particular Bible, kept always on its own shelf, and kept solely for spiritual nurture, thumbed more often than any other book of devotion, and margined everywhere with pointers to its treasury of devotional expression, and holding supreme and unchallengeable place in any cluster of " helps " to devout and reverent speech in talks with God. How the " delicatessen " things that are "got up" and "made to order," as "forms" of prayer for weekly public worship, suffer by comparison with the prayers that are born of heart-hunger and yearn- ing and sense of present need. Even the prayer given us by our Lord, and most often on our lips, was pref- aced by these significant words : " After this manner^ therefore, pray ye." As if even He, in the most com- prehensive yet most specific prayer ever offered in the same number of words, would not tie us to the letter of worship, lest we, in our proneness to outward form, should lose the spirit of worship. The book we call " The Psalms " — what a treasure- store of devotion ! A great number of these psalms are prayers — prayers of trust, of longing, of penitence, of refuge, of triumph. What a cry of the contrite sinner for pardon is the Fifty-first Psalm : " Have The Minister's Study 153 mercy upon me, O Lord, according to Thy loving kind- ness." What a shout of confidence is the Forty-sixth Psahn : " God is our refuge and strength." How the soul in the Ninety-first Psalm goes to hiding in the secret place of the Most High, and gets covered with His pinions, and makes Jehovah its " refuge " and "fortress." How the Twenty-third Psalm has helped many a believer to " walk through the valley of the shadow of death," fearing no evil ! What marvels of trust and devotion are the prayers of the Master ! How His prayer for His disciples that " they may be one," has hushed strife ! How His prayer in Gethsem- ane, " If it be possible — If it be possible^ — let this cup pass ; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt," has taught the Church that intense desire before God is consistent with perfect submission to the will of God. And Paul, the peerless reasoner, the deep-toned thunderer, the preacher of the strong doctrines of God — how he prayed ! ^ With what intensity and fervour and sweep of petition ! So that his prayers seem even mightier than his arguments. ' For this cause I bow my knees iiuto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strength- ened with might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.— Eph. 3 : 14-19. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may ap- prove things that are excellent ; that ye may be sincere and without 154 Related Ideals But while the Bible is the book of books for devotional expression, there are other and blessed helps to the language and spirit of devotion in the literature of worshipping hearts. The *' Confessions of Augustine " ; Thomas a Kempis' " Imitation of Christ " ; Taylor's " Holy Liv- ing and Dying"; Baxter's "Reformed Pastor," and " Saints' Rest " ; Bunyan's immortal " Pilgrim's Prog- ress " ; and the book of which it was born, and with- out which it could not have been written, viz., " Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners," — a great heart-stucly ; Rutherford's " Letters," rich, quaint, juicy, precious ; Phelps' " The Still Hour," a very multum in parvo on prayer ; Bo wen's " Daily Medita- tions " ; deeply spiritual, yet marked by great sanity as well as sanctity; Dickson's "All About Jesus," on a section of Canticles ; Shedd's " Sermons to the Spiritual Man " ; McClure's " Growing Pastor " ; Speer's "Remember Jesus Christ"; Gibson's "The Devotional Use of the Holy Scriptures"; Horton's " The Open Secret." These and many more may well find their way to the ideal study, and take their place in the section de- voted to the literature of spiritual nurture ; and this sec- tion will ere long be filled with the choicest devotional products inside and outside the Word of God ; and while the ideal study will grow to be a very garden of spices in the care and culture of the years, this particular section or alcove will come to be to the ideal student the dearest spot in the garden. He will saturate his offense till the day of Christ ; being filled with the fruits of righteous- ness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.— FUL 1 : 8-11. The Minister's Study 155 mind and heart with these outpourings of spiritual fervour, as they shall have been gathered for his meditation and use. And to such a student of the communings and devotional rapture of God's saints with their God, a set form and order of prayer will be a bondage. It will not meet his varying needs nor answer to his varying moods. Much less will it fit in to the ever-changing needs and moods of his people. Fixed grooves are not the channels of a free spirit. One word more as to the ideal study must suffice. Imagine the student at his study table. What should he have within easy reach ? A revolving bookcase should be at his right hand. And in this bookcase should be the most commonly needed helps for daily use : his lexicons, English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ; a concordance ; a Bible dictionary ; and a thesaurus of English words. Here also he should have a volume of some one or more of his favourite authors — Browning, Mrs. Browning, Tennyson, Carlyle, Emerson, Whittier, Mark Twain, Wordsworth — to turn to when the mood is on. And the new book just out and making a stir, he should have that within easy reach that he may dip into it in any unexpected leisure half hour. Here also should be put week by week the exegetical critical helps, the commentaries, and such other books as are likely to be needed for reference in the preparation of the week's sermon, to be returned to their respect- ive shelves every Monday, and replaced by others suited to the next week's work. And not far away from his study chair should be a hanging shelf that could be swung out when needed ; and so made as to require neither nail nor screw nor hammer to fasten 156 Related Ideals it to its place ; thus serving as a table where he may stand to do his work : a great relief from the pro- tracted sitting posture. On this inclined shelf one or two of the big dictionaries might be open for con- venient use.^ With an ideal student such as we have already described — receptive, attentive, assimilative, concen- trative, many-sided, and listening with the ear of his soul for the Holy Spirit's communications, and having the habit of diligence (toil in the love of it), thorough- ness (throughness) and method (everything in its time and place) with such a student, and with anything like a near approach to the ideal study herein set forth, we have all the conditions favourable to the ideal sermon : i. e., to the sermon perfectly adapted to do the work of God. Nearer and nearer approaches to this ideal will be the sermons born in that study — begotten in the throes of that toiling and praying student. ' Any carpenter with a board and four hinges (two for the shelf, and two for the swinging legs underneath) and a couple of sockets or sup- ports to hold the legs in place, could make this shelf at a trifling cost ; and it could be put up or taken down by any one in two minutes. In the Albert Barnes study of the old First Church of Philadel- phia, a high fixed desk, built in with the bookcases, ran along one en- tire side of the room, and there this beloved man of God paced back and forth for many years, doing that pioneer popular commentary work which gave him a name throughout the Christian world. He was in his study at four o'clock in the morning occupied with his com- mentary. But precisely at the stroke of the old clock on Independence Hall for the hour of nine, he dropped his commentary pen, and went to his study desk for his sermonio work. XII THE LAW OP ADAPTATION SYLLABUS Introductory. — If the Gospel is the power of God, the preacher's chief couceru is with the application of this power. Heuce it is of vital importance that regard be had to the law of adaptation. I. Comprehensively, adaptation in preaching is saying the right thing at the right time in the right way. The objection that the minister's one concern is to preach the truth, and that only the Holy Spirit can make the truth effective, makes effects in the kingdom of God purely arbitrary, and is contradicted (1) by reason ; (2) by experience ; (li) by the Scriptures. II. Adaptation requires that the sermon should always answer some definite end. III. Adaptation has respect to men as they are, not as they should be. IV. Adaptation has respect to differing minds and temperaments, (a) Some need heroic treatment. (6) Some are of an excitable temperament, (c) Some are naturally belligerent. {d) Some are warmly emotional. V. Adaptation has respect to differing conditions. VI. 1. General. (a) The spirit of the times. (6) Ignorance. (c) Doctrinal error. 2. Special. (a) Inactivity. (6) Sorrow. (c) Alienation and estrangement as between Chris- tians. {d) Impenitency. (e) Honest doubt. (/) Wandering. {g) Honest inquiry. Adaptation compels variety, and makes the preacher many- sided. XII THE LAW OF ADAPTATION IF the Gospel is the power of God, the preacher's chief concern is with the application of this power. How may the Gospel be best applied? In what way can it be best presented, so as most effectively to reach men's consciences and hearts ? It is of vital importance here, as in every other work of life, that regard should be had to the law of adajpta- tion. There are conditions to be noted, circumstances to be considered, times and temperaments and places and prejudices to be taken into account in the public presentation of gospel truth, which may, and which should, make a marked difference in the kind of truth presented, and in the manner of presenting it. First and comprehensively, adaptation in preaching is saying the right thing at the right titne in the right way. It is fitness of matter, fitness of moment and fitness of method, in pulpit discourse. It is the apos- tolic ability and willingness to become all things to all men, so as bv all means to save some. To this it is objected that gospel truth is gospel truth, however presented ; and it must be left to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit's operations for any effect it may produce. But the objection makes effects in the kingdom of God purely arbitrary. Results have no connection with appropriate means. Everything is without order 159 i6o Related Ideals and without law. One form of truth is just as likely to be effective as another, without regard to time or place or condition of heart. This is contradicted alike by reason, by experience, and by the Word of God. Reason contradicts it : for reason demands an adaptation of means to ends in the spiritual world as everywhere else. Experience contradicts it: for ex- perience makes it clear that such adaptation has al- ways been connected with the best results. The most effective preachers of the Gospel have been those who knew the art of applying its power by skillfully adapt- ing its varied truths to the varied needs and moods of men. And the Word of God contradicts it : for it com- mands wisdom in winning souls, and wisdom is im- possible where results are arbitrary and lawless. And Paul was a fool to make himself a servant unto all, and to become as weak to the weak, as a Jew to the Jews, as without law to them that are without law, and " as all things to all men, that he might by all means save some." If adaptation is of no moment in the presentation of gospel truth, then let us have human parrots or skill- fully constructed talking machines in our pulpits, and put living and thinking men to a business that requires the use of judgment and reason for its prosecution. If adaptation in preaching is an admitted necessity, then it is a prime necessity, and should have every preacher's thoughtful study. Here should be exhib- ited the skill of a workman who needeth not to be ashamed. Here should be practiced the consummate art of a wise master-builder, carrying up the walls of God's spiritual temple with living masonry. He is The Law of Adaptation 16 1 dealing with souls, and what range and compass, what infinite variety, what prejudices and passions and tastes and temperaments, what resistances and prefer- ences and lying refuges, what shut and open doors, what wills — active, sluggish, pliant, defiant — what in- roads of doubt and of fear, joy and sorrow, of hope and disappointment and even dark despair ! Surely to meet all this requires rare facility of adaptation. And herein is the chief wisdom of winning souls and build- ing them up in Christ. It is a business demanding utmost tact and good judgment and knowledge of human nature and familiarity with the Word of God. After years of preaching, the preacher will only reach an approximate knowledge and observance of this law of adaptation ; involving the fit application of the in- finitely varied truths of God to the infinitely varied needs of the souls of men. 11. Adaptation in preaching requires that the ser- TRon should always answer some end. Never should it be written for the mere sake of writing. Nev^er should it be written because the drudgery of weekly toil opens each week with the question : How am I to get ready for Sunday ? and because the process of grinding out one or two sermons must be gone through with in answer to that question. Preaching like this is mechanical and burdensome — not the work of a freeman in Christ. It begets bondage, and is likely to be smitten with barrenness. Nor should the sermon be Avritten in the mere pur- pose of expanding a passage or developing a theme, leaving it to the sovereignty of God to produce this effect or that. There should be a reason for selecting one theme l62 Related Ideals rather than another, and for treating it one way rather than another. Hence the question to be asked and answered is, Why expound such a passage, or develop such a theme ? or, What " call " is there from " the body of the house " for next Sabbath's sermon ? A vast and varied need is before the preacher week by week, and it will be a reproach to him — it will seriously mar the effectiveness and the fidelity of his ministry — if he does not see to it that that need is in some way met. To get through the week's inevitable work will not be his chief concern, nor will it be any concern. But he will be pressed to his study and to the inner sanctuary of prayer with the cry. What shall I do to help and heal, to reach and save my people — to stimulate to a duty undone ; to safeguard some tempted and imperilled soul ; to give hope to a despond- ent heart that may have had blow on blow, until it seems to that heart as if God had forgotten to be gracious ; or to warn some reckless despiser of God's mercy that the hour that seems big with mercy may be big with doom, if he do not repent ? So, the theme will be chosen, and the sermon writ- ten to suit some present condition. The true gunner in pursuit of game does not swing his gun at a flock of birds flying by, and^^e as he swings ; he takes aim at some single bird in the flock and fires. So the adaptive preacher will have his eye open to some im- mediate definite need, either of the congregation or of a class, or of an individual in the congregation ; and he will be on his knees before Go^l, and in diligent search through the Scriptures, for his message ; and he will be at his study table with toil of brain and heart, to unfold and enforce that nlessage. The Law of Adaptation 163 Even the crudest workman in ordinary handicraft pays some heed to the law of adaptation. He selects from his tools the one best fitted to the peculiarities of the task he has in hand. Now, of all work in the world, the preacher's is the transcendently important work. His sermons are his tools. Each one should be made and used for the peculiar effects it is both de- signed and adapted to produce, either on the spiritually alive or the spiritually dead of the people committed to his care. Mark the skilled dentist, even in so slight a matter as the treatment of a tooth. How thorough his examination ! And then with what painstaking care he makes selection from the kit of tools, so as to get the instrument most perfectly adapted to do the needed work. Note the eminent surgeon ! Examina- tion before amputation, always. Note the distin- guished physician ! Diagnosis before prescription, al- wavs. And yet in this God-given trust of ministry to souls, is it not undeniably true that preaching too often con- tents itself with an exhibition of truth, either by a process of logic, or a flight of imagination, or a shower of rhetorical brilliants, without any specific or deter- mined purpose whatever on the part of the preacher, beyond the discharge of his own thoughts ! III. Adajptation has respect to men as they are, not as they ought to he. Men ought unquestionably to be willing to hear and heed the Gospel, no matter in what manner presented or by whom. They ought to be willing to pay regard to its truths whatever the verbal dress of those truths, or the offensiveness of the manner of their presentation, or whatever their inherent unpalatableness. But men are not so 164 Related Ideals willing. The preacher must take men as he finds them, as it has pleased God to place them before him. And he must lift them out of their weakness, charm them away from their kennels of prejudice and folly, find the available avenues to their hearts ; and, while making no compromises with their sins, manifest the wisdom of the serpent and the harmless- ness of the dove. To attack at once their prejudices would be to arouse in them every element of opposi- tion, and to make it impossible to secure favourable at- tention to whatever else the preacher might have to say. If it is God's truth that has aroused opposition, the preacher should not be content with simply say- ing, " Well, it is the truth of God I have preached, and men ought to hear it and heed it." Of course they ought. But is it not the business of the preacher, whenever his message has stirred to angry protest or sullen silence, to challenge himself with questions like these : Has not my method been at fault ? Might I not have got a favourable hearing for this same truth if I had paid heed to what men are in their present condition and circumstances, and had ap- proached them in a somewhat different way, yet with- out abating one whit the claims of God's imperial Word? lY. Adaptation has also respect to differing minds and temperaments. Men take in truth in different forms, and by different avenues or sides of their minds. (a) There are some who need heroic treatment, whom to reach and move you must hit boldly and hard, whacking with the severest cudgels of logic and denunciation. It is the only way to rouse them. The Law of Adaptation 165 They are sluggish in temperament, phlegmatic, lethargic, with sensibilities largely beneath the sur- face. They will bear the thunderings of a young Sinai. (h) Some, on the other hand, are of excitable tem- perament. To deal with these, as with the class just named, would be either to rouse a fearful tem- pest in them, or to crush all heart and hope out of them. {c) Again, some are naturally belligerent, smelling the battle afar off, eager for the fray, delighting in noth- ing so much as controversy. Will you conciliate such souls, and disarm them of opposition by coming into their presence bristling all over with offensive weapons, flaunting aloft your battle-flag, and shouting aloud your battle-cry ? Some are unemotional, and have little of the pathetic or sympathetic in their nature. They don't like tears, and are unmoved by them. Appeals to the feelings fall like snowflakes on the pavements in the warm springtime. They want truth in logical forms — hard, close, clear reasoning. The nakeder the argument, and the less accompanied with illustrations, the better. To attempt to give such hearers the truth by tropes and metaphors and all poetic forms, or by illustrations and touching appeals, would not meet their need at all. They must be fed through their reason. They can best be reached and influenced in that way, and not very well in any other w^ay. {d) Again, some are warmly emotional. They are dominated by the feelings. They like the sermons that are full of gush and glow. They are fed by them ; for they knock at the side of their nature at l66 Related Ideals which truth enters. It is only in emotional forms that they apprehend truth. Truth is floated in to their souls on the watercourses of their tears. Others have aesthetic tastes, delighting in the play of the imagination, in the beautiful forms given to thought and feeling by the artistic touch of fancy. Truth in plain and homely garb is not attractive to them. Now to insist on feeding such minds with bare syllogism, with the exactest statements and definitions, as one would set a system of theological truth before an examining committee, would be like reducing " Paradise Lost " to a series of propositions in Euclid, for the purpose of exhibiting its beauties to the lover of aesthetic and poetic forms. Still others have plain natures, with no imagination and little culture. These must have truth in a plain way. In short, preaching should have constant re- gard to the differing minds and temperaments in the congregation, if the preacher would feed the whole flock of God. It should not be purely intellectual, nor purely emotional, nor purely to the imagination, nor purely in the plain garb of e very-day life. Hence every hearer should expect to like some sermons better than others. If the law of adaptation is observed by the preacher, this varying preference of the hearer will be inevitable. Hence also every preacher should expect to get a different judgment from his people as to the work and fitness of particular sermons. The inan the sermon finds is likely to be the man heard from the next time he and the preacher meet. And the varying proof of appreciation should be the best of evidence to the preacher that he is meeting the varied need of his flock. The Law of Adaptation 167 Y. Adaptatio7i has respect to differing conditions. 1. These conditions are general and special. (a) The spirit of the times. Difficult as it may be to define this spirit or to analyze it, nevertheless there is such a spirit ; and it is constantly changing in the advancing years. It is subtle, pervasive, wide-reach- ing, influential. The men of most influence in any department of activity are the men who most truly represent this spirit, and who adapt their methods to its changing phases. The preacher is no exception. He holds fast to the old and everlasting truths ; but he will change the means and methods and forms of their presentation, by an adaptation to the spirit of the times in which he lives. If Paul were living now with his noble sinuosity and rare adjustableness, fitting himself to the need of the time, he would not preach as he did in the first century. Many of the mighty sermons of even only fifty years ago would lose their effect if repeated now, unless recast in a mould suited to the hour. (5) Another general condition may be that of ignorance. Amongst a people unfamiliar with the Gospel, untrained in the Sabbath-school, unused to the instruction of the sanctuary, and generally un- educated, the law of adaptation would surely require the simplest forms of speech, and a presentation of the very rudiments and elementary principles of the Gospel of Christ. The whole tone and tenor of preaching, its forms and even subject-matter, should be adjusted to this state of things. And the preacher should remember that, even in the most favoured com- munity, there will always be a considerable class who need to be fed with the " milk of the Word," rather l68 Related Ideals than "the strong meat." Better far will it be for the preacher to take the risk of being thought no great reasoner and no mighty intellectual athlete, than to fail of adapting truth to that large number in every congregation who are utterly unable to appreciate the subtle refinements of close reasoning, and the ingeni- ous connections of logical processes. Probably the most prevalent fault of the ministry of our day is the taking, in things spiritual, too much for granted as al- ready known by the congregation. (c) Still another general condition may be that of doctrinal error. A preacher may be called, in the providence of God, to a community where some mischievous error of doctrine has taken wide and deep root. Shall he directly and openly attack it ? The temptation will undoubtedly be to rush with hot haste and consuming zeal to the demolition of the pernicious heresy. But the zeal, after all, is not likely to be according to knowledge. If the error is limited in its influence, and not im- mediately ruinous to souls, ordinarily it would seem to be the better plan to have the error supplanted by the persistent, bold, faithful presentation of truth^ with little or no reference to the error in question. But if the error is wide-spread and influential, a marked, notorious thing, then to the question : " Shall error be directly and openly attacked from the pulpit ? " the answer should be : Yes, provided one is sure of his guns i that they are of sufficient range and calibre to knock the thing all to pieces. But possibly the better way even here would be to pour truth into the conscience; to aim directly at The Law of Adaptation 169 souls. And if the guns are given range by the Lord Almighty, and the shot strike, and the cry come from men. What shall I do to be saved ? — error will slink away. It can't stand before the mighty moving of God's Spirit. The best antidote for heresy is a revival of religion. 2. There are also special conditions, as well as gen- eral, to which adaptation has reference : {a) Inactivity. Some souls have gone to sleep or are smitten with supineness and sloth. The preacher would bring them abreast of the workers and watch- ers who are at their posts, bearing the burdens and heat of the day. Preaching adapted to arouse these in- active souls will not so much smite their inactivit}^ as it will show them the vast interests imperilled by their idleness ; or as it will dwell with loving and glowing enthusiasm on the rewards of active obedience ; or, better still, perhaps, as it will show them their grieved Lord — grieved because of alienated and estranged disciples who have grown forgetful of their vows and promises, and before whom He stands pleading, as in the days of His flesh. He pleaded, saying with tender- ness and tears, "Could ye not watch with Me one hour?" " Will ye also go away ? " Far better this than the chronic pulpit scold. Now and then, a flashing rebuke for supineness and in- activity, given w^ith Christlike tenderness and fidelity, would be the preacher's justification, and exhibit the very mind of the Master. But so-called "scolding sermons " are of questionable value either to pulpit or parish. (5) Sorrow is another special condition calling for wise and tender adaptation. The preacher will study lyo Related Ideals to meet this condition. And he will vary the truth so that it will always answer to the special and peculiar need. At one time he will come with the Gospel's rare and sweet consolations. At another he will dwell on the rich fruits of sorrow. And, again, he will press the lofty thought of God's sign and seal in sorrow. And still again, he will stimulate to a great duty in which once engaged the soul wiWyorget its sorrow. (c) Alienation and estrangement as between Chris- tians. Preaching adapted to this will let it alone so far as dealing with it directly and openly from the pulpit is concerned. But the preacher now and then will make his sermons so exhibitive of the Christly qualities of forgiveness and patience and gentleness and loving sufferance, that he will weigh down that side of the scale in alienated hearts, and make hate an(J bitterness and all uncharitableness ''kick the beam." (d) Impenitency. This condition is always special and varied, and requires rare delicacy of treatment. Each soul should be studied as to its defenses and ap- proaches, its dispositions and prejudices, its shut and open doors. In the course of time, down through one's ministry, the pastor should aim to have each soul's need met by truth prepared specifically for that soul's case. There are at least two urgent reasons why there should be far more of this aiming directly and adapt- edly at individual souls. First. The preacher never hnows when he is face to face with his last opportunity. The soul may not be there another Sabbath to aim at. The Law of Adaptation 171 Second. A71 ounce of instruction to a soul in Christ, is worth a ton of instruction to a soul out of Christ. Still other and greatly varied special conditions will suggest themselves. {e) A condition of honest doubt. There is doubt and doubt — the doubt of cavil and the doubt of love. There is a vast difference between fearing a thing may be false and wishing it false. The recorded interview between Christ and Thomas is here in point. When the other disciples reported that they had seen the risen Lord, Thomas said, ^' Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." When next the disciples met, Christ was with them. How did Christ treat this honest doubter? He said to Thomas, "Keach hither thy finger, and see My hands ; and reach hither thy hand and put it into My side ; and be not faithless but be- lieving." To honest doubt Christ furnished the evi- dence. To the Pharisaic doubt of cavil and hate, Christ sometimes gave silence, sometimes intense and scathing rebuke. (y ) Another special condition is that of wandering and worldly -mindedness. What a picture we have of Christ's approach to such a church or heart, in the words : " Behold I stand at the door and knock." Christ waiting ; waiting just outside : waiting to come in, if only the sinner will open the door. Have we been after heart or church in that patient, waiting, pleading, adaptive way ? (p') And still another special condition is that of honest and earnest inquiry as to the way of salvation. Blessed is the ministry that frequently faces this con- lyi Related Ideals dition, and that often hears the cry, " What shall I do to be saved?" In order to anything like a proper answer to this transcendent question, adaptation re- quires a knowledge of at least two things — human nature and the Word of God. The minister may be acquainted with a lot of people, yet not know human nature. He may have a perfectly orthodox system of theology, yet not know his Bible. The surgeon does not venture to use his tools on a living body, without knowledge of the compli- cated physical framework. Surely that complex and subtle mixture of will and affection, of intellect and passion, of reason and conscience, constituting human nature, must be known by the preacher, before truth can be adapted to its need. And for the most perfect adaptation, he must know the actual human nature before him, Sabbath after Sabbath — the temperaments, tastes, prejudices, and conditions of his people. And this varied and varying need necessitates knowledge of the Word of God to meet it The claims of the law of adaptation will send the preacher on diligent and prayerful search through the Scrip- tures for the truth adapted to each special case. He will light on some sweet promise with which to buoy up the despondent. He will dig deep till he finds the ore with which to enrich some other labourer for God striving to lay up treasure in heaven. He will get honey from some spiritual rock of God's Word with which to fill the mouth of one hungering for the sweets of Christian discipleship. Yea, he will look long and lovingly into the glass of the Word, and get so familiar with the face of his Beloved, beholding His glory, that he will be able to show Him to many The Law of Adaptation 173 an inquiring soul, who " would see Jesus " ; and thus be the blessed instrument of transforming them into the same image from glory to glory. YL As a kind of conclusion from this somewhat extended discussion of the law of adaptation, it is manifest that adaptation compels variety and makes the preacher many-sided. The reaction on the preacher is not the least of the advantages of an observance of this great law. When he comes to make it the controlling, unwavering purpose of his ministry to meet both the specific and general need of his field of labour, he will find his ser- mons taking on an endless variety. It cannot be oth- erwise. Ruts deeply worn will be impossible. Adapta- tion will free the preacher from monotonous repetition. It is a perpetual " declaration of independence " of any arbitrary sermonic rule, as if every sermon were to be squared and hewn to that. The preacher with a bulge will not be found in this company. Many-sidedness is its crown and glory. As a fisher of men he will bait his hook to suit all tastes. Now he will put a truth in the groove of syllogism. Now he will give it aesthetic or emotional form. Now he will spread his wings and fly, in the joy of a vigorous imagination and take some of his hearers with him to get new visions of God through revelations of His grace and glory. Now he will take the pedestrian style and go afoot and show his lowly hearers how the commonest paths of service bloom with God's best, and how the lowliest flowers, scarce daring to look up in the face of one of God's beautiful days on earth, seem to catch a great deal of sunshine and to reflect the very azure of heaven. iy4 Related Ideals And if he seem to preach only half so well to the intellect as to the heart he will now and then preach to the intellect, if there are minds before him craving that form of Truth's presentation. If some dear parishioner says of a certain style of sermonizing, " That's the preaching for me ; stick to that, and you cannot fail of doing good," the wise preacher will not " stick." But he will remember the well-meant coun- sel, and put it away in his private note-book, and once in a while he will recall the sermon that helped and comforted and proved manna of heaven to that be- lieving heart, and he will try to preach another liJce it for that same believing heart. But the ideal preacher will keep out of a rut in his preaching. He is dealing with souls. And no two of them are ever alike. And therefore he will be kept in no form of public presentation of truth that will make him a one-sided preacher — a preacher with a bulge : leaving half his people unhelped, unmoved, undeveloped, while ministering with acceptance and spiritual profit to the other half. XIII PEEACHING OLD DOCTEINES m NEW TIMES SYLLABUS I. What are the old doctrines ? II. What are the new times ? III. How shall the old doctrines be preached in the new times ? (a) In their totality — the new times must hide no truth. (6) In their Scriptural fullness. Hell is not a mere euphemism. The Atonement is something more and deeper than a moral influence, (c) With constant regard to the law of adaptation. (1) Bows are not to be drawn at a venture. (2) Adaptation will have reference to men as they are, not as they ought to be. (3) The perspective, and therefore the proportion and the emphasis of truth, will change with the changing years. XIII PEEACHmG OLD DOCTKINES IN NEW TIMES WHAT do we mean by the old doctrines? And what do we mean by the new times? Definite knowledge of what these things are is in order before we undertake to fit the one to the other. Let us have a roll-call of the old doctrines, and then let us have a characterization of the new times. With these fairly in mind, we may be well on the road to their best adjustment. I. The old doctrines are the doctrines of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, of sin and its punishment, of God's love in the divine incarnation, of the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession of Jesus Christ, of His atoning expiatory sacrifice, of everlasting reward and punishment, of justification by faith, of spiritual regeneration, repentance for sin and growth in grace, of death and the resurrection and the judgment — these, and doctrines like them, the profoundest truths ever grasped by the human mind, and that make the Book that contains them the com- pletest and the all-sufficient revelation of God to man — these are the old doctrines ; old, yet ever new, that may change their form but not their substance ; whose order of succession, whose method of illustration, and whose proportionate expression may vary with the successive centuries, but whose inner and eternal realities are like Him in whom they inhere, and 177 178 Related Ideals from whom they came, " the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." " Heredity " and " environment " and '*' the stream of tendency " and " the survival of the fittest " and " the law of selection " have not done away with sin. " Atrophy by disuse " is only a partial answer to the Scriptural doom of death. The fires of intense phys- ical tortures as the penalty of sin may have burned out, but the fierce flames of a wrathful conscience have not burned out ; and the human bosom is still wrung with the cry of Satan, "Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell." Evolution still leaves us bridgeless gulfs that only the divine interposition involved in the incarnation and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in the regeneration of a human soul, can help us over. Personal responsibility is not yet resolved into a " brain-track." The " I " of per- sonality is still the tremendous factor in human existence. The word *' ought " is in all dictionaries. The " reign of law " makes more room for God. 11. "What now of the " new times " ? Is this a mere phrase, the coinage of the hour ? Or does it stand for a recognizable and indisputable fact ? The times are new, beyond a doubt. They are ever new. There is no long dead-level either of excellence or stupidity. ^N'ew conditions prevail. New forces are let loose. ]^ew social order is established. There's a new world next door. The nations have entered into such near relation to each other that at any hour they may hold a conversational club meeting. Society is complex, yet so knit together that ideas spread like a contagion. The stir is prodigious. A heart-beat is felt around the world. If a man who " fell on sleep " Preaching Old Doctrines in New Times 179 a hundred years ago should wake up now, he would rub his eyes and say : " Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new." Kew men, new measures, new thinking, new agencies, new proc- esses, new relations. New ideas come trooping in at new sides of the mind. New forces are at play, changing mental attitudes, suggesting mental chal- lenges, threatening to play havoc, or playing havoc, with mental convictions. Warfare is not waged as it was. Business is not done as it was. Kews is not heralded as it was. Out of what struggle and push and whirl and weariness men come into Sunday ! The pulpit has now a harder task than it ever had in this world. As Ruskin once put it, " Thirty minutes to raise the dead in ! " III. How, now, shall the old doctrines be preached in these new times ? (a) In their totality. The " times " cannot change the truths or the facts. Man's need as a sinner, Christ's power unto salvation, and everlasting life and death, remain persistent factors in all social relations, and in spite of all scientific discoveries. AVhen we get to putting great doctrines of God on the shelf because they are not suitable or palatable, we are guilty of Saul's sin of substituting sacrifice for obedience ; and however sweet-smelling the savour of some other truth we bring, it will no more find favour with God than Saul's best sheep and oxen. The new times must hide no truth. It would be strange, indeed, to further God's cause and kingdom of truth by proving infidel to God-ordained truth ! (5) Again, the old doctrines must be preached in thei?' Scriptural fullness. i8o Related Ideals Just what they mean in God's Word, they must mean in the modern pulpit. To preach the old truths, and yet so preach them that they are emptied of their deep and essential significance, is as great recreancy to truth as not to preach them at all. Hell is hell, and Christ made it dreadful by every possible figure of speech. And to hide its terrible features by a euphemism, to interpret all the dread imagery that is used in Scripture for setting hell forth as if it indi- cated mere atrophy of powers, or the mere searing of conscience, or the mere shrivelling of the soul at last into nothingness, is to preach a hell that many a man would welcome as he left this world, counting entrance into it a positive joy. And to preach Christ crucified as a marvellous " governmental expedient," or a mighty " moral in- fluence," or a matchless " vicarious sacrifice," would be to preach the truth of the Atonement indeed, but not all the truth. To set forth that marvel and miracle of grace in its Scriptural fullness is to put into the doctrine of the Atonement expiation for sin. The world is full of vicarious sacrifice, but there never was but one exhibition of it that affected sin, and made it possible for God to forgive the sinner. A mother may suffer cheerfully, and to the point of death, in her child's behalf and stead, but no anguish of her soul can take her child's sin away. The ab- solutely unique and transcendent thing in Christ's sacrifice is this, that it is expiatory. And to preach the doctrine of the atonement with this left out is to preach the doctrine with its heart left out. So, too, with all the old great truths. Love and law go hand-in-hand. Mercy and truth meet and kiss Preaching Old Doctrines in New Times i8l each other. Millions of free wills act and interact in the midst of sovereign and eternal purpose. We shall find the harmonies if we go deep enough. All seeming antagonisms melt into friendships in the divine reciprocity of the kingdom of God. Each old doctrine holds in its fullness, and must be preached in its fullness, in old times and new times. {c) But, again, the old doctrines are to be preached in the new times with constant regard to the law of adaptation. " Stud}^ to show thyself approved unto God, a work- man unshamed by his work," is the perpetual divine injunction. (1) Bows are not to be "drawn at a venture." Haphazard shots, simply because the arrow is drawn from the quiver of God's Word, can have no justification. Adaptation is the magic thing that will fit the old doctrine to the new times. Not adaptation that looks to change of fundamental truth, that would cut and hew and chip away at doctrine until it was so disfigured and marred as no longer to reflect the divine image, or to be radiant with the glory of God upon it ; but adaptation that looks to change in the method of handling doctrine, and of fitting it into present living need, this is the necessity. Not elimina- tion, nor modification, but adjustment. (2) This adaptation will have respect to men as they are ; not as they were fifty years ago ; not as they will be fifty years hence ; not as they ought to be to-day, but as they are to-day. The actual human nature in the pew before the preacher Sabbath by Sabbath — this is the study of the man of God, next to his Bible, and equally with his Bible. Coordinate with Scripture exegesis will be this exegesis of human nature^ this l82 Related Ideals reading of heart histories, this investigation of methods of approach, this purpose to know what his hearers are thinking about, what defenses they are building, what subterfuges they are resorting to, what the secret, subtle, insidious, and sometimes unconscious reason is, for their indifference, or their antagonism., or their active opposition. He must get at them, get alongside of them, inside of them, lovingly, sympathetically, practically, sinuously. A burglar will make a study of a bank- vault for weeks and months that he may get at its elaborately locked-up and triple-bolted and barred treasures. Too many preachers spend much time in studj^ing the deep things of God, but no time at all in studying how to get these deep things of God into the deeps of a human heart. Some belligerent preachers come with a battering- ram every Sabbath, as if every hearer's heart were a fortress, walled up at every avenue of approach, and encased in steel, and to be entered only by sheer force. Some are forever making a downy pillow of the Gos- pel, and shying it at people week by week, week by week, as if those making up the whirl of the world, whether in Millionaire Avenue or Little Hell, were aching and sighing for the touch of the Gospel's feathery softness, and wanting nothing on earth but a gospel lullaby 1 Adaptation ! Adaptation ! It is the magic wand that will make an old doctrine fit in to any time, and seem like a birth of yesterday in its sweetness and light. (3) Of course the perspective, and therefore ihepro- portion and the emphasis of truth, will change with the changing years and customs and habits of thought and Preaching Old Doctrines in New Times 183 «i needs and antagonisms of men. The burning question is not always the same question. The theory of a process of God is not always the process. Inspiration is far more than any theory of inspiration. That an old theory has been exploded is no proof that the doc- trine has been exploded. The crude old notions of creation are exploded ; but '' in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," opens the record of Scripture to-day with all the authority of a thousand years ago. Punishment may not be literal fire any more, but to correct the crude conception of the doc- trine of retribution that made hell a bed of hot coals is not to cease to preach the doctrine of i^etribution for sin. Dives, the rich man, begging for a drop of water to cool his tongue, may not mean physical torment of flame, but it means something unspealcdble. And science joins hand with Scripture in the contention that as a man sows he shall surely reap. XIV THE METHOD OF A:N^SWEEIKG QUESTIONS SYLLABUS A preacher worth anything will start questions. A study of Christ's method of answering questions should help us in making wise reply. I. Christ often wrapped His answer in a parable; He replied by a story. II. His answer often embodied a principle, rather than a rule. III. He made much of the Word of God ; and often sent the inquirer to the Scriptures. IV. He looked at the spirit of the questioner, rather than at the letter of the question. V. He often answered one question by asking another. VI. He sometimes met a questioner with silence, and answered " not a word." VII. The question of questions, What shall 1 do to he saved ? How did Christ answer that? He made His answer to suit the case. Sometimes His reply was, ^' Believe.''^ Sometimes, '^ Eepent.'^ Again it was, "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor." And again His answer was, " Choose ; ■ ' the answer being de- termined in each case by the particular attitude of the inquirer's mind. Three things mark Christ's answer to this question of ques- tions : " What shall I do to be saved ? " 1. They make it clear that the door is open to every honest inquirer. 2. They make it clear that the door is Christ. 3. They set the inquirer to doing nothing but what, in the doing, would give salvation. Clearly, any answer that does not send the inquirer straight to Jesus Christ, is big with possibilities of false guidance and disaster. " 2'he heart of the righteous studieih to answer.^ ^ — Prov. 15 : 28. XIV THE METHOD OF ANSWERING QUESTIONS THE art of questioning is of acknowledged im- portance. It has had wide attention and study. The art of answering questions is hardly less important. But comparatively little thought has been given to it. It has not had the at- tention it deserves. The Word of God tells us " a soft answer turneth away wrath." It also commands us to " answer a fool according to his folly." And yet " not to answer a fool according to his folly." Evidently there is need of wide and wise judgment in the replies we make to questioners. " The heart of the wise studieth to answer ; " but caught with a question, there is often no room for study. And hence the word spoken in reply is not " right " or " in due season." The wise man says : " A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth ; " but every minister knows that that is a way of sorrow as well. A preacher, worth anything, will start questions. A live parish will fairly bristle with interrogation points. There are mental challenges in every pew, and these often find a voice. Honest doubt has its in- quiring mood. And dishonest doubt puts on one. Ignorance leans expectantly for knowledge ; and cap- tious, cavilling self-conceit wants to know, you know. Questions speculative, doctrinal, practical — questions 187 i88 Related Ideals of Christian casuistry, of religion, politics, future life — these crowd to the door of the lips and press for answer. We are all concerned to know how to make reply. Manifestly the replies Christ made to those who came to Him with one or another word of inquiry should prove an interesting and illuminating study. The thorough consideration of the nexus of the ques- tions asked Him, of the spirit or incident that gave birth to them, of their grouping or classification, and of the reach and profound significance of Christ's answers, ought to yield a large profit. For the pastor in the frequent and inevitable ques- tionings of his parish ; for the parent brought often face to face with the difficulties raised by an inquiring child ; for the teacher before his class where the spirit of inquiry has been stimulated by his guidance as he has led them into the mysteries of Scripture ; for the Christian before gainsayers seeking to entrap him, and shame or silence him by their cunning interrogatives — this field of study ought to have special and peculiar interest. In looking over the principal occasions when Christ was approached by an inquirer, we shall find rich and abundant material, to help us in determining how to make reply when we are face to face with a questioner, whether his inquiry be a cavil, a challenge, an honest desire to know, or a helpless cry. I. It is quite apparent that Christ often wrapped His answer in a parable. He replied by a story. In this respect (I say it reverently) our martyred Lincoln was greatly like Him. How Lincoln sometimes shot a man through with an anecdote ! How he laughed The Method of Answering Questions 189 another out of his absurdity by a story ! This silent, sad man, with his marvellous intuition, parried many a dagger of interrogation thrust at him, by this method of reply. His stories were often rough and crude ; they smacked of the farm, and the frontier, and the county court-house ; but there was always an irresistible point to them, and now and then an almost infinite pathos. Men went away from him rebuked, con- founded, captured. Men who could batter down argu- ment with argument, men who could listen to and re- sist his logic, who could fling back challenging ques- tions and keep up a running fire of hot discussion, could not stand before one of his irresistible stories. Into these were often crowded argument, illustration, tenderness, appeal ; and they frequently silenced where they did not convince. What Lincoln's method was in a crude, crass, but often effective way, Christ's method was in a finely fibered and flawless way. " Who is my neighbour ?" asked a lawyer. Jesus did not pick him out. He told the parable of the Good Samaritan. He did not define the limits of neighbour- hood. But His story made each one of us kin to any one in need, and showed that the question savoured of narrowness and ought never to be asked. Men have known ever since that if they found anywhere a man with the blood of the human race in his veins and in need of help, no matter of what race or sect or caste or colour, they were to be a neigJibour to him after the deed and the spirit of the Good Samaritan. All the moral dissertations of the centuries have not put that lesson in the world's heart like this gospel story. Again, the question of Peter, " Lo, we have left all and followed Thee ; what, then, shall we have ? " igo Related Ideals brought out the story of the labourers, all hired for a penny a day, though at different hours, and each get- ting simply his penny ; thus teaching that it is accept- ance of a condition and not amount of toil that secures us heaven. " Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath ? " they asked Him. And seizing a common incident of Eastern life, He answered : " Is it lawful to help an ass out of the pit on the Sabbath, and wicked to help a man out ? " Incidents, anecdotes, word-scenes, — they are better than arguments. They illuminate, they translate truth into life, they take abstractions and put flesh and blood on them. They do not antagonize. They never fight. They win their way. Logic cudgels. Parables exhibit. We ought to have more of them, and have them handy, and learn to grow facile in their use. Many a question can best be answered by a story. II. Another feature in Christ's method of answer- ing questions was this : His ansvver embodied 2^ prin- ciple rather than a rule. The letter was nothing much to Him ; the spirit was everything. Tithing of mint He by no means condemned ; but upon the weightier matters He threw the infinite emphasis. Men came to Him asking questions in arithmetic. And their figures seemed impertinences in the spirit and sweep of His answers. They asked for some technical and formal rule. He gave them a great principle. One of the scribes inquired, '^ Master, which is the first commandment of all?" Christ did not begin to weigh the commandments, one by one, to see which was greatest. He did not pick out the first, or the third, or the tenth, and say, " For reasons this is the greatest." He said : " The first commandment is, The Method of Answering Questions 191 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." That is, the second is also first. And there is no first, no second. Love is all! Love is the fultillment of the whole law. Be not concerned about which commandment is greatest, lest you thereby miss the spirit that alone makes it possible to obey at all. So when Peter asks the Lord, " How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him ? Till seven times ? " Jesus replies, " Not until seven times, but until seventy times seven " ; that is, an unlimited number of times ; that is, make no count of forgive- nesses in the possession of the spirit of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not a sum in addition or multiplication. " How many times ! " When a man begins to count the times he has pardoned, the true spirit of forgive- ness is dead in him. " Who is my neighbour ? " Does Christ answer this question by describing a neighbour, pointing him out and naming his characteristic ? No. That is mechanical, artificial, arithmetic again. He exhibits and illustrates the neighbourly spirit. And the Good Samaritan makes the whole world kin. Have we not here a very wholesome lesson as to the method of dealing with a very large class of inquirers ? A good deal of fog in the field of Christian casuistry would be dissipated if we answered inquirers with an illuminating principle rather than a formal rule. None the less, but rather the more, would there be ab- stention from matters of doubtful expediency, if ques- tions concerning them were answered after this method of the Master. 192 Related Ideals III. Another feature of Christ's method of meeting inquiry was this : He inade much of the Word of God. He sent the questioner to the Scriptures. One would think He might have drawn upon His own resources. He had unsearchable riches of wisdom and knowledere. And the use of these would have helped to establish His claims, and could certainly have been made over- whelming in every case of inquiry. But He met ques- tion of friend and foe, of wavering faith and cavilling unbelief, with the Scriptures. " To the law and the testimony," was His constant word. You ask for my credentials, He said to the unbe- lieving Jews. " Search the Scriptures ; they testify of Me." And to answer the wondering query of doubting disciples, " beginning from Moses, He inter- preted to them in all the Scriptures the things con- cerning Himself." ^' Whose wife shall she be ? " asked the skeptical Sadducees. And Christ's reply was : " Ye do err, not knowhig the Scriptures. Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you b}^ God ? " " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " said the lawyer, tempting Him. *' What is written m the law f " was the prompt reply. " How readest thou ? " And when the lawyer read the law, Jesus said, " This do, and thou shalt live." " Why do the disciples that which is not lawful on the Sabbath ? " was the challenging question of the Jews, as the disciples plucked ears of corn. " Have ye never read what David did ? " was the ready an- swer ; and back they were sent to the oracles. " Is it lawful for a man to put awa}'^ his wife for any cause ?'^ asked His enemies, tempting Him. And He answered, The Method of Answering Questions 193 " Have ye not read ? " To the Scriptures ! What is written ? Did ye never read ? How commonly did He thus reply. Not much reasoning ; little theolog- ical discussion ; and no philosophy. What saith the Word f Here, as often elsewhere, Moody was right. In this respect at least he followed Christ's method. The positively best answer to any question is an " It is written." In our replies to inquirers let us have less of human opinion and speculation and more of " Thus saith the Lord." Let us open the Book and find the page and read the words ! lY. A study of Christ's method of answering ques- tions discloses another feature : that He looked at the spirit of the questioner even more than at the letter of the question. He could. Often we cannot. His omniscient eye swept the field of motive. He knew all that was in every man that came to Him. How little we know. But how desirable that we shoidd know — know some- thing, at least, of the posture of the questioner's mind. Hence the need of turning inquirer and ascertaining the occasion of the question, the motive behind it, the attitude towards truth, whether doubt is born of fear that a thing may be false, or of a wish that it were false, before we make answer. Diagnosis before pre- scription is as good in casuistry as in therapeutics. See, now, how Christ devoted His answer to the spirit of the man who asked Him a question, meeting the real need of the inquirer first, and making the letter of the inquiry second and subordinate. Some came to Him with idle curiosity. " Are there few that be saved ? " asked one. Did Christ go into a 194 Related Ideals calculation, counting up infants and covering cen- turies ? No ! The inquirer seemed more interested in a matter of arithmetic than of conscience. And to loose him of his folly, Jesus said, in substance, in an- swer to the question, Are there few that be saved ? See that you are. " Strive to enter in at the strait gate," is His searching, solemn word ; " for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in and shall not be able." Which was as if He had said : It is amazing folly to be paltering and pothering with a question of statistics in connection with salvation, when so many miss the way, and you may he among them ! And yet Christ meets the letter of the inquiry before He gets through, and clearly implies that a great multitude shall be saved when He says : " They shall come from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." Again they question Him, and now it is the dis- ciples who are the inquirers, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? " Did He speak of Moses, or Elijah, or John the Baptist ? He takes a little child, sets him in the midst of them, and makes answer : *' Except ye become as little children ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." And they were shot through with the shame and sin of their pride. And yet the letter of their inquiry gets answer ; for Christ's reply is as if He had said, " The humblest ; he is the greatest." " When shall these things be ? " asked the disciples, as they heard Christ speak of the coming of the Son of Man, and of the end of the world. And Christ's answer substantially is, "Dates, times, seasons, the The Method of Answering Questions 195 day and the hour — what are these ? Be ye ready. That is the vital matter." " What shall this man do ? " is another question of idle curiosity that is met with " What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." " Lo, we have left all. What shall we have ? " Still it is speculation and surmise as to matters of no eternal moment. And while Christ answers that they shall have a hundredfold, He adds, *' But many that are first shall be last, and the last first" — that is, " Have a care ! Be not too eao^er about what ve shall have. The heavenly riches are not for those who are thinking more of what they have given up and what they are to get, than of what they were, and are, and ought to be." So the Master always sought to meet the deeper need hetrayed in the sj)irit of the questioner rather than the surface need indicated hy the question. This should be our way. Y. Still further, in considering Christ's method of reply, it will be found that He often answered one question by asking another. But almost invariably this was when the question was in the line of chal- lenge or rebuke. " Why do Thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders ? " they loftily asked. And the answer came, " Why do ye transgress the commandment of God by your tradition ? " They had assumed there was something wrong in Christ's deed or speech. His reply showed them that they were guilty of a deeper wrong. " Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar ? " they questioned. Jesus perceived their wickedness and said : " Why tempt ye Me, ye hypocrites ? " And 196 Related Ideals holding up a penny, He asked, " Whose is this image and superscription ? " And, compelled to answer, " Caesar's " ; Christ's swift reply was, " Then render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." And seeking to entangle Him, they themselves got enmeshed. YI. Still another method of Christ's reply to questioners was by silence. He sometimes answered nothing. " Hearest Thou not how many things they witness against Thee ? " asked Pilate. " And He gave him no answer, not even to one word." " What ! Carest Thou not what is said of Thee ? Hast Thou no de- fense ? " And the lips that could blast those perjurers were still. Again, at the cross, they rail on Him, wagging their heads, saying, " He saved others ; Himself He cannot save." And amidst that questioning and challenging Babel of hell the Son of God is silent ; He answers nothing. The disciple is not above his Master. There may be times in our lives when a challenging question will best be met by silence. We may suffer thereby. The unspoken answer, if uttered, might free from suspicion, rid us of calumny, vindicate us before an onlooking crowd, save us from the shame of seeming to be weak and false ; yet it may be better that the word be left unspoken. Doubtless this is one of the bitterest acids that can be applied to the coin of Christian integrity. It may cut to the quick to be thus questioned and an- swer not a word ; but the spirit of glory and of God is on us then. So the Master walked on silently, w^hen they thrust their sneering, jeering questions at The Method of Answering Questions 197 Him. But it was the way to His crown and king- dom ! VII. And now, the question of questions, What shall I do to be saved? How did Christ answer that ? Certainly not by laboured reasoning ; nor by some speciJSc and unchanging formula. He had no set an- swer of any kind as a reply to an inquiring soul, seek- ing to know how to get rid of sin, and to obtain eter- nal life. He knew the exact posture of every inquir- er's mind that came to Him, and His answer was ex- actly adapted to tJiut j-X^Tticular attitude of mind. It suited the case. It met the questioner's difficulty, and answered to his need. So far as possible we should see to it that our answer is like Christ's in its adapta- tion to the inquirer's need. But how can this be? We are not diviners of hearts as Christ was. Well, what does the physician for the body do, when called to a case ? He makes a diagnosis, before he makes a prescription. To tell one, who comes asking what he must do to be saved, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, might not touch the secret of the difficulty with Mm / for it might not be the point of the Spirit's striving. Paul told the Philippian jailer to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That answ^er suited the case. But Peter told the Jews at Pentecost, in answer to the very same question, to repent. And Jesus told the rich young man who came asking what he should do to inherit eternal life, " Go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor." And to the people at Mt. Carmel who came " halting be- tween two opinions " (" limping between the two sides") Elijah said, " If the Lord be God, follow Him. If Baal, then follow him." In other words, choose. 198 Related Ideals Make up your minds. When an inquirer is " halting between two opinions," hesitating, wavering, it is not a question of repentance or of faith, but of decision^ of choice. The mere act of choice carries everything with it. Three things thus mark Christ's answer to the ques- tion, What shall I do to be saved ? 1. They put it past all shadow of doubt, that the door is open to every honest inquirer. 2. They put it past all doubt that the door is Christ. 3. They put it past all doubt that no inquirer is to be set to doing anything which in the doing will not give salvation. Clearly any answer that does not send the inquirer straight to Jesus Christ, is big with possibilities of false guidance and disaster. " The heart of the righteous studieth to answer " (Prov. 15 : 28). XV METHODS OF PEEACHING SYLLABUS Comprehensively, three methods : Extempore, Manuscript, and Memoriter. Extempore. I. Exact definition. II. Nothing inherent in mental structure to forbid this. III. Reasons for beginning one's ministry with its practice : (a) it is the ideal delivery ; (6) occasions sometimes make it necessary ; (c) saves time for study. IV. Direct advantages over other methods : (a) mind is stimulated by reproduction ; (6) greater animation in delivery ; (c) face to face contact with audience; (d) greater power of riveting atten- tion; (e) reaction from the audience; (/) freedom to follow leadings of the Holy Spirit. V. Essentials to success : (a) thorough premeditation; (5) self-pos- session ; (c) persistent practice. VI. Helps to facility : (a) a full and careful syllabus or brief ; (6) be satisfied at first with simplicity and accuracy ; (c) let trifling mistakes in language go ; {d) be diligent in the gen- eral study of words : (1) by frequent reference to a good book of synonyms ; ( 2 ) by careful speech in ordinary conversa- tion ; ( 3) by careful writing ; (e) guard against mistaking mere fluency of speech for extemporaneous ability ; (/) begin ex- temporizing at the outset, and let the practice be uniform once every Sabbath ; {g) do not as a rule use prepared para- graphs ; {h) get an uplifted soul. VII. Objections to extempore preaching : (a) apt to be rambling and desultory ; (&) apt to be superficial ; (e) apt to lack balanced treatment ; {d) great tendency to neglect thorough prepara- tion. Four safe-guards : (1) Thorough mental discipline. (2) Wide re- sources of knowledge. (3) Facility in using these resources. (4) Dili- gence in adding to them. Manuscript. I. Use of manuscript does not make the user any the less a preacher. II. Reasons in favour : (a) writing improves style ; (b) tends to give clearness to thought; (c) gives greater compactness; (d) gives relief to the miud in delivery ; (e) likelihood of securing well- balanced treatment ; (/) allows more undivided attention to devotional parts of service. III. Objection to manuscript preaching : («) liable to lack direct ad- dress ; (b) mechanical delivery ; (c) lessened probability of rivet- ing attention. 3femoriter. I. Favourite method of the ancients, owing to marvellous cultiva- tion of memory. II. Advantiiges : (a) Looking and speaking directly to audience ; (b) langnage already prepared ; (c) giving one's self wholly to delivery. But, an indispensable proviso : that the memory recall without con- scious effort. III. Disadvantages : (a) the labour required to write and commit ; (&) the tendency to mechanical delivery ; (c) the fear of pos- sible failure ; (d) the bondage to an already prescribed course ; the claimed freedom, only an apparent freedom ; the introverted look betrays the bondage. Indispensable to ideal memoriter preaching is a memory swift to act; and that never slips. Indispensable to ideal manuscript preaching is complete master}'^ of the subject-matter, and complete familiarity with its verbal form. Indispensable to ideal extempore preaching is just as complete mastery of the subject-matter, but no slavery whatever to any verbal form. All the advantage of the pull from without which the audience gives, is joined to all the advantage of the push from within which meditation and study and prayer have given, making extempore preaching the ideal of the ideals. A consensus of opinion, as to choice of method. Helps in determining method. XV METHODS OF PKEACHIXG THERE are, comprehensively, three methods of preaching : The extemporaneous method, the manuscript method, and the memoriter method. And each of these methods has its distinct and definite ideal. Other metliods are simply com- binations or modifications of these, and may be classed under some one of these three broad generic divisions. Extemporaneous PREACHiNa I. First of all, let us have clearly in mind the exact meaning of the phrase, extemporaneous preaching. Negatively : (a) It is not meant that such preach- ing is wholly impromptu, off-hand, the birth of the hour. It is indeed extempore — for the time ; but not from the time, as if the sermon were the product of the particular instant of delivery. Such utterly un- premeditated discourse could only be made effective on rare occasions, and after long and severe mental discipline ; unless, indeed, it came by direct inspiration of God. Preaching without preparation has led to a great deal of superficial, rambling talk in the pulpit, without ideas and without power. And it has brought this whole matter of extemporaneous pulpit discourse into disrepute. (h) Kor is extemporaneous preaching extempore in the sense of being " from all the time," as Dr. Shedd 203 204 Related Ideals suggests : ^ the result of the whole life and culture of the preacher. It does undoubtedly embody, and is a resultant of, all his past labour and discipline and accu- mulation. But this is just as true of the other methods of preaching. It is equally the case with the written and the memoriter discourse ; and, therefore, it does not define, or distinctly characterize, the extempore method. What is true of all three methods cannot be the differentiating feature of any single method. Positively : Extemporaneous preaching, in its best accepted sense, is ex-tem-po-re, from the time, as to the language alone. It gets its clothing of words on the instant of delivery ; and commonly it gets nothing more. The theme, the plan of treatment, the order of the thought, the arguments and illustrations, the en- tire subject-matter of the discourse, may have been, and should have been, premeditated and prearranged. But the language is the hirth of the hour, born in the very process of delivery ; ex-tem-po-re. This, therefore, is the difference, and it should be the only difference, between written and extempo- raneous discourse. They have the same antecedents of discipline, study, reflection, experience. Produced by the same mind, in like conditions, the same logical order, the same mastery of the subject, and the same breadth and depth and clearness of thought, may pre- v^ail in the extempore as in the written discourse. II. There is nothing inherent in mental structure to forbid an extempore oral expression of premeditated thought, when such an expression is possible hy the pen. The varied powers of the mind are not shut up to the written symbol. The form the thought shall i"Homiletics," p. 219. Methods of Preaching 205 take is so secondary a matter that discipline and practice may make a reasonably good form possible in extempore speech to any one thinking that thought. The difficulty is certainly not in the constitution of the human mind. It is in the circumstances — the things outside the mind, " standing around " ; such as the pres- ence of critical and cultured hearers, the importance of the occasion, past mistakes, and partial failures — of which any man may measurably be the master. III. The reasons for beginning and continuing one's ministry with the practice of extempore preaching. Negatively : {a) Not because our Lord and His apostles thus preached. Christ spake as never man spake. He knew men ; could read their hearts. He knew God, He was God, and, therefore. He could be no model or precedent for us in this matter of ex- tempore speech. He did not need to make prepara- tion in order to preach the sermon on the mount. Dr. Storrs speaks of the extempore as the apostolic method. But we must beware of quoting apostolic example in this matter lest we get Balaam's ass in the pulpit without the ass's inspiration. (J)) Not because all preachers can become pre- eminent extemporizers. It is only given to the few to rise to the full height of effectiveness and pulpit power possible by this method. But, on the positive side, the reasons for the frequent and persistent practice of extemporaneous preaching are clear and unmistakable. {a) It is the ideal delivery— the perfection of oratory. It is the most direct way of speaking to men. It is a living man pouring out his heart to 2o6 Related Ideals living men, in the mode which nature prompts — a free, flowing, animated utterance, a lifting up of the soul into the eyes, a tingling of passion to the very finger-tips, a glow in the whole mien and the whole man, such as is impossible by any other method. Hence the best extempore preaching is not only the best of its kind, but it is better than the best of any other kind. (h) Again : Occasions are frequently arising in the ministry where extemporaneous speech is greatly desirable, and sometimes even imperative. Grave questions in ecclesiastical bodies are not infrequently decided by a single speech, elicited in the heat of debate, and precluding the possibility of written dis- course. And facility in extemporaneous effort may make just the difference between victory and defeat in such a case. Unexpected emergencies also, startling providences, a great calamity, may make it desirable to speak upon a topic for which there is absolutely no time for written preparation, and upon which, nevertheless, it may be to the last degree important that the man of God should speak. Opportunities of great usefulness will thus be lost to a minister who does not trust him- self to pulpit discourse without a manuscript.^ ^ Spurgeon of London had agreed to preach in his father's pulpit cue Sabbath morning. But as the hour for service approached, and the substitute did not put in an appearance, the father felt that he him- self would have to do the preaching. So he hurriedly looked up a text, and lighted upon this : *' By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God " (Eph. 2 : 8). When he had concluded the discussion of the first head, " By grace have ye been saved," he saw his son enter the church door, and he said, "Ah, there he is; he will come up ernd finish the sermon/^ And Methods of Preaching 207 But with facility in extemporaneous effort once acquired he may improve all sucli occasions without personal mortification, and to the sure profit of his hearers. We may even go further than this, and say there will be occasions he is bound to improve, places and times in which there may be a sacred obligation to preach the Gospel, with no possibility of written preparation, and no use for it if it were possible ; yet where silence would be recreancy to duty, and would surely bring loss of influence. Never should a preacher of Christ's Gospel be so bound and tram- melled by the necessity of a manuscript as to suffer " the mortification of being silent when he ought to speak, is expected to speak, and would do good by speaking." It is exposing Christian ambassadorship to the charge of imbecility, and is a dishonour to God. It furnishes ground for the stinging interrogative of Fenelon : " Shall the preacher not venture to speak of God to his people, without having arranged all his words, and learned like a schoolboy his lesson by heart ? " (c) Still again: The habit of extemporaneous preaching saves time for study. The man of God must be a student, thoroughly furnished. Amidst the pressure of engagements in connection with his work he will more and more feel the need of redeeming the hours which he can devote to profitable study and re- search. He who writes his sermons must ordinarily take the working hours of at least two or three da3^s in the mere manual labour. The time of writing at Charles went to the pulpit, got from his father the exact situation, and finished the sermon on that text, taking the clause, "through faith,*' as the second bead of the unfinished discourse. 2o8 Related Ideals least one sermon should be saved to him by the ex- temporaneous method. That much can then be spared to devote to mental discipline and accumulation. And in the course of years the gain in intellectual equip- ment and power would be simply incalculable. Of course, it is not meant by this that there is to be the least abatement of the toil of preparation for ex- tempore discourse. Ko lessened labour and time is to be thought of or tolerated, save as it is involved in the mere writing out of the premeditated discourse. {d) Another reason favouring extempore effort is this : When creditable and efficient it is held in high public esteem. Facility of speech is attractive to men. It commands attention. It awakens interest. It gives influence and power, because it is supposed to indicate ability and power. Doubtless the public judgment is often at fault in this matter. Beyond all question, fluency of utterance is often mistaken for depth and capacity and wealth of resource. It is an erroneous standard of judgment. But in spite of all that may be said by way of exception, the extempo- raneous effort is nearest to nature's method, and gifts in this direction will be highly esteemed by the mass of hearers. It is therefore a clear consideration, urging to the faithful and persistent cultivation of these gifts by every preacher of the Gospel of Christ. lY. The direct advantages over other methods. {a) One capital advantage is, the mind must repeat the process of production, and " re-present to itself in a living form the whole thought and emotion of the discourse." It must summon up and clothe with flesh and blood, and set before men, that which has had ex- istence only in the mind of the preacher. It is there- Methods of Preaching 209 fore a kind of second hirth that is given to a discourse, in the act of extemporaneous delivery. This very effort of invention is necessarily stimulative. The mind is roused and vivified in the process. There is no such action called for in preaching from the manu- script, and hence there is less likelihood of spiritual infection and of summoning into play all the activi- ties and sympathies of the preacher's soul. Feeling is born of mental action ; and intense mental action will produce corresponding increase of feeling ; and in- tensest action and emotion project the most into the minds and hearts of an audience. (h) Greater animation and earnestness in delivery is another advantage of the extempore method over other methods. As the thoughts rise fresh in the mind and quicken the sensibilities, the effort to give them expression in speech engenders warmth of utterance. Excited sensi- bilities will make a more fitting mould for the thoughts, give naturalness to gesture by giving it freedom and meaning, and the whole action and speech will be sur- charged with energy and vigour. {c) The consciousness of speaking face to face with the audience is another advantage. Extemporaneous preaching tends inevitably to more direct address. Style is less involved, less abstract. The speaker is in immediate contact with his audience, and the contact is undisturbed by frequent reference to a manuscript, thrust as it were between himself and his hearers. And this speaking directly to an audi- ence gives : {d) The greater power of riveting attention and arousing sympathy. 210 Related Ideals He can best get another's attention, and secure heed to what he has to say, who looks his listener in the face. The Germans have an expressive way of saying that if a man has anything of importance to tell, and would have another disposed to listen to him, he must say his say " between four eyes." Surely to take a paper out of the pocket and read it to him would be a piece of gross stupidity, pardonable only where exact- ness in the very words was needed as a matter of record. {e) The reaction of the attention and sympathy of the audience on the speaker, is a further advantage of the extemporaneous method. Living contact with aroused and sympathizing minds will stir to an action of intellect and an eloquence of expression impossible in the quiet of the study. If the discourse is written, this reaction can be of little service to the preacher, for his thought has already received a fixed form, from which he is not likely to break away. But in extemporaneous discourse, this reaction has full play to quicken, purify, and elevate the speaker's mind, to flood his heart more fully with the emotions he sees kindled in his hearers ; and there- fore to give his glowing thought a better, intenser ex- pression. There is a mighty " pull from without " as well as a " push from within." Sometimes preachers are almost lifted off their feet by this inspiration. And it is then they lift their audiences to heights of feeling and spiritual power otherwise unattainable. {/) Freedom to follow the unanticipated sugges- tions and leadings of the Spirit of God, is a still fur- ther advantage of the extemporaneous method. The Holy Spirit's assistance should always be sought Methods of Preaching 211 and expected in the delivery of pulpit discourse, whether it be written or unwritten. That the Spirit does sometimes give such aid, illuminations, elevations, enlargements, will not be questioned. That all such experiences are traceable to the Holy Spirit, it is not claimed. That they may be His work, who will dare deny. Now he who has his manuscript before him is liable to restrict himself to what he has written. He is in greater peril, therefore, of ignoring or disregard- ing the Spirit's leadings in actual delivery. The ex- temporaneous preacher, with no restraint of already written discourse upon him, is free to accept the slight- est suggestion, and to profit by the invoked assistance of the Spirit of God, whose liberty in sacred discourse, Calvin impressively says: "no possible danger must be permitted to abridge." " In general," says John Newton, " the best and most useful parts of ray sermon occur de novo while I am preaching." ^ V. The essentials to success in extemporaneous preaching. (a) The first essential to success is thorough pre- meditation : subject-matter for mastery, and the mastery of the subject-matter. Let this be made sure, before and above all else. " Abundance of matter be- gets abundance of words," says Cicero. But it does not always contain, as Tyndall says non-living matter does, " the promise and potency of life." All else in a sermon is secondary to its contents. And the prepar- ation of the matter should be more thorough in un- written than in written discourse, for it is commonly the all in all in extemporaneous preaching. The pre- paratory work of the written sermon may be revised * * ♦ Letters to a Student. ' ' 212 Related Ideals in the process of Writing. But the preparatory work of the extemporaneous sermon cannot possibly be re- vised in the process of actual delivery. And the ex- temporized product will be as the premeditated matter. If the preparation has been faulty, hurried, superficial, illogical, these faults will inevitably appear in the ser- mon. Therefore, no abatement of honest, earnest, hard labour is to be by any possibility allowed, in pre- paring the matter of extempore discourse. Self- indulgence here will inevitably prevent efficiency. Neglect at this point will ensure and perpetuate fail- ure. Hence the preacher should make it a matter of principle and conscience to allow no readiness or flu- ency of speech, no temptation to self-confidence, no pressure of other work, nothing whatever save abso- lute necessity, to keep him from the most thorough and painstaking fidelity in premeditation. This premeditation involves, just as in written dis- course before the act of writing, (1) a distinct concep- tion of the subject to be treated, and of the object to be accomplished, a logical and orderly plan of treat- ment, and the full collection and arrangement of ma- terials for explanation, proof, and illustration. It also involves, (2) a personal active interest in, and sympathy with, the theme, the occasion, and the hearers. This, too, belongs to the written discourse, but it is preeminently requisite in extempore effort, and is to be secured by the same means ; namely, by meditation on the occasion for which preparation is made, on the object in view, on the theme to be treated, and by prayer. The Athenian Pericles could not ascend the bema without an earnest invocation to the immortal Methods of Preaching 213 gods for their assistance. Surely, for an aroused in- terest and sympathy in ascending a pulpit to handle the deep things of the Gospel, there can be nothing so effectual as earnest pra3^er to the God of the Gospel. (b) Another essential to success in extemporaneous preaching is self-j>ossession. Not the self-possession of inordinate vanity and self- conceit. Men have this and mount the pulpit, and never trip in extemporaneous discourse; but they are "as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." They may captivate some ears, may impose for a time on some judgments, but neither in them nor in their speech does power lie. Self-observation, the thinking how one is doing it, is utterly incompatible with true eloquence. The self-possession born of conceited assurance is un- spiritual, and not only not to be coveted, but to be cast out and trodden under foot. The self-possession or confidence of the pulpit should be born of confidence in the promised assistance of God. Proficiency in this direction is the child of piety and grace. To be lifted above hampering and un- nerving fear as in the sight of men, one needs to be filled with holy fear as in the sight of God. This is the only foundation for true self-possession. ^ And this is entirely compatible with two things: (1) A tremor and agitation more or less manifest to consciousness, and even to the observation of others, just prior to and at the outset of extemporaneous ef- fort. Cicero " grew pale at the beginning of a speech and felt a tremor in every part of his frame." " I am ' " Thon therefore gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee : be not dismayed at their faces, lest I con- found thee before them " (Jer. 1 : 17). 214 Related Ideals now an old man,'' said Luther, " and have been a long time occupied in preaching, but I never ascend the pulpit without a tremor." ^ Let one realize what the work is to which he is set, the sacred ness and re- sponsibility and possible consequence of each act of delivery of pulpit discourse, and he can hardly be un- moved in its anticipation and performance. But this agitation will disappear as the preacher is lifted, by absorption in his theme and by the fullness of the Spirit, above all regard to self and the fear of man. (2) But the self-possession born of confidence in God is also compatible with the conceded influence of a timid, shrinking temperament, of already achieved success, of thorough preparation, and of natural and acquired gifts. Grace does not dispense with reason. Piety is not a substitute for common sense. Piety does not materially change one's mental and physical conditions and temperament. Confidence in God does not dispense with the use of means. The point is, not that natural timidity and past success and thorough preparation and gifts, both natural and acquired, have no influence on self-possession, but that these things should he mside to contribute to self-possession. Hence natural timidity should be early overcome by conscientious and careful practice ; hence we should secure the earliest possible success ; hence we should make the most diligent and exhaustive preparation ; and hence the gifts in which we are deficient should be assiduously acquired. But it still remains true * Rev. John McNeil says that *' he is just tingling in every nerve be- fore going into the pulpit till he gets under way with his subject." He does not think a man will make a good preacher without this nervous susceptibility (Personalinterview, 1893). Methods of Preaching 215 that faith in God is the chief, the basic, element in the confidence, or self-possession, of extemporaneous dis- course. "Believe," says Monod, "that He who sends you will not have you speak in vain. Seek the salva- tion of those who hear you as you do your own. For- get yourselves so as to behold nothing but the glory of God and the salvation of your hearers. You will then tremble more before God, but you will tremble less before men." (c) The third essential to success in extemporaneous preaching is persistent practice. Resolution is much. But unyielding, steady, per- sistent practice is much more. The unwontedness of the effort, the presence of critical minds in the audi- ence, literary sensitiveness with respect to style, mis- takes and partial failures, will all plead against con- tinuance. Eesolutely let the ears be shut, and the heart steeled, against all such counsel. Hold the mind determinedly to this one thing, and be inflexibly fixed in the purpose, even through much mortification, to enter into this kingdom of power. With perseverance will come ability, a growing familiarity, a disregard of the possible posture of some hearer, a fervid, direct style of speech, and, ere long, the impossibility of failure. And let it be remembered for encouragement always, that the great apostle preached in weakness and in fear and in much trembling ; that Thomas Scott sat down from an extempore effort in a kind of despair, saying, " It does not signify, it is impossible that I should ever be able to preach extempore ; " yet he came ultimately to preach in no other way ; that Leigh Richmond's first effort was a total failure, and he was so ashamed of it that he declared he would not 2l6 Related Ideals repeat the attempt ; yet, induced to repeat it, he came at last to have no difficulty ; that Bobert Hall, twice at least in his very earliest experiments, failed utterly, and in a way that was really painful to witness, and still more grievous to bear ; yet he became a prince and a power in extemporaneous discourse; that Dr. Tyng who in his day was one of the best extemporizers in the Episcopal Church, so failed at the outset that his mortified wife said to him on the way home, *' I trust that's the last ; " that Dr. Storrs was driven back to his manuscript with great mortification after a serious failure in extemporizing. Success by this road may be painful, and sometimes to the last degree humiliating, but with persistence it is absolutely sure. VI. Helps to facility in extemporaneous preach- ing. (a) A complete analysis of the discourse to be de- livered— a full and careful syllabus or brief. It will be well to write out the plan — the divisions and sub-divisions, and to use mnemonic catch-words to indicate the order of thought and illustration under each head. This brief should not be too minute, too compre- hensive of details : for then it may become a burden to the memory, and the preaching take on the charac- ter of a memoriter effort. Dr. Storrs' first effort at Brooklyn, after his installation, was a personal morti- fication, and he attributed it to too much preparation in detail. He was all the time looking backward, not forward, in preaching. Afterwards he wrote brief outlines, covering only one or two sheets of common note paper. The outline should be like a blazed path through the woods, so that the mind can pass naturally Methods of Preaching 217 and easily from point to point through the entire sermon. Then, this brief should be thoroughly studied, mas- tered— gone over again and again — so that no effort will be required to recall it. Let it be written out in a plain, bold hand and learned completely by heart. A German witness once said when asked if he couldn't change an opinion which he declared he had formed, " No," said he, " I can't. It's all mixed up iiiit my mind.'''' Let the preacher get his outline all mixed up with his mind. Then, whether he takes the written outline in the pulpit or not, will be of little conse- quence. The absolutely best way is to have no notes whatever.^ Face the audience without a scrap of paper between speaker and hearer. But if the speaker is not in perfect possession of the brief, let it be taken to the pulpit, and referred to as infrequently as pos- sible. {h) Let the preacher be satisfied at first with say- ing simply and accurately just what he has to say, without elaboration or illustration or ambitious ora- torical display. He should not attempt fine things till he has learned to do well the ordinary, the plain, the direct, the simple. The chaste diction, the drapery and grace of elegant speech, may come afterwards. Try the wings with low flights, before seeking to» career aloft and to go soaring and gyrating in the upper air. (c) Let trifling mistakes in language go. Sweep on with the thought. Do not stop and return to make corrections. It was Whitefield's course " never ' So Dr. Storrs, Spurgeon, Talmage, and many others unite in testi- fying. 2i8 Related Ideals to take back anything unless it was wicked." Pausing to reconstruct will be likely to prove fatal to that ready flow so essential to success in extempore effort. It will turn the thought to the style and away from the subject, and so lead to hesitation, repetition, and possible confusion. And why advertise a blunder to the entire audience that may not have been noticed by a single hearer. Push right on with the discourse. The speaker may be sure the mistake is magnified more to his own consciousness than to the mind of any one listening to him. {d) Be diligent in the study of words: and so be- come the master of an ever-enriching vocabulary. (1) The frequent reference to a good book of synonyms^ — Crabbe's or Smith's^ — and familiarity with a Thesaurus of English words, will very soon increase greatly one's ready and discriminating com- mand of good English. (2) Careful speech in ordinary conversation will be helpful. One who is accustomed to a careless and slov- enly use of words all the week can hardly expect a rich vocabulary from which to draw supplies for ex- temporaneous discourse on the Sabbath. (3) Careful writing also — writing with constant regard to correct and chaste expression — will tend to give a command of richer and fitter words in unpre- meditated speech. {e) Guard against mistaking mere fluency of speech for good extemporaneous ability. Study, hard study, ' In the English language, as used by the masters, there is really no such thing as a synonym. 'A recent work is "English Synonyms, Antonyms and Preposi- tions," by J. C. Fernald (Funk & Wagualls Company, New York). Methods of Preaching 219 makes the difference between mere flow of words and real power in extempore speech. And it is recreancy to the sacred calling of the ministry, and an offense against God, to indulge in idleness and neglect of study, because endowed with natural fluency.^ Yolu- ble loquacity may be superficial rant, mere wordy emptiness seeking to " supply the place of thought " — a ready flow of sound, twaddle and platitude. It costs the speaker nothing, for it is nothing. " It is a hideous gift," says Spurgeon, " to say nothing at ex- treme length." {/) Begin the extemporaneous method of preach- ing at the very threshold of the ministry, and let the practice be uniform, once every Sabbath. If already in the ministry and accustomed to the manuscript ex- clusively, break the usage once every week. And we are such slaves to usage, not only as to method, but as to time and place, that complete deliverance from bondage can be had only by preaching extempore, now and then in the morning and now and then in the evening. Dr. Alexander tells of a friend of his once asking a celebrated painter how young persons should be taught to paint. The reply was : " Just as puppies are taught to swim — chuck them in." It is so with this kind of preaching. Dare to plunge in at once, if you would be a good extemporizer. The worst floun- ^ When Thiers was president of the French Republic he was about to issue some important manifesto, and submitted the draft to a critical friend. "Yes," said the critic, " the matter is clearly ex- pressed, but I miss the ease and fluency of your usual style. " " Ah ! " replied Thiers, "I have not worked those in yet. The ease will cost me much labour, and the fluency I shall have to drag in by the hair of its head. ' ' 220 Related Ideals derings and splutterings will ere long give way to ease and exactness and buoyant movement in these waters. {g) Do not as a rule use prepared paragraphs care- fully written out. The passage from these to the un- premeditated portions of the discourse cannot be easily and naturally made, save where great excellence in extempore effort has been already attained. Dr. Storrs characterizes the use of such prepared paragraphs as the poorest possible plan for himself. To use his own strik- ing phrase, " The whole sermon became a series of jerks." Yet the rule has its exceptions. Eobert Hall often paid minute attention to the verbal structure of those portions of his sermons where the force of an argu- ment or the probable success of an application de- pended mainly on the language. Dr. N. S. S. Beman ^ usually wrote out with care his introduction, and the first few sentences under each head, as if he would thus get up steam and gather momentum, to push on through each division ; or as if he would thus feel his way to confidence, boldness, and liberty. (A) Get an uplifted soul. Pray. Open the sluices of the heart. Beseech God to flood them. The preacher is to come into most intimate and vital fel- lowship with living men. He is to lay his hands pn their heart-strings. He is to look into their faces and pour passion along the mysterious channels of sympa- thy into their souls. To attempt all this with a per- functory preparation is to make a mock of the holy work. The rather, with a mental equipment perfected * A very able extemporizer and mighty man of God in the first half of the last century ; and who with Barnes and Breckenbridge consti- tuted the three B's that made such a buzzing in the Presbyterian hive in those stormy days. Methods of Preaching 221 at every point, let the man of God fail not to pray, earnestly and wrestlingly, that he may speak amidst the illuminations and sanctities of the Eternal Sjyirit. VII. Objections to extemporaneous preaching. (a) It is apt to be rambling and desultory. This is impossible, unless the premeditated plan is rambling. If the preacher has distinctly conceived what he is to say and what object he is to aim at in saying it, and the successive steps by which that object is to be reached ; if he has surveyed the whole ground and marked out the whole track of thought, and thus blazed his way through — all of which is essential j^rior to each extemporaneous effort — rambling and disconnection are simply out of the question. (J) Extempore effort is apt to be superficial. This is also impossible, unless the premeditated thought has been superficial. There is nothing to prevent as deep and profound thought in preparing for the pulpit this way, as any other way. The thought should be just the same — just as vigorous, protracted, and thorough. It is only the language that is the offspring of the in- stant of delivery. (c) Extempore preaching is apt to lead to the undue enlargement of one point, and hence to a want of bal- ance and sj^mmetry in the treatment of the subject. This is unquestionably true, and can never be w^holly guarded against. Discipline and persistent practice will do much, however, to correct this evil. {d) But the chief objection to extemporaneous preaching is the great and dangerous tendency to neglect thorough preparation. (1) This tendency comes in part from facility of speech. ISTothing is so dangerous as facility. It tends to intellectual care- 222 Related Ideals lessness and indolence, and has often proved destruc- tive of habits of diligent study. It is questionable whether natural facility is any great boon. "It is often mistaken for genius, but it generally ends in mediocrity," says the sculptor, W. W. Story, in a lec- ture on art. Gerome, the eminent French artist, writ- ing of his own experience, declares: "I watched myself closely in my work, and one day having made a study rather easily I scraped it entirely from the canvas, although it was well done — so much did I fear to slip on the smooth plane of facility." ^ That smooth plane of facility ! Many a young min- ister has slipped there to his sore and grievous hurt, and sometimes to the permanent impairment of his pulpit power — so that he has come to be known as a man " whose linguistic fluency is unembarrassed by intellectual activity ; " and his patient, wise parish- ioners find it in their hearts to pray that the Lord would baptize their young pastor with a rich expe- rience of this blessed embarrassment. (2) But the tendency to neglect thorough prepara- tion for the pulpit has often a more honourable source. It frequently comes from the pressure of other and important ministerial work. This work sometimes presses its claims with imperial urgency. And certain as the fluent extemporizer is of his ability to furnish a discourse to his hearers that will be rea- sonably acceptable, trusting to the occasion to inspire him, remembering that often some of his best thoughts have come to him in the very hour of delivery, he yields to the pressure of other work, and neglects the protracted and thorough study of his theme. This ^ Century Magazine^ February, 1889, Methods of Preaching 223 inevitably ends, if continued, in repetitions and com- monplaces, and the utter dearth and death of all fresh- ness and originality. One safeguard against this evil is an inflexible de- termination, by the grace of God and as a matter of conscience, to keep certain hours or days sacred to this one thing — studious and thoughtful preparation for the pulpit. Another safeguard is the fixed habit of writing, as well as of extemporizing sermons, perfecting each manuscript with the utmost care. It is a good deal of an assumption for a young man to lay aside the habit of writing sermons. Surely the purpose is born of ignorance or conceit. For to an extemporaneous preacher, if he is to have anything more than mere temporary success, the four following things are in- dispensable. (1) The most thorough mental discipline, leading to exact habits of thinking. (2) Wide resources of knowledge. (3) Facility in using these resources. (4) Diligence in adding to them. If he hav^e not these, his sermons will inevitably come to show that he spins out " the thread of his verbosity " long after he is done with " the staple of his argument," and like the argument of Gratiano, they will have " two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff." Preaching from a Manuscript I. Let it be said, first of all, and with emphasis, that the use of a manuscript in the pulpit does not make the user any the less a preacher. 224 Related Ideals It is often objected that reading is not p7'eaching. " I object to being read at when I go to hear the Gospel," is Parker's way of putting it. " Be a preacher, and not a reader of the Gospel," he further says. Bishop Simpson, in his " Yale Lectures on Preaching" (p. 178) quotes from Potter's " Sacred Eloquence," to this effect : " In no sense of the word can reading be called preaching. . . . The sermon which is merely read from a paper never has been, and never will be, anything more than a piece of reading." And Sydney Smith waxes merry with the subject after this fashion : " Pulpit discourses have insensibly dwindled from speaking to reading — a practice of itself suflBcient to stifle every germ of eloquence. . . . What can be more ludicrous than an orator delivering stale indignation and fervour of a week old, turning over whole pages of violent passions — reading the tropes and apostrophes into which he is hurried by the ardour of his mind, and so affected at a preconcerted line and page that he is unable to pro- ceed any further." But all this pungent and vehement objection to preaching from a manuscript, is more witty than wise, and fuller of sound than sense. What is " preach- ing"? It is the public exposition and application of God's truth. The use of the manuscript is one method of doing this, just as extemporizing is another method, and memorizing another. It might as well be urged that the extern porizer extemporizes the Gospel, or the memorizer memorizes the Gospel, as that the user of a manuscript reads the Gospel. Each preaches, and one equally with the other, but each after a distinct method. Therefore, to Parker's say- Methods of Preaching 225 ing, " I object to being read at, when I go to hear the Gospel,'^ the sufficient reply is, *' I object to being extemporized at or being memorized at, when I go to hear the Gospel ; " and there is no sense in either. As to Sydney Smith's satirical pleasantry, in his tirade against preaching from a manuscript, one or the other of two things is the inevitable conclusion from his premise : either no preparation whatever is to be made for the Sabbath, or some kind of thought- fid preparation is to be made that does not involve writing. In the former case it is true that the preacher will avoid all possibility of "delivering stale indignation and fervour of a week old." But he will be likely to go floundering in a sea of extempo- rized juvenilities and pious platitudes. In the latter case, if the preacher is a man and his thinking worth anything, there, in the quiet of his study, where he thinks and prays, preparing for the Sabbath, his soul will be stirred with " indignation and fervour." But that "indignation and fervour" will be just as " old " and " stale " when he comes to his pulpit with it on Sunday, as if he had it in black and white in a manuscript. And again, if feeling is born of thought in the study, why should not that same thought produce even intenser feeling in the kindling presence of a sympathetic audience ! II. The reasons in favor of manuscript preaching. {a) Writing chastens and purifies the style. Of course, there is a kind of hurried, unstudied, extem- poraneous writing that does nothing of the sort. It is neither preceded nor accompanied by thought. And the preacher goes dashing over the pages of his sermon paper, with no effort at exact expression. 226 Related Ideals This is even worse than unstudied, extemporaneous sjpeaking. For the latter has some helpful adjunct in an occasion and an audience. And a manuscript is not the least assurance against intellectual vacuity. Even after the most thoughtful and thorough prepa- ration for the sermon, if it be " written with fury," it should be " revised with phlegm." If the writing has been with constant regard to exact verbal ex- pression, of course this critical revision will not be necessary. But, in either case, expression is carefully studied as a means of greater distinctness of thought, of lopping off redundant words, of giving directness and plainness to involved sentences, of strengthening a weak expression, of making every sentence and every word tell towards the furtherance of the one object of the discourse. And this must inevitably chasten and purify and invigourate the style. (5) Writing tends to give clearness and vividness to thought. The very effort to put a conception in words often discloses the vagueness of the conception. "We are not sure of the exact possession of a thought until we have sought to give it verbal form. Writing favours precision of thought as well as purity of speech. Channing doubts " whether a man ever brings his faculties to bear with their whole force on a subject until he writes upon it." ^ "When Robert Hall constructed the language of any part of his sermons the sentences were formed with minute attention to their verbal structure. Buffon says : " To write well is to think well, to feel well, to render well." Cicero is credited with saying, " The pen is the best and most excellent informer and director of iVol. 1, p. 263, Methods of Preaching 227 the tongue." And the brilliant Dr. Eichard S. Storrs, so long the eminent and scholarly leader of the Brook- lyn pulpit, voiced his conviction after this manner : " The pen gives march to the mind." ^ " Better give up half your library than let the pen fall into disuse."^ " Nothing but the pen can break up books for us, and transmute them into knowledge and thought."^ Surely the style of the pulpit cannot afford to dis- pense with this aid to chasteness, dignity, and force. Blemishes in diction need the correction of the pen. (c) Greater compactness with greater variety of material may be secured by writing. The discourse is surer to be rid of superfluities, and to move in straighter lines. It will be likely to contain more varied and multiplied shades of thought and illustra- tion than would appear in extempore effort. {d) The manuscript gives a certain relief to the mind in the actual process of delivery. There is no effort of memory such as is often, and sometimes painfully, apparent in memoriter speaking. There is no labour of invention and style, together with the apprehensions by such labour, as in extempore speak- ing. The prepared discourse — prepared both in thought and language — enables the preacher to enlist all his powers in the actual work of public utterance. If now he has become thoroughly familiar with his manuscript, so that his eye is not held unbrokenly to it in the process of delivery, this method of preaching ought to be greatly effective. It may approach to something of the freedom of the extempore effort. Into his delivery the preacher may put his whole soul, J " Preaching Without Notes, " p. 49. 2 jj^-^^^ p^ 59, ^Ihid., p. 52. 228 Related Ideals possessed with his theme and concerned to possess his hearer with it. Chalmers and Robertson and Alex- ander Maclaren, Howard Crosby and R. D. Hitch- cock and William Taylor and Cuyler and a great and goodly host besides, so preached, and their preaching was with living fire. Such preaching is not " reading," and should not be so-called. It is widely different from, and immeasurably above, that which holds the eye fettered to the manuscript and keeps the mind occupied in taking in the sense. {e) Another reason favouring manuscript preach- ing is the likelihood of securing well-balanced, and hence more thorough, treatment. In writing, the undue elaboration of any one point may be noted and checked. But in extempore effort, the excitement of delivery, when the rush is on, the stir and fervour of aroused interest in the point under discussion, may lead to enlargement and amplification that will leave little or no room for the discussion of other and equally important points. Fit proportion, and therefore greater thoroughness of treatment, are likely to be secured by writing. {/) The written sermon also favours more undi- vided attention to the devotional parts of the service. The secret of many a barren prayer in the pulpit may be just here. The mind has been busy with the coming sermon, which is to be extemporized. Con- cern about that, the consciousness of inadequate preparation, and apprehension of failure, may easily prove the death of a true spirit of devotion. III. The objections to preaching from the manu- script. {a) The written sermon is liable to be too studied Methods of Preaching 229 in expression, too literary and scholastic, so as to lack naturalness and that vital feature of all oratorical effort — direct address. There is a tendency in writing to write for the eye, to pay too great heed to the rare niceties and delicate colourings of expression, and too little heed to the direct end in view, the supreme ob- ject to be accomplished. It is difficult to write as an orator would speak, and few perfectly succeed in com- posing in solitude as if the audience were before them. But eloquence in the pulpit demands an oratorical style. It tends to move straight on men's hearts. It is not by involved and highly-finished sentences that it secures its ends. Quintilian says it is " regardless of the nicety of paring the nails and adjusting the hair." ih) With the written sermon there is also the liability to mechanical delivery. Just in proportion as the mind is occupied in pick- ing up the thought from the written page, is restraint put upon posture and gesture, and the mind is taken away from the object in view, from the desire to ac- complish it, and from sympathy with the audience — three of the chief sources of power in delivery. To avoid this, the sermon should be written in a bold, legible hand, the beginning of sentences should be distinctly marked, the body of the writing should be broken up into paragraphs, the lower right hand corner of each leaf should be lightly folded over so that the leaf may be easily turned in delivery, and the manuscript should be given two or three careful read- ings before it is taken to the pulpit. Otherwise it is likely to put restraint upon look, gesture and posture, and to lessen the flexibility and quench the fire of oratorical action. 230 Related Ideals {c) The lessened probability of riveting attention, of profiting by the reaction of the sympathy of the audience, and of using the unanticipated sugges- tions of the Holy Spirit, may also be used as objec- tions to this method of preaching, though they have been named as advantages in extempore effort. Eye must meet eye^ thought must not he hound hy fixed forms, and the leadings of the Holy Spirit must have instant and constant heed, in order to the best oratorical success. Nothing but a burning heart, aflame with devotion and swept as with a passion for souls, will meet the difficulties presented by a manu- script. But a burning heart will make the hearer forget the preacher has a manuscript before he has gone over a half dozen pages. "How would you heat a cold church ? " was one of the questions sent up to Moody, in one of his big tabernacle gather- ings in New York City. Back came the answer, swift as lightning, "Build a big fire in the pulpit." Away will go all thought or suggestion of a manu- script and all objection to it, in that same kind of conflagration.^ The Memoriter Method of Preaching I. This was the favourite method with the ancients, and in it they attained success. The orators of suc- ceeding ages have never surpassed them. ' I have asked scores of people, fresh from the public service, and commenting enthusiastically upon the sermon, if the preacher used a manuscript, though I knew he never preached without one, and they could not tell whether the preacher had preached from notes or not, so wholly had they been absorbed in the spirit and power of his mes- sage. Surely, as weighed against the message and the man, method kicks the beam. Methods of Preaching 231 But the secret of their success was their ahnost in- credible and inconceivable cultivation of memory. Crassus, we are told by Cicero, would sometimes dictate as many as six different parts of the same argu- ment to six clerks, at the same time, and then go im- mediately into Court and deliver the whole without once looking at his papers. But such marvellous feats of memory are rare, and seldom possible even with laborious culture and the most severe discipline.^ II. The advantages of the memoriter method. {a) Looking and speaking directly to the audience, as against the manuscript method. 1 William H. Seward was probably one of the best representatives of this class of effective public speakers among our American statesmen. In the Lincoln campaign of 1859-60, I distinctly remember his stenographer testifying that the three or four speeches Seward made for the central West in that great campaign were dictated by Seward before he left Auburn, and then given, without a scrap of paper before him, to his eager and enthusiastic audiences. In one of these speeches occurred that memorable phrase, " the irrepressible conflict, " which was quoted from one end of the land to the other and became historic. But this remarkable feat of memory is a far remove from the memoriter exploits reported of Macaulay. That he knew "Paradise Lost " by heart was common report. One evening at Edinburgh there was a bet of a copy of "Paradise Lost " between Macaulay and Jeffrey as to a certain line of that poem. The next morning Macaulay came with a handsomely bound volume. "There," he said, "is your book ; I have lost ; but I have read it through once more, and I will now make you another bet that I can repeat the whole." Jeffrey took him at his word, and put him on in passage after passage without once finding him at fault. This Lord Jeffrey told to Mr. Hayward. It caps the story of Sir Robert Peel saying to Macaulay that he believed he had never forgotten anything he wanted to remember ; to which Macaulay retorted that he had never forgotten anything. No process of strengthening the memory could give such prodigious power, with- out great natural reteutiveuess and readiness. 232 Related Ideals (5) Language already carefully prepared as against the extempore method. Hence : (c) Giving oneself wholly to the work of delivery ; adapting force, pitch, time, articulation, emphasis, and gesture to the varying thought and sentiment. But to these unquestionable advantages is attached an indispensable jproviso. The proviso is that the memory must recall without conscious effort. If the effort to recall is a labour, so engrossing attention as to keep the mind from giving full swing to all the other powers of effective speech, then the supposed advantages disappear, and the disadvantages come to the front with an emphasis and a force quite unmis- takable. III. The disadvantages of the memoriter method. (a) The labour and time required to write and commit. {h) The tendency to mechanical delivery, as in- dicated in the fatal, tell-tale, introverted look. (c) The fear of possible failure from unforeseen cir- cumstances. {d) The bondage to an already prescribed course, sentence by sentence : for to switch off the appointed track would endanger subsequent connection. So that the claimed freedom of this method is, after all, only an apparent freedom. The possession of an extraordinary verbal inemory would obviate the most of these difficulties, and is the indispensable condition to efficiency by this method. The words must seem to come of themselves. Any toil of remembering, or dread of forgetting, will vitiate delivery and make spoil of the deliverer. When the Methods of Preaching 233 speaker's eye is turned inward on the tablet of his brain, as if in search of thoughts and words that ought to be crowding to the tip of his tongue, how can that eye flash with enthusiasm, or be charged with electric fire ? When that telltale betraying, and never-to-be- mistaken introverted look, shows that he does not see his congregation, he can neither be in close sj^mpathetic touch with his hearers, nor responsive to their varied moods and needs.^ Here, then, are the three generic ideal methods of preaching. Any other methods are mere modifica- tions or combinations of these. For the ideal memoriter method of preaching, it is absolutely indispensable that the preacher have a memory ready and retentive, swift to act, and that never slips. For the ideal method of preaching from a manu- script, it is absolutely indispensable that there should be both complete mastery of the subject-matter, and ^ I have never heard a memoriter speaker who did not sooner or later show that he was memorizing, and thus betray his enslavement to a manuscript. Dr. John Hall, of blessed memory, so long the beloved and honoured pastor of one of New York's great churches, was one of the freest memoriter preachers, and apparently in familiar and sympathetic relation with his audience. His gestures were telling and abundant. He often leaned far forward from the pulpit as if to come in closer touch with his hearers, and to talk to them in the most companionable ■way. And his freedom from the manuscript was often occasion of re- mark. But I ouce happened to be seated immediately in front of him, not more than ten feet away, as I was to officiate in the installation service. The platform was low, and I could see distinctly every feature of his fine face. But there was that same telltale introverted look. He did not see his audience once, from start to finish. His eye was on the manuscript, or the copy of it that was stamped upon his memory; and as to who was in his audience, what they were doing, how affected, he seemingly was as blind as if he were sightless. 234 Related Ideals complete familiarity with its verbal form, so that bondage to the manuscript shall be lost sight of in the freedom and glory of utterance. For the ideal method of preaching extemporaneously it is absolutely indispensable that there be just as complete command of the subject-matter of the sermon as in the other methods. But there must just as absolutely be no slavery to any verbal form. The verbal form must be got in the presence and under the inspiration of the audience. For this is the all-in- all of extempore speech. It is this pull from without which the audience gives, joined to the push from within which is given by meditation and prayer in the quiet of the study, that makes ideal extempore preach- ing, as has been already said, not only the best of its kind, but better than the best of any other kind. That is, tlie ideal of the ideals ! Choice of Method Here is a little consensus of opinion. It might well be labelled " a bundle of contradictions." Dr. Kichard S. Storrs : "If you find, after sufficient conscientious trial, that you can do more useful service with the pen, than without it, use the pen. ... I have never believed it the best plan for all ministers to preach without notes " (" Preaching Without Notes," p. 67). A wise and weighty word. What he means by " conscientious trial " let his own words tell us : " Make the failure a reason for more intense succeeding effort ; a wing, not a weight ; a spur to stimulate to fresh endeavour, and not a stiletto to stab out the life " {Ibid., p. QQ). Another wise and weighty word. Methods of Preaching 235 But his last counsel is, changing a word of Paul's, " One man esteemeth one way above another : another man esteemeth every way alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind " {Ihid., p. 'o^)^ which seems to leave this vital matter of method in preach- ing absolutely to one's personal preference. Dr. William Taylor : " Memoriter preaching is the method that has the greatest advantages, with the fewest disadvantages." And yet, " Preaching from a manuscript is the method in which if he choose to train himself in it, the man of average ability will make, on the whole, the best of his talents." And yet, he says, "Abstractly there can be no doubt that free speech is the normal method of the pulpit." *' Make choice of the method which suits you best ! " ("The Ministry of the Word," pages 150-152.) Dr. Parker : " On the whole, . . . free speech in the pulpit is infinitely preferable to the most fin- ished written composition " (" Ad Clerum," p. 44). But he wrote^ and then laid aside his manuscript, and this he called " free speech." In other words, he made a verbal groove for his thought, and then got into it or kept out of it according to the mood of the moment. The probabilities are that he commonl}^ got into the ditch and stayed there. At the risk of being regarded as over-bold and even presumptuous in the presence of this galaxy of cele- brated preachers and authorities in the field of Homiletics, the author would submit the following as proving suggestive and helpful in determining Tnethod. 236 Related Ideals Helps in Determining Method 1. No method is to be exclusively used at the out- set of one's ministry. 2. On the whole, in view of all the considerations, pro and con, the memoriter method seems the least cle- sirahle of the three, save where there is a natural and very unusual gift of memory. And then it is not to be used to the exclusion of the extempore, but only of the manuscrijpt method. When by writing a sermon, and reading it over once or twice, a preacher can so command the precise verbal expression that he need only open his mouth to reproduce it — reproduction being almost as spontaneous as his breathing — he may employ the memoriter method to advantage. But where recollection is a labour, either antecedent to delivery or in the process of delivery, the method is unadvisable. It consumes time, instead of saving time. But, whatever the power and the facility of remembering, this method should never be used exclusively. 3. As to the other two methods of preaching — preaching from the manuscript and preaching extem- pore— each tends to correct the faults of the other. The two methods are a balance and corrective, and should invariably go together, while habits of thought and style are forming. No preacher can at the outset reject either without impairing his efficiency. He will write better by extemporizing, and he will extemporize better by writing. Writing tends to correct the looseness and inexactness of verbal expression in ex- tempore effort, tends to counteract undue amplification of one point, so common in extempore effort, and tends to thoroughness of preparation. Methods of Preaching 237 On the other hand, the extempore method tends to correct the scholastic and too studied and often in- volved style of the written sermon, tends to immediate contact with the audience, and hence to that freedom of delivery which has been the inspiration of waiting assemblies since the day of Pentecost. 4. Objections to combining these two methods by writing out the sermon in full, and then preaching without the manuscript : {a) The time saved for study by the purely extem- pore method is thus lost altogether. {b) The effort to write out carefully two sermons a week will either prove exhaustive to the preacher, or lead to careless superficial writing. {c) The actual delivery, with most minds, would be likely to be a struggle between the memoriter and the extempore. The mind would naturally run in the groove of verbal expression already made in writing the sermon, and the reproduction would be embar- rassed by the tendency. {d) Hence, the want of that jyerfect freedom of ut- terance which is the glory of the best extempore speech. 5. Tlh.Q proportion in which each should he used will be determined somewhat by circumstances. {a) Regard must be had to occasions. There are occasions when the most careful preparation, extend- ing to the entire verbal expression and demanding ex- actness in every line and word, is essential. There are occasions, on the other hand, when a written discourse would be strangely out of place. The prayer-meeting address, a kind of sermonette, the familiar weekly talk of the pastor with his people should be invariably without notes. At funerals, except on great public 238 Related Ideals occasions, the speaking should be extemporaneous. In localities unused to the Gospel, in unlettered neighbour- hoods, in gatherings at schoolhouses, in the midst of an assembly caring little for the Gospel and knowing less, the use of a manuscript would be a weakness and a hindrance, making it almost impossible to hold at- tention. (b) Regard must be had to subject also — some sub- jects requiring that exact didactic form of expression to which writing is favourable. Some subjects also compelling an entrance on unfamiliar lines of thought and the use of unfamiliar modes of expression. 6. In view of all the points considered, the princi- ples involved, and the historic facts in evidence, is not the following a fair and adequate summary of the coun- sel concerning methods of preaching ? For the first five years in one's ministry, let one sermon each week be written with great care. With equal care let the ^lan or outline of another sermon be prepared each week ; and so prepared that the preacher shall know what he is going to talk about, and the track of his thought from start to finish, without knowing the exact verbal form his thought is to take, until he is in his pulpit in the actual process of delivery. Then let the preacher steadfastly and determinedly see to two things : first, that no natural fluency or sur- jpassing facility of utterance shall Tceejp him from the constant habit of careful writing j second, that no natural timidity^ no stumbling and halting at first ventures^ shall Iceep hiin from the constant habit of preaching extemjpore. If five years of persistent practice do not give ease and readiness and measurable success in extempo- Methods of Preaching 239 raneous effort, then either the foundations that are the basis of all effective discourse are worthless, or the preacher will have disclosed some radical defect in temperament or mental structure unfitting him for this ideal method of telling men of Jesus Christ, through the public proclamation of His Holy Word. XVI KINDS OF DISCUSSION SYLLABUS Discussion — its place in sermonic structure. Three generic kinds : explanatory, observational, prepositional. I. Explanatory discussion embraces narration, description, exempli- fication. Its chief business is exposition — but exposition al- ways in order to persuasion. It is exhibitive, not demonstra- tive. But it is not mere commentary. It is dominated by a purpose to move the will Godward. Some suggestions that should have heed in explanatory discussion. II. Observational discussion. Its nature. Not demonstrative. But the observations should be clearly suggested by the text, strictly germane to the subject, aimed at some definite object, and pervaded by unity. Advantages: it tends to variety, freshness, vivacity and origi- nality. Dangers : that the observations will be rambling, disconnected, and more or less wanting in direct Scripturalness. Examples of observational discussion. III. Propositional discussion. Its nature and aim ; demonstrative ; step by step ; appeals to the reason. The ideal explanatory discussion not only makes the meaning perfectly clear, but aims to reach the will. The ideal observational discussion not only has Scripture for the basis of each observation, but so arranges them as to make the sermon a climax. The ideal propositional discussion is that which proves its case and leaves " no hinge or loop to hang a doubt on." Of these three ideal kinds of discussion the greatest is explana- tory ; for 1. Its limitless variety furnishes adaptation to the most varied need. 2. It makes a more intelligent and stable body of believers. 3. It was the way of the Master. XVI KINDS OF DISCUSSION DISCUSSION is that part of discourse which unfolds the theme. The plan of the sermon is the skeleton. The discussion is this skeleton, clothed with flesh and blood and put to a living use, for the purpose of securing some object. Here the instruction is furnished, or the proof dis- played, that is to inform the understanding of the hearer, and lodge conviction, and lay a foundation for excitation and persuasion. There are three general kinds of discussion — ex- planatory, observational and propositional, and each has its own distinct ideal. I. Explanatory discussion. This looks towards informing or instructing. It aims to set forth in a clear light that which is obscure ; to give directness and vividness to a subject not clearly apprehended or understood. {a) What it embraces : Explanatory discussion embraces narration, or the setting forth of events in their chronological or causal order, and as centrally connected with some specific theme, as, for example, the circumstances attending the denial of Christ by Peter. (5) Explanatory discussion embraces description. A character, an attribute, a duty, a doctrine, may be more distinctly apprehended as it is vividly set forth by fit and forceful speech. Getting a subject fairly 243 - 244 Related Ideals and fully before an audience, by perfectly accurate but vivid word colouring, may make just the difference between its acceptance and rejection. (c) Explanatory discussion embraces exemjplifica- tion — or the setting forth a theme by examjjles / as national or individual, from history or from fiction ; e. g., Christian heroism, — illustrated by the martyrs at the stake ; " Virtue its own reward " — set forth by particular instances of comfort and peace in the prac- tice of self-denial ; " The pain of the present swallowed up in the joy of the future " — illustrated by Christ Himself," who for the joy that was set before Him, en- dured the cross, despising the shame." ^ {d) But explanatory discussion has its chief crown and glory in what is technically known as exjpository preaching. This preaching is based upon a somewhat extended section of Scripture. But while the chief business of expository preaching is explanation^ it is always explanation in order to persitasion. It is not mere commentary. Commentary is simply for infor- mation, may stop here or there without regard to completeness of thought, explains with equal care and fidelity every part of Scripture text, runs on from ^Fine material is furnished iu Heb, 11, for a series of sermons illus- trating explanatory discussion by exemplification. Taking the first verse of the chapter as the basis of the series, what a roll-call of heroes follows in exemplification of t\\& poicer of faith ! — "By faith, Enoch" — " By faith, Noah "— " By faith, Abraham "— " By faith, Moses "— and others of the goodly and godly group who, through faith, " subdued kingdoms," "wrought righteousness," "obtained promises " " stopped the mouths x,i lions, " " quenched the power of fire, " " waxed mighty in war," and " turned to flight " whole armies. How easy to imaginean entire church transformed by such a series of sermons, and led to say in the joy of invincible persuasion, ' * We can do anything through faith. ' ' Kinds of Discussion 245 verse to verse and chapter to cliapter, and is utterly indifferent to oratorical arrangement. On the other hand, the expository sermon has what Vinet calls " a mother idea" running through it from beginning to end, as in a parable. And hence, while there is pre- dominance of analysis in the expository sermon, it is not analysis that cuts the subject into infinitesimal bits, and leaves the sermon a mere bundle of chips. (e) Explanatory discussion must therefore forever respect the oratorical form and spirit of the sermon, so that all the particulars brought out in the processes of exegesis and analysis shall be made to flow in one strong current, and in increasing volume towards a def- inite end. Exegesis must not be so detailed as to halt movement. It should show results rather than processes. For a sermon is first and last and always an address, a speech ; and its animating genius is climax ; and minute critical exegetical details are absolutely hostile to oratorical form and flow. (f) Explanatory discussion is exhihitive, and not demonstrative. It never reasons. It unfolds. It does not come with the cudgels of logic. It tells a story. As was seen in our discussion of the ideal method of answering questions, Christ frequently met both honest inquiry and challenging unbelief by a story. Again and again in the gospel record it is said of Him : " He spake a parable unto them." And in every case His purpose is made clear. It was not to entertain His hearers, nor to arrest or fix attention ; but to drive home some vital truth embosomed in the heart of His story. " Behold a sower went forth to sow " — and the different sorts tell us in a matchless way one of the secrets of rich and poor harvesting in the kingdom of 246 Related Ideals God. And how the parable of the prodigal son has brought many a wandering boy back to his father's house. And how the story of the Syrophenician woman and her daughter has made many a mother feel she too may have power with God and prevail. 1. Explanatory discussion must therefore be domi- nated from start to finish by a purpose. And that pur- pose must determine the relative empliasis to he putupon the successive points in the disctission. For example: Paul in his second letter to the church at Coi'inth is making, as we would say in the usage of to-day, an appeal for a church collection. In the midst of his appeal he urges this marvellous plea for Christian liberality : " For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (2 Cor. 8 : 9). Here all the infinite riches of grace and glory in Christ Jesus before the world was, and all the poverty and shame and sorrow the life He lived here and the death He suffered, are brought to bear upon a mere matter of self-denying Christian liberality. And it is simply tremendous in its appeal. It em- braces all the exceeding and eternal weight of glory that Christ had with the Father before the world was, all the poverty and desolation and doom of death in- volved in the incarnation and crucifixion, and all the eternal riches and grace and glory won for us by the amazing sacrifice. Togo into explanatory and unfold- ing details of all this would require a volume of di- vinity. Even a dozen or more sermons on the riches from which Christ came and the poverty to which He came, that He might infinitely enrich our poverty, would scarcely touch the hem of the garments of these Kinds of Discussion 247 mighty themes. Explanatory discussion could not and should not undertake detailed and minute explanation of these vast reaches of thought, including, as they do, many of the great doctrines of God, such as the eternal Trinity of the Godhead, the eternal glory which Christ had with the Father, the divine incarnation in the flesh, the humiliation, poverty and shame of Christ's incarnation, the crucifixion, and the great doctrine of the atonement for sin it represents, the resurrection, the ascension, and the divine, perpetual and effectual intercession. In expository preaching on this Cor- inthian chapter, these vast themes should be used as motives to Christian liberality^ and nothing more. They should be marshalled in brief, and pressed to the accomplishment of this distinct and specific object. But in each clause of this wonderful section of Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church, lies a great truth of God. And if one wished to enrich his flock with the full unfolding of these respective truths, so that their great glory would be a perpetual inspiration to Christian loyalty and service and sacrifice in any field of labour and for any call of God, he would, after a while, turn back to this signal passage, take up the several clauses one by one, and m^ahe a sermon on each clause^ and each of these sermons either observational or demonstrative. In other words, having used them collectively in explanatory discussion, he could after- wards take them up singly, and find rich and abundant material in each for observational or propositional dis- cussion. 2. Suggestive helps that may well have heed in ex- planatory discussion, where the preaching is purely expository : 248 Related Ideals {a) The exposition should begin with some brief and detached portion of Scripture that has already had the preacher's study and heart, and which he has found particularly fruitful and suggestive. The ex- position will then be no task to him, and will have the warmth and glow of personal interest. (h) If the exposition is to be in course, before be- ginning the series, it would be well, (1) To make a general survey of the field to be traversed. Read the entire epistle, or the biography, or the historic record again and again, and in the translation, if the Greek or Hebrew is not familiar. This will give the flow, the current, the continuous movement so vital to a comprehensive view — the general facts and their re- lation to each other; or the successive points in the argument, and their relative force and application. (2) Lay out a definite plan of procedure. Determine at least these three things : the limit of each section to be expounded ; the leading idea to be developed and enforced in connection with each section ; and the practical uses to which each section may be put. With this work mapped out beforehand, one thing will cer- tainly be secured — the general unity of the hooh. And one thing will certainly be avoided — all prohahility of repetition. {c) The limit of the passage for exposition should be predetermined by the leading thought. We can- not cut the text of an expository sermon at random from the body of Scripture. It must be a passage measurably complete in itself, having a natural begin- ning and ending, so that the sermon may be a rounded whole, having subject and object and oratorical struc- ture, and pervaded throughout by essential unit3^ Kinds of Discussion 249 (d) There should be predominance of analysis, but analysis always in order to syntliesis. Analysis is not decomposition. It should respect the soul of the pas- sage. Here is room and demand for the closest crit- ical scholarly study. II. Ohservational Discussion. This is discussing a text or a theme by a series of observations, that shall bring out its salient leading points. The observations are not in the order of a demonstration : not successive steps in a logical process. But the observations should be clearly suggested by the text — strictly germane. This kind of discussion is applicable chiefly to ob- jects where the different parts of the text furnish the basis for the observations ; and to Scriptural inci- dents whose respective details furnish a like basis. But it is possible, and may be made exceedingly profitable, with almost any portion of Scripture. F. W. Robertson is the conspicuous modern example of this method of discussion. He went through the two epistles to the Corinthians in the use of this method. And that this work is richly suggestive, with possibilities of rare variety, and charged to the full with applied theology, will hardly be gainsaid. His sermons on individual texts have the same stamp : illustrating both the dangers and advantages of this method of discussion. The advantages are that this kind of discussion tends to variety, freshness, vivacity and originality in the preacher. The dangers are that the observations will be rambling, disconnected, and more or less want- ing in direct Scripturalness, through temptation, to a fertile and suggestive mind, to display its own in- 250 Related Ideals genuity. With these dangers scrupulously guarded against, there is no reason why this kind of discussion should not be frequently and profitably employed in sacred discourse. Examples of Observational Discussion This example is given by Shedd/ as from Bed- dome, on the text : " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? " (Acts 9 : 4). Observation 1. It is the general character of un- converted men to be of a persecuting spirit. Observation 2. Christ has His eye on persecutors. Observation 3. The injury done to Christ's people, Christ considers as done to Himself. Observation 4. The calls of Christ are particular — *'Saul, Saul." The first observation might well be challenged. But the rest have a clear evidential value as to this method of discussion, and the Scriptures are full of such fine possibilities. One of these fine possibilities is furnished by Gala- tians 6 : 10 : "So then as we have opportunity let us work that which is good towards all men, and espe- cially towards them that are of the household of faith." Theme : Opportunity. Observation 1. Opportunity is the measure of duty. Observation 2. Opportunity has swift wings. If we would see it before it gets by, we must have our eyes open. Observation 3. Opportunity does not always come flying by ; but sometimes it is so in our power to ar- ^Shedd's " Homiletics, " p. 150. Kinds of Discussion 251 range and order events that ere long opportunity will be seen winging its way to our door. Observation 4. Opportunity has no limit of sect or caste or colour. " Let us work that which is good towards all men." Observation 5. Opportunity has special reference to " the household of faith." III. Propositional Discussion. This kind of discussion involves logical proof. It aims step by step to establish an affirmation or propo- sition as true, and either to lodge conviction in the mind of the hearer, or to confirm by fresh argument the conviction already there. It appeals to the judg- ment and the reason of men. Out of the nature of the theme grows the argument, a logical succession, a process of demonstration. It is the highest philosophic form of discourse. Trained minds delight in it, love to see it built up. It should be the aim of every preacher to discuss now and then some truth after this fashion. But trained minds are few in most con- gregations. They are few in almost every promiscu- ous assembly. Their need should be proportionally met, as we have seen in our discussion of the law of adaptation. But even such minds are often longing for simplicity, directness, and spiritual illumination rather than logical process. Here, then, are the three leading, generic kinds of pulpit discussion — Explanatory, Observational, Propo- sitional. They virtually cover the entire field. The ideal explanatory discussion is that which so exhibits God's truth by narration, description, ex- emplification or exposition, that it not only makes the meaning absolutely clear, but also shows a distinct 252 Related Ideals and dominating purpose to reach the will and move it Godward. The ideal observational discussion is that which has a clear " Thus saith the Lord," for each of its observa- tions, and that so focusses these observations as to make the sermon a climax, gathering power as it pro- ceeds, and determinedly bent on accomplishing a specific object. The idesil jpropositional discussion is that which has its theme in a logical rather than a rhetorical form. The rhetorical form is simply exhibitive, suggesting no particular kind of discussion. But the logical form is assertive, suggesting and demanding proof. " The sovereignty of