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THE PREACHER AND HIS MODELS

THE PREACHER AND HIS MODELS

_THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING, 1891_

BY THEREV. JAMES STALKER, D. D. 

AUTHOR OF

"IMAGO CHRISTI, " "THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST, " "THE LIFE OFST. PAUL, " ETC. 

_Quis facit ut quid oportet et quemadmodum oportet dicaturnisi in Cujus manu sunt nos et nostri sermones?_ ST. AUGUSTINE, _De Doctrina Christiana, iv. 15_

HODDER & STOUGHTONLONDON : : MCMXIX

COPYRIGHT, 1891, BYA. C. ARMSTRONG & SON. 

TO THERev. Alexander Whyte, D. D. 

 DIVINITY SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY, } NEW HAVEN, CONN. , APRIL 25, 1891. }

REV. JAMES STALKER, D. D. , GLASGOW, SCOTLAND. 

REV. AND DEAR SIR:

_At the close of your instructive and stimulating lectures in theLyman Beecher Course before the members of this Theological School, wedesire to express to you the satisfaction with which they have beenlistened to, and we are glad to know that, by their publication in theUnited States and Great Britain, the pleasure and profit which we haveall derived from their delivery will be enjoyed by a wider circle. _

 TIMOTHY DWIGHT, _President_. 

 GEORGE E. DAY, _Professor of Hebrew_. 

 SAMUEL HARRIS, _Professor of Systematic Theology_. 

 GEORGE P. FISHER, _Professor of Ecclesiastical History_. 

 LEWIS O. BRASTOW, _Professor of Practical Theology_. 

 GEORGE B. STEVENS, _Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation_. 

 FRANK C. PORTER, _Instructor in Biblical Theology_. 

PREFACE

These nine Lectures on Preaching were delivered, on the Lyman BeecherFoundation, to the divinity students of Yale University in the springof this year. With the kind concurrence of the Senate of Yale, five ofthem were redelivered, on the Merrick Foundation, to the students ofOhio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. 

In the Appendix an Ordination Address is reproduced, which I wrotewhen I had been only four or five years in the ministry, and which Ihave been requested to reprint. My friend, the Rev. Dr. Walker, whowas present when it was delivered, having published it in _The FamilyTreasury_, another friend, noticing it there, had it printed as apamphlet at his own expense and distributed to all the ministers ofthe Church to which he and I belong. It was a very characteristic act;and I have ventured, as a memorial of it, to dedicate this volume tohim. I do so, however, not for this reason only, but also becausethere has been no one in this generation who has done more than he hasdone, by the example of his own impressive ministry and by hisgenerous encouragement of younger ministers, to promote the interestsof preaching in his native land. 

My thanks are due to the Rev. Charles Shaw, who on this as on formeroccasions has kindly assisted me in correcting the press. 

GLASGOW, _October 1st, 1891_. 

CONTENTS. 

LECTURE I. 

 PAGE

INTRODUCTORY 1

LECTURE II. 

THE PREACHER AS A MAN OF GOD 29

LECTURE III. 

THE PREACHER AS A PATRIOT 59

LECTURE IV. 

THE PREACHER AS A MAN OF THE WORD 91

LECTURE V. 

THE PREACHER AS A FALSE PROPHET 125

LECTURE VI. 

THE PREACHER AS A MAN 149

LECTURE VII. 

THE PREACHER AS A CHRISTIAN 179

LECTURE VIII. 

THE PREACHER AS AN APOSTLE 205

LECTURE IX. 

THE PREACHER AS A THINKER 237

APPENDIX. 

AN ORDINATION CHARGE 265

LECTURE I. 

INTRODUCTORY

Gentlemen, it would be impossible to begin this course of lectureswithout expressing my acknowledgments to the Theological Faculty ofthis University for the great honour they have done me by inviting meto occupy this position. When I look over the list of my predecessorsand observe that it includes such names as Bishop Simpson, Henry WardBeecher, Dr. John Hall, Dr. W. M. Taylor, Dr. Phillips Brooks, Dr. A. J. F. Behrends, and Dr. Dale--to mention only those with which itopens--I cannot help feeling that it is perhaps a greater honour thanI was entitled to accept; and I cannot but wish that the preaching ofthe old country were to be represented on this occasion by some one ofthe many ministers who would have been abler than I to do it justice. It is with no sense of having attained that I am to speak to you; forI always seem to myself to be only beginning to learn my trade; andthe furthest I ever get in the way of confidence is to believe that Ishall preach well next time. However, there may be some advantages inhearing one who is not too far away from the difficulties with whichyou will soon be contending yourselves; and the keenness with which Ihave felt these difficulties may have made me reflect, more thanothers to whom the path of excellence has been easier, on the means ofovercoming them. 

I warmly reciprocate the sentiments which have led the Faculty to comeacross the Atlantic the second time for a lecturer, and the liberalityof mind with which they are wont to overstep the boundaries of theirown denomination and select their lecturers from all the evangelicalChurches. It is the first time I have set foot on your continent, butI have long entertained a warm admiration for the American people anda firm faith in their destiny; and I welcome an opportunity which mayserve, in any degree, to demonstrate the unity which underlies thevariety of our evangelical communions, and to show how great are thethings in which we agree in comparison with those on which we differ. 

 * * * * *

The aim of this lectureship, if I have apprehended it aright, is thatmen who are out on the sea of practical life, feeling the force andstrain of the winds and currents of the time, and who thereforeoccupy, to some extent, a different point of view from either studentsor professors, should come and tell you, who are still standing onthe _terra firma_ of college life, but will soon also have to launchforth on the same element, how it feels out there on the deep. 

Well, there is a considerable difference. 

The professorial theory of college life is, that the faculties arebeing exercised and the resources collected with which the battles oflife are subsequently to be fought and its victories won. And thereis, no doubt, a great deal of truth in this theory. The acquisitionsof the class-room will all be found useful in future, and your onlyregret will be that they have not been more extensive and thorough. The gymnastic of study is suppling faculties which will beindispensable hereafter. Yet there is room amidst your studies, andwithout the slightest disparagement to them, for a message moredirectly from life, to hint to you, that more may be needed in thecareer to which you are looking forward than a college can give, andthat the powers on which success in practical life depends may besomewhat different from those which avail most at your present stage. 

There are two very marked types of intellect to be observed amongstmen, which we may call the receptive and the creative. Receptiveintellect has the power of taking fully in what is addressed to it byothers. It separates its acquisitions and distributes them among thepigeon-holes of the memory. Out of these again it can reproduce them, as occasion requires, and even make what may be called permutationsand combinations among its materials with skill and facility. Thecreative intellect, on the contrary, is sometimes anything but apt toreceive that which people attempt to put into it. Instead of being anopen, roomy vessel for holding things, it may be awkwardly shaped, andsometimes difficult to open at all. Nor do things pour out of it in astream, as water does from a pitcher; they rather flash out of it, like sparks from the anvil. Instead of possessing its own knowledge, it is possessed by it; it burns as it emits it, and its fire iscontagious. 

The former is the serviceable intellect at college, but it is thelatter which makes the preacher. There may, indeed, here and there, bemiraculous professors who attach more importance, and give highermarks, to the indications of the creative intellect than to theachievements of the receptive intellect. But few can resist the appealmade by the clear, correct and copious reproduction of what they havethemselves supplied. Indeed, they would not, as a rule, be justifiedin doing so; for the first indications of originality are often crudeand irritating, and they may come to nothing. The creative intellectis frequently slow in maturing; it is like those seeds which take morethan one season to blossom. But at a flower show it would not be fairto withhold the prize from the flower which has blossomed already, andreserve it for one which may possibly do so next year. 

Of my fellow-students in the class to which I belonged at college, thetwo who have since been most successful did not then seem destined forfirst places. They were known to be able men, but they were notexcessively laborious, and they kept themselves irritatingly detachedfrom the interests of the college. But the one has since unfolded aremarkable originality, which was, no doubt, even then organizingitself in the inner depths; and the other, as soon as he entered thepulpit, turned out to have the power of casting a spell over the mindsof men. Both had a spark of nature's fire; and this is the possessionwhich outshines all others when college is over and practical lifebegun. [1]

But, if the viewpoint of practical life is different even from theprofessorial, it is still more different from that of students; andthis may again justify the bringing of a message from the outsideworld. The difference might be put in many ways; but perhaps it may bebest expressed by saying that, while you are among the critics, we areamong the criticized. 

In the history of nearly all minds of the better sort there is anepoch of criticism. The young soul, as it begins to observe, discoversthat things around it are not all as they ought to be, and that theworld is not so perfect a place as might naturally be expected or asit may have been represented to be. The critical faculty awakes and, having once tasted blood, rushes forth to judge all men and thingswith cruel ability. This is the stage at which we agree with Carlylein thinking mankind to be mostly fools and pronounce every man overfive-and-forty who does not happen to agree with our opinions an oldfogey. It is the time when we are confident that we could, if wechose, single-handed and with ease, accomplish tasks which generationsof men have struggled with in vain. Only in the meantime we, for ourpart, are not disposed to commit ourselves to any creed or to championany cause, because we are engaged in contemplating all. 

This period occurs, I say, in the history of all men of the ablersort; but in students, on account of their peculiar opportunities, thesymptoms are generally exceptionally pronounced. Students are thechartered libertines of criticism. What a life professors would lead, if they only knew what is said about them every day of their lives! Ioften think that three-fourths of every faculty in the country woulddisappear some morning by a simultaneous act of self-effacement. Ofcourse ministers do not escape; ecclesiastics and Church courts arequite beyond redemption; and principalities and powers in general arein the same condemnation. 

Such is the delightful prerogative of the position in which you nowstand. But, gentlemen, the moment you leave these college gatesbehind, you have to pass from your place among the critics and takeyour place among the criticized. That is, you will have to quit thewell-cushioned benches, where the spectators sit enjoying thespectacle, and take your place among the gladiators in the arena. Thebinoculars of the community will be turned upon you, and five hundredor a thousand people will be entitled to say twice or thrice everyweek what they think of your performances. You will have to put yourshoulder under the huge mass of your Church's policy and try to keepstep with some thousands whose shoulders are under it too; and thereproaches cast by the public and the press at the awkwardness of thewhole squad and the unsteadiness of the ark will fall on you alongwith the rest. 

Seriously, this is a tremendous difference. Criticism, howeverbrilliant, is a comparatively easy thing. It is easier to criticizethe greatest things superbly than to do even small things fairly well. A brief experience of practical life gives one a great respect forsome men whom one would not at one time have considered verybrilliant, and for work which one would have pronounced veryimperfect. There is a famous passage in Lucretius, in which he speaksof the joy of the mariner who has escaped to dry land, when he seeshis shipwrecked companions still struggling in the waves. This is tooheathenish a sentiment; but I confess I have sometimes experienced atouch of it, when I have beheld one who has distinguished himself byhis incisiveness, while still on the _terra firma_ of criticism, suddenly dropped into the bottomless sea of actual life and learning, amidst his first struggles in the waves, not without gulps ofsalt-water, the difference between intention and performance. 

 * * * * *

But do not suppose that I am persuading you to give up criticism. Onthe contrary, this is the natural function of the stage at which youare; and probably those who throw themselves most vigorously into itnow may also discharge most successfully the functions of the stagesyet to come. The world reaps not a little advantage from criticism. Itis a very imperfect world; no generation of its inhabitants does itswork as well as it ought to be done, and it is the undoubted right ofthe next generation to detect its defects; for in this lies the onlychance of improvement. There is something awe-inspiring in the firstglance cast by the young on the world in which they find themselves. It is so clear and unbiassed; they distinguish so instantaneouslybetween the right and the wrong, the noble and the base; and theyblurt out so frankly what they see. As we grow older, we trainourselves unawares not to see straight or, if we see, we hold ourpeace. The first open look of young eyes on the condition of the worldis one of the principal regenerative forces of humanity. 

To begin with, therefore, at all events I will rather come to yourstandpoint than ask you to come to mine. Indeed, although I have forsome time been among the criticized, and my sympathies are with thepractical workers, my sense of how imperfectly the work is done, andof how inadequate our efforts are to the magnitude of the task, growsstronger instead of weaker. And it is from this point of view that Imean to enter into our subject. I will make use of the facts of my owncountry, with which I am familiar; but I do not suppose that the stateof things among you is substantially different; and you will not havemuch difficulty in correcting the picture, to make it correspond withyour circumstances, whilst I speak. 

 * * * * *

In the present century there has certainly been an unparalleledmultiplication of the instrumentalities for doing the work. Themachine of religion, so to speak, has been perfected. The populationhas been increasing fast; but churches have multiplied at least twiceas fast. Even in a great city like Glasgow we have a Protestant churchto every two thousand of the population. [2] And, inside the churches, the multiplication of agencies has been even more surprising. Formerlythe minister did almost all the work; and it comprehended little morethan the two services on Sunday and the visitation of thecongregation; the elders helping him to a small extent in financingthe congregation and in a few other matters largely secular. But nowevery congregation is a perfect hive of Christian activity. In a largecongregation the workers are counted by hundreds. Every imaginableform of philanthropic and religious appliance is in operation. Buildings for Sabbath Schools and Mission Work are added to thechurch; and nearly every day of the week has its meeting. 

The machine of religion is large and complicated, and it is manned byso many workers that they get in each other's way; but, with all thisbustling activity, is the work done? This is the question which givesus pause. Has the amount of practical Christianity increased inproportion to the multiplication of agencies? Are the prospects ofreligion as much brighter than they used to be as might have beenexpected after all this expenditure of labour? Is Christianitydeepening as well as spreading?

In Glasgow, where the proportion of churches to population is so high, they speak of two hundred thousand non-church-goers, that is, a thirdof the inhabitants; and, if you go into one of our villages with twoor three thousand of a population, you in may find three or fourchurches, belonging to different denominations; but you will usuallyfind even there a considerable body of non-church-goers. Not long agoI heard a London clergyman state, that, if, any Sunday morning, youwent through the congregations belonging to the Church of England inthe district of a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants in which helabours, you would not, in all of them put together, find one manpresent for every thousand of the population. One of the Englishbishops recently admitted that in South London his Church is not inpossession; and certainly no other denomination is. Thus, with all ourappliances, we have failed even to bring the population within thesound of the Gospel. 

Inside the churches, what is to be said? Is the proportion large ofthose who have received the Gospel in such a way that their heartshave manifestly been changed by it and their lives brought under itssway? We should utterly deceive ourselves if we imagined that realChristianity is coextensive with the profession of Christianity. Manywho bear the Christian name have neither Christian experience norChristian character, but in their spirit and pursuits are thoroughlyworldly. Even where religion has taken real hold, is the type veryoften beautiful and impressive? Who can think without shame of thelong delay of the Church even to attempt the work of converting theheathen? And even yet the sacrifices made for this object areludicrously small in proportion either to the magnitude of the problemor the wealth of the Christian community. The annual expenditure ofthe United Kingdom on drink is said to be a hundred times as great asthat on foreign missions. 

Religion does not permeate life. The Church is one of the greatinstitutions of the country, and gets its own place. But it is a thingapart from the common life, which goes on beside it. Business, politics, literature, amusements, are only faintly coloured by it. Yetthe mission of Christianity is not to occupy a respectable placeapart, but to leaven life through and through. 

Vice flourishes side by side with religion. We build the school andthe church, and then we open beside them the public-house. TheChristian community has the power of controlling this traffic; but itallows it to go on with all its unspeakable horrors. Thus its own workis systematically undone, and faster than the victims can be saved newones are manufactured to occupy their places. Of vices which are stillmore degrading I need not speak. Their prevalence is too patenteverywhere. If there is any law of Christianity which is obvious andinexorable, it is the law of purity. But go where you will in theChristian countries, and you will learn that by large sections oftheir manhood this law is treated as if it did not exist. The truth isthat, in spite of the nations being baptized in the name of Christ, heathenism has still the control of much of their life; and it wouldhardly be too much to say that the mission of Christianity is stillonly beginning. 

In what direction does hope lie? It seems to me that there can be nomore important factor in the solution of the problem than the kind ofmen who fill the office of the ministry. We must have men of morepower, more concentration on the aims of the ministry, more wisdom, but, above all, more willingness to sacrifice their lives to theirvocation. We have too tame and conventional a way of thinking aboutour career. Men are not even ambitious of doing more than settling ina comfortable position and getting through its duties in a respectableway. We need to have men penetrated with the problem as a whole, andlabouring with the new developments which the times require. Theprizes of the ministry ought to be its posts of greatest difficulty. When a student or young minister proves to have the genuine gift, hisnatural goal should not be a highly paid place in a West End church, but a position where he would be in the forefront of the battle withsin and misery. Nowhere else are the great lines of Chapman moreapplicable than in our calling:--

 Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea Loves to have his sails filled with a lusty wind, Even till his sailyards tremble, his masts crack, And his rapt ship runs on her side so low That she drinks water and her keel ploughs air. 

I am well aware that men of this stamp cannot be made to order. Theymust, as I have suggested already, have a spark of nature's fire, and, besides that, the Spirit of God must descend on them. Yet I havethought that it might be helpful towards this end to go back to theorigins of preaching, and to study those in whom its primitive spiritwas embodied. Perhaps that which we are desiderating could not bebetter expressed than by saying that we need a ministry prophetic andapostolic. And I am going to invite you to study the prophets andapostles as our models. 

Though we may not believe in apostolic succession in the churchlysense, we are the successors of the apostles in this sense, that theapostles filled the office which we hold, or hope to hold, andillustrated the manner in which its duties should be discharged insuch a way as to be an example and an inspiration to all itssubsequent occupants. The air they breathed was still charged with thespirit poured into it by Christ; they were made great by theinfluence of His teaching and companionship; the power of the HolyGhost, freshly descended, burned on their hearts; and they went forthon their mission with a force of conviction and a mastery of theirtask which nothing could resist. 

One among them embodied in himself, above all others, the spirit ofthat epoch of creative energy. St. Paul is perhaps, after our LordHimself, the most complete embodiment of the ministerial life on allits sides which the world has ever seen. And, fortunately, he embodiedthis spirit not only in deeds, but also in words. Circumstances madehim a writer of letters, the most autobiographical form of literature. His friends, such as Timothy and Titus, drew out of him lengthyexpressions of the convictions wrought into his mind by theexperiences of a lifetime. His enemies, by their accusations, struckout of him still ampler and more heartfelt statements of his feelingsand motives. St. Paul has painted his own portrait at full length, andin every line it is the portrait of a minister. There is more in hiswritings which touches the very quick of our life as ministers than inall other writings in existence. It is my desire to reproduce thisstraight from the sources. I have no intention of going over theoutward life of St. Paul. This you can find in a hundred books. But Idesire to exhibit the very soul of the man, as he himself has revealedit to us in his writings. 

If we are the successors of the apostles, the apostles were thesuccessors of the prophets, who did for the Church of the OldTestament what the apostles did for that of the New. In outward aspectand detail, indeed, the life of the prophets differed much from thatof the apostles. In force of manhood and in variety and brilliance ofgenius they far excelled them. But their aim was the same. It was tomake the kingdom of God come by announcing and enforcing the mind andwill of God. And this is our aim too. 

The writings of the prophets are very difficult, and their period isless popularly known than any other period of Scripture history, either before or after it. But it is beginning to attract moreattention, and in the near future it will do so much more, because itis beginning to be perceived that in it lies the key to the whole OldTestament history and literature. [3] The writings of Isaiah especiallyhave of late attracted attention. Commentary after commentary on themhas appeared;[4] till now the reader can see his way pretty clearlythrough the tangled but enchanting mazes of his writings. With suchhelps as have been available to me I have endeavoured through thewritings to get at the man; and I will take Isaiah as therepresentative of the prophetic spirit in the same way as St. Paul isto represent for us the apostles. But here again my aim is neitherthat of the commentator nor that of the biographer. It is the soul ofthe man I wish to depict and the spirit of his work. 

It may be thought that, by taking up the subject in this way, I ammissing the opportunity of dealing with the practical work of to-day. But I do not think so. There are, indeed, some details nearly alwaysdiscussed in lectures on preaching which I do not care to touch. Thereis, for instance, the question of the delivery of sermons--whether thepreacher should read, or speak _memoriter_, or preach _extempore_. This can be discussed endlessly, and the discussion is alwaysinteresting; but, if it were discussed every year for a century, itwould be as far from being settled as ever. Besides, it is my duty toremember what others have handled exhaustively here before me. Indeed, the Senate mentioned to me that it was desirable that the subjectshould be taken up from a new point of view. They have been goodenough to express their approbation of the way in which I mean totreat it; but it is not in deference to their instructions that I takeit up in this way, but in accordance with the bent of my own mind; andI think I see my way to bring to bear on it all the practicalexperience which I may be in possession of; for I quite recognise thatthe value of such a course of lectures largely depends on its being, from beginning to end, what in literature is called a Confession, thatis, a record of experiences. Although I am to go back to the ages ofthe apostles and the prophets, I do not intend to stay there. My wishis to bring down from thence fire which will kindle your hearts, asyou face the world and the tasks of to-day. 

There is another objection, which may have already occurred to some ofyou, and would doubtless occur to many, as I went along, if I did notanticipate it. It may be felt, that both apostles and prophets were sodifferently situated from us, especially through the possession of thegift of inspiration, that they can be no example for us to follow. Tothis I will not reply by seeking in any way to minimise theirinspiration. It is, indeed, difficult to say exactly how theirinspiration differed from that which is accessible and indispensableto us; for we also are entirely dependent for the power and success ofour work on the same Spirit as spoke through them. But, howeverdifficult it may be to define it, I am one of those who believe thatthere is a difference, and that it is a great difference. The mind andwill of God expressed themselves through the prophets and apostleswith a directness and authority which we cannot claim. But thedifference is not such as to remove them beyond our imitation. Although in some, or even many, respects they may be beyond us, thisis no reason why we may not in others imitate them with the greatestadvantage. It will be seen at a glance how little there is in thisobjection, if it be considered that our Lord Himself is the greatpattern of the ministry. In some respects He is of course much fartheraway from us than either prophets or apostles; yet He is near us as amodel in every detail of our duty. No mode of treating my subjectwould have been so congenial to me as to set Him forth in thischaracter. But, having attempted to do so elsewhere, I have chosen themethod now announced under the conviction, that the nearest approachto the study of how Christ fulfilled the duties of the ministry is tostudy how prophets and apostles fulfilled them. 

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There is one thing more which I should like to say before closing thissomewhat miscellaneous introductory lecture. I would not have come tolecture to you on this subject if I were not a firm believer inpreaching. If in what has been already said I have seemed todepreciate its results, this is only because my ideal is so high ofwhat the pulpit ought to do, and might do. [5] I do not, indeed, separate preaching from the other parts of a minister's life, such asthe conducting of the service of the sanctuary, the visitation of thecongregation, and taking part in more general public work. As I go on, it will be seen, that, so far from undervaluing these, I hold them tobe all required even to produce a healthy pulpit power. Yet preachingis the central thing in our work. I believe in it, because ChristHimself set His stamp on it. Read His sayings, and you will see thatthis was what He sent forth the servants of His kingdom to do. "Christ, " says St. Paul, "sent me not to baptize, but to preach theGospel"; not, I think, thereby ignoring baptism, but putting it andall other ceremonies in their proper place of subordination to thepreaching of the Word. 

It is often charged against the evangelical, and especially the free, Churches at the present day, that they give preaching a position oftoo great prominence in public worship; and we are counselled to yieldthe central place to something else. It is put to us, for example, whether our people should not be taught to come to church for thepurpose of speaking to God rather than in order to be spoken to byman. This has a pious sound; but there is a fallacy in it. Preachingis not merely the speaking of a man. If it is, then it is certainlynot worth coming to church for. Preaching, if it is of the right kind, is the voice of God. This we venture to say while well aware of itsimperfections. In the best of preaching there is a large human elementbeset with infirmity; yet in all genuine preaching there is conveyed amessage from Heaven. And, while it is good for people to go to churchthat they may speak to God, it is still better to go that He may speakto them. Nor, where God is authentically heard speaking to the heart, will the response of the heart in the other elements of worship belacking. It is the reception of God's message of free grace andredeeming love which inspires the true service of praise and prayer;and without this the service of the Church is soulless ceremonial. [6]

From another side disparagement is frequently cast upon preaching inour day. It is said that the printing-press has superseded thepreacher, and must more and more supersede him. Formerly, when peoplecould not read, and literature was written only for scholars, thepulpit was a power, because it was the only purveyor of ideas to themultitude; but now the common man has other resources: he has books, magazines, the newspaper: and he can dispense with the preacher. Tothis it might be answered, that the sermon is not the only thing whichbrings people to church. Where two or three are met together, thereare influences generated of a spiritual and social kind which answerto deep and permanent wants of human nature. But there is an answermore direct and conclusive. The multiplication of the products of theprinting-press and the possession by the multitude of the power ofreading them are certainly among the most wonderful facts of moderntimes, and, I will add without hesitation, among the most gratifying. But what do they mean for the great majority? In the days before theage of the press arrived people only knew the gossip of their owntown, and this absorbed their thoughts and conversation. Now they hearevery morning the gossip of a thousand cities from China to Peru. Theworld has become for the modern man immensely larger and moreinteresting than it was to his predecessors; and facts about it areaccumulated on his mind in overwhelming quantity and bewilderingvariety. But does this make preaching less necessary to him? It surelymakes it far more necessary. He has more need than his fathers had ofthose supersensible principles which give order and meaning tosensible facts. The larger and more wonderful the world becomes, themore urgent becomes the question of the cause which has produced it;and, the more the figures multiply which the spectators have to watchon the theatre of history, the more indispensable becomes theknowledge of the argument of the drama. If the pulpit has an authenticmessage to deliver about Him whose thought is the ground of allexistence, and whose will of love is the explanation of the pain andmystery of life, the more cultivated and eager the mind of manbecomes, then the more indispensable will the voice of the pulpit befelt to be; and a real decay of the power of the pulpit can only bedue either to preachers themselves, when, losing touch with themysteries of revelation, they let themselves down to the level ofvendors of passing opinion, or to such a shallowing of the generalmind as will render it incapable of taking an earnest interest in theprofounder problems of existence. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1]

 "A set o' dull, conceited hashes Confuse their brains in college classes, They gang in stirks, and come out asses, Plain truth to speak, An' syne they hope to speel Parnassus By dint o' Greek. 

 "Gi'e me _a'e spark o' nature's fire_, That's a' the learnin' I desire, Then, though I trudge through dub an' mire, At pleuch or cart, My muse, though homely in attire, May touch the heart. "--BURNS. 

[2] "In 1880 there was in the United States one Evangelical Churchorganization to every 516 of the population. In Boston there is 1 churchto every 1, 600 of the population; in Chicago 1 to 2, 081; in New York 1to 2, 468; in St. Louis 1 to 2, 800. "--_Our Country_, by Rev. JosiahStrong, D. D. 

[3] See Duhm: _Die Theologie der Propheten_--preface. 

[4] Cheyne, Smith, Delitzsch, von Orelli, Dillmann, etc. 

[5] "After eleven years of active preaching I have spent five of hardlyless active hearing. I have listened carefully to preachers of alldegrees and denominations, and some convictions have been burned in uponmy mind. Far above all, I have learned to believe in the greatimportance of preaching--the effect it has on men's lives and thoughts;their need of it; their pain and loss when it does not help and reachthem. I used to think that, if it did men good, they would speak more ofit. But they pay no compliments to their daily bread; yet it is thestaff of their life. If ministers knew the silent appreciation ofhelpful preaching, they would work, if not harder, at least morebrightly and hopefully. . . . Preachers should remember that the largesilent part of their flock is only reached by preaching, and, therefore, they should give their strength to it, and not to little meetings. Suppose an average instance: Sunday morning attendance, 250. Theminister does not preach well; but he works hard during the week, andhas, Monday, Literary Society, 15; Tuesday, Young Ladies' Bible Class, 12; Wednesday, Prayer Meeting, 30; Thursday, Class for Servants, 8;Friday, Class for Children, 15. All told, these do not represent morethan 50, leaving 200 reached only by preaching, and more or lessdissatisfied. "--_Ex sapientis manuscripto penes me. _

[6] "New Testament preaching dates from the day of Pentecost. Tongues offire rested on the assembled Church; and they began to speak with othertongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. The word of God, thetestimony of Jesus, the gospel of our salvation, preached in tongues ofmen of every race, was to be the form of power by which the kingdom ofGod, in our dispensation, should spread abroad and prevail. But thetongues were tongues of fire. This fire is, first of all, the HolySpirit, whose quick, pure and living presence it denotes. But then it isintimated that the Holy Spirit was to prove Himself fire _in the speechof men_. It is intimated that human minds, as they uttered themselves totheir fellows, and human speech in that utterance, were to prove capableof taking fire, so as to brighten and burn with the truth and power ofGod's Spirit. Such was the kind of preaching that was set a-going atPentecost, and by it the world was to be won. Other forms of influencewere not to be excluded, but this was to have the chief place. The wordof power, coming burning-hot out of the living mouth of a believing man, is the leading form in which the Spirit's presence is evermore to makehead in the Church against the world, and is to carry the Church on inher mission in the world. This gives us the fundamental view of our workas preachers; and nothing more is needed in order to illustrate itsdignity and glory. "--PRINCIPAL RAINY. 

LECTURE II. 

THE PREACHER AS A MAN OF GOD. 

In accordance with the plan announced yesterday, I am to turn yourattention in the next four lectures to the prophets of the OldTestament as patterns for modern preachers; and the special subjectfor to-day is The Preacher as a Man of God. 

To earnest minds at the stage at which you stand at present noquestion could be more interesting than this: How does a rightministry begin? what are the experiences which justify or compel a manto turn his back on all other careers and devote himself to this one?On the minds of some of you this question may be pressing at thepresent moment with great urgency. It is a question of supremeimportance. In most things a good deal depends on beginning well; butnowhere is the commencement more momentous than here. 

This is a point on which the greatest emphasis is laid in the historyof the prophets. We are told how they became prophets. Their ministrycommenced with a spiritual experience usually denominated theProphetic Call. 

Such experiences are narrated of the greatest prophets. The call ofMoses was the scene of the Burning Bush, which is detailed at greatlength in his biography. The next outstanding prophet was Samuel, andthere is no better known story in Scripture than the touching accountof how the Lord called him to be the reformer of an evil age. Each ofthe three great literary prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel--hasleft an account of his own call; that of Ezekiel covering nearly threewhole chapters. If the smaller prophets do not, as a rule, commemoratesimilar experiences of their own, it is not to be inferred that theydid not pass through them. The brief compass of their writings issufficient to account for the omission; although perhaps a subjectiveelement may also enter into the explanation. Among ourselves there aremen who are able to confide to the public their own most sacredexperiences, and habitually make use of them to illustrate and enforcethe truth. To others nothing would be more unnatural: they shrink fromthe most distant allusion to the most sacred moments of theirspiritual history. Yet these may be worth the whole world tothemselves. Both modes of procedure have Scriptural warrant: for someof the prophets narrate their calls, and others do not. 

If these calls of distinguished men to God's service be noted one byone, they will be found to include many of the grandest scenes ofScripture. [7] There could be no more splendid subject--if I may givethe hint in passing--for a course of lectures in the congregation, oreven for a course, like the present, to students of divinity. 

They exhibit astonishing variety. Moses, for example, was called inthe maturity of his powers, but Samuel when he was still a child. Jeremiah's call bears a certain resemblance to that of Moses, becauseboth resisted the Divine will through inability to speak; but in otherrespects they are totally dissimilar. Ezekiel's stands altogether byitself, and is extremely difficult to unravel; but it is thoroughlycharacteristic of his sublime and intricate genius. Nowhere else couldthere be found a more telling illustration of the diversity ofoperation in which the Spirit of God delights, when He is touching thespirit of man, even if He is aiming at identical results. 

For in all cases the effect was the same. The man who was called to bea prophet was separated by this summons from all other occupationswhich could interfere with the service for which God had designatedhim. His whole being was taken possession of for the Divine purposesand subjected to the sway of the Divine inspiration. One of thecommonest names of a prophet in the Old Testament is "a man of God. "Through constant use this term has lost its meaning for us. But itmeant exactly what it said: that the prophet was not his own, butGod's man; he belonged to God, who could send him wherever He wishedand do with him whatever He would. It was the same idea that St. Paulexpressed, when he called himself, as he loved to do, "the slave ofJesus Christ. "

It has sometimes been attempted to explain these scenes away, as ifthey were not records of actual experience, but only poeticrepresentations which the prophets prefixed to their writings, toafford their readers a dramatic prefigurement of the general scope oftheir prophecies, ideas being freely put into them which the prophetsdid not themselves possess at the commencement of their career, butonly acquired by degrees as their life proceeded. [8] They are comparedto such efforts of the poet as the _Vision_ of Robert Burns, in whichhe tells how the muse of Caledonia appeared to him at the plough, and, casting her mantle round him and claiming him as her own, consecrated him the poet of his native land; or the _Zueignung_ ofGoethe, in which he feigns a similar experience which befell him onthe moonlight heights of the German forest. But, though there is apoetic element in prophecy, the prophetic spirit was too much inearnest for such figments of the imagination, which are alien to theseverity of the Hebrew genius. Besides, such scenes are not confinedto the Hebrew prophets: they belong to the true religion in allgenerations. 

 * * * * *

Any of the prophetic calls would bring suggestively before us thetopic with which we are occupied to-day; and it is not without regretthat I turn away from the Burning Bush, with its dramatic dialoguebetween Jehovah and Moses touching many points which are the very sameas still perplex those who are standing on the threshold of aministerial career; from the chamber of the tabernacle, with itsstartling voice, in which God opened the heart of Samuel to take inthe purpose of life; and from the wonderfully instructive scene inwhich the shrinking spirit of Jeremiah met the Divine summons with thehumble cry of deprecation, "Behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child, "till the Divine sympathy and wisdom answered his arguments and liftedhim above his fears. But we have agreed to take Isaiah as therepresentative of the prophets; and, in spite of these otherattractions, we need not repent of this; for there is nothing in HolyWrit more unique and sublime than the call of Isaiah, and it ispregnant in every line with instruction. It is, indeed, far away fromus, and it will require a strong effort to transport ourselves backover so many centuries and enter sympathetically into the experienceof one who lived in such a widely different world. But it is a realchapter of human experience. As Isaiah prophesied for fifty or perhapseven sixty years after this, he must at the time have been in theprime of his days. In short, he was at the very stage of life at whichyou are now, and this is an account of how a young man of threethousand years ago became a public servant of God. 

 * * * * *

There are two or three points worth noting before we go on to describethe scene itself. 

1. It is reported in the sixth chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah. Weshould naturally have expected it to stand at the beginning of thewhole book, as do the corresponding scenes in the books of Jeremiahand Ezekiel; and it is not easy to say why it is not found in thisposition. We are perhaps too ready to think of the prophecies of aprophet as a continuous book, written, in one prolonged effort, on asingle theme, as books are written in modern times. But this is amisconception. They came together more like the pieces of a lyricpoet. A lyric poet composes his pieces at uncertain intervals ofinspiration; they range over a great variety of subjects; and it mayonly be late in life that he thinks of collecting them in a volume. Sothe prophecies of the prophet came to him at uncertain and oftenlengthy intervals; they were sometimes very brief, no longer thanshort lyrics; and we know that he sometimes did not think of anyliterary publication of them till long after their oral delivery. Alyric poet, when collecting his pieces, may adopt any one of severaldifferent principles of arrangement. The simplest way is to insertthem in chronological order; but he may follow some subtlepsychological arrangement, as Wordsworth, for instance, did when hiscollected works were published; or he may throw them together atrandom, according to the fancy of the moment; and this is perhaps thecommonest case. There seems to be the same variety in the prophets. The prophecies of Ezekiel, for example, are arranged on thechronological principle, but those of Isaiah and Jeremiah are not; andit is one of the most difficult tasks of interpretation to assign thedifferent pieces to their original dates. It is doubtful whether thereis any rigid principle at all in Isaiah's prophecies. It is evendoubtful whether the order in which they stand is due to him or to adisciple or editor, who arranged them after he was dead. We needhardly, therefore, inquire very strictly why any particular chapteroccurs in its particular place. But it is somewhat awkward that thesixth chapter stands where it does, in the body of the book, insteadof at the head of it; because this hides its significance from thegeneral reader. Scholars are agreed, however, that it is an account ofIsaiah's call to be a prophet; and, when this is recognised, everydetail of the scene which it records is invested with new meaning. 

2. It is worthy of note that the event is precisely dated. The chapterbegins with the words, "In the year that King Uzziah died. " There areforms of religious experience which are dateless--processes of slowand unmarked growth, which may spread themselves over years; but thereare also crises, when experience crystallizes into events soremarkable that they become standing dates in the lives of those whohave enjoyed them, from which they reckon, as other people do frombirth or marriage or the turning-points of their domestic andcommercial history. 

Whether this was the first of such events in the history of Isaiah Ihave often wondered. There is nothing unlikely in the suggestion. Inother cases the call to enter into God's work synchronized with thefirst real encounter with God Himself. Samuel's call to be a prophetcoincided with his first personal introduction to acquaintance withJehovah, whom, it is distinctly stated, he did not previously know;and St. Paul's call to the apostolate happened at the same time as hisconversion. As we go on, we shall come upon at least one circumstancewhich points pretty strongly to the conclusion that this was Isaiah'sfirst conscious transaction with God. 

3. The place where the incident occurred is also worthy of note. Itwas in the temple. Ewald and other able commentators interpret this tomean the heavenly temple, and suppose that the future prophet wastransported to some imaginary place which he called by this name. Butthis is quite a gratuitous suggestion, and it very much weakens theimpressiveness of the whole scene, the very point of which lies in thefact that it took place on familiar ground. Isaiah was a Jerusalemite, and the temple was the most familiar of all haunts to him. He hadwitnessed there a thousand times the external ritual of religion--theworshipping multitudes, the priests, and the paraphernalia ofsacrifice. But now, on the same spot, he was to see a sight in whoseglory all these things would disappear. This is what the criticalmoments of religious experience are always meant to do: theyobliterate the familiar externals of religion and reveal the realitywhich is hidden behind them; they convert common spots of every-dayexperience into the house of God and the gate of heaven. 

 * * * * *

Such were the circumstances of time and place in which the crisis ofIsaiah's history occurred. One day, in the year that King Uzziah died, he wended his way, as he had done hundreds of times before, to thetemple; and there that took place which altered the whole course ofhis life. Whether in the body or out of the body, we cannot tell, hesaw three successive visions, or rather a threefold vision--a visionof God, a vision of sin, and a vision of grace. 

1. It began with a Vision of God. The chapter opens with these sublimewords, "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord. " It is anastounding statement to come from a prophet of that religion whosefundamental principle was the spirituality of God, "No man hath seenGod at any time"; and, indeed, there is an old rabbinical tradition, that King Manasseh, who is said to have caused Isaiah to be sawnasunder, made the alleged impiety of these words the excuse for hiscruelty. But it was a mere excuse; for the difficulty only serves toprove the transcendent spiritual tact and literary skill of theprophet, who manages the scene in such a way as to preserve quiteintact the principle of the Divine spirituality. Though he says thathe saw God, he gives no description of Him; only the sights and soundsround about Him are so described as in the most vivid way to suggestthe Presence which remains unseen. It is as if a historical scene ofruin and conflagration were represented on canvas, without showing theburning materials, by painting the glare of light and the emotions ofterror and dismay on the faces of the spectators. 

First, the throne on which God sits is described: it is erected in thetemple, and it is high and lifted up, for He is a great King. But nodescription is given of the figure seated on it; only His train--thebillowing folds of His robes--filled the temple. Above the throne, orrather round it, like the courtiers surrounding the throne of anEastern monarch, stand the seraphim. These beings are mentioned onlyhere in Holy Writ. Their name signifies the shining or fiery ones. They are attendants of the Divine King, bright and swift as fire intheir intelligence and activity. Each has six wings: with twain hecovers his face, and with twain he covers his feet, evidently toprotect his eyes and person from the consuming glory of the Divinepresence, which is thus indicated again without being described; andwith the remaining two he flies, or rather poises himself in his placeready for flight at the Divine signal. 

Then, amidst these sublime sights break in sounds equally sublime. Byour translation the impression is produced that they come from theseraphim. But the original is more vague, and the meaning probably is, that the responsive voices which are heard come from unseen choirs inopposite quarters of the temple. Unceasingly the strain rises from oneside, unceasingly the answer comes from the other; in the centre thevoices meet and mingle in loud harmony. 

Their burden is, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the wholeearth is full of His glory. " That is, they are celebrating the twoattributes of the Divine character which always most impressed aJewish mind--His holiness and His omnipotence. The one is God as He isin Himself, turned inwards, so to speak. He is absolutely holy, unapproachable, a consuming fire scorching away impurity, falsehood, and sin of every kind. The other is God as He is in the world, turnedoutwards, so to speak; the world's fulness--suns and systems, mountains and oceans, earthquake and storm, summer's abundance andwinter's terror--all this is His glory, the garment by which He makesHimself visible. [9]

The voices swell till the temple rocks, or seems to rock to thereeling senses of the prophet, and the house is filled with smoke, orseems to be so, as a mist envelops the swooning spirit of thespectator. But still, through the mist, there peal, falling like thestrokes of a hammer on the listening heart, the notes of the dreadsong, "Holy, holy, holy. "

2. Next ensued a Vision of Sin. The vision of God could not but unseala rushing stream of feeling of some kind in Isaiah. But of what kindwould it be? Surely of joyful adoration: the soul, inspired with thesublimity of these sights and thrilled with these sounds, will rise tothe majesty of the occasion, and the human voice will strike in withall its force among the angelic voices, crying, "Holy, holy, holy. "

So one might have expected. But the human mind is a strange thing; andit is difficult to know where and how to touch its delicate andcomplex mechanism so as to produce any desired effect. You wish toproduce a flow of tender feeling, and you tell a pathetic tale, whichought, you think, to move the heart. But at every sentence thefeatures of the listeners harden into more and more rigidity, or evenrelax into mocking laughter; whereas the suggestion of a noblethought, which seems to have nothing to do with pathos, mayinstantaneously melt the soul and unseal the fountain of tears. Or isit the conscience which is to be affected? The clumsy operator beginsto assail it straight with denunciations of sin, but, instead ofproducing penitence, he only rouses the whole man into proud and angryself-defence; whereas a single touch, no heavier than an infant'sfinger, applied away up somewhere, remote from conscience, in theregion of the imagination, may send an electric shock down through thewhole being and shake the conscience from centre to circumference. 

Isaiah's mind was one of the most sensitive and complicated everbestowed on a human being; but it was now in the hands of its Maker, who knew how to touch it to fine issues. The Maker's design on thisoccasion was to produce in it an overpowering sense of sin; and whatHe did was to confront it with infinite holiness and majesty. Thesewere brought so near that there was no escape. The poor, finite, sinful man was held at arm's length, so to speak, in the grasp of theInfinite and Most Holy; and the result was a total collapse of thehuman spirit. Isaiah's eye turned away from the sight of God's gloryback upon himself, and back on his past life; and, in this light, allappeared foul and hideous. There was sin everywhere--sin in himselfand sin in his environment. He was utterly confounded and swallowed upof shame and terror. "Woe is me, " he groaned, "for I am undone;because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of apeople of unclean lips. "

Why he felt the taint specially on his lips it might not be easy totell. Perhaps it was because the angelic song was a challenge to joinin the praise of God, but he felt that the lips of one like him werenot worthy to join in their song. Perhaps--who can tell?--thebesetting sin of his previous life may have been profanity of speech, as it was evidently a crying sin of his time. This suggestion gives ashock to the ideas which we associate with Isaiah, and it is hard tothink that the lips which afterwards spoke like angels can ever havedefiled themselves with such a sin. But this is the most naturalmeaning of the words, and it is not against the analogy of otherlives. Great saints, and even great preachers, are made out of greatsinners; and the memory of an odious and conspicuous sin like this maysometimes lend a passionate force to subsequent devotion and keepalive for a lifetime the sense of personal unworthiness. 

3. The last scene in the evolution of this vision, which was surelymore than a vision, was the Vision of Grace. One of the fieryattendants, who hovered on quivering wing ready to execute the ordersof the Divine King, receiving a command by some unexplained mode ofcommunication, flew to the altar, and, taking up the tongs, seizedwith them a stone from the altar fire. It was neither a coal, as ourrendering gives it, nor a brand, but a heated stone, such as was used, and is used at the present day, in the East, for conveying heat to adistance for any purpose for which it might be required. It came fromthe altar: it contained God's fire, and God sent it. 

The purpose for which it was required on this occasion was cleansing. Of cleansing there are in Scripture three symbols. The simplest iswater; and water can purify many things; but there are some thingswhich water cannot cleanse. A stronger agent is required, and this isfound in fire. You must fling the ore, for example, into the fire, ifyou wish to extract from it the pure gold. There is a third symbol, which appears in the New Testament as well as the Old, and it is themost sacred of all. It is blood. Water, fire, blood--these three meanthe same in Scripture. In this case it was fire. 

The seraph flew with the hot stone and laid it on the lips of thefuture prophet. Why did he lay it there? Because it was there thatIsaiah felt his sin to be lying. He had said, "I am a man of uncleanlips. " The fire burned the sin away. So the seraph said, speaking inGod's name, "Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity istaken away and thy sin purged. " It was the assurance of the Divineforgiveness, which had come swift as a seraph's flight in answer toIsaiah's confession. [10]

Isaiah's preparation was completed in these three successive phases ofexperience; and now the purpose was disclosed for which he had beenprepared. From aloft--from the throne high and lifted up--came thequestion, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" The King neededa messenger to bear a message and represent Himself. He had chosenIsaiah to bear it; yet He did not thrust the commission on him. [11] Hedid not need to do so; for Isaiah had passed through a preparationwhich made him not only thoroughly able, but thoroughly willing. Hehad been lifted out of time into eternity; and in this one hour ofconcentrated experience he had both died and been born again. His lifehad been undone and forfeited; but God had given it back to him, andhe felt that now it was not his own. He was thrilling with the powerof forgiveness, and the impulses towards God--to be near Him, toserve Him, to do anything for Him--were now far stronger than hisshrinking from Him had been a little before. Therefore of his own freewill and choice he answered the Divine question with, "Here am I, sendme. "

 * * * * *

Gentlemen, I have gone minutely into the details of this scene in thelife of a representative preacher of the Old Testament, because everyline of it speaks to the deep and subtle movements of our ownexperience. What is the inference to be drawn from it? Is it that atthe commencement of a preacher's career there must be a call to theministry distinct from the experience of personal salvation? Thisinference has often been drawn; but I prefer, in the meantime atleast, to draw a wider but, I believe, a sounder and more usefulinference. It is this: that the outer must be preceded by the inner;public life for God must be preceded by private life with God; unlessGod has first spoken to a man, it is vain for a man to attempt tospeak for God. 

This principle has an extensive and varied application. 

It applies to the beginnings of the religious life. I should like tobe allowed to say to you, gentlemen, with all the earnestness of whichI am capable, that the prime qualification of a minister is that he behimself a religious man--that, before he begins to make God known, heshould first himself know God. How this comes to pass, this is not theplace to explain. Only let me say, that it is more than the play uponus of religious influences from the outside. There must be a reactionon our own part--an opening of our nature to take in and assimilatewhat is brought to bear on us by others. There must be an uprising ofour own will and a deliberate choice of God. Of course in the historyof many there are, at this stage, experiences almost as dramatic andmemorable as this scene in the life of Isaiah; and they may becomposed of nearly identical elements. In some haunt of ordinarylife--perhaps in the church of one's childhood or in the roomconsecrated by the prayers of early years--there comes a suddenrevelation of God, which transfigures everything. In this great lightthe man feels himself to be like an unclean thing, ready to becondemned and annihilated by the presence of the Thrice Holy. But thenensues the wonderful revelation of grace, when God takes up the soulin despair and draws it to His heart, penetrating it with the sense offorgiveness and the confidence of childhood. It is not surprising thatthis new-born life should feel itself at once dedicated to the serviceof God. I heard one of our most rising ministers say a short time ago, that he knew he was to be a minister on the very day of hisconversion, though at the time he was engaged in a totally differentpursuit. 

But this may come later; and it may be the burden of another greatmoment of revelation. For, as I have hinted already in this lecture, the true Christian life is not all a silent, unmarked growth; it hasits crises also, when it rises at a bound to new levels, where newprospects unfold themselves before it and alter everything. There aremoments in life more precious than days, and there are days which wewould not exchange for years. Swept along with other materials intothe common receptacle of memory, they shine like gold, silver, precious stones among the wood, hay, stubble of ordinary experience. It is impossible to say how much one such experience may do to directand to inspire a life. I believe that many a humble minister has suchan experience hidden in his memory, which he may never have disclosedto anyone, but which is invested for himself with unfading splendorand authority, and binds him to the service of God till his dyingday. [12]

But this principle, which we have drawn for our own use from Isaiah'scall, applies not only to the initial act, but to every subsequentdetail of our life. It is true of every appearance which a ministermakes before a congregation. Unless he has spent the week with God andreceived Divine communications, it would be better not to enter thepulpit or open his mouth on Sunday at all. There ought to be on thespirit, and even on the face of a minister, as he comes forth beforemen, a ray of the glory which was seen on the face of Moses when hecame down among the people with God's message from the mount. 

It applies, too, on a larger scale, to the ministerial life as awhole. Valuable as an initial call may be, it will not do to trade toolong on such a memory. A ministry of growing power must be one ofgrowing experience. The soul must be in touch with God and enjoygolden hours of fresh revelation. The truth must come to the ministeras the satisfaction of his own needs and the answer to hisperplexities; and he must be able to use the language of religion, notas the nearest equivalent he can find for that which he believesothers to be passing through, but as the exact equivalent of thatwhich he has passed through himself. There are many rules for prayingin public, and a competent minister will not neglect them; but thereis one rule worth all the rest put together, and it is this: Be a manof prayer yourself; and then the congregation will feel, as you openyour lips to lead their devotions, that you are entering an accustomedpresence and speaking to a well-known Friend. There are arts of studyby which the contents of the Bible can be made available for theedification of others; but this is the best rule: Study God's Worddiligently for your own edification; and then, when it has becomemore to you than your necessary food and sweeter than honey or thehoney-comb, it will be impossible for you to speak of it to otherswithout a glow passing into your words which will betray the delightwith which it has inspired yourself. [13]

Perhaps of all causes of ministerial failure the commonest lies here;and of all ministerial qualifications, this, although the simplest, isthe most trying. Either we have never had a spiritual experience deepand thorough enough to lay bare to us the mysteries of the soul; orour experience is too old, and we have repeated it so often that ithas become stale to ourselves; or we have made reading a substitutefor thinking; or we have allowed the number and the pressure of theduties of our office to curtail our prayers and shut us out of ourstudies; or we have learned the professional tone in which thingsought to be said, and we can fall into it without present feeling. Power for work like ours is only to be acquired in secret; it is onlythe man who has a large, varied and original life with God who can goon speaking about the things of God with fresh interest; but athousand things happen to interfere with such a prayerful andmeditative life. It is not because our arguments for religion are notstrong enough that we fail to convince, but because the argument iswanting which never fails to tell; and this is religion itself. Peopleeverywhere can appreciate this, and nothing can supply the lack of it. The hearers may not know why their minister, with all his gifts, doesnot make a religious impression on them; but it is because he is nothimself a spiritual power. [14]

There comes to my mind a reminiscence from college days, which growsmore significant to me the longer I live. One Saturday morning at ourMissionary Society there came, at our invitation, to talk to us aboutour future life, the professor who was the idol of the students andreputed the most severely scientific of the whole staff. We used tothink him keen, too, and cynical; and what we expected was perhaps ascathing exposure of the weaknesses of ministers or a severeexhortation to study. It turned out, on the contrary, to be a strangepiece, steeped in emotion and full of almost lyrical tenderness; and Ican still remember the kind of awe which fell on us, as, from thisreserved nature, we heard a conception of the ministry which hadscarcely occurred to any of us before; for he said, that the greatpurpose for which a minister is settled in a parish is not tocultivate scholarship, or to visit the people during the week, or evento preach to them on Sunday, but it is to live among them as a goodman, whose mere presence is a demonstration which cannot be gainsaidthat there is a life possible on earth which is fed from no earthlysource, and that the things spoken of in church on Sabbath arerealities. 

Side by side with this reminiscence there lives in my memory another, which also grows more beautiful the more I learn of life. It was myhappiness, when I was ordained, to be settled next neighbour to anaged and saintly minister. He was a man of competent scholarship, andhad the reputation of having been in early life a powerful and popularpreacher. But it was not to these gifts that he owned his uniqueinfluence. He moved through the town, with his white hair and somewhatstaid and dignified demeanour, as a hallowing presence. His verypassing in the street was a kind of benediction, and the people, asthey looked after him, spoke of him to each other with affectionateveneration. Children were proud when he laid his hand on their heads, and they treasured the kindly words which he spoke to them. Atfunerals and other seasons of domestic solemnity his presence wassought by people of all denominations. We who laboured along with himin the ministry felt that his mere existence in the community was anirresistible demonstration of Christianity and a tower of strength toevery good cause. Yet he had not gained this position of influence bybrilliant talents or great achievements or the pushing of ambition;for he was singularly modest, and would have been the last to credithimself with half the good he did. The whole mystery lay in this, thathe had lived in the town for forty years a blameless life, and wasknown by everybody to be a godly and prayerful man. He was good enoughto honour me with his friendship; and his example wrote deeply uponmy mind these two convictions--that it may sometimes be of immenseadvantage to spend a whole lifetime in a single pastorate, and thatthe prime qualification for the ministry is goodness. [15]

FOOTNOTES:

[7] "One great part of the history of the Bible is the history ofCalls. "--DEAN CHURCH. 

[8] I am sorry to observe that even Mr. G. A. Smith, whose Commentary onIsaiah is distinguished not only by thorough scholarship but by what isfar rarer in works of the kind--a profusion of just and inspiringideas--at this point, following bad examples, says that there are ideasimported into the account of Isaiah's call which belonged to a laterperiod of his life. Not only is this wrong psychologically, because itminimises the divinatory power of the human spirit in the great momentsof experience; but surely it is utterly wrong artistically, because, ifthe ideas are historically out of place, Isaiah himself ought to havefelt that, by placing them there, he was breaking the spell ofverisimilitude, on which the effect of such a picture depends. 

[9] This is the literal translation, "The fulness of the whole world isHis glory. "

[10] The lips of Jeremiah were also touched in his call by the hand ofGod. But the meaning appears to have been different. He had complainedthat he could not speak--that he was tongue-tied. The touch of theDivine hand may have meant that the restraining cord was loosed, and afree passage made for the utterance of what he had to say. The wordswhich accompanied the touch suggest, however, a slightly differentidea--"Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. " The difficulty ofJeremiah was not exactly that of Moses, who, when he complained that hecould not speak, meant that, never having acquired the art of expressinghimself, he could not utter what he had to say, even though he was fullof matter. This was the natural difficulty of an elderly man; for theart of expression has to be acquired in youth. But the difficulty of ayoung man like Jeremiah is not so much to express what he has to say asto get something worth saying. This was what Jeremiah complained of; andthe touching of his lips meant that God was putting His own words intohis mouth. It was a promise that the well of ideas in his mind shouldnot run dry, but that God would give him such a revelation of His mindand will as would supply him with an ample message to his age. All threecases are full of instruction and encouragement. 

[11] "After passing through the fundamental religious experiences offorgiveness and cleansing, which are in every case the indispensablepremises of life with God, Isaiah was left to himself. No direct summonswas addressed to him, no compulsion was laid on him; but he heard thevoice of God asking generally for messengers, and he, on his ownresponsibility, answered it for himself in particular. He heard from theDivine lips of the Divine need for messengers, and he was immediatelyfull of the mind that he was the man for the mission, and of the heartto give himself to it. So great an example cannot be too closely studiedby candidates for the ministry in our own day. Sacrifice is not thehalf-sleepy, half-reluctant submission to the force of circumstance oropinion, in which shape it is so often travestied among us, but theresolute self-surrender and willing resignation of a free and reasonablesoul. There are many in our day who look for an irresistible compulsioninto the ministry of the Church; sensitive as they are to the materialbias by which men roll off into other professions, they pray forsomething of a similar kind to prevail with them in this direction also. There are men who pass into the ministry by social pressure or theopinion of the circles they belong to, and there are men who adopt theprofession simply because it is on the line of least resistance. Fromwhich false beginnings rise the spent force, the premature stoppages, the stagnancy, the aimlessness and heartlessness, which are the scandalsof the professional ministry and the weakness of the Christian Church inour day. Men who drift into the ministry, as it is certain so many do, become mere ecclesiastical flotsam and jetsam, incapable of givingcarriage to any soul across the waters of this life, uncertain of theirown arrival anywhere, and of all the waste of their generation, the mostpatent and disgraceful. God will have no driftwood for His sacrifices, no drift-men for His ministers. Self-consecration is the beginning ofHis service, and a sense of our own freedom and our own responsibilityis an indispensable element in the act of self-consecration. "--G. A. SMITH: _Isaiah_. 

[12] I do not know that I have ever seen an entirely satisfactorystatement of what constitutes a call to the ministry. Probably it is oneof those things of the Spirit which cannot be mathematically defined. The variety of the calls in Scripture warns us against laying down anyscheme to which the experience of every one must conform. It is the sameas with the commencement of the spiritual life, where also the work ofthe Spirit of God overflows our definitions. While some can remember anddescribe the whole process through which they have passed, others whoexhibit as undeniably the marks of the Divine handiwork can givecomparatively little account of how it took place. The test of thereality of the change is not its power of being made into a good story. In the one case, however, as in the other, a conscientious man will giveall diligence to make his calling and election sure. Excellent chapterson the subject will be found in Spurgeon's _Lectures to My Students_ andBlaikie's _For the Work of the Ministry_. 

[13] "You have to be busy men, with many distractions, with time notyour own: and yet, if you are to be anything, there is one thing youmust secure. You must have time to enter into your own heart and bequiet, you must learn to collect yourselves, to be alone withyourselves, alone with your own thoughts, alone with eternal realitieswhich are behind the rush and confusion of moral things, alone with God. You must learn to shut your door on all your energy, on all yourinterests, on your hopes and fears and cares, and in the silence of yourchamber to 'possess your souls. ' You must learn to look below thesurface; to sow the seed which you will never reap; to hear loud voicesagainst you or seductive ones, and to find in your own heart theassurance and the spell which makes them vain. Whatever you do, part notwith the inner sacred life of the soul whereby we live _within_ to'things not seen, ' to Christ, and truth and immortality. Your work, youractivity, belong to earth; no real human interest, nothing that stirs orattracts or that troubles men in this scene of life, ought to be toogreat or too little for you. But your thoughts belong to heaven; and itis to that height that they must rise, it is _there_ that in solitudeand silence they must be rekindled, and enlarged, and calmed, if evenactivity and public spirit are not to degenerate into a fatalforgetfulness of the true purpose of your calling--a forgetfulness ofthe infinite tenderness and delicacy, of the unspeakable sacredness, ofthe mysterious issues, which belong to the ministry of souls. "--DEANCHURCH. 

[14] "Habet autem ut obedienter audiatur quantacunque granditatedictionis majus pondus vita dicentis. "--ST. AUGUSTINE. 

[15] As he has been dead for several years, I need not hesitate to givethe name of my dear and honoured friend--the Rev. James Black, ofDunnikier. 

LECTURE III. 

THE PREACHER AS A PATRIOT. 

We have committed ourselves, in our mode of dealing with the subjectof these lectures, to the guidance of Scripture; and I have already, in the opening lecture, alluded to the doubt, which might arise insome minds that this method might carry us away from the livingquestions of the present age. But long experience has taught me to bevery confident in this method of study. It is astonishing howdirectly, when trusting to the leading hand of Scripture, one isconducted to the heart of almost any subject, and how frequently oneis thus compelled to take up delicate aspects of present questionswhich one would otherwise timidly avoid; while there is, besides, thisother great advantage, that one can always go forward with a firmstep, having at one's back a Divine warrant and authority. To-day weshall have an illustration of this; for the method which we areobeying will carry us straight into the midst of the burning questionsof the hour; and the example of the prophets will press on ourattention an aspect of ministerial duty which the times are urgentlyclamouring for, but which it is by no means easy to face. In our lastlecture we were occupied with the call of the prophet to the serviceof God; to-day we have to study wherein consisted this service itself. 

 * * * * *

Here we are at once confronted with a contrast between the work of OldTestament prophets and that of modern ministers, to which it is by nomeans easy to adjust the mind. Our message in modern times isaddressed to the individual; but the message of the prophets wasaddressed to the nation. The unit in our minds is always the soul; wewarn every man to flee from the wrath to come; we reason and wrestlewith him in the name of Heaven; we watch over the growth of hischaracter; and we estimate our success by the number of individualsbrought into the kingdom. In the prophets there is a complete absenceof all this. They are no less in earnest; their aim is equally clearbefore them; but the unit in their minds is different: it is theJewish state, or at least the city of Jerusalem, as a whole. A recentcommentator[16] on Isaiah has raised the question, whether Isaiah hasa gospel for the individual. He makes out that he has; but it is in asomewhat round-about way; and it is not done without, to some extent, attributing to Isaiah a point of view which was not his. It was Christwho introduced the modern point of view. He was the discoverer of theindividual. It was He who taught the world to believe in the dignityand destiny of the single soul; and He trained His ministers to seekand save it. 

Isaiah's position, however, is well worth studying, and has its ownlesson for us. Only we must acknowledge it to be what it really is, and endeavour to place ourselves on his standpoint. To him the NewTestament position was no more possible than the modern view of ethicswas to the ancient philosophers; and the student of philosophysaturated from birth with the modern ideas of freedom andindividuality, has an exactly similar difficulty to overcome, as hereads, for example, the _Republic_ of Plato, where the state iseverything and the individual nothing. 

While a message to any individual is rare in the prophetical books, that which we come upon wherever we open them is a patriotic andstatesman-like appeal on the condition of the country. The prophetsaddressed themselves by preference to the heads and representatives ofthe people, such as kings, princes and priests; because the power toeffect changes in the situation of the country rested in their hands. But they also took advantage of large popular gatherings, and in someconspicuous place, such as the city-gate or the court of the temple, delivered their message, which thus might reach every corner of theland. A name which they delight to apply to themselves is Watchmen. Asthe watchman, stationed on his tower over the city-gate, kept guardover the safety of the place, giving notice when danger wasapproaching and summoning the citizens to defend themselves, so theprophets from their watch-tower--that is, the position of elevationand observation which inspiration gave them--watched over the weal ofthe state, observing narrowly its condition within, keeping their eyeon the influences to which it was exposed from without, and, whendanger threatened, giving the alarm. Their acquaintance isextraordinary with the state of every part of the country; and stillmore astonishing is their knowledge of surrounding countries. Whenthey have to speak of Moab or Edom, they seem as familiar with thetowns and rivers, the customs and history of these countries, as withthose of Judah; and they appear to be as well acquainted with what isgoing on in the cities on the Nile or the Euphrates as with what ishappening in Jerusalem. No home secretary is as well acquainted withthe internal affairs of his own country, and no foreign secretary withthe affairs of foreign countries. It was their vocation to besensitively alive to all the influences, near or remote, by whichtheir native land could be affected. 

 * * * * *

The contents of the prophetic writings, notwithstanding their variety, easily fall into a few great masses. The chief are thesethree--Criticism, Denunciation and Comfort. 

1. There is a great mass of what may be called Criticism. Standing ontheir watch-tower and turning their observation on the internalcondition of the state, the prophets could nearly always discerndiseased symptoms in the body corporate, and it was their duty topoint them out. So Isaiah commences his prophecies: "The whole head issick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even untothe head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, andputrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neithermollified with ointment. " And he thus gives expression to theobligation which was laid on him to make these discoveries known: "Cryaloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My peopletheir transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. "

The sins which the prophets had to reprehend were pretty uniform allthrough the prophetic period; and it is interesting to compare themwith those by which our own age is afflicted. There is no school inwhich the conscience can be so well educated to a sense of public sinas in the writings of the prophets. 

The root evil was always Idolatry. The nation was continually fallingaway from the worship of the true God to idols, or at least theworship of other deities was incorporated with that of Jehovah. Thiswas always both a symptom of advanced degradation and the head andfountain of other evils of the worst kind. All the prophets attack itwith all the weapons in their armoury--with hot indignation and closeargument and scalding tears. Isaiah is remarkable for attacking itwith raillery and sarcasm. He takes his readers into the idol workshopand details the process of their manufacture. He shows us the workmen, surrounded with their plates of metal and logs of wood, out of whichthe god is to be fashioned, and busy with their files and planes, their axes and hammers, putting together the helpless thing. Theidolmaker, he says, has a fine ash or oak or cedar-tree, and makes apretty idol with it; but with the same wood he lights his fire andcooks his dinner--"He burneth part thereof in the fire; with partthereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast and is satisfied; yea, hewarmeth himself and saith, Aha, aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire;and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; hefalleth down unto it and worshippeth it and prayeth unto it, andsaith, Deliver me, for thou art my god. "

Closely associated with idolatry was Luxury. So successful to ourminds is the polemic of a prophet like Isaiah against idolatry thatthe wonder to us is that it was ever necessary; and, indeed, there arefew things more puzzling to the ordinary reader of Scripture than theconstant lapses of the people of God into idolatry. How could they, knowing the true God, exchange a worship so rational and elevated forthe worship of stocks and stones? The explanation is a simple but ahumiliating one. The worship of these foreign deities was accompaniedwith sensual excesses, which appealed to the strongest elementarypassions of human nature. Feasts, dances and drunken orgies formedpart of the worship of Baal and the other Canaanite divinities. Idolatry in Israel was never due to theoretic changes of opinion; itwas only the way in which an outbreak of laxity and luxury manifesteditself. Its equivalent in our day would be an excessive development ofthe passion for amusement and excitement, destroying the dignity andseriousness of life. The wealthy and fashionable classes led the way, as they generally do in periods of moral retrogression; and the worstsymptom of all was when the womanhood of the country surrendereditself to the prevailing tendencies. This last feature of degradationhad developed itself in Isaiah's day; and he attacks it with a strangecombination of humour and moral indignation: "Because the daughters ofJerusalem are haughty, and walk with outstretched neck and wantoneyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a tinkling with theirfeet, therefore . . . The Lord will take away the bravery of theirtinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls and their roundtires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets and the mufflers, the bonnets and the ornaments of the legs and the headbands, thetablets and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the changeablesuits of apparel and the mantles and the wimples and the crispingpins, the glasses and the fine linen, and the hoods and the veils; andit shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall bestink, and instead of a girdle a rent, and instead of well-set hairbaldness, and instead of a stomacher a girdle of sackcloth, andburning instead of beauty. "

Then there was Oppression. Excessive luxury in the upper classes isusually accompanied with misery among those at the opposite end of thesocial scale; because the rich in such a state of society areheartless, and not only neglect the poor, but oppress them. Theprophets are full of the wrongs inflicted on the weak by the powerful. The wealthy landowners took advantage of the difficulties of theirless prosperous neighbours to rob them of their holdings and removethe ancient landmarks; and the courts of law were so corrupt thatthose who could not bribe the occupants of the chair of justice had nochance of redress. The spirit of the constitution was so far violatedthat the rich held their own fellow-countrymen in slavery, and did noteven give them the advantage of the year of jubilee. Many a page ofthe writings of the prophets looks like a programme for the reform ofabuses with which we are too familiar in our own civilisation. "Woe, "says Jeremiah, "to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness andhis chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's services withoutwages and giveth him not for his work. "

Last of all there was Hypocrisy. In spite of these sins, crying toHeaven, there was seldom any lack of religiosity or the outward formsof religion. Religion was divorced from morality, and ritual wassubstituted for righteousness. There is no commoner or weightierburden in the prophets than this. It is on this subject that Isaiahlets loose the whole force of his prophetic soul in his very firstchapter, where there is a truly appalling picture of the combinationof religious rites the most multiplied with moral abuses the mostclamant: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fatof fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of ramsor of he-goats. When ye come to appear before Me, who hath requiredthis at your hands, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain oblations;incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and Sabbaths, thecalling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even thesolemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soulhateth; they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them. And, whenye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, whenye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you; make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from beforeMine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment; relievethe oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow. "

Thus did these watchmen search out the moral and religious conditionof the people to the very bottom and, in the most expressive language, bring home to their fellow-countrymen how they stood in the eyes ofGod. 

2. A second large mass of the prophetic writings is occupied withDenunciation, or the prediction of calamities about to come as thepunishment of sin. As sure as the prophets were that the God of theuniverse was a righteous God, so certain were they that the publicsins which they exposed would bring down the wrath of Heaven; for"though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished. "

The instruments of punishment were not far to seek. Israel wassurrounded by nations which entertained towards her feelings of bitterhostility and needed only the slightest provocation to attack her. Such were Edom and Moab, Philistia and Syria. But, above all, she washemmed in on both sides by great and warlike powers--Egypt on the onehand and Assyria or Babylonia on the other. These were incessantlywatching each other, and, in doing so, they had to look across Israel. She lay in the way which the one had to take in order to get at theother. The secular historian would say that she could not but fallsooner or later into the hands of the one or the other, and that shewould probably pass frequently from hand to hand. But to the prophetsthese warlike powers were the scourges in God's hand to punish thesins of His people; and, looking outwards from their watch-tower, after exposing the sins within the state, they announced that thestorm-cloud of calamity was rising from this quarter or that longbefore any suspicion of it had dawned on the citizens themselves. Jehovah turns the hearts of kings and peoples as the rivers of water, and He stirred up these hostile nations when His people were in needof chastisement; He could wield their power as the axe which assails atree is wielded by the woodman; He could call the mightiest conquerorto serve His secret purposes, as a man calls a dog to his foot. [17]They did not know that they were being thus used. They had their owndesigns, and their hatred and cruelty towards God's people were realenough. They were even, after doing God's work on His people, to bepunished in turn for the animosity and violence with which theyperformed it. But in the meantime the will of Jehovah wasaccomplished, and the discipline of His providence wreaked on the sinsof the nation. 

3. The third great element in these books is Comfort. Notunfrequently, in delivering these predictions of approaching calamity, the prophets had to put themselves into opposition to popular forms ofpatriotism and incur the danger of being regarded as enemies of theircountry. This was especially the case with Jeremiah, who was burdenedall his life with the sad task of proclaiming that the time forrepentance was past, and the Jewish state, with its capital, must bedestroyed. When the enemy was before the walls of Jerusalem, and theheads of the state were rallying the citizens to the last and mostsacred duty of defending their hearths and altars, he had still topredict that resistance was useless; and he was imprisoned as atraitor, because his words were disheartening the soldiers. When atlast the city fell into the hands of the enemy, he was set free fromimprisonment and loaded with honours by the conqueror as one who hadbeen a valuable ally. Never was a position more equivocal occupied bya patriot. Yet never has there beaten in a human breast a heart morepatriotic than Jeremiah's. Patriotism, strong as a man's passion andtender as a woman's love, is the keynote of every chapter of hisprophecies. This is characteristic of all the prophets. They lovedIsrael, and especially the city of Jerusalem, with an ardour ofaffection such as has rarely, if ever, been bestowed on any othercountry or city on earth. There was something natural in this passion;for Palestine was a lovely country, whose fruitful plains andpicturesque valleys and vine-clad hills easily captivated the heartsof its inhabitants; and Jerusalem was a city beautiful for situation. But this natural attachment was transfigured into a higher sentiment. Jerusalem was the hearth and sanctuary of the true religion. Thecountry was dear to the hearts of the prophets, because it had beenspecially chosen by Jehovah as a home for His people, in which theymight work out their destiny. The people who inhabited this countrywere to be married to Jehovah; He was to penetrate them with Hisspirit and character; and in them and their seed all nations of theearth were to be blessed. 

To this sublime conception of the nation the hearts of all theprophets clung. However unworthy of it their own generation might be, they believed in the inexhaustible resources of their race, which wasimmortal till its destiny was accomplished. It was this faith, inspiring Isaiah, which enabled him to rally his fellow-countrymen tothe defence of Jerusalem, when, according to all human probabilities, extinction stared it in the face. And even Jeremiah, though he had topredict the ruin of the city of his heart, never dreamed for a momentthat its career was at an end; but, looking beyond the calamities ofthe immediate future, he predicted that God would restore thecaptivity of His people and yet make Zion a praise in the earth. Itwas, indeed, in times of calamity and suffering that the patriotismof the prophets burned most ardently. It was then that, speaking inGod's name, they poured out on the stricken city the affection whichbreathes in such wonderful words of Isaiah as these: "Can a motherforget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on theson of her womb? Yea, they may forget: yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls arecontinually before Me. " The second half of Isaiah, [18] addressed tothe exiles in Babylon, overflows with such outbursts of tenderness;and, although there is obviously a love in them which is more thanhuman, yet the Divine love could not have found an outlet and a voicefor itself except through a human heart of the most exquisitesensibility and passionate patriotism. [19] The prophets, who couldscourge the people in the height of their prosperity and wantonnesswith words which smote like swords, became in the days of calamity theassiduous ministers of comfort, pouring balm into the wounds of theircountry and never allowing the daughter of Zion to despair of herfuture. 

It was then especially that they cultivated the most remarkable of allthe elements of prophecy--the hope of the Messiah. Tragic as was thefailure of the prophets themselves to raise the nation to theelevation which they saw so clearly to be her destiny, they allbelieved that what they had failed to do would yet be done, and thatthere would yet be a Jerusalem bright and glorious as a star, andserving as the star of hope to all the peoples of the earth. Theirconfidence in this did not rest solely on the will and power of God ingeneral; it was guaranteed to them by the belief, which, underdifferent forms, they all cherished, and taught their countrymen tocherish, that in the womb of the nation there lay One, to be born indue time, endowed with powers far greater than their own, who wouldtake up the task which each of them had had in his turn to lay byunaccomplished, and carry it forward to its fulfilment--a Child of thenation who would unite in His character all the attributes in theirfullest perfection which the nation herself ought to have possessed, and who, though standing high above His fellow-countrymen, would yetbe thoroughly incorporated with them, and, taking on His shoulders theresponsibility of their destiny, would never fail to be discouragedunder it, but bear it victoriously to the goal. "Unto us a Child isborn, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon Hisshoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, theMighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. "

 * * * * *

Now, gentlemen, the question is, How far the aspect of the propheticactivity which we have considered to-day is a model to us?

It might be argued that this is a stage of preaching which has beensuperseded, and that the message of ministers ought now to beaddressed entirely to individuals. This is the theory of preaching onwhich many act, without perhaps considering how widely it differs fromthe procedure of the prophets. And no doubt much might be said in itsdefence. It was a vast step in the development of religion when Jesusturned from the nation to the individual and taught the world thevalue of the soul. Here must ever now lie the stress of Christianpreaching; the preacher is not worthy of the Christian name who doesnot know what it is to hunger and thirst for the salvation ofindividuals, and who does not esteem the salvation of even one soulwell worth the labour of a lifetime. 

Still it may be doubted whether any stage through which preaching haspassed can ever be entirely superseded; and we may well hesitate tobelieve that the work of an Isaiah or a Jeremiah is not still work forus. 

This doubt is further strengthened when we turn to the record ofChrist's own preaching. He is the final standard and incomparablemodel. But, though He discovered the soul and taught the world thevalue of the individual, His preaching was not exclusively directed toindividuals. It had a public and national side. He cast His protectionover publicans and sinners, not only because they were the children ofmen, but also because they were the seed of Abraham; He submitted Hisclaims to the ecclesiastical authorities of the nation, and, when theyrejected them, He directed against the religious parties thethunderbolts of His invective. The tears and words of indescribabletenderness which He poured out upon the city where He was about to bemartyred proved that the patriotism of Isaiah and Jeremiah stillburned in His heart; and He charged His apostles, when sending themforth to evangelize the world, to begin at Jerusalem. [20]

If this did not settle the question, the nature of the case woulddemonstrate that the preacher's vocation includes a message to thecommunity as well as to the individual. It will be conceded by allthat the preacher exists for the promotion of righteousness and thediminution of sin in the world. But sin is not only lodged in theheart of the individual: it is embodied also in evil customs andunjust laws, for which the community is responsible. The individual islargely moulded by his environment; but this may either be sofavourable to goodness that his evil tendencies are restrained andeverything encourages him to do well, or so evil that the worst vicesare easily contracted, while every step in the right direction meetswith a storm of opposition. No one would contend that the chances of asoul are the same whether it lives among those who watch carefullyover its development and guide its footsteps in the paths of peace, oramong those whose word and example are encouragements to every kind ofsin. Society ought to be a kindly matrix in which incipient life isnurtured into health and beauty; but it may be a malignant nurse, bywhom the stream of life is poisoned at its very source. If this be so, then it is as reprehensible in those whose vocation is to watch overthe moral and spiritual development of their fellow-men to beindifferent to the conditions by which life is surrounded as it wouldbe discreditable to the physicians of a city swept year after year bypestilence, if they took no interest in the insanitary conditions towhich the epidemic was due, but lazily contented themselves withcuring their own patients. 

We seem to have arrived at precisely the point in the Church's historywhen her mind and conscience are to awake to this aspect of her duty. One of the most eminent members of the English bench of bishops saidrecently, that the social question is the question which theChristianity of the present day has to solve; and this sentiment isbeing echoed in every quarter. Strange it is how age after age oneword of the message of Christianity after another lays hold of theChristian mind and becomes for a time the watchword of progress. Therecan be little doubt that this is the word for our age. Theextraordinary response given throughout the civilised world to GeneralBooth's _In Darkest England_ proves how deeply the conscience of theworld is being stirred by the misery and degradation of the outcastsof society. 

General Booth's book, and other books and pamphlets like it, havebrought home to us the fact, that at the base of our civilisationthere is sweltering a mass of sin and misery, which is not less areproach to Christianity than were the publicans and sinners to thereligion of the contemporaries of Christ; because, though the Churchmay not, like the Scribes and Pharisees, despise and hate theseoutcasts, it has not yet coped effectually with the problem of theircondition; and perhaps their numbers are increasing rather thandiminishing. There are sections of the community in which theconditions of existence are so evil that childhood is plunged, almostas soon as it is born, into an element of vice and crime, the bloom ofmodesty is rudely rubbed off the soul of womanhood, and manhood is sobeset with temptation that escape is well-nigh impossible. Can anyonedoubt that an Isaiah or a Jeremiah would, in such a state of society, have lifted up his voice like a trumpet and cast the condition ofthese lost children of our people in the face of the luxurious rich, and especially of the professors of religion? And is it less obviousthat this is still the duty of the modern pulpit?

It cannot, indeed, be said with truth, that the Church has not facedthe problem. There is one of the causes of social misery, and that thevery chief, against which the Church, especially in your country, hasnobly asserted herself. Drink is the cause to which magistrates andjudges, and all who are brought directly into contact with the fallenand criminal classes, attribute three-fourths of the evils ofsociety. Drink is the despair of every Christian worker who hasventured down among the pariahs of our civilisation. Against this theChurches have not been inactive. But we are just beginning toacknowledge that, though drunkenness is the great cause of misery, there are other causes behind it which must likewise be coped with. Why do the people drink? This question, when it is impartiallyconsidered, will bring many abuses of our social system into view, which must be put out of the way before the evils of drunkenness canbe stopped. Excessively prolonged labour exhausts the system and makesit crave for artificial stimulus. Excessively low wages, with noprospect of rising in the world, beget a spirit of recklessness, whichmakes men ready to turn to anything that promises to bring a gleam ofsunshine into their monotonous lot. Ill-furnished and insanitaryabodes drive forth their inmates to seek the brightness and comfort ofthe saloon. These are specimens of the new questions which demand theattention of those who feel the reproach of our defectivecivilisation. 

There is one type of remedy which the Church has liberally supplied. To those already fallen she has extended a helping hand. TheEvangelical Revival produced a spirit of philanthropy which hasinvented schemes for the relief of every form of human woe; and thesehave multiplied to almost unmanageable numbers. But we are beginningto see that, multiply them as we may, they must be totallyinsufficient as long as the causes of misery are undealt with. If thecauses remain as strong as ever, new victims will be manufactured asfast as philanthropy can rescue those already made. The time has cometo ascend higher up the stream than has hitherto been done, and cut itoff at its source. In other words, we must direct the whole force ofChristian philanthropy to the stopping of the causes of social misery. 

For this work new weapons will be required; and perhaps the principalof these will be legislation. The prophets appealed, as I have said, to kings and princes, because in their hands lay at that time theforce of government. But this power has now passed, and is daily morecompletely passing, into the hands of the people, on whom lies theresponsibility which formerly lay elsewhere. And, if we are to followin the footsteps of Isaiah and Jeremiah, we must teach the people torise to their responsibility and make use of the weapon which time hasput into their hands for altering the conditions of life. They mustsend to the seats of authority, both in the municipality and in thestate, men of public spirit, who will act not for their own interestor for the interest of factions, but for the good of the wholecommunity; and they must see to it, that the laws and theiradministration are such as will make evil-doing difficult andwell-doing easy. 

Of course this will involve conflict with those interests which arevested in abuses; for there are trades which flourish in the povertyof the poor and even the vices of the vicious. These enjoy, in manycases, the advantage of high social standing; and many of the organsof public opinion will rally to their support. But the Church mustappeal to the Christian conscience and summon forth the resources ofChristian virtue, to meet this new phase of the task which has beenappointed her. Christianity has always, and especially during the lasthundred years, had the open hand of charity; but she will need, duringthe next hundred years, to have also a hand which can close itselffirmly over the instrument of government, and make use of it as alever for lifting out of the way many great obstacles which arekeeping back the Kingdom of God. 

 * * * * *

I am quite aware of the dangers of this new departure which I amadvocating. There is the great danger of undervaluing the work ofsaving individual souls. There is the danger of forsaking the Word ofGod and converting the pulpit into an organ of secular discussion;although, on the other hand, there are numerous portions of the Biblewhich directly raise the discussion of social problems and, whenotherwise applied, can only be interpreted in a more or less unnaturalsense. There is the danger of making the minister the mouthpiece of aparty. Christian tact and discretion will be necessary at every step. But surely this is no reason for declining our duty, but only a reasonfor bringing out all our resources. 

One consideration which simplifies the problem is, that it is not somuch the place of the minister to intervene in special questions as tobeget in his people a public and patriotic spirit, and to teach themto look upon the discharge of the duties of citizenship as a part ofChristianity. When our people have been brought to recognise that thepublic weal is their concern, and that they are responsible for thestate of society and the conditions of life, they can be left tothemselves to choose the right men to support the right measures. [21]

Here we can build on a natural foundation. It is natural for a man tobe attached to the place of his birth or the town in which he lives. The roots of his life are in its soil; his interests bind him to it;and, if he be at all divinely-souled, its traditions and notable namescannot fail to lay hold upon his heart. The chances which a city hasof getting its affairs well attended to are measured by the number ofits inhabitants who are animated with such sentiments. In the sameway, it is natural for a man to love his country. Some countriesespecially have the power of casting such a spell over the hearts oftheir children as binds them to their service. Of my country thismight be said. Small as it is, its beauty, its history and itsromantic associations wield over the hearts of its inhabitants anextraordinary attraction. Perhaps part of the secret may lie in itsvery smallness; for feeling contracts a passionate force within narrowlimits, as our Highland rivers become torrents within their rockybeds. Of your country also it might be said for different reasons. America stirs patriotic sentiment, not by its smallness, but by itslargeness and wonderful variety; not by the memories of the past, butby the boundless possibilities of the future. 

These sentiments exist in the minds of our people already; and we onlyneed to foster them and impregnate them with a Christian element, inorder to produce convictions about public duty which would have themost blessed results. We might train our people to feel keenly the woeof mankind and especially the moral blots on the fair fame of theirown city or country. We might get them to cherish a high ideal of whatthe place of their abode should be, morally and spiritually, and ofwhat their country might do in the world. In Scotland there was suchan ideal once: the eye of the dying Covenanter saw, painted on themist of the moorland, the vision of a consecrated land ruled by acovenanted king. [22] In England it existed once, in the Puritan days, when, as Richard Baxter says, England was like to become a land ofsaints, a pattern of holiness to the world, and the unmatchableparadise of the earth. You had it in America once: when your fatherslanded in the _Mayflower_, they were seeking not merely meat anddrink, or even wealth and plenty, but a home in which theirdescendants might grow up in freedom, virtue and religion. We must getthat ideal back again, if, in spite of railroads and industrial armiesand wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, we are not to become corruptand ready to be swept away with the besom of destruction. We mighttrain every man on whom our message lays hold to live with theconviction that it is his duty, before he dies, to do something tomake his own town more beautiful, his country happier, and the worldbetter. 

As I am addressing some who may before long be wielding a greatinfluence, let me add one suggestion. In matters such as I have beenspeaking of to-day success comes to the man who has a programme. Nowis the time, when you are looking out on the world with the keen eyesof youth, to note the abuses which need correction and to picture withthe eye of the imagination the improvements which are required to wipeout the reproach or to elevate the reputation of your country. Fix thevision in the centre of your mind; keep it ever before you; and yourdream may change to a reality which will modify the conditions of lifefor whole generations of your fellow-men. What could be worthier ofyour manhood at its present stage than to be revolving some plan forthe benefit and honour of your country? Even if it should never cometo anything, it will be good that it has been in your heart. But thereis nothing else which is more likely to come to something. "What, "says Alfred de Vigny, "is a great life? It is a thought conceived inthe fervent mind of youth and executed with the solid force ofmanhood. "

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Rev. G. A. Smith. 

[17] These are Isaiah's images. 

[18] For our purpose in these lectures it is of no consequence whetherthere were two Isaiahs or only one. We are seeking to ascertain theleading features of the prophets; and, if we attribute to one personqualities which were distributed among two, this will matter little, aslong as they are typical qualities of the prophet. 

[19] "The tale of the Divine Pity was never yet believed from lips thatwere not felt to be moved by human pity. "--GEORGE ELIOT. 

[20] Not to mention the social element in His preaching comprehended inthe doctrine of the Kingdom of God. The comparative absence of thepatriotic element from apostolic preaching is chiefly due to the factthat the apostles were missionaries in cities and countries where theywere strangers. In some respects modern ministers in settled charges areliker the prophets than the apostles. 

[21] For example, there will rarely be any delicacy at the time of anelection in urging on the people that it is their duty to go to thepoll, but it will nearly always be an indiscretion to indicate from thepulpit for whom they should vote. Very often good causes are lost orlong delayed, not because the sentiment of the electorate is opposed tothem, but because large numbers are too apathetic to vote at all. 

[22] "When I would cast my mind back to what we have earned and reapedfrom these men, it strikes me perhaps more than anything which I haveyet named, that we should thank them for the passionate quest of aglorious ideal. It is such ideals, even when they are unattainable, which lift up the character of men and nations. I think that no worthyhistorian has yet been found to tell, as it ought to be told, how muchScotland owes to this splendid vision which these men sought, the visionof a consecrated land of saints ruled by a covenanted king, loyal toChrist. It hovered before the rapt eyes of these saints of Scotlanduntil it well-nigh turned them into seers, it elevated them until itmade them heroes, and though the picture seemed to fade before the eyesof their children, as though it had been painted by the morning light onthe mist of their own moorland, still, it has done its work, for it hascontributed mightily to educate the hearts of Scotchmen. But has it sofaded? Or is it not simply thrown forward, as the old Jew learned tothrow his Messianic hopes forward, from one anticipated Christ toanother, better and greater yet to come?"--J. OSWALD DYKES, D. D. 

LECTURE IV. 

THE PREACHER AS A MAN OF THE WORD. 

Gentlemen, in the lecture before last I spoke of the prophet's call tothe service of God, and in the last lecture of the work itself whichhe had to do. To-day I am to speak of the instrument with which he didit. 

This was the Word; the prophet was a Man of the Word. In accomplishinghis great and difficult work he wielded no other weapon. It seems thefrailest of all weapons; for what is a word? It is only a puff of air, a vibration trembling in the atmosphere for a moment and thendisappearing. But so might one speak of the cloud whose rolling coilsof vapour, changing every moment, seem the least substantial of allthings; yet out of it breaks the forked lightning, which rives thegiant of the forest, and overturns the tower which has defied tenthousand assailants, and, loosening the crag, sends it thundering downthe mountain-side. Though it be only a weapon of air, the word isstronger than the sword of the warrior. Words have overturneddynasties and revolutionised kingdoms. When the right virtue is inthem, they outlast every other work of man. Where are the cities whichwere flourishing when David sang? where are the empires whose armieswere making the world tremble when Isaiah wrote? Nineveh and Babylon, Tyre and Memphis--where are they? But the Psalms of David stilldelight, and the wisdom of Isaiah still instructs, the world. 

The prophets were well aware of the temper and force of this weaponwhich they wielded. Jeremiah refers with especial frequency to thepower of the word. "Is not My word, " he asks, "like a fire, saith theLord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Whenputting this weapon into his hand, the Lord said to him, "See, I haveset thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and pulldown, and to destroy and throw down, and to build and to plant. " Howwas one man to be able to throw down and build up kingdoms? He speaksas if he were at the head of irresistible legions and equipped withall the enginery of war. But so he was; for all these and more are inthe word. Such military notions seem to have occurred naturally to thewielders of it. Another of them says, "The weapons of our warfare arenot carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itselfagainst the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity everythought to the obedience of Christ. " Yet another of them says, "Theword of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edgedsword. " And Isaiah says, in the name of the Servant of the Lord, "Hehath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand hathHe hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in His quiver hath He hidme. "[23]

 * * * * *

The word of the prophets has two aspects: it is, on the one side, aMessage from God, and, on the other, a Message to Men. 

1. The word which the prophets wielded was the word of God. Herein laythe secret of its power. For the word of God is the thought of God;and this is more ancient than the stars and lies more deeply embeddedin the constitution of things than the roots of the mountains; it isthe prop by which the universe is sustained. God's word is before allthings, for it created them; and his thoughts are the rails on whichthe course of the world runs. 

It was the privilege of the prophets to approach so near to God, toenter so completely into sympathy and fellowship with Him, and toknow so clearly what were His purposes, that their own thoughts becameidentical with His; and, therefore, when they spoke, their words wereGod's words. Not only do they preface many of their utterances with"Thus saith the Lord, " but--what is far more strange--they oftenbegin, without any preface, and go on speaking in the first personsingular, when not the prophet but Jehovah is the speaker; as if theirpersonality were so enveloped in His as to disappear altogether. [24]

But this remarkable knowledge of the thoughts of God was not given tothe prophets for themselves. The philosopher may shut himself up insecret to study the laws of the universe and keep his conclusions tohimself; and even the poet perhaps may be so happy in his own visionof beauty that he does not care to utter his song to the world; butnot so the prophet. He, indeed, was also, in the strictest sense, anoriginal thinker, and the new conceptions of God which he wasprivileged to convey to the world dawned upon his own mind with thatsecret delight which makes the creative thinker feel himself to be

 "Like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken. "

One of the prophets gives expression to this secret joy when he says, "Thy words were found and I did eat them, and Thy words were unto methe joy and the rejoicing of my heart;" and, after a night spent inreceiving revelations, he says, "On this I awaked and beheld, and mysleep was sweet unto me. " But the knowledge of God's mind and willwhich the prophets obtained was not for themselves, but for others. Itwas not abstract knowledge, but a knowledge of God's will about thecourse of history--about "what Israel ought to do. " It was, in short, not only a revelation, but a message. 

Hence, one of the most outstanding characteristics of the prophets wasthe sense of being ambassadors charged with a communication which theywere bound to deliver. If those to whom they were sent with itwelcomed them, good and well; but, if not, they were not absolved fromtheir duty. The man who speaks to men for his own ends--to obtaininfluence in the management of their affairs or to display his talentsand win a name--will go on speaking as long as they are inclined tolisten; but, if they do not appreciate his efforts or if he wearies ofthe employment, he can betake himself to retirement and be heard nomore. But a prophet could not act thus. His message might arousebitter opposition, and often did so: "Woe is me, my mother, " exclaimsJeremiah, "that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man ofcontention to the whole earth. " Gladly would he have withdrawn fromthe contest, if he could, and sought a lodge in some vast wilderness. But the sense of being a messenger drove him on: "Then I said, I willnot make mention of Him nor speak any more in His name; but His wordwas in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I wasweary of forbearing, and I could not stay. "

This was what lent the prophets the wonderful courage whichcharacterized them. They forgot themselves in their message. The fireof God in their bones would not permit them to hesitate. Whether itwas a frowning king or an infuriated mob the prophet had to brave, heset his face like a flint. Comfort, reputation, life itself might beat stake; but he had to speak out all that God had told him, whethermen might bear or whether they might forbear. 

2. The other aspect of the prophets' word was that it was a Message toMen. If, on the one hand, the word of the prophets was a power becauseit was the word or thought of God, it depended, on the other hand, forits effect on becoming a word which those to whom it was communicatedcould repeat in their own vocabulary and thereby turn into a thoughtof their own; for it was only when men's minds were so modified by theprophets' words that they began, in their degree, to think thethoughts of God, that the prophetic message became an influence intheir life. The prophet had, therefore, to stand in a double attitude, and a double process had to be performed in his mind. He had, in thefirst place, to turn himself wholly round to God and away from theworld, and clear his mind of everything else, that he might receivethe message in its purity; but then he had, in the second place, toturn himself round towards men and, taking their circumstances intoaccount, deliver the message to them in the most effective way. He hadfirst to allow the Divine message to master him; but then he had toturn upon it and master it, before he could be the medium by which itwas conveyed to others. 

The prophets had to go amongst men, even if it were at the risk oflife, and deliver the Divine message. They had to use every device tomake it telling, striking in at every opportunity and giving line uponline, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. They didnot disdain the homeliest means, if it served the purpose. A prophetwould go about in public carrying a yoke on his neck, like a beast ofburden, or lie a whole year on his side, to attract attention to someimportant truth. More than once we find a prophet setting up a boardin the market-place, with only a few words written on it, into whichhe had condensed his message, that the passers-by might read it. 

On the other hand, when it was appropriate, they did not sparethemselves the trouble of cultivating the graces of style by whichwords are made attractive and impressive. [25] The prophetic books arealmost as artistic as poems. Their literary form is not exactlypoetry, though now and then it crosses its own boundary and becomespoetical. It is a kind of rhythmical prose, governed by laws of itsown, which it carefully observes. All the prophets are not, indeed, equally careful. Some of them appear to have been too completelycarried away with the message which they had to deliver to think muchof the way of delivering it. But these were not the strongest of theprophets; and it is worth observing, that those who took the mostpains about the form in which what they had to say was couched havebeen the most successful prophets in this sense, that they have beenmost read by subsequent generations. 

At the head of them all, in this respect, stands Isaiah. If the bookof an ordinary reader of the Bible were examined, it would be found, Iimagine, that Isaiah is thumbed far more than any other portion of theprophetical writings; and this is due not only to the divinelyevangelical character of his message, but also to the nobly humanstyle of his language. [26] All the resources of poetry and eloquenceare at his command. Every realm of nature ministers to his stores ofimagery; and his language ranges through every mode of beauty andsublimity, being sometimes like the pealing of silver bells, andsometimes like the crashing of avalanches, and sometimes like thesongs of seraphim. He is generally supposed to have been a native ofJerusalem and to have spent his life within its walls. So identified, indeed, is he with it, that he is coming to be called Isaiah ofJerusalem; and a recent expounder of his prophecies says thatJerusalem was more to him than Athens to Demosthenes, Rome to Juvenal, or Florence to Dante. But, at some period of his life, he must havehad ample experience also of a country life; because the aspects ofthe country are mirrored in his pages with incomparable charm. 

He lets us see nature, as it existed in his day, both wild in theforest and wilderness, and cultivated around the abodes of men; and hepaints for us the figures of the country people themselves and thelabours they went forth to. We see in his pages the trees of the woodmoved by the wind; the willows by the water-courses; the freshbranches sprouting from the stock of the pollard oak or terebinth. Wehear the doves mourning from the depths of the thicket, and see theroe, chased by the hunter, disappearing within its shelter, and eventhe schoolboy rifling the birds' nests so ruthlessly that "there wasnone that moved the wing or opened the mouth or peeped. " We see theswarms of bees and flies resting on the branches in the summer heat;the ploughshare lying in the furrow; the tow and the distaff; the oxturning its head to be patted by the hand of its owner, and the asstrotting off at feeding-time to its master's crib. The prophet lookswith a specially observant and sympathetic eye on the toils ofmen--the woodman thinning the trees of the forest; the carpenter, withsaw and axe, turning to his own uses the sycamore and the cedar; thebuilder among his bricks and stones; and the farmer, on the exposedheight of the threshing-floor, winnowing his corn with the shovel andthe fan. As is usual in the Bible, the shepherd is portrayed withspecial honour, whether he calls out his neighbours to frighten awaythe lion from his flock or is seen gathering the lambs in his arms andcarrying them in his bosom. But most of all does the poet-prophet loveto linger in the vineyard, marking accurately all the operations ofthe vine-dresser and all the stages of the growth of the vines. We seethe tearing up of the hillside with the mattock, the accumulation ofsoil, the gathering out of the stones, the construction of thewinepress and the watch-tower. Then we see the roots planted andgrowing from stage to stage--from that "afore the harvest, when thebud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, " to thatwhen the vineyard is ringing with the songs of the vintage and thegleaners are picking the last relics from the outermost branches. 

At whatever period these pictures of nature were laid up in the memoryof Isaiah, they came back to him when he was engaged in the work of aprophet, and supplied the imagery by means of which the Divine truthswhich he heralded were made impressive and attractive to hiscountrymen and acceptable to all subsequent generations; for men areso made that they are never so won by the truth as when they see itreflected in a physical image. 

These two sides of the prophet's activity nearly correspond to what weshould call Thought and Expression. Or, to put it still more broadly, the preacher must be a man who both has something to say and knows howto say it. On these two apparently simple qualifications hang all thescience and art of our vocation. 

In reality they are not simple. To have the right thing to say is agreat commandment, and to know the right way to say it is, thoughsecond to it, hardly inferior. But the problem of the ministry is tohave both in perfect equipoise--to utter a word which is at the sametime both a message from God and a message to men. 

It would be possible to be so taken possession of by the message fromGod as to lose self-control and even reason itself. In Scripture wemeet with manifestations of prophecy which are akin to madness. Justas the wind, catching the sail, would, if the ropes were not adjustedto relieve the strain, overturn the boat, so the Wind of God mightsweep the mind off its balance, the human personality being overborneby the inrushing inspiration. Thus religion may make a man a fanatic, who has no control over his own spirit, and no wisdom to choose thetimes at which to speak or the terms in which to address hisfellow-men. On the other hand, the opposite excess is still moreeasy. So much stress may be laid on the form of words, and so muchmastery obtained of the art of winning attention, that the necessityof having a Divine message to deliver or of depending on the power ofthe Spirit of God is forgotten. The windy master of words, whose ownspirit is not subdued either by the impression of great thoughts orthe sense of a great responsibility, but who can draw the eyes of menon his own performances and earn the incense of applause, has alwaysbeen too familiar a figure in religion. It is to a man like Isaiah wemust look for the absolute balance of both sides. There you have theblowing in all its degrees of the Wind of God, from the gentlestwhisper to the force of the tempest, but, at the same time, the mostperfect self-control and the adaptation of the word to the tastes andnecessities of those to whom it was delivered. 

There is a name sometimes applied by the prophets to themselves whichadmirably expresses the combination and balance of these two aspectsof their activity. They call themselves Interpreters. The process ofinterpretation is a most interesting one, when it is well done. I haveheard a speaker address with the greatest fervour a multitude who didnot understand a word he was saying; but, as fast as the sentencesfell from his lips, another speaker by his side caught them up and, in tones as fervid and with gestures as dramatic as his own, renderedthem to the hearers in their own tongue with such effect that theperformance made all the impression of an original speech. Aninterpreter is one who receives a message for people in a languagewhich they do not understand and delivers it to them in their owntongue. Jehovah was incessantly speaking to His people in thevicissitudes of their history, but they did not apprehend His meaning. The prophet, however, understood; he took the Divine message into hisown soul, and then he went and communicated it to the people in termswith which they were familiar. An interpreter requires to know atleast two languages--that in which the message comes and that in whichit has to be delivered. If he knows either imperfectly, hisinterpretation will be proportionately imperfect. No interpreter ofGod, perhaps, knows both languages equally well. Some know the Divinelanguage imperfectly, while they know thoroughly the language of men. What they say is interesting, fresh and human; but there is not muchof a Divine message in it. Others have got far into the secret of Godand know the Divine language well; but they are not sufficientlymasters of the language of men. These are saintly men and commandreverence by their character, but what they say does not find its wayto men's business and bosoms. 

I have seen the same truth put in another way. Tholuck, one of themost gifted of modern preachers, has made the remark that a sermonought to have heaven for its father and the earth for its mother. Why, he asks, do one half of our sermons miss the mark? It is because, while they treat of the circumstances and relationships of life in aninteresting way, they do so only in the light which springs frombelow, not in that which streams from above; they have the earth fortheir mother, but not heaven for their father. And why do the otherhalf of our sermons fail to touch the heart? It is because, while theydisplay the heavenly things shining at a distance, they do not bringthem down to the homes and workshops, the highways and byways ofordinary life; they have heaven for their father, but not the earthfor their mother. [27]

 * * * * *

Indeed, gentlemen, the definition of the preacher as a Man of the Wordcovers a very large area of our duty, and an analysis of its contentswill furnish a kind of natural history of that which is the mostimportant part of a minister's work from week to week. 

1. To be a Man of the Word is to be a master of the Divine Word. Inthe pulpit not only must a man have something to say, but it must be amessage from God. Where is this to be found? We do not now require toseek it, as the prophets had to do, in the empty void. Their work wasnot in vain. They were working for their own times, but they were alsoworking for all time. The prophets and apostles put into a permanentform the principles on which the world is governed, and gave classicalexpression to the most important truths which man requires to know forsalvation and for the conduct of his life. Thus they are still servingus, and we can begin where they left off. He who receives the messageof God now finds it in the Word of God. 

Hence one of the primary qualifications of the ministry is an intimatefamiliarity with the Scriptures. To this end a large proportion of thestudy required of you at college is directed; and the subsequenthabits of ministerial life have to be formed with the same object inview. A large portion of our work is the searching of the Scriptures, and a preacher of the highest order will always be a man mighty inthe Scriptures. We chance at present to be living at a time when thequestions about the Bible are the most numerous and the most difficultin theology, and many accepted opinions are cast into solution. I daresay it is the experience of most students of divinity that they aremore perplexed about inspiration and related questions than about anyother subjects. On the other hand, the attention directed to the Biblewas never so great as it is at present; and the methods of studying itare daily improving. And, in spite of all the difficulties, it isquestionable if there ever was in the Church an intenser convictionthat the voice of God is heard in His Word. The experience of theministry deepens this conviction every year. If I may give utteranceto my own experience, I have never come to the end of a close study ofa book of Scripture in the congregation without having both a freshrespect for its literary character and a profounder impression of itsDivine wisdom. The more the Bible is searched, the more will it beloved; and the stronger will the conviction grow that its deep truthsare the Divine answers to the deep wants of human nature. 

Yet to deliver the message of God is not merely to read what prophetsand apostles penned and to repeat it by rote. The man who is to beGod's messenger must himself draw near to God and abide in Hissecret, as they did. The word must detach itself from the book andbecome a living element of experience before it can profit even thereader himself; and much more is this the case, of course, before itcan profit others. [28] It is the truth which has become a personalconviction, and is burning in a man's heart so that he cannot besilent, which is his message. The number of such truths which a manhas appropriated from the Bible and verified in his own experience isthe measure of his power. [29] There is all the difference in the worldbetween the man who thus speaks what he knows from an inner impulseand the man whose sermon is simply a literary exercise on a Scripturetheme, and who speaks only because Sunday has come round and the bellrung and he must do his duty. 

The selection of the theme for preaching is to be determined chieflyby the power of the Word to lay hold of the conviction of thepreacher. Or, if the subject is prescribed, as when one is lecturingthrough a book of the Bible, the points to be treated are to bedetermined in this way. Sometimes, as a preacher reads the Word, atext will leap from the page, so to speak, and, fastening on the mind, insist on being preached upon. A sermon on such a text is nearlyalways successful; and a wise man will, therefore, take care to garnersuch texts when they occur to him. He will underline them in hisBible, or, better still, enter them in a note-book kept for thepurpose, adding a few words perhaps to indicate the first lines ofthought which have occurred to him. These notes may be multiplied fromtime to time; and, when the minister turns to a page which has beenthus filled, he will often find his sermon nearly made to hishand. [30] Dr. Wendell Holmes tells of Emerson that he kept such anote-book for subjects on which he might lecture, and for suggestionsof lines of thought which he might follow out. He called it hisSavings Bank, because, though the payments into it were minute, theygradually swelled to riches; and passages which his hearers andreaders supposed to be outbursts of sudden literary creation werereally the results of slow accumulation. If this was necessary foreven a genius like Emerson it will be far more necessary for theordinary man. The gold of thought has generally to be collected asgold dust. 

2. But this already brings me to the second stage of this naturalhistory, which is, that the preacher must be a master of Human Words. The message from God which we carry is to become a message to men, andtherefore we must know how to introduce it successfully to theirnotice. Strong as our own conviction may be, yet it may be crude andformless; and, before it can become the conviction of others, it musttake a shape which will arouse their attention. It may belong to aregion of thought with which they are unfamiliar, and it has to bebrought near, until it enters the circle of their own ideas. 

This is the problem of the composition of the sermon, whether thismeans the writing of it out or the arrangement of the materials in thememory in preparation for delivery. And many rules might be given tohelp at this point. 

One often recommended is to keep the audience in view to which thecomposition is to be addressed. If by this is meant that the writer, as he sits at his desk, should try to conjure up in his imaginationthe benches of the church and their occupants, I do not know whetherit is a practicable rule or not. But if it means that the preacher, ashe composes his sermon, should keep in view the circumstances of hishearers--their stage of culture, the subjects in which they areinterested, the Scriptural attainments which they have already made, and the like--it is one of the prime secrets of the preacher's art, and I will return to speak of it more fully in a subsequent lecture. Ionce heard Mr. Spurgeon preach a characteristic sermon on an unusualtext. It was on these words in Hosea: "I was unto them as they thattake off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. " Toillustrate the first clause he drew a graphic picture of a Londoncarter in Cornhill loosening the harness, when his horse hadsurmounted the incline, taking the bit out of its mouth, and fasteningon the corn-bag; and he applied the second clause with humorous wisdomto the behaviour of preachers. As the carter in the stable "lays" thehay to his horse, so the preacher has to "lay" the food to thecongregation. The carter must not put the food too high, where thehorse cannot reach up to it, nor too low, where it cannot get down toit, but just where it can seize and devour it with comfort. So thepreacher must neither pitch his message too high, where it will beabove the comprehension of the congregation, nor too low, where itwill not command their respect, but just where they can reach iteasily and comfortably. This quaint illustration has often recurred tome in the study, and made me anxiously consider whether I was puttingthe truth in such a way that the congregation could grasp it. 

Many rules have been proposed for winning the attention of thecongregation. Some have laid stress on commencing the sermon withsomething striking. Mr. Moody, the evangelist, whose opinion on such asubject ought to be valuable, recommends the preacher to crowd in hisbest things at the beginning, when the attention is still fresh. Others have favoured the opposite procedure. During the first half ofthe discourse nearly every audience will give the speaker a chance. Atthis point, therefore, the heavier and drier things which need to besaid ought to occur. But about the middle of the discourse theattention begins to waver. Here, therefore, the more picturesque andinteresting things should begin to come; and the very best should bereserved for the close, so that the impression maybe strongest at thelast. [31] St. Augustine says that a discourse should instruct, delight and convince;[32] and perhaps these three impressions should, upon the whole, follow this order. The more instructive elements--thefacts and explanations--should come first, appealing to the intellect;then should follow the illustrative and pathetic elements, which touchthe feelings; and then, at the close, should come those moving andover-awing considerations which stir the conscience and determine thewill. Thus the impression would grow from the commencement to theclose. [33]

To obtain command of language it is good to hear the best speakers andto read the best books. It has been my fortune to be acquainted witha good many celebrated preachers; and I have observed that, almostwithout exception, they have had a thorough acquaintance with thewhole range of the higher English literature. To have the music ofShakespeare or Milton echoing in your memory, or to have lingering inyour ear the cadence and sweep of the sentences of Thackeray and DeQuincey, will almost unawares give you a good style. [34] In readingover an old sermon of my own, I can almost tell whether or not, in theweek of its composition, I was reading good literature. In the formercase the language is apt to be full and harmonious, and sprinkled overwith gay flowers of maxim and illustration, whereas in the latter thestyle of the performance is apt to be bald and jerky. [35]

Let me mention one more rule for the composition of the sermon whichappears to me to be the most important of all. It is, to take time. Begin in time and get done in time--this, I often say to myself, isthe whole duty of a minister. The reason why so many of our sermonsare crude in thought, unbalanced in the arrangement of the materials, destitute of literary beauty, and unimpressive in delivery, is becausethey are begun too late and written too hurriedly. The process ofthinking especially should be prolonged; it is not so important thatthe process of writing should be slow. It is when the subject has beenlong tossed about in thought that the mind begins to glow about it;the subject itself gets hot and begins to melt and flash, until atlast it can be poured forth in a facile but glowing stream. Style isnot something added to the thought from the outside. It is simply thebeauty of the truth itself, when you have gone deep enough to find it;and the worst condemnation of a careless and unattractive style isthat it does the truth injustice. 

3. The preacher ought to be master of the Oral Word. There is a stagewhich the truth has to pass through after it has been prepared in thestudy for the consumption of the hearers. This is the oral delivery;and it is a part of the natural history of the sermon which must notbe overlooked. A sermon may be well composed in the study and yet be afailure in the pulpit. Indeed, this is one of the most critical stagesof the entire process. There are few things more disappointing than tohave received a message to deliver and spent a laborious and happyweek in composition, and yet on Sunday, as you descend the pulpitstair, to know that you have missed the mark. This, however, is farfrom an infrequent occurrence. The same sermon may even be a successon one occasion, and on another a partial or a total failure. 

Wherein a good delivery consists it is difficult to say. It is therekindling of the fire of composition in the presence of thecongregation; it is the power of thinking out the subject again onyour feet. This must not be a mere repetition of a byegone process, but a new and original action of the mind on the spot. Tholuck, towhom I have already alluded in this lecture, says that a sermon needsto be born twice: it must be born once in the study in the process ofcomposition, and it must be born again in the pulpit in the process ofdelivery. Many a sermon is a genuine birth of the mind in the studywhich in the pulpit is still-born. [36]

Some preachers have an extraordinary facility of putting themselves atonce, and every time, _en rapport_ with the audience, so that there isfrom first to last, whilst they speak, a commerce between the mind inthe pulpit and the minds in the pews. To others this is the mostdifficult part of preaching. The difficulty is to get down amongst thepeople and to be actually dealing with them. Many a preacher has athought, and is putting it into good enough words, but somehow thepeople are not listening, and they cannot listen. 

If the Senate of this University were ever to try the experiment ofasking a layman to deliver this course of Lectures on Preaching, I amcertain he would lay more stress on this than we do, and put a clearand effective--if possible, a graceful and eloquent--delivery amongthe chief desiderata of the pulpit. I do not know how it may be amongyou; but, when I was at college, we used rather to despise delivery. We were so confident in the power of ideas that we thought nothing ofthe manner of setting them forth. Only have good stuff, we thought, and it will preach itself. We like to repeat, with _Faust_, "True sense and reason reach their aim With little help from art and rule; Be earnest! then what need to seek The words that best your meaning speak?"

So we thought; and many of us have since suffered for it. We know howmany sermons are preached in the churches of the country every Sunday;but does anyone know how many are listened to? The newspapers supplyus now and then with statistics of how many hearers are present in ourcongregations; but who will tell us what proportion of these arelisteners? If we knew the exact percentage, I suspect, it would appalus. Yet it is not because there is not good matter in the sermons, butbecause it is not properly spoken. In the manufacture of steam-enginesthe problem is, I believe, to get as much work as possible out of thecoal consumed. In every engine which has ever yet been constructedthere has been a greater or less waste of heat, which is dispersedinto the surrounding air or carried away by the adjacent portions ofthe machinery, without doing work. Engineering skill has beengradually reducing the amount of this waste and getting a larger andlarger proportion of work out of the fuel; and a perfect engine wouldbe one in which the whole of the coal consumed had its full equivalentin work done. One of our problems, it seems to me, is a similar one. There is an enormous disproportion between the amount of energyexpended during the week in preparation and the amount of impressionmade on the hearers on Sunday. Ministers do not get enough of resultin the attention, satisfaction and delight of their hearers for thework they do; and the failure is in the vehicle of communicationbetween the study and the congregation--that is to say, in thedelivery of the sermon. What I am pleading for is, that there shouldbe more work to show for the coal consumed. [37]

4. Allow me, gentlemen, in closing this lecture, to emphasize anothersense in which the prophets were men of the Word, and in which theyare worthy of imitation. They were masters of the Written Word. Theynot only spoke the word of God, but wrote it for publication, in aform sometimes more diffuse and sometimes more compressed than theiroral utterances; and by this means they not only extended theirinfluence in their own day, but have enormously prolonged it since. 

It is surprising how few of those who have spoken the word of Godhave cultivated this mode of delivering it; and it is perhaps equallyastonishing how few of those who have cultivated it have done so inearnest. In the last century, promotion in the Church of England waswon by literary achievement; but the would-be bishop did not generallythink of religious literature: he published a political pamphlet oredited a Greek play. Among the Scottish Moderates there was a keenambition for literary distinction; but it was the more prized the moreremote the fields in which it was won lay from a minister's peculiarwork. This led the Evangelicals to discountenance literaryproductivity, which they regarded as springing from unholy motives andas likely to distract the mind from the true ends of the ministry. Butsurely there is a juster point of view than either the Moderate or theEvangelical. This work ought to be cultivated with precisely the sameaims as preaching and with the same earnestness. When a man is trulycalled to it, it brings a vast audience within his range, and theremay rest on it a remarkable blessing. Here is a significant extractfrom the history of British Christianity: Richard Baxter wrote _A Callto the Unconverted_, and Philip Doddridge was converted by reading it;Philip Doddridge wrote _The Rise and Progress of Religion in theSoul_, and William Wilberforce was converted by reading it;Wilberforce wrote the _Practical View_, and Thomas Chalmers wasconverted by reading it. What a far-extending influence does each ofthese names represent! The writing of books is perhaps the likeliestof all avenues by which to carry religious influence to the mostselect minds. 

FOOTNOTES:

[23] The Servant of the Lord is a prophet; and in the descriptions ofhim in this character we can perhaps best see what was Isaiah'sconception of a prophet. See especially ch. Lxi. 1-3. 

[24] See Ewald's Introduction to _The Prophets_. 

[25] "Bonorum ingeniorum insignis est indoles, in verbis verum amare, non verba. Quid enim prodest clavis aurea, si aperire quod volumus nonpotest? Aut quid obest lignea, si hoc potest, quando nihil qućrimus, nisi parere quod clausum est? Sed quoniam inter se habent nonnullamsimilitudinem vescentes atque discentes, propter fastidia plurimorumetiam ipsa sine quibus vivi non potest alimenta condienda sunt. "--ST. AUGUSTINE. 

[26] See the excellent chapter on Isaiah's style in Driver's _Isaiah_. 

[27] The same idea has long been helpful to me in a third form--in thefollowing lines of Platen--

 "Was stets und aller Orten Sich ewig jung erweist Ist, in gebundenen Worten Ein ungebundener Geist. "

[28] "Into Ezekiel's hand there was put a roll written within andwithout with lamentation and mourning and woe, an objective revelationwhich he himself had not written; but, before he could deliver it toothers, he had to eat it: all that was written on it had to become apart of himself, had to be taken into his inmost experience and bedigested by him, and become his own very life's blood. "--MARCUS DODS, D. D. 

[29] This is what our Lord chiefly meant by a teacher's"treasure"--"Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of Godbringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. " How much thetreasures of different preachers differ in magnitude! It is worthy ofnote that the Saviour calls the preachers of the New Testament"scribes. " In spite of the evil associations of the name He retained it, because it emphasizes the fact that the Christian preacher is to be astudent and an expounder of Scripture. 

[30] Some preachers keep an interleaved Bible, in which references topassages in their reading are entered opposite the texts which theyillustrate--an excellent device. 

[31] "The strongest part of all great sermons is the close. More dependson the last two minutes than on the first ten. "--From a choice littletract on Preaching, by "Prediger. "

[32] He is quoting Cicero. Dixit ergo quidam eloquens, et verum dixit, ita dicere debere eloquentem, ut doceat, ut delectet, ut flectat. Deindeaddidit: Docere necessitatis est, delectare suavitatis, flecterevictoriae. . . . Oportet igitur eloquentem ecclesiasticum, quando suadetaliquid quod agendum est, non solum docere ut instruat, et delectare utteneat, verum etiam flectere ut vincat. --_De Doctrina Christiana_, IV. 13. 

[33] An esteemed friend, the Rev. John McMillan of Ullapool, some yearsago repeated to me the following rhyme on the method of constructing asermon, and, although I have never succeeded in coming up to itsstandard, yet it has often floated before me with advantage in the hoursof composition--

 "Begin low; Proceed slow; Rise higher; Take fire; When most impressed Be self-possessed; To spirit wed form; Sit down in a storm. "

[34] It will be remembered that John Bright used regularly, during thesession of Parliament, to read aloud from one of the poets the lastthing at night. 

[35] Tholuck gives another weighty reason why ministers should know thebest literature: In einer Zeit wo Shakespeare eine stärkere Autoritätfür Viele ist als Paulus, und ein Distichon Goethes eine kräftigereBelegstelle als der ganze Römer-und Galaterbrief, darf der Geistliche, welcher auf seine Gemeinde würken will, mit ihren Gewährsmänern nichtunbekannt seyn. Wenn irgendwo, so gilt auch hier des Apostels Wort:_Alles ist Euer_. 

[36] "Aber nicht bloss die Erzeugung der Predigt geschehe im heiligenGeist, sondern auch ihr Vortrag. Es lässt sich nicht aussprechen, welch'ein Unterschied zwischen der Würkung einer Predigt, welche bloss aus derErinnerung von der Kanzel herabgesprochen wird--wie trefflich sie auchübrigens seyn mag--und welche dort zum zweitenmal geboren wird inlebendigem Glauben. . . . Die Predigt muss eine That des Predigers aufseinem Studirzimmer, sie muss abermals eine That seyn auf der Kanzel; ermuss, wenn er herunter kommt, Mutterfreuden fühlen, Freuden der Mutter, die unter Gottes Segen ein Kind geboren hat. "

[37] Adolphe Monod, himself a distinguished master of the art ofdelivery, gives some good hints on it in a paper on _The Eloquence ofthe Pulpit_, translated and published as an article in _The British andForeign Evangelical Review_, January, 1881:--

 "In general, people recite too quickly, far too quickly. When a man speaks, the thoughts and feelings do not come to him all at once; they take birth little by little in his mind. It is necessary that this labour and this slowness appear in the reciting, or it will always come short of nature. Take time to reflect, to feel, and to allow ideas to come, and hurry your recitation only when constrained by some particular consideration. ". . . 

 "Talk not in the pulpit. An exaggerated familiarity would be a mistake nearly as great as declamation: it happens more seldom; it is, nevertheless, found in certain preachers, those especially who have not studied. The tone of good conversation, but that tone heightened and ennobled, such appears to me the ideal of pulpit delivery. ". . . 

 "In order to rise above the tone of conversation, the majority of preachers withdraw too far from it. They swell their delivery, and declaim instead of speaking. Now, when bombast comes in, nature goes out. "

 In regard to the first of these extracts I should say that many Scotch speakers fail through lack of _pace_ in the delivery. The interest is lost in the pauses between the sentences. A slow delivery is only effective when a thought is obviously being born, for which the audience is kept intently waiting. 

But the most remarkable thing in the article is the following quotationfrom Talma, the actor:--

 "We were rhetoricians and not characters. What scores of academical discourses on the theatre, how few simple words! But by chance I found myself one evening in a drawing-room with the leaders of the party of the Gironde. Their sombre countenance, their anxious look, attracted my attention. There were there, written in visible letters, strong and powerful interests. They were men of too much heart for those interests to be tarnished by selfishness; I saw in them the manifest proof of the danger of my country. All come to enjoy pleasure; not one thinking of it! They began to discuss; they touched on the most thrilling questions of the day. It was grand! Methought I was attending one of the secret councils of the Romans. 'The Romans must have spoken like these, ' said I. 'Let the country be called France or Rome, it makes use of the same intonations, speaks the same language: therefore, if there is no declamation here before me, there was no declamation down there, in olden times; that is evident!' These reflections rendered me more attentive. My impressions, though produced by a conversation thoroughly free from bombast, deepened. 'An apparent calm in men agitated stirs the soul, ' said I; 'eloquence may then have strength, without the body yielding to disordered movements. ' I even perceived that the discourse, when delivered without efforts or cries, renders the gesture more powerful and gives the countenance more expression. All these deputies assembled before me by chance appear to me much more eloquent in their simplicity than at the tribune, where, being in spectacle, they think they must deliver their harangue in the way of actors--and actors as we were then--that is, declaimers, full of bombast. From that day a new light flashed on me; I foresaw my art regenerated. "

LECTURE V. 

THE PREACHER AS A FALSE PROPHET. 

Upon anyone who is studying the physiognomy of the age of the prophetsthere is one disagreeable feature which obtrudes itself so constantlythat even in the briefest sketch it is impossible to pass it by. Thisis the activity of the false prophets. [38] It culminated in thelifetime of Jeremiah, whose whole career might almost be described asa conflict with them. Again and again he and they came to open war;and on at least one occasion the whole body combined to take away hislife. Ezekiel was scarcely less afflicted by them. They were perhapsnot so prominent an element in the life of Isaiah, but he also refersto them frequently; and, indeed, their sinister figures haunt thepages of all the prophets. 

It is a kind of humiliation to speak of them at all, and I wouldgladly pass them by; but the figure of the true prophet will risebefore our eyes more clearly by the contrast of the false: and it isperhaps a duty to look also at the degradations to which our office isliable. The higher the honour attaching to the ministerial profession, when it is worthily filled, the deeper is the abuse of which it iscapable in comparison with other callings; and its functions are sosacred that the man who discharges them must either be a man of God ora hypocrite. Yet there are plenty of motives of an inferior kind whichmay take the place of right ministerial aims. Though it is painful tospeak of such things, yet here again the method which we have adoptedin these lectures, of following the guidance of Scripture, may beleading us better than we could have chosen ourselves; and it may bewholesome to have to look at an aspect of our subject which of our ownaccord we would avoid. 

 * * * * *

There are two things in Scripture which I have never been able tothink of without strong movements of fear and self-distrust. 

One of them is that, when the Son of God came to this earth, He waspersecuted and slain by the religious classes. His deadly opponentswere the Scribes and Pharisees. But who were the Scribes andPharisees? The Scribes occupied almost exactly the position in thecommunity which is held among us by the literary, the scholastic andthe clerical classes; and the Pharisees were simply what we should nowcall the leading religious laymen. Had they been adherents of a falsereligion, there would have been nothing surprising in their resistanceto the final revelation of the true God. But the religion which theyprofessed was the true religion; the Scribes were the expounders ofthe Word of God, and the Pharisees occupied the foremost places in thehouse of God. Yet, when the Son of Jehovah, whose name they werecalled by, appeared amongst them, they rejected Him and took away Hislife. Many a time, as I have followed Jesus step by step through Hislifelong conflict with their illwill and contradiction, the questionhas pressed itself painfully upon my mind: If He were to come to theearth now and intervene in our affairs, how would the religiousclasses receive Him? and on which side would I be myself? If to anythis question may seem fantastic, let them change it into this other, which cannot appear idle, though it means exactly the same thing: Whatis the attitude of the religious classes to the manifestations of thespirit of Jesus in the life of to-day? do they welcome them and backthem up? or have the new ideas and movements in which Christ ismarching onward to the conquest of the world to reckon on opposition, even from those who call themselves most loudly by His name?

The other circumstance which has often affected my mind in the sameway is that which comes before us to-day--that the true prophets ofthe Old Testament had to face the opposition, not of heathens, and notof the openly irreligious among their own countrymen only, but ofthose who had the name of God in their mouths and were publiclyrecognised as His oracles. To us these are now false prophets, becausetime has found them out and the Word of God has branded them with thetitle they deserve; but in their own day they were regarded as trueprophets; and doubtless many of them never dreamed that they were notentitled to the name. 

They must have been a numerous and powerful body. Jeremiah mentionsthem again and again along with the king, the princes and the priests, as if they formed a fourth estate in the realm; and Zephaniah mentionsthem in the same way along with the princes, the judges and thepriests. They evidently formed a separate and conspicuous class in thecommunity. They cannot have been equally bad in every generation; andthere may have been many degrees of deviation among them from thecharacter of the true prophet; but as a body they were false, and thetrue servants of God had to reckon them among the anti-religiousforces which they had to overcome. 

This is an appalling fact--that the public representatives of religionshould ever have been the worst enemies of religion; but it cannot bedenied that even in Christendom, and that not once or twice, the samecondition of things has existed. 

At the time these men did not suppose that this was the position theyheld; but history has judged them. It is not easy for a man to admitthe thought into his own mind that in him his office is beingdishonoured and its aim frustrated; and it is far more difficult to doso if he has the support of the prevailing sentiment and is goingforward triumphantly as a member of the majority. But there is enoughin the history of our order to warn us to watch over ourselves with ajealous mind, lest we too, while clad in the garb of a sacredprofession and in the authority of an ecclesiastical position, shouldbe found fighting against God. It will not do to think that, merelybecause we sit in Moses' seat and have the Word of God in our mouths, therefore we must be right. Nor must we be too confident because weare in the majority. If we have faith in our own views, it is quiteright, indeed, that we should try to make them prevail; and there isa legitimate joy in seeing a good cause carrying with it thesympathies and suffrages of men. But we are all too easily persuadedthat our cause is good simply because it can win votes. Inecclesiastical affairs there is often as feverish a counting of headsas in party politics. The majority have the same confidence that thecase is finally decided in their favour; and there is the sameexultation over the defeated party, as if their being in the minoritywere a clear proof that they were also in the wrong. But this is nocriterion, and time may sternly reverse the victory of the moment. Even in the Church the side of the false prophets may be the growingand the winning side, while Jeremiah is left in a minority of one. 

The false prophets were strong, not only in their own numbers, but intheir popularity with the people. This told heavily against the trueprophets; for the people could not believe that the one man, who wasstanding alone, was right, and that his opponents, who were many, werewrong. The seats and the trappings of office always affect themultitude, who are slow to come to the conclusion that the teachersunder whom they find themselves in providence can be misleading them. This is, to a certain extent, an honourable sentiment; but it throwsupon public teachers a weighty responsibility. If they are goingwrong, they will generally get the majority of the people to followthem. So completely may this be the case, that by degrees the populartaste is vitiated and will not endure any other teaching than that towhich it has been accustomed, though it be false. There is no sadderverse in all prophecy than the complaint of Jeremiah, "The prophetsprophesy falsely, and my people love to have it so. " Like prophet, like people; the public mind may be so habituated to what is false, and satisfied with it, that it has no taste or even tolerance for thetrue. [39] Jeremiah could not gain a hearing for his stern and weightymessage from ears accustomed to the light and frivolous views of thefalse prophets; and to Baruch, his young coadjutor and amanuensis, whowas starting on the prophetic career with the high hopes of youth, hehad to deliver the chilling message, "Seekest thou great things forthyself? seek them not. " The path to popularity and eminence was notopen to anyone who did not speak according to the prevailing fashion. 

The false prophets won and kept their popularity by pandering to theopinions and prejudices of the people. The times of Jeremiah were bigwith coming calamities, and he had to predict that these calamitieswere sure to come; for there were no signs of deep or genuinerepentance, and, indeed, the time for repentance was past. Theself-flattering, ease-loving people hated to hear these disagreeablefacts. Their frivolous minds were engrossed with the gossip andexcitement of the passing day, and it was too great an exertion togive their attention to the majestic views of the Divine justice andthe far-reaching sweep of the Divine providence to which Jeremiahtried to direct their attention. They wished to enjoy the present andto believe that all would come right somehow. The false prophetsflattered these wishes. They said that the calamities which Jeremiahwas foretelling would not come to pass, or that at least they would bemuch less formidable than he represented. They were, as Jeremiah says, like an unconscientious physician, who is afraid to probe the wound tothe bottom, though the life of the patient depends on it. Ezekielaccuses them of making nightcaps to draw over the eyes and ears oftheir countrymen, lest they should see and hear the truth, and ofmuffling with a glove the naked hand of God with which the sins of thepeople should have been smitten. The constant refrain of theirprophecies was, "Peace, peace, " though the storm-clouds ofretribution were ready to burst. The people said to them, "Prophesy tous smooth things"; and the false prophets provided the supplyaccording to the demand. 

We cannot flatter ourselves that this is a danger which belongsentirely to the past. There will always be a demand for smooth things, and an appropriate reward for him who is willing to supply them in thename of God. Popularity is a thing which will always be coveted; andunder certain conditions it is a thing to be thankful for. If it meansthat the truth is prevailing and that men are yielding their minds toits sway, it is a precious gift of heaven. It is a good thing to seemany coming out to hear the Word of God, and to both preacher andhearers there is a great deal of exhilaration and inspiration in afull church. But popularity may be purchased at too dear a rate. Itmay be bought by the suppression of the truth and the letting down ofthe demands of Christianity. There will always be a demand for areligion which does not agitate the mind too much or interfere withthe pursuits of a worldly life. 

I have seen a very trenchant article from an American pen on the powerof the moneyed members of a church to dictate the tone of the pulpit;and it is a common accusation against ministers, that they flatter theprevailing classes in their congregations. If their congregations arewealthy, they are afraid, it is said, to speak up for the poor, evenwhen justice is calling out on their side; and, if their congregationsare poor, they take the side of the working-man, right or wrong. Ishould question whether temptations so gross as these are much felt. Far more dangerous are the subtler temptations--to truckle to thespirit of the age, to keep at all hazards on the side of thecultivated and clever, and to shun those truths the utterance of whichmight expose the teacher to the charge of being antiquated andbigoted. Let a preacher dwell always on the sunny side of the truthand conceal the shadows, let him enlarge continually on what is simpleand human in Christianity and pass lightly over what is mysterious andDivine: let him, for example, dwell on the human side of Christ butsay nothing of His deity, let him enforce Christ's example but saynothing of His atonement, let him extol the better elements of humannature but say nothing of its depravity, let him preach frequently onthe glories of the next world but never mention its terrors: and veryprobably he may be popular and see his Church crowded; but he will bea false prophet. [40]

Who were these false prophets, and how did there come to be suchnumbers of them? These are questions which an attentive reader of theBible cannot help asking; but it is not by any means easy to answerthem. 

The prophets whose names have come down to us are not by any meansnumerous; but, besides them, there must have been many other trueprophets. There were times when the spirit of religion was breathingthrough the community, and then men were not wanting who felt calledto be its organs. The spirit of inspiration might fall on anyone atany time; no prescribed training was necessary to make a man aprophet. It might come, as it did to Amos, on the husbandman in hisfields or the shepherd among his flock. It might alight on the youngnoble amidst the opening pleasures of life, as it did on Isaiah andZephaniah; or it might come, as it did on Jeremiah and Ezekiel, on theyoung priest preparing for his sacred functions. 

But some of the more noted prophets endeavoured in a more systematicway to diffuse the spirit which rested upon themselves, and thus tomultiply the number of the prophets. They founded schools in whichpromising young men were gathered and plied with the means ofeducation available in that age, cultivating music, reading thewritings of the older prophets, and coming under the influence of theholy man who was at their head. These were the Schools of theProphets, and their students were the Sons of the Prophets. Samuelseems to have been the first founder of these schools. They wereflourishing in the times of Elijah and Elisha, and they probablycontinued to exist with varying fortunes in subsequent centuries. Perhaps all who went through these schools claimed, or could claim, the prophetic name. Those who took up the profession wore the hairymantle and leathern girdle made familiar to us by the figure of Johnthe Baptist; and they probably subsisted on the gifts of those whobenefited from their oracles. Their numbers may have been very large;we hear of hundreds of prophets even during an idolatrous reign, whenthey were exposed to persecution. 

In times when the spirit of inspiration was abroad or when the schoolsenjoyed the presence of a master spirit, it is easy to understand howvaluable such institutions may have been, and how they may have beencentres from which religious light and warmth were diffused throughthe whole country. But they were liable to deterioration. If thegeneral tone of religion in the country declined, they partook in thegeneral decay; an inspiring leader might be taken away and nolike-minded successor arise to fill his place; or men who had receivedno real call beforehand might join the school and pass through thecurriculum without receiving it. Only they had learned the trick ofspeech and got by rote the language of religion. They had no personalknowledge of God or message obtained directly from Him; but it was notdifficult to put on the prophet's mantle and talk in the traditionalprophetic tones. The fundamental charge against the false prophets isalways this: "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have notspoken unto them, yet they prophesy. "

If I am right in tracing the origin of false prophecy to the schoolsof the prophets, this gives a suggestive hint as to the point at whichthe same danger may beset ourselves. It is obviously the duty of theauthorities of the Church to make provision for the training of thosewho are to be the future ministers of the Gospel; and it is naturalfor those who have the honour of the Church at heart to covet for herservice the talents of the gifted. Parents, too, will often be foundcherishing an intense desire that the choicest of their sons shouldbecome ministers. These wishes of superiors have a legitimateinfluence in determining the choice of our life-work. The wishes andprayers of pious parents are especially entitled to have very greatweight. Yet there is a danger of an outward influence of this kindbeing substituted for genuine personal experience and an inward call. When, a generation ago, in the rural parts of England, the church inmany a parish was looked upon as "a living, " to be allocated to ajunior member of the family, who was educated for the position as amatter of course, the custom, whatever happy results it might producein exceptional cases, was not fitted to fill the pulpits of the landwith men of prophetic character. The pious wishes of parents, howeverbeautiful they may be, require to be made absolutely conditional on avocation of a higher kind; otherwise we get a manufactured ministry, without a message, in place of men in whom the spirit of inspirationis stirring and who speak because they believe. 

 * * * * *

Having no message of their own, what were the false prophets to do?The best they could do was to repeat and imitate what had been said bytheir predecessors. It is with this Jeremiah reproaches them when hesays, "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that stealMy words everyone from his neighbour. " The older prophets used tobegin their utterances with the phrase, "the burden of the Lord;" andJeremiah complains that this had become an odious cant term in themouths of his contemporaries; and in the same way Zechariah complainsthat in his day the great word "comfort, " which from the lips ofIsaiah had descended like dew from heaven on the parched hearts of thepeople of God, had become a dry and hackneyed phrase in the mouths offalse prophets. How dangerous this habit of stealing the words ofothers might become, when practical issues were involved, may beillustrated by a striking example. The inviolability of Jerusalem hadbeen a principle of the older prophets, which was quite true for theirtimes; and Isaiah had made use of it for rousing his fellow-citizensfrom despair, when the army of Sennacherib stood before the gates. Butin Jeremiah's time the change of circumstances had made it to be nolonger true; and yet the false prophets kept on repeating it; and nodoubt they seemed both to themselves and others to be occupying astrong position when, in opposing him, they could allege that theywere standing on the same ground as Isaiah. All the time, however, they were betraying those who listened to them. 

There is a sense in which the truth of God is unchangeable; it is likeHimself--the same yesterday and to-day and forever. But there isanother sense in which it is continually changing. Like the manna, itdescends fresh every morning, and, if it is kept till to-morrow, itbreeds loathsome worms. Isaiah describes the true prophet as one whohas the tongue of the learner--not of the learned, as the AuthorisedVersion gives it--and whose ear is opened every morning to hear themessage of the new day. What was truth for yesterday may be falsehoodfor to-day; and only he is a trustworthy interpreter of God who issensitive to the indications of present providence. 

It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that the only form whichfalse prophecy can take is a dried-up orthodoxy, mumbling over theshibboleths of yesterday. If he who stands forward as a speaker forGod is out of touch with God and has really no Divine message, he maymake good the lack of a true Divine word in many ways. The easiest wayis, no doubt, to fall back on some accepted word of yesterday; but hemay also strike out on the path of originality, announcing a gospelfor to-morrow, constructed by his own fancy, which has no Divinesanction. Neither orthodoxy nor heterodoxy is a guarantee: the onlyguarantee is a humble mind living in the secret of the Lord. 

 * * * * *

I have mentioned that the prophets subsisted on the contributions ofthose to whom their oracles were supposed to be valuable. There is, indeed, very little information on this head; but they are accused ofprophesying for bread, and avarice and a greedy appetite for the goodthings of this life are reproaches frequently cast at them. It is notlikely that prophecy can ever have been a paying profession, but itwould appear to have been at least a means of livelihood; and thereare indications that those who enjoyed an exceptional popularity mayhave occupied a high social standing. Ezekiel, whose characterizationsof the false prophets are remarkably striking, uses about them asignificant figure of speech. He says that, while a true prophet waslike a wall of fire to his country, standing in the breach when dangerthreatened and defending it with his life, the false prophets werelike the foxes that burrow among the ruins of fallen cities. Whatmattered it to them that their country was degraded, if only they hadfound comfortable places for themselves?

This also is a painful side of the subject. It is inevitable that theministry should become a means of livelihood, and yet it is fatal topursue it with this in view. It is the least lucrative of theprofessions, and yet, in the pressure of modern life, it may tempt mento join it merely as a profession. Even if it has been entered uponfrom higher motives, the attrition of domestic necessities may dry upthe nobler motives and convert the minister into a hireling who thinkschiefly of his wages. [41] The commercial spirit is nearly omnipotentin our day; and men who can buy everything for money think thatministers are procurable in the same way. Thus they tempt men awaywith bribes of money from work to which God has called them. I am farfrom questioning the importance of the mission of the pulpit to thewealthier classes; and we must have men of culture to preach to thecultivated. I would no more think of setting up the poor against therich, as the exclusive objects of the Church's attention, than therich against the poor. But perhaps the most essential work of theChurch at the present time is to win and to hold the working classes. I should like to see ministers coveting work among them; and let himwho has learned to wield such an audience, where he can speak with thefreedom and force of nature, beware of being bribed away to a positionwhere he will be tamed and domesticated, and have his teeth drawn andhis claws cut. 

 * * * * *

So monotonous is the evil side of the false prophets that one longsfor a gleam of something good in them. Can they not at least bepitied? May they not have been weak men, who were elevated to aposition which proved too much for them? The times were full of changeand difficulty, and it required a clear eye to see the indications ofProvidence. It is not everyone who has the genius of an Isaiah or themagnificent moral courage of a Jeremiah. Was it not possible to takea milder view of the world than Jeremiah did and yet be a true man?May they not at least have been mistaken, when they ventured to emitprophecies which history falsified?

Such sentiments easily arise in us; but they are driven back by whatwe read of the personal character of these men. "Both prophet andpriest, " says Jeremiah, "are profane; yea, in My house have I foundtheir wickedness, saith the Lord. " "I have seen, " he says in God'sname, "in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commitadultery and walk in lies. " Jeremiah's view of them might be thoughtto be coloured by his own melancholy temperament; but Isaiah's is notless severe: "The priest and the prophet, " he says, "have erredthrough wine, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the waythrough strong drink. " And he gives this terrible picture of them:"His watchmen are blind, they are ignorant; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, theyare greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherdsthat cannot understand; they all look to their own way, everyone tohis gain from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, andwe will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be asthis day and still more abundant. " The representations in the otherprophets are to the same effect. Zephaniah passes on the whole classthe sweeping judgment, that they are light and treacherous persons. But the lowest deep is reached in Zechariah, who foresees a time, close at hand, when the very name of prophet will be a byword, and thefather and mother of anyone who pretends to prophesy will thrust himthrough, to deliver themselves from the reproach of having anyconnection with him. [42]

The influence of such a travesty of the sacred office as thesepassages describe must have been deplorable; and without doubt it wasone of the principal causes of the overthrow of the Jewish State. Jeremiah says expressly, that from the prophets profaneness had goneout over the whole land. They who, from their position and profession, ought to have been an example to their fellow-countrymen were the veryreverse. They were the companions of the profane and licentious intheir revels, and they joined with scorners in scoffing at those wholed a strict and holy life. So God charges them by the lips ofEzekiel: "Ye have made the hearts of the righteous sad, whom I havenot made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that heshould not return from his wicked way. "

This is a terrible picture. Yet there have been epochs in the historyof the Christian, and even of the Protestant Church, when its featureshave been reproduced with too faithful literality. Let us be thankfulthat we live in a happier time; but let us also remember the maxim, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. " If aChurch lose the Spirit of God, there is no depth of corruption towhich it may not rapidly descend; and a degraded Church is the mostpotent factor of national decay. 

 * * * * *

Allow me, gentlemen, to say, in closing, that I believe the question, what is to be the type and the tone of the ministry in any generation, is decided in the theological seminaries. What the students are there, the ministers of the country will be by-and-by. And, while thediscipline of the authorities and the exhortations and example ofprofessors may do something, the tone of the college is determined bythe students themselves. The state of feeling in a theologicalseminary ought to be such, that any man living a life inconsistentwith his future profession should feel thoroughly uncomfortable, andhave the conviction driven in upon his conscience every day, that theministry is no place for him. 

FOOTNOTES:

[38] As this subject is somewhat novel, the following collection oftexts may be acceptable; but it is not given as exhaustive:--

Isa. Ii. 6; xxviii. 7; xxx. 10, 11; xlvii. 13; lvi. 10-12. 

Jer. Ii. 8, 26; iv. 9; v. 31; vi. 14; xiv. 13-16; xviii. 18; xxiii. 9-40(_locus classicus_); xxvi. 8; xxvii. 9, 16; xxviii. Xxix. 8. 

Ezek. Xii. 24; xiii. (_locus classicus_); xiv. 9; xx. 25; xxi. 23; xxii. 25, 28. 

Micah ii. 11; iii. 5, 11. 

Zeph. Iii. 4. 

Zech. X. 2; xiii. 2-4. 

[39] "Sicut autem cuius pulchrum corpus et deformis est animus, magisdolendus est, quam si deforme haberet et corpus, ita qui eloquenter eaquć falsa sunt dicunt, magis miserandi sunt, quam si talia deformiterdicerent. "--ST. AUGUSTINE. 

[40] Even popularity honestly won may be a great snare. Vanity, it mustbe allowed, is probably the commonest clerical weakness; and, when it isyielded to, it deforms the whole character. There are few things moretouching or instructive than the entries in Dr. Chalmers' journal, whichshow with what earnestness he was praying against this, in the height ofhis popularity, as a besetting sin. If this were common, there would notbe the slight accent of contempt attached to the name of the popularpreacher which now belongs to it in the mouths of men. The publicitywhich beats on the pulpit makes veracity, down to the bottom of thesoul, more necessary in the clerical than in any other calling. "A primevirtue in the pulpit is mental integrity. The absence of it is a subtlesource of moral impotence. It concerns other things than the bluntantipodes represented by a truth and a lie. Argument which does notsatisfy a preacher's logical instinct; illustration which does notcommend itself to his ćsthetic taste; a perspective of doctrine which isnot true to the eye of his deepest insight; the use of borrowedmaterials which offend his sense of literary equity; an emotiveintensity which exaggerates his conscious sensibility; an impetuosity ofdelivery which overworks his thought; gestures and looks put on forscenic effect; an eccentric elocution, which no _human_ nature everfashioned; even a shrug of the shoulder, thought of and planned forbeforehand--these are causes of enervation in sermons which may beotherwise well framed and sound in stock. They sap a preacher'spersonality and neutralise his magnetism. They are not true, and heknows it. Hearers may know nothing of them theoretically, yet may feelthe full brunt of their negative force practically. "--AUSTIN PHELPS, D. D. , _My Note Book_. 

[41] "That which in its idea is the divinest of earthy employments hasnecessarily come to be also a profession, a line of life, with itsroutine, its commonplace, its poverty and deterioration of motive, itscoarseness of feeling. It cannot but be so. It is part of the conditionsof our mortality. Even earnest purpose, even zealous and laboriousservice, cannot alone save from the lowered tone and dulness of spiritwhich are our insensible but universal and inveterate enemies in all thebusiness of real life. And that torpor and insensibility and deadness towhat is high and great is, more than any other evil, the natural foe ofall that is characteristic and essential in the Christian ministry; forthat ministry is one of life and reality, or it is nothing. "--DEANCHURCH. 

[42] This may perhaps help to determine the age of the portion ofZechariah to which this passage belongs. Is there any proof elsewherethat a degradation of the prophetic office as deep as this had takenplace, or was imminent, at the period to which it is usually assigned?

LECTURE VI. 

THE PREACHER AS A MAN. 

Gentlemen, in the foregoing lectures I have finished, as far as timepermitted, what I had to say on the work of our office, as it isillustrated by the example of the prophets; and to-day we turn to theother branch of the subject--to study the modern work of the ministryin the light cast upon it by the example of the apostles. 

 * * * * *

When we quit the Old Testament and open the New, we come upon anothergreat line of preachers to whom we must look up as patterns. The voiceof prophecy, after centuries of silence, was heard again in John theBaptist, and his ministry of repentance will always have its value asindicating a discipline by which the human spirit is prepared forcomprehending and appreciating Christ. I have already given the reasonwhy I am not at present to touch on the preaching of Christ Himself, although the subject draws one's mind like a magnet. After Christ, thefirst great Christian preacher was St. Peter; and between him and St. Paul there are many subordinate figures, such as Stephen, Philip theEvangelist and Apollos, beside whom it would be both pleasant andprofitable to linger. But we have agreed to take St. Paul as therepresentative of apostolic preaching, and I will do so moreexclusively than I took Isaiah as the representative of the prophets. 

It is, I must confess, with regret that I pass St. Peter by. There isa peculiar interest attaching to him as the first great Christianpreacher; and there is something wonderfully attractive in his rude, but vigorous and lovable personality. Besides, a study of theinfluences by which he was transmuted from the unstable anduntrustworthy precipitancy of his earlier career into the rocklikefirmness which made him fit to be a foundation-stone on which theChurch was built would have taught us some of the most importanttruths which we require to learn; because these influences were, first, his long and close intimacy with Christ and, secondly, theoutpouring on him, at Pentecost, of the Holy Spirit; and there are noinfluences more essential than these to the formation of theministerial character. 

But I have no hesitation in devoting to St. Paul the remainder of thiscourse; because, as I indicated in the opening lecture, there is noother figure in any age which so deserves to be set up as the model ofChristian ministers. In him all the sides of the ministerialcharacter were developed in almost supernatural maturity and harmony;and, besides, the materials for a full delineation are available. Itis my intention to speak of St. Paul, first, as a Man; secondly, as aChristian; thirdly, as an Apostle; and fourthly, as a Thinker. 

 * * * * *

To-day, then, we begin with St. Paul as a Man. If I had had time toset before you what St. Peter's life has to teach us, its great lessonwould have been what Christianity can make of a nature without specialgifts and culture, and how the two influences which formedhim--intimacy with Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit--can supplythe place of talents and educational advantages; for it is evidentthat, but for Christ, Peter would never have been anything more thanan unknown fisherman. But St. Paul's case teaches rather the oppositelesson--how Christianity can consecrate and use the gifts of nature, and how talent and genius find their noblest exercise in the ministryof Christ. Paul would, in all probability, have made a notable figurein history, even if he had never become a Christian; and, although hehimself delighted to refer all that he became and did to Christ, it isevident that the big nature of the man entered also as a factor intohis Christian history. 

Once at least St. Paul recognises this point of view himself, when hesays, that God separated him to His service from his mother's womb. InJeremiah's mind the same idea was awakened still more distinctly atthe time of his call, when Jehovah said to him, "Before I formed theein the belly I knew thee, and, before thou camest forth out of thewomb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto thenations. " This implies that, in the original formation of his body andmind, God conferred on him those gifts which made him capable of agreat career. Here we touch on one of the deepest mysteries ofexistence. There is nothing more mysterious than the behaviour ofnature, when in her secret laboratories she presides over the shapingof the rudiments of life and distributes those gifts, which, accordingas they are bestowed with an affluent or a niggardly hand, go so farto determine the station and degree which each shall occupy in thesubsequent competitions of the world. It is especially mysterious howinto a soul here and there, as it passes forth, she breathes an extrawhiff of the breath of life, and so confers on it the power of beingand doing what others attempt to be and do in vain. 

Undoubtedly St. Paul was one of these favourites of fortune. Naturedesigned him in her largest and noblest mould, and hid in hiscomposition a spark of celestial fire. This showed itself in acertain tension of purpose and flame of energy which marked his wholecareer. He was never one of those pulpy, shapeless beings who arealways waiting on circumstances to determine their form; he was ratherthe stamp itself, which impressed its image and superscription oncircumstances. 

1. He was a supremely ethical nature. This perhaps was his fundamentalpeculiarity. Life could under no circumstances have seemed to him atrifle. The sense of responsibility was strong in him from thebeginning. He was trained in a strict school; for the law of lifeprescribed to the race of which he was a member was a severe one; buthe responded to it, and there never was a time when the deepestpassion of his nature was not to receive the approval of God. Touchingthe righteousness which was in the law, he was blameless. After hisconversion he laid bare unreservedly the sins of his past; but therewere none of those dalliances with the flesh to confess into whichsoft and self-indulgent natures easily fall. He could never haveallowed himself that which would have robbed him of his self-respect. His sense of honour was keen. When, in his subsequent life, he wasaccused of base things--lying, hypocrisy, avarice and darker sins--hefelt intense pain, crying out like one wounded, and he hurled theaccusations from him with the energy of a self-respecting nature. Itwas always his endeavour to keep a conscience void of offence not onlytowards God, but also towards men; and one of his most frequentlyreiterated injunctions to those who were in any way witnesses forChrist was to seek to approve themselves as honest men even to thosewho were without. He was speaking out of his own heart when he said toall, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoeverthings are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be anypraise, think on these things. "

I cannot help pausing here to say, that he will never be a preacherwho does not know how to get at the conscience; but how should he knowwho has not himself a keen sense of honour and an awful reverence formoral purity? We are making a great mistake about this. We arepreaching to the fancy, to the imagination, to intellect, to feeling, to will; and, no doubt, all these must be preached to; but it is inthe conscience that the battle is to be won or lost. [43] The greatdifficulty of missionary work is that in the heathen there is, as arule, hardly any conscience: it has almost to be created before theycan be Christianized. In many parts of Christendom it is dying out;and, where it is extinct, the whole work of Christianity has to bedone over again. 

2. St. Paul's intellectual gifts are so universally recognised that itis hardly worth while to refer to them. They are most conspicuouslydisplayed in his exposition of Christianity, on which I shall speak inthe closing lecture. But in the meantime I remark, that hisintellectual make was not at all that usually associated in our mindswith the system-builder. 

It was, indeed, massive, thorough and severe. But it was not in theleast degree stiff and pedantic. It was, on the contrary, an intellectof marvelous flexibility. There was no material to which it could notadapt itself and no feat which it could not perform. You may observethis, for example, in the diverse ways in which he addresses differentaudiences. In one town he has to address a congregation of Jews; inanother a gathering of heathen rustics; in a third a crowd ofphilosophers. To the Jews he invariably speaks, to begin with, aboutthe heroes of their national history; to the ignorant heathen he talksabout the weather and the crops; and to the Athenians he quotes theirown poets and delivers a high-strung oration; yet in every case hearrives naturally at his own subject and preaches the gospel to eachaudience in the language of its own familiar ideas. Even outside ofhis own peculiar sphere altogether, St. Paul was equal to everyoccasion. During his voyage to Rome, when the skill of the sailors wasbaffled and the courage of the soldiers worn out by the long-continuedstress of weather, he alone remained cheerful and clearheaded; hevirtually became captain of the ship, and he saved the lives of hisfellow-passengers over and over again. 

We think of the intellect of the system-builder as cold. But there isnever any coldness about St. Paul's mind. On the contrary, it isalways full of life and all on fire. He can, indeed, reason closelyand continuously; but, every now and then, his thought bursts upthrough the argument like a flaming geyser and falls in showers ofsparks. Then the argument resumes its even tenor again; but theseoutbursts are the finest passages in St. Paul. In the same way, Shakespeare, I have observed, while moving habitually on a high levelof thought and music, will, every now and then, pause and, spreadinghis wings, go soaring and singing like a lark sheer up into the blue. When the thought which has lifted him is exhausted, he gracefullydescends and resumes on the former level; but these flights are thefinest passages in Shakespeare. 

3. The intellectual superiority of St. Paul is universallyacknowledged; and to those who only know him at a distance this is hisoutstanding peculiarity. But the close student of his life andcharacter knows, that, great as he was in intellect, he was equallygreat in heart, perhaps even greater. One of the subtlest students ofhis life, the late Adolphe Monod, of the French Church, has fixed onthis as the key to his character. He calls him the Man of Tears, andshows with great persuasiveness that herein lay the secret of hispower. 

It is certainly remarkable, when you begin to look into the subject, how often we see St. Paul in the emotional mood, and even in tears. Inhis famous address to the Ephesian elders he reminded them that he hadserved the Lord among them with many tears, and again, that he had notceased to warn everyone night and day with tears. It is not what weshould have expected in a man of such intellectual power. But thismakes his tears all the more impressive. When a weak, effeminate manweeps, he only makes himself ridiculous; but it is a differentspectacle when a man like St. Paul is seen weeping; because we knowthat the strong nature could not have been bent except by a storm offeeling. 

His affection for his converts is something extraordinary. Some havebelieved that there is evidence to prove that in youth his heart hadsuffered a terrible bereavement. It is supposed that he had beenmarried, but lost his wife early. He never sought to replace the loss, and he never spoke of it. But the affection of his great heart, longpent up, rushed forth into the channel of his work. His converts wereto him in place of wife and children. His passion for them is like astrong natural affection. His epistles to them are, in many places, aslike as they can be to love-letters. Listen to the terms in which headdresses them: "Ye are in our heart to die and live with you"; "Iwill very gladly spend and be spent for you, though, the moreabundantly I love you, the less I be loved"; "Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearlybeloved. "

To his fellow-labourers in the Gospel especially, his heart went outin unbounded affection. The long lists of greetings at the close ofhis epistles, in which the characters and services of individuals arereferred to with such overflowing generosity and yet with such finediscrimination, are unconscious monuments to the largeness of hisheart. He could hardly mention a fellow-worker without breaking forthinto a glowing panegyric: "Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is mypartner and fellow-helper concerning you; or our brethren be inquiredof, they are the messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ. "

There is no more conclusive proof of the depth and sincerity of St. Paul's heart than the affection which he inspired in others; for it isonly the loving who are loved. None perhaps are more discriminating inthis respect than young men. A hard or pedantic nature cannot winthem. But St. Paul was constantly surrounded with troops of young men, who, attracted by his personality, were willing to follow him throughfire and water or to go on his messages wherever he might send them. And that he could win mature minds in the same way is proved by thegreat scene at Miletus, already referred to, where the elders ofEphesus, at parting with him, "all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neckand kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the word which he said, thatthey should see his face no more. "

The nature of St. Paul's work no doubt immensely developed this sideof his character, but, before passing from the subject, it is worthremembering how the circumstances of his birth and upbringing wereprovidentially fitted to broaden his sympathies, even before he becamea Christian. He was not simply a Jew, but a Hebrew of the Hebrews;and he felt all the pride of a child of that race to which pertainedthe adoption and the glory and the covenant, and the giving of thelaw, and the service of God, and the promises. He could always puthimself in touch at once with a Jewish audience by going back onassociations which were as dear to himself as to them. Yet, althoughso thoroughly a Jew, he belonged by birth to a larger world. He wasnot born within the boundaries of Palestine, where his sympathieswould have been cramped and his horizon narrowed, but in a Gentilecity, famous for its beauty, its learning and its commerce; and hewas, besides, a freeborn citizen of Rome. We know from his own lipsthat he was proud of both distinctions; and he thus acquired acosmopolitan spirit and learned to think of himself as a man amongstmen. 

Nor ought we, perhaps, to omit here to recall the fact, that helearned in his youth the handicraft of tent-making. This brought himinto close contact with common men, whose language he learned to speakand whose life he learned to know--acquirements which were to be ofsupreme utility in his subsequent career. 

 * * * * *

Gentlemen, it is generally agreed that a certain modicum of naturalgifts is necessary for those who think of entering the ministry. Hereis Luther's list of the qualifications of a minister: you will observethat most of them are gifts of nature: 1. He should be able to teachplainly and in order. 2. He should have a good head. 3. Good power oflanguage. 4. A good voice. 5. A good memory. 6. He should know when tostop. 7. He should be sure of what he means to say. 8. And be ready tostake body and soul, goods and reputation, on its truth. 9. He shouldstudy diligently. 10. And suffer himself to be vexed and criticized byeveryone. 

The first consciousness of the possession of unusual powers is notunfrequently accompanied by an access of vanity and self-conceit. Theyoung soul glories in the sense, probably vastly exaggerated, of itsown pre-eminence and anticipates, on an unlimited scale, the triumphsof the future. But there is another way in which this discovery mayact. The consciousness of unusual powers may be accompanied with asense of unusual responsibility, the soul inquiring anxiously aboutthe intention of the Giver of all gifts in conferring them. It was inthis way that Jeremiah was affected by the information that specialgifts had been conferred on him in the scene to which I have alreadyreferred in this lecture. He concluded at once that he had beenblessed with exceptional talents in order that he might serve his Godand his country with them. And surely in a gifted nature there couldbe no saner ambition than, if God permitted it, to devote its powersto the ministry of His Son. 

There is no other profession which is so able to absorb and utilisetalents of every description. This is manifest in regard to suchtalents as those mentioned by Luther--a good voice, a good memory, etc. But there is hardly a power or an attainment of any kind which aminister cannot use in his work. How philosophical power can serve himmay be seen in the preaching of Dr. Chalmers, whose sermons werealways cast in a philosophical mould. The philosophy was not verydeep; it was not too difficult for the common man; but it gave thepreaching a decided air of distinction. How scientific acquirementsmay be utilised is shown in the sermons of some of our foremost livingpreachers, who find an inexhaustible supply of illustrations in theirscientific studies. Literary style may supply the feather to wing thearrow of truth to its mark. That poetic power may serve the preacherit is not necessary to prove on the spot where Ray Palmer wrote "Myfaith looks up to Thee. " Business capacity is needed in church courtsand in the management of a congregation. In some other professions menhave to bury half their talents; but in ours there is no talent whichwill not find appropriate and useful exercise. 

We perhaps lay too much stress, however, on intellectual gifts andattainments. These are the only ones which are tested by ourexaminations in college; yet there are moral qualities which are justas essential. 

The polish given by education tells, no doubt; but the size of theprimordial mass of manhood tells still more. In a quaint book ofReminiscences recently published from the pen of a notable minister ofthe last generation in the Highlands of Scotland, Mr. Sage of Resolis, there is a criticism recorded, which was passed by a parishioner onthree successive ministers of a certain parish: "Our first minister, "said he, "was a man, but he was not a minister; our second was aminister, but he was not a man; and the one we have at present isneither a man nor a minister. "

There is no demand which people make more imperatively in our day thanthat their minister should be a man. It is not long since a ministerwas certain of being honoured simply because he belonged to theclerical profession and wore the clerical garb. People, as the sayingwas, respected his cloth. But ours is a democratic age, and that stateof public feeling is passing away. There is no lack of respect, indeed, for ministers who are worthy of the name; perhaps there ismore of it than ever. But it is not given now to clerical pretensions, but only to proved merit. People do not now respect the cloth, unlessthey find a man inside it. 

Perhaps the educational preparation through which we pass at collegeis not too favourable to this kind of power. In the process of cuttingand polishing the natural size of the diamond runs the risk of beingreduced. When we are all passed through the same mill, we are apt tocome out too much alike. A man ought to be himself. Your Emersonpreached this doctrine with indefatigable eloquence. Perhaps heexaggerated it; but it is a true doctrine; and it is emphatically adoctrine for preachers. What an audience looks for, before everythingelse, in the texture of a sermon is the bloodstreak of experience; andtruth is doubly and trebly true when it comes from a man who speaks asif he had learned it by his own work and suffering. 

It will generally be noticed in any man who makes a distinct mark as apreacher that there is in his composition some peculiarity ofendowment or attainment on which he has learned to rely. It may be anemotional tenderness as in McCheyne, or a moral intensity as inRobertson of Brighton, or intellectual subtlety as in Candlish, orpsychological insight as in Beecher. But something distinctive theremust be, and, therefore, one of the wisest of rules is, Cultivate yourstrong side. 

But what tells most of all is the personality as a whole. This is oneof the prime elements in preaching. The effect of a sermon depends, first of all, on what is said, and next, on how it is said; but, hardly less, on who says it. There are men, says Emerson, who areheard to the ends of the earth though they speak in a whisper. [44] Weare so constituted that what we hear depends very much for its effecton how we are disposed towards him who speaks. The regular hearers ofa minister gradually form in their minds, almost unawares, an image ofwhat he is, into which they put everything which they themselvesremember about him and everything which they have heard of his record;and, when he rises on Sunday in the pulpit, it is not the man visiblethere at the moment that they listen to, but this image, which standsbehind him and determines the precise weight and effect of everysentence which he utters. 

 * * * * *

Closely connected with the force of personality is the other power, which St. Paul possessed in so supreme a degree, of taking an interestin others. It is the manhood in ourselves which enables us tounderstand the human nature of our hearers; and we must have hadexperience of life, if we are to preach to the life of men. 

Some ministers do this extremely little. Not once but many a time, Ihave heard a minister on the Sabbath morning, when he rose up andbegan to pray, plunging at once into a theological meditation; and inall the prayers of the forenoon there would scarcely be a singlesentence making reference to the life of the people during the week. Had you been a stranger alighted from another planet, you would neverhave dreamed that the human beings assembled there had been toiling, rejoicing and sorrowing for six days; that they had mercies to givethanks for and sins to be forgiven; or that they had children at hometo pray for and sons across the sea. 

There is an unearthly style of preaching, if I may use the term, without the blood of human life in it: the people with their burdensin the pews--the burden of home, the burden of business, the burdenof the problems of the day--whilst, in the pulpit, the minister iselaborating some nice point, which has taken his fancy in the courseof his studies, but has no interest whatever for them. Only now andthen a stray sentence may pull up their wandering attention. Perhapshe is saying, "Now some of you may reply"; and then follows anobjection to what he has been stating which no actual human beingwould ever think of making. But he proceeds elaborately to demolishit, while the hearer, knowing it to be no objection of his, retiresinto his own interior. 

If what was said in a former lecture about the distinctive differencebetween the preaching of the Old Testament and that of the new beconsidered, it will at once be recognised how vital is this aspect ofthe matter. The prophets of the Old Testament, in common with thethinkers of antiquity in general, thought of men in masses andregarded the individual only as a fragment of a larger whole. ButChrist introduced an entirely new way of thinking. To Him theindividual was a whole in himself; beneath the habiliments of even thehumblest member of the human family there was hidden what was moreprecious than the entire material world; and on the issues of everylife was suspended an immortal destiny. This faith may be said tohave made Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world; for He saw in thelost children of men that which made Him live to seek them and die tosave them. And it is by this same faith and vision that anyone isqualified to be a fellow-worker with Christ. No one will ever be ableto engage with any success in the work of human salvation who does notsee men to be infinitely the most interesting objects in the world, and who does not stand in awe before the solemn destiny and thesublime possibilities of the soul. It is by the growth and the glow ofthis faith that the worth of all ministerial work is measured. 

It is far easier, however, to acknowledge this view in the abstractthan to cherish it habitually towards the actual men and women of ourown sphere and our own vicinity. That man is the most interestingobject in the world; that the soul is precious; and that it is betterfor a human being to lose the whole world than to miss hisdestiny--these are now commonplaces, which everyone who bears theChristian name will acknowledge. Yet in reality few live under theirpower. Many a one who has paid the tribute of love and admiration tothe spectacle of Christ's compassion for the outcasts, and melted withćsthetic emotion before a picture of the Woman taken in Adultery orthe Woman that was a Sinner, has never once attempted to save anactual woman of the same kind in his own city, and would be utterly ata loss if such a one, in an hour of remorse, were to throw herself onhis pity and protection. There is a great difference between a sinnerin a book or a picture and a sinner in the flesh. Multitudes in theirhearts believe that all the remarkable and interesting people livedlong ago or that, at any rate, if any are now alive, they live manymiles away from their vicinity. They believe that there wereremarkable people in the first or the ninth century, but by no meansin the nineteenth; they believe that there are interesting people inParis or London or New York; but they have never discovered anythingwonderful in those living in their own village or in their own street. Many who consider themselves enlightened will tell you that theirneighbours are a poor lot. They fancy that, if they were livingsomewhere else, fifty or a hundred miles away, they would find companyworthy of themselves; though it is ten to one that, if they made thechange, their new neighbours would be a poor lot also. 

If a minister allows himself to harbour sentiments of this sort, he islost. [45] No one will ever win men who does not believe in them. Thetrue minister must be able to see in the meanest man and woman arevelation of the whole of human nature; and in the peasant in thefield, and even the infant in the cradle, connections which reachforth high as heaven and far as eternity. All that is greatest in kingor kaiser exists in the poorest of his subjects; and the elements outof which the most delicate and even saintly womanhood is made exist inthe commonest woman who walks the streets. The harp of human nature isthere with all its strings complete; and it will not refuse its musicto him who has the courage to take it up and boldly strike thestrings. The great preacher is he who, wherever he is speaking, amonghigh or low, goes straight for those elements which are common to allmen, and casts himself with confidence on men's intelligence andexperience, believing that the just suggestions of reason and theterrors of conscience, the sense of the nobility of goodness and thepathos of love and pity are common to them all. [46]

Let me close this lecture with a few words on a great subject, towhich a whole lecture might have been profitably devoted. 

No safer piece of advice could be tendered you than to let thebeginning of your ministry be marked by care for the young. This iswork which more than any other will encourage yourselves, and it ismore likely than any other to establish you in the affections of acongregation. 

To work successfully among children you must know their life and havethe _entrée_ of their little world of interests, excitements, prizesand hopes. It is not difficult to get it, if only we are simple andgenuine. Children will approach their minister gladly, and make himtheir confidant, if only he is accessible to them. By the ministers ofan older generation they were kept at an awful distance. When theywere out of temper or doing wrong, they were threatened with a visitfrom the minister in the same way as they might be threatened with thepoliceman, or the parish beadle, or a still more awful functionary ofthe universe. This, let us hope, has passed away, and in most parishesa ministerial visit is spoken of as a promise instead of a threat. Aminister is proud nowadays if a child flies up to him in the streetand ruffles his feathers with boisterous familiarity, or if a group ofchildren pin him into the corner of a room and order him, under painsand penalties, to tell them a story. We are returning to the ideal ofGoldsmith, in the _Deserted Village_:--

 "The service past, around the pious man With steady zeal each loyal rustic ran; Even children followed with endearing wile, And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile. "

More important even than accessibility is genuine respect for thechildren. 

We ought to respect their intelligence. When we are preaching to them, we should give them our very best. I venture to say, that a muchlarger proportion of the sermons preached to children is never writtenout than of sermons to adults. The preacher, having thought of two orthree lines of remark and got hold of two or three stories, enters thepulpit with these materials lying loosely in his mind, and trusts tothe moment for the style of the sermon. Of course, if a man hastrained himself to preach in this way always, it is all right; but, ifnot, it is a mistake. Children are greatly affected by felicity ofarrangement and the music of language; they do not know to what theirpleasure is due, but they feel it; and, if a preacher has the powerof original thought or of beautiful diction, there is no occasion whenhe should be more liberal in the use of it than when he is addressingthem. [47] The truth is, it is a complete mistake to make thechildren's sermon so different from other sermons as to create theimpression that it is the only utterance from the pulpit to which theyare expected to listen. It is not easy to get children to begin tolisten at all to what is said in church; the children's sermon is adevice to catch their attention; but it ought also to be a bridgeconducting them over to the habit of listening to all that is saidthere. If they acquire the habit, they are our best hearers. A boy oftwelve or thirteen can follow nearly anything; and there is no keenercritic of the logic of a discourse or warmer appreciator of anypassage which is worthy of admiration. 

But, while we respect the intelligence of the young, there issomething else which we need to believe in still more. We do not halfrealise the drama of religious impression going on in the minds ofchildren. We forget our own childhood and the movements excited in ourchildish breasts under the preaching of the Word--how real the thingsunseen were to us; how near God was, His eye flashing on us throughthe darkness; how our hearts melted at the sufferings of Christ; howthey swelled with unselfish aspirations as we listened to the storiesof heroic lives; how distinctly the voice of conscience spoke withinus; and how we trembled at the prospect of death, judgment andeternity. What we were then, other children are now; and what went onin us is going on in them. It is the man who believes this and reveresit who will reap the harvest in the field of childhood. 

There is no surer way to secure for ourselves the interest of the oldthan to take an interest in the young. Of course a forced interest inchildren, shown with this in view, would be hypocrisy and deservecontempt. We must love the children for their own sakes. Yet we mayquite legitimately nourish our interest in the young by observing thatit is one of the strongest instincts of human nature which makesfathers and mothers feel kindnesses shown to their children to be thegreatest benefits which can be conferred on themselves. An Edinburghminister, who has had conspicuous success in preaching to children aswell as in every other department of the work of his sacred office, once, in a gathering of divinity students, of whom I was one, told anincident from his own life which is almost too sacred to be repeatedby any lips except his own, but which I hope he will excuse me forenriching you with, as it puts in a memorable form one of the truestsecrets of ministerial success. On the morning of the day when he wasgoing to be ordained to his first charge, he was leaving his home inthe country to travel to the city, and his mother came to the door tobid him good-bye. Holding his hand at parting, she said, "You aregoing to be ordained to-day, and you will be told your duty by thosewho know it far better than I do; but I wish you to remember one thingwhich perhaps they may not tell you--remember, that, whenever you layyour hand on a child's head, you are laying it on its mother's heart. "

FOOTNOTES:

[43] "The Sybarites of to-day will tolerate a sermon which is delicateenough to flatter their literary sensuality; but it is their taste whichis charmed, not their conscience which is awakened: their principle ofconduct escapes untouched. . . . Amusement, instruction, morals, aredistinct _genres_. "--AMIEL. 

[44] The finest description of a speaker known to me is this of LordBacon in Ben Jonson's _Discoveries_; and it is evident that it was theman rather than the manner or even the matter which made the impression:"Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full ofgravity in his speaking. His language, where he could spare or pass by ajest, was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what heuttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. Hishearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. Hecommanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry and pleased at hisdevotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear ofevery man that heard him was, lest he should make an end. "

[45] It has often astonished me to observe how easily ministers' wivesin this respect find for themselves the right path. One would think itwould be very difficult sometimes for those who have been brought up incities or in a secluded circle to adapt themselves suddenly to a remoteand unselect society; and they have not, like their husbands, had theopportunity of meditating long on the duties of a public position. Ahearty and cordial humanity in the members of a minister's family lendsan immense assistance to his work. A minister ought to belong to noclass of society, but to have the power of moving without constraint inevery class. 

[46] "Not a heart but has its romance, not a life which does not hide asecret which is either its thorn or its spur. Everywhere grief, hope, comedy, tragedy; even under the petrifaction of old age, as in thetwisted forms of fossils, we may discover the agitations and tortures ofyouth. This thought is the magic wand of poets and preachers. "--_Amiel. _

[47] This may be a reason for rather devoting a whole diet of worship tothe children once a month or once a quarter than only giving them a fewminutes every Sabbath. But many follow the latter practice withexcellent results. Perhaps there ought to be something specially for thechildren at every service. If I may mention my own practice, I have, during my whole ministry, preached to children once a month; and everySunday I have a children's hymn in the forenoon and a prayer forchildren in the afternoon. 

LECTURE VII. 

THE PREACHER AS A CHRISTIAN. 

In the last lecture I spoke of St. Paul as a Man, showing howremarkable were his endowments and acquirements, and how these told inhis apostolic career. But it was not through these that he was what hewas. Great as were the gifts bestowed on him by nature and cultivatedby education, they were utterly inadequate to produce a character anda career like his. It was what Christianity added to these that madehim St. Paul. 

It is right enough that we should now recognise the importance of hisnatural gifts and trace out the ways in which Providence was shapinghis life towards its true aim before he was conscious of it. But St. Paul himself had hardly patience for such cool reflections. He turnedaway with strong aversion from his pre-Christian life as somethingcondemned and lost; and he delighted to attribute all that he was anddid to the influence of Christ alone. In my last lecture I quoted asingle passage to show that he himself recognised that his naturalendowments had been bestowed in order to fit him for the peculiarwork which he was destined to accomplish in the world; but I questionif from all his writings I could have quoted another passage to thesame effect. It was only for a moment that he allowed himself to standon this point of view; whereas we could quote from every part of hiswritings such sayings as these: "By the grace of God I am what I am";"I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace ofGod in me"; "It is no more I that live, but Christ liveth in me. "

That this was his habitual way of estimating his own achievements isstrikingly illustrated by his mode of thinking and speaking of certaindefects in the equipment with which nature had supplied him for thecareer on which he was embarked. Gifted as he was, even he did notpossess all gifts. He lacked one or two of those which might have beenthought most essential to his success. 

It would appear that he lacked the rotund voice and copious diction ofthe orator; for his critics were able to allege that, whilst hiswritten style was powerful, his spoken style was contemptible. Painters have represented him as a kind of demi-god, with the statureof an athlete and the grace of an Apollo. But he seems to have beendiminutive in stature; and there appears to be evidence to prove thatthere was that in his appearance which, at first sight, ratherrepelled than attracted an audience. He felt these defects keenly, andcould not but wish sometimes that they were removed. But his habitualand settled feeling about them was, that he ought to look upon them assources of strength rather than as weaknesses, because they made himrely the more on the strength of Christ. This was an unfailingresource, on which he felt that he could draw without limit. And so hegloried in his infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest uponhim. [48]

It might be said that it was only the enthusiasm of Paul which madehim attribute to Christ that which really belonged to himself. But hisown point of view is the just one. It was Christ who made him; and, ifwe are to understand a ministry like his, we must try to measure theinfluence of Christ upon him, or, in other words, investigate theelements of his Christianity. 

 * * * * *

1. Paul could claim that even in his pre-Christian days he had livedin all good conscience towards both God and man. Yet this professionof uprightness does not prevent him from confessing elsewhere thatdeep down in his consciousness there had been a mortal strugglebetween the principles of good and evil, in which the good was farfrom always winning the victory: "We all, " he acknowledges, "had ourconversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling thedesires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the childrenof wrath even as others. " In the seventh chapter of Romans he hasdrawn a picture of this struggle, and it is to the very life. Theologians have, indeed, disputed among themselves as to the stage ofexperience there referred to--whether it is the state of anunconverted or of a converted man. But the human heart has nodifficulty in interpreting it. The more thoroughly anyone is a man, the more easily will he understand it; and especially the more uprightand conscientious anyone is, the more certainly must he haveexperienced what is described in words like these, "That which I do Iallow not, for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that doI"; "For the good that I would I do not, but the evil that I would notthat I do"; "I find, then, a law that, when I would do good, evil ispresent with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man;but I see another law in my members warring against the law of mymind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in mymembers. Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the bodyof this death?" Thus Paul had been a lost man, in hopeless bondage tosin. 

But he had to repent of his own righteousness as well as of his sin. He had inherited the passionate longing of the Jewish race forfellowship with God--the longing expressed a hundred times in thepoetry of his fathers in words like these: "As the hart panteth afterthe waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God"; "My soulthirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appearbefore God?" He had been taught that the great prize of life is to bewell-pleasing to God, and he had learned the lesson with all thepassionate earnestness of his nature. Yet he never could attain tothat for which he longed. There always seemed to be a cloud on theDivine face, and he was kept at a distance. Luther went through thevery same experience. His was also a passionately religious nature, and he strove with all his might to get into the sunshine of God'sface; but his efforts were entirely baffled. Wash them as he would, his hands were never clean. 

What could an earnest nature do in such circumstances but seek tobring still greater sacrifices? Probably this was the source of Paul'szeal in the work of the persecutor. He was vindicating the honour ofGod when he exterminated the enemies of God. The work must have gonesorely against the grain of a nature as sensitive as his, especiallywhen he saw scenes, like the death of Stephen, in which the gentlenessand heroism of his victims shone out with unearthly beauty. But heonly flung himself more passionately into his task; because, the moretrying it was, the greater was the merit of doing it, and the morecertain was he of winning at last the full approval of God. 

This portion of Paul's career seems to be capable of completevindication on the ground of conscientiousness. Indeed, in reviewingit, he stands sometimes on this point of view himself, and says thatGod had mercy on him because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. Butoftener he thinks of it with overwhelming shame and remorse. The wholecourse of life which had logically led up to work so inhuman in itsdetails and so directly in the face of God's purposes wasdemonstrated by the issue to have been utterly ungodly. His thoughtshad not been God's thoughts nor his ways God's ways. The scenes of thepersecution, when, haling men and women, he cast them into prison; thehatred and fury which in those days had raged in his breast; theefforts which he had put forth to oppose the cause of Christ, which itwas his firm resolution to extinguish to its last embers--thesememories would never afterwards quit his mind. They kept him humble;for he felt that he was the least of the apostles, who was not worthyto be called an apostle, because he had persecuted the Church of God. He called himself the chief of sinners, and believed that God had inhis case exhaustively displayed the whole wealth of His mercy for apattern to all subsequent generations. 

The first element of St. Paul's Christianity, then, was the penitenceof a lost man and a great sinner, who owed to Christ the forgivenessof his sins and the redemption of his life from an evil career. And hebelieved that Christ had purchased these benefits for him by thesacrifice of His own life. 

2. The second great element of St. Paul's Christianity was hisConversion, which set a gulf between the portion of his life whichpreceded and the portion which followed it. It was the chief date ofhis life, and confronted him every time he looked back. Its influenceextended to every part of his experience; but perhaps its mostimportant effect was to set Christ up within him as a living Person, of whose reality he was absolutely assured. 

Probably Paul's opposition to Christianity was from the first veryspecially opposition to Christ Himself. When he struck at thedisciples, he was really striking at the Master through them. It iseasy to conceive what an affront the pretensions of Jesus must havebeen felt to be by Paul. Jesus had been a man of about his own age--ayoung man; he had sprung from the lowest of the people, being avillager and mechanic; he had never sat in the schools of learning;the men of ability and authority had had no hesitation in condemningHim. That such a one should be esteemed the Messiah of the Jews andworshipped as if He were Divine, raised a storm of indignation in theheart of Paul. 

Probably nothing could have converted him except the miraculousoccurrence which God employed. Christ had to come to him in person andin a visible shape--in the shape of the glorified humanity which Hewears somewhere in that empire of God which we call Heaven. Paul knewthe light in which he was enveloped to be a Divine light; the sound ofthe voice calling him was the thunder which from of old had beenrecognised by the race to which he belonged as the voice of God; hewas looking straight up to the place of God; and in that place he sawJesus, whom he was persecuting. Most Divine of all, however, were thesweetness, the clemency and the respect of the words in which he wasaddressed. This Jesus, against whom he was raging, came to him, notwith corresponding rage, to take vengeance and destroy him, but withwinning words of truth and with the call to a high and blessedvocation. It was this which broke the heart of Paul and attached himto Christ forever. 

He always afterwards believed that what took place on this occasionwas what I have said--that Jesus of Nazareth descended from the righthand of God to prove to him who He was and to claim him as His servantand apostle--and never afterwards did he for a moment doubt that theman whom his fellow-countrymen had crucified, and whom he himself hadpersecuted, was seated on the throne of heaven, clothed with Divineblessedness and omnipotence. 

Of course others have doubted this. It may be said that what Paul sawwas only a vision, and that therefore his new life was founded on amistake. I believe his own account to be the correct one; but perhapswe need not dogmatize too much about what he saw; because it was notin reality on any theory of this vision that his faith was founded. Itwas not because he saw Christ that day with the bodily eye, orbelieved he did so, that he became or continued a Christian; it wasbecause, trusting Christ, thus revealed, he obtained that for which hehad all his life been longing: he was no longer banished or kept at adistance, but brought nigh to God; he was reconciled, and the love ofGod was shed abroad in his heart. He had all his lifetime been askingin despair, "What must I do to be saved?" but now he was saved. Thehumiliating bondage in which his spiritual nature had been held wasdissolved, and, following Christ, he advanced from victory to victory. 

This is the test of all conversions; it is the best evidence ofChristianity; and it is the power of preaching. We believe in Christnot only because there is sufficient historical evidence that Heexisted eighteen hundred years ago and did such acts as proved that Hewas sent from God, but because He proves Himself to be living now bythe transformation which He brings to pass in those who put theirtrust in Him. We are certain that there is a Saviour, because He hassaved ourselves. I am happy to see that this evidence of our religionis at present coming again to the front. One of your youngerscholars, Dr. Stearns of Bangor, Maine, has developed it, in a bookjust published, with great breadth of theological knowledge; and aformer Yale lecturer, Dr. Dale of Birmingham, has given a tellingexposition of it at the same time. [49] This is the vital force ofpreaching. We are witnesses to Christ--not merely to a Christ wholived long ago and did wonders, but to a Christ who is alive now andis still doing moral miracles. And the virtue of any man's testimonylies in his being able to say that he has himself seen the Christ whomhe preaches to others, and himself experienced the power which herecommends others to seek. 

3. After his conversion the whole life of St. Paul was comprehended inone word; and this word was Christ. There has often in modern timesbeen a Christianity which has contained very little of Christ. Mr. Sage, of Resolis, one of whose quaint sayings I quoted in my lastlecture, has solemnly left it on record that, when he was a student atAberdeen, the Professor of Divinity, who was also Principal of theUniversity, in a three years' course of lectures on the principles ofthe Christian religion, never once mentioned the name of Christ; andin those times sermons were perfectly common in which there was notthe slightest allusion to the Saviour. In our day this is entirelychanged. Yet we are also surrounded with a Christianity which isextremely vague. Almost every sentiment in which there is anythingdevout or humane receives the name of Christian; and the questionwhich many are asking is how little it is necessary for one who claimsthe Christian name to believe and profess. Even this question may, indeed, in some cases indicate a state of mind far from unpromising, which requires the utmost pastoral sympathy and skill; but, if we wishto know what Christianity is in its power, we must not live in thisunhealthy region, but find a Christianity in which the distinctivelyChristian element is not a minimum but a maximum. Such was St. Paul'sChristianity. Its most prominent peculiarity was that there was somuch of Christ in it. He expressed this in the characteristic saying, "To me to live is Christ, " which was only a Greek way of saying, To melife is Christ; and, from whatever side we look at his life, we seethat this was true. 

Christ had obtained, and He retained, an extensive hold on hisemotional nature. St. Paul's was a large heart, and it was allChrist's. We are shy of speaking of our personal feeling towards theSaviour; and we probably feel pretty often that the conventionalterms of affection for Him, which are made use of, for example, in thehymns of the Church, transcend our actual experience. St. Paul, on thecontrary, has no hesitation in employing about Christ the languagecommonly used to describe the most absorbing passion, when love isfilling life with a sweet delirium and making everything easy whichhas to be done for the sake of its object. St. Paul's achievements andself-denials were almost more than human; but his own explanation ofthem was simple: "The love of Christ constraineth us. " He had toforego the prizes which to other men make life worth living; but whatdid he care? "I count them but dung, " he says, "that I may winChrist. " If only he retained one thing, he was willing to let allothers go: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shalltribulation or distress or persecution, or famine or nakedness, orperil or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerorsthrough Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death norlife, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present northings to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall beable to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ ourLord. " These sound like the fervours of first love; but they are thewords of a man at the height of his powers. And in old age he wasstill the same: still to him Christ was the star of life, and the hopeof being with Him had annihilated the terrors of death: "I am in astrait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. "

But Christ was enthroned in St. Paul's intellect no less than in hisheart. It was an intellect vast in its compass and restless in itsmovements; but all its movements circled round Christ, and its mostpowerful efforts were put forth to reach the full height of His glory. Everyone acquainted with his writings knows how full of Christ theyare. What is technically called his Christology is both splendid andprofound; but, indeed, his whole thinking is Christological; he sawthe whole universe in Christ. 

Perhaps, however, we see even more suggestively how his whole mind wasoccupied with this subject by observing the way in which the mereincidental mention of the name of Christ sends him off into the mostsublime statements regarding Him. For example, when he is speaking tohusbands about loving their wives, the thought strikes him that thislove is like that of Christ to His people; and he breaks forth:"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church andgave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with thewashing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself aglorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. " Inlike manner, happening to be recommending generosity, he thinks of thegenerosity of Christ, and away he breaks into an incomparabledescription of His descent from the throne of the Highest to the deathof the cross: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal withGod, " and so on; and, not content with following Him down, inaccordance with the thought with which he started, he pursues thesubject under the impulse of sheer love, following Him up to thehighest heaven: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and givenHim a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus everyknee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and thingsunder the earth, and that every tongue should confess that JesusChrist is Lord to the glory of God the Father. " When is it that themind thus starts off into a subject at any chance hint or suggestion, pouring out the most astonishing ideas in the most felicitouslanguage? It is only when it is possessed with it, and when its ideasare so hot and molten, that they are ready to avail themselves of anyoutlet. 

What may be called the inner or spiritual life of St. Paul may most ofall be said to have been all Christ. His own theory of this innermostlife is that it is a kind of living over again of the life of Christ:we die with Him to sin; we are buried with Him in baptism; as He rose, so we rise again to newness of life; He ascended to sit on the throneof the Father, and we are seated with Him in heavenly places. He isthe very soil in which this life grows, and the atmosphere which itbreathes; a Christian is "a man in Christ, " and all the functions ofhis interior and even of his exterior life are performed in thiselement: he speaks in Christ, he marries in Christ, he dies in Christ, and in the resurrection he will rise in Christ. 

This is what would be called the mysticism of St. Paul; and doctrinesresembling this have sometimes been associated in religion withfantastic speculation and unpractical dreaming. In St. Paul, however, mysticism had no such results. If there was any part of his life onwhich the influence of Christ was more conspicuous than another, itwas the practical part. To him any pretended connection or intercoursewith Christ in secret had no meaning unless its outcome was visible ina Christlike life--"If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he isnone of His. "

To his own person he applied this principle in the most rigorousmanner. Christ, he is fond of saying, lives in him; he almost speaksas if in his flesh the Son of God had experienced a secondincarnation; but he relentlessly draws the practical conclusion. WhenChrist lived in His own earthly tabernacle, what did He live for? Itwas for the salvation of men; He went about continually doing good; Helived to seek and save the lost. If so, then, living in St. Paul, Hemust have the same purpose--to make use of his powers of mind and bodyfor the salvation of the world. In this way Christ was really stillcarrying on the work which had been interrupted by His death. St. Pauldares to say that he is filling up that which was lacking of Christ'ssufferings for the sake of His body, the Church. He says that theheart of Christ is yearning after men in his heart; that the mind ofChrist is scheming for the kingdom of God in his brain; he evencompares the marks of persecution on his body to the wounds of Christ. 

There is nowhere else on record--at least there was not till St. Paulhad taught it to the Christian world--such a merging of one life inanother. And it is all the more remarkable when it is considered howbig and strong a nature St. Paul's was. If any other man might havecoveted an original and independent life, surely he was entitled tobe something in the world; but he had utterly sunk himself into theecho and the organ of Another. [50]

Gentlemen, I have taken up nearly the whole of the lecture with thisminute analysis of St. Paul's Christianity for two reasons. 

I have done so, first, because I wish to create in your minds a genialestimate of the man himself whom I am setting up in this course oflectures as the model for preachers. It is not uncommon to speak as ifthe earliest apostles had been formed by their association with Jesus, and, strong only in their affection for Him, had gone forth to tellthe world the simple story of His life and death; but St. Paul, beinga man of a colder nature and of strong intellectual proclivities, drewChristianity away from the person of Jesus and transmuted it into ahard intellectual system. I think I have proved that this is atotally mistaken impression, which does gross injustice to the greatApostle. None of the apostles, not even St. John, was more filled withthe glow of personal attachment to Christ. He had a larger nature thanany of them, but it was penetrated with this passion through andthrough. Being of the intellectual type, he could not help thinkingout Christianity: but Christ entered into every thought he had aboutit. 

The other reason why I have attempted to analyze so fully to-day theChristian experience of St. Paul is because I believe that the greatmotive of the ministry lies here--the very pulse of the machine. [51]

There are many motives which may go to constitute a powerful ministryand enable us to rejoice in our vocation. I have dealt with some ofthem already in this course of lectures. There is, for example, theone with which I dealt in my last lecture, that the ministry givessatisfying and exhilarating employment to all the powers of the mind. There is, again, that which I mentioned in an earlier lecture, thatours is a patriotic service: we are doing the very best for ourcountry when we are permeating its life with the spirit of truereligion. An aspect of the ministry which attracts many minds atpresent is that it is a service to humanity; the heart and conscienceof the age are stirred by the misery of the poor, and this is the mostobvious and effective mode of rescue. These are inspiring motives; andothers might be mentioned. But far more important than them all is astrong personal attachment to the Saviour. This is the motive of theministry which goes deepest and wears longest. 

It may have many roots. It may be rooted in impressive convictionsabout the person of the Saviour and enthusiastic admiration of Hischaracter. It may spring from a profound sense of the lost conditionfrom which He has rescued ourselves and of the destiny to which He hasraised us. It may be due most of all to the impression made on ourmind and heart by the sacrifice at the cost of which Jesus procuredsalvation for us. And here the depth or shallowness of our theologywill be sure to tell. If our views are superficial either of thedifference which salvation has made to ourselves or of what Christ didto constitute Himself the Saviour, the likelihood is that we shalllove little. It is the man who knows that he has been forgiven muchand saved at a great cost, who loves much. And the amount of love isthe measure of sacrifice. 

In all ages this has been the secret of devoted lives. It has made thegreat preachers--St. Augustine and St. Bernard, Luther and Wesley, Samuel Rutherford and McCheyne. It has made those too who have notbeen great in the eyes of men, but by their self-denying lives havemade the kingdom of God to come. In one of his sonnets Matthew Arnoldtells of meeting with a minister, "ill and o'erworked, " on a broilingAugust day in the East End of London, and asking him how he fared inthat scene of sin and sorrow. "Bravely, " was the answer, "for I oflate have been much cheered with thought of Christ. " It is said tohave been an actual incident. [52] At all events, it is the explanationof thousands of heroic lives passed in similar desperate situations. At present the adherents of a humanitarian philanthropism are loud inproclaiming the woes of the world, as if they had been the first todiscover them, and propounding schemes for their amelioration; buttheir methods have all been anticipated by the humble followers ofJesus; and nine-tenths of the genuine philanthropic work of the worldare being done by men and women who make no noise, but who cannothelp working for the ends of Jesus, because His love is burning intheir very bones, and because the life of Christ in them cannot helpmanifesting itself after its kind. Down the Christian centuries therehas come floating a kind of hymn: the words are said to be by St. Patrick: the sentiment may well be called the music to which the trueChurch militant has always marched:--

 Christ with me, Christ before be, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left, Christ in the fort, Christ in the chariot seat, Christ in the poop, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. [53]

FOOTNOTES:

[48] The most charming chapter of Adolphe Monod's _Saint Paul_ is on thesubject of these two paragraphs. It is difficult to quote from it, because one would like to quote it all; but I allow myself the pleasureof borrowing these golden sentences: "C'est qu'en dépit de tant depromesses faites ŕ la foi, nous sommes toujours plus on moins affaiblispar un reste de force propre, comme nous sommes toujours plus on moinstroublés par un reste de propre justice, que les plus humbles eux-męmestraînent partout avec eux. Cette malheureuse force propre, cetteéloquence propre, cette science propre, cette influence propre, forme ennous comme un petit sanctuaire favori, que notre orgueil jaloux tientfermé ŕ la force Dieu, pour s'y réserver un dernier refuge. Mais si nouspouvions devenir enfin faibles tout de bon et désespérer absolument denous-męmes, la force de Dieu, se répandant dans tout notre hommeintérieur et s' infiltrant jusque dans ses plus secrets replis, nousremplirait jusqu'en toute plénitude de Dieu; par oů, la force de l'hommeétant échangée contre la force de Dieu, rien ne nous serait impossible, parce que rien n'est impossible ŕ Dieu. "

[49] Stearns, _The Evidence of Christian Experience_; Dale, _The LivingChrist and the Four Gospels_. 

[50] "I feel most strongly that man, in all that he does or can do whichis beautiful, great or good, is but the organ and the vehicle ofsomething or some one higher than himself. This feeling is religion. Thereligious man takes part with a tremor of sacred joy in those phenomenaof which he is the intermediary but not the source, of which he is thescene but not the author, or rather the poet. He lends them voice, hand, will and help, but he is respectfully careful to efface himself, that hemay alter as little as possible the higher work of the Genius who ismaking a momentary use of him. A pure emotion deprives him ofpersonality and annihilates the self in him. Self must perforcedisappear when it is the Holy Spirit who speaks, when it is God whoacts. This is the mood in which the prophet hears the call, the youngmother feels the movement of the child within, the preacher watches thetears of his audience. So long as we are conscious of self, we arelimited, selfish, held in bondage. "--AMIEL. 

[51] As enthusiasm for Christ is the soul of preaching as far as thepreacher is concerned, so in a spiritual congregation there will alwaysbe found a jealous desire for this element in what they hear. 

[52] See an article by the Rev. John Kennedy, D. D. , in _The EvangelicalMagazine_, April, 1891. 

[53] Here may be introduced a few notes which are to me of inestimablevalue. The happiness of my visit to the States, which was great, wasovershadowed at the close by the news of the death of the best friend Ihad on earth--the Rev. Robert W. Barbour, of Bonskeid. None who knew himwill need to have it explained why I should think of him at this point;because, while he had drunk deeply of the spirit of the time and waspossessed of a rare love for men, the deepest source of the sacredextravagance with which he lavished himself and his many talents onevery good cause was nothing else than the passion for Christ which I amtrying in this lecture to illustrate. He took a warm interest in thiscourse of lectures, and sent me the following Aphorisms on Preaching, tobe used as I might think fit. I reproduce them entire, as they came fromhim. Perhaps they were the very last literary work he did:--

 _The Book and the Library. _ The preacher must be master of many books, and servant of one. 

 _Closet and Desk. _ Study as though thou mightest preach for fifty years; pray as though thou mightest preach for five. 

 _Divine and Human. _ Speak as though the mouth were God's; but let the voice be a man's. 

 _First and Second Aims. _ All gifts (presence, voice, gesture, culture, style, and so on) may be wings, if kept behind one's back; the moment they are seen they become dead weights. 

 Two strings to one's bow will do with any shafts but the arrows of the King. Letters, the press, the lyre, the porch, must stand in the background behind "this one thing. "

 Think less and less of everything else, and more and more of thy message. 

 _Aims and No Aims. _ Aim at something, you will hit it; also draw your bow at a venture. 

 "_Make full proof of thy ministry. _" Try every method--writing, reading, committing, extending, extemporising. Imitate every man, but mimic none. Nothing makes a preacher like preaching. 

 Whence comes it that my nature is subdued To that it works in, like the dyer's hand. 

 _Pulpit Form. _ Respect your hearers. Do not gird at them; angle for them--and agonize. Address yourself to one at a time--first to the man in the pulpit. He who has hit himself first will not miss others. He who trembles at the word of the Lord, men will tremble at his word. (Borrowed) A preacher must either be afraid of his audience or his audience of him. 

 _Janua Domini. _ Always enter the pulpit by the Door (John x. 7). 

 _Contents and Omissions. _ Put everything you can into every address. Omit everything you can from every address. 

 "_Faith cometh by hearing. _" Therefore, to begin with, be audible. The Sermon on the Mount commences thus: "He opened His mouth" (Matt. V. 2). 

 _Time and Eternity. _ Speak to men's fleeting hopes and passing interests; speak also to their grey hairs and to their midnight hours. 

 _Ultimata. _ Desire to prophesy (1 Cor. Xiv. 1); covet to prophesy (_ib. _ 39); do not preach if thou darest be silent (1 Cor. Ix. 16). 

LECTURE VIII. 

THE PREACHER AS AN APOSTLE. 

Gentlemen, in the two last lectures we have investigated two of theprincipal sources--perhaps I might say the two principal sources--of aminister's power--his manhood and his Christianity. These may becalled the two natural springs out of which work for men and Godproceeds. Out of these it comes as a direct necessity of nature. Ifanyone is much of a man--if there be in him much fire and force, muchenergy of conviction--it will be impossible for him to pass through sogreat an experience as the reception of Christianity without making itknown; and, if he be much of a Christian--if there be in him much ofthe spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of self-sacrifice andbenevolence--it will be impossible for him to refrain from approachingmen in their sin and misery and endeavouring to communicate to themthe secret of blessedness. He will make but a poor minister who wouldnot be an earnest worker for God and man, even if he were not aminister. 

These impulses were conspicuously strong in St. Paul. Yet there wasalso another source from which he drew the motives of his ministry. This was the fact that God had appointed him to the office of anapostle and allotted him a specific sphere of activity as the apostleof the Gentiles. 

The other two sources of motive are, as I have said, natural; thisone, on the contrary, is official. This may raise a prejudice againstit. So many and such grave mistakes have been made through regardingofficial appointment as the only warrant for Christian work, to theprejudice of the antecedent qualifications of a genuine andsympathetic manhood and a deep personal Christianity, without which itis nothing, that there is a disposition to ignore this kind of motivealtogether. But St. Paul acknowledges it. Although he was always, nodoubt, far more of a man and a Christian than an official, yet, inreply to opposition, he insists with great vehemence on his apostolicrank; and evidently he felt that this imposed on him additionalobligations to be earnest and faithful in the work to which his manlyand Christian instincts prompted him. 

 * * * * *

It is, indeed, of great consequence to anyone who has become aChristian, and who begins to feel stirring in his breast thoseimpulses to serve God and bless the world which are native to theChristian spirit, to obtain a definite sphere to fill and a definitework to do. Otherwise these God-inspired impulses, expressingthemselves in mere words and sentiments, gradually decay through wantof exercise, or they are dispersed over so many objects that nothingis done. But, when a special task is obtained, the force of thesesentiments is concentrated upon it and transmuted into actual work. The Christian man says: Here is my own task; if I do not accomplishit, no one else can; this is my corner in the great labour-field, which I, and no one else, have to make fruitful and beautiful; I shallbe answerable to the Judge of all at the last for the manner in whichthe work assigned to me is done. 

Such sentiments had a strong hold of the mind of St. Paul. One of hiscommonest ways of thinking of his office was as a stewardship, whichhe was administering, and for which by-and-by he would have to rendera reckoning. "And, " says he, "it is required in stewards that a man befound faithful. "[54] Similarly, he thought of himself as a workmanwith a certain portion of a temple to build; but the great Taskmasterwas coming round in the evening to inspect the work--ay, and even totest it with fire; and, when that testing-time came, he desired to bea workman not needing to be ashamed. All the work of his apostleshipappeared to him a curriculum which he had to cover before he could winthe prize of the Divine approval. This is his favourite figure ofspeech, and he applies it in many directions. 

For example, the athlete in the racecourse has to keep himself intraining and to put every muscle on the stretch. So St. Paul felt theobligation to put every power he possessed into his work. "Givethyself wholly to them, " he says to a young fellow-labourer about hisduties; and what he preached he practised. "Stir up the grace of Godthat is in thee, " he says to the same friend again; and he called onhis own nature continually for the utmost exertion of its powers. Hewas always growing; but the increment of his faculty and influencewent all to the same object. 

An athlete in the games naturally laid aside every weight, divestinghimself of everything which might impede his running and rob him ofthe prize. He dared not glance aside at any object which would takehis eye off the goal. So St. Paul sacrificed everything for theGospel's sake; he had but one end and no by-ends. He was often, indeed, accused of aiming at some end of his own. With especialpersistency he was accused of avarice. It is very ludicrous now tothink of this great man having been supposed capable of so mean avice. But his motives were too high and pure to be intelligible to hisaccusers, and they naturally attributed to him the motive which wasthe strongest of which they were conscious themselves. But they onlybrought out the true greatness of the man. He believed in the right ofpreachers of the Gospel to live by the Gospel, and he looked forwardto the general recognition of this as soon as Christianity hadobtained a footing in the world. But he himself lived above all suchclaims. He accepted support from his converts, indeed, and thanked Godfor it, when he had good reason to think that his motives wereunderstood. But, where they were suspected or the success of theGospel seemed to be in any degree endangered by his acceptance ofmoney, he would not take a cent, but would rather sit up half thenight and work his fingers to the bone to earn his livelihood. Thereis no sublimer scene in history than the great Apostle, who wasbearing the weight of Christianity on his shoulders and carrying thefuture of the world beneath his robe, toiling with his hands for hisliving by the side of Aquila and Priscilla, in order that he mightkeep Christianity from being tarnished with the faintest suspicion ofmercenary motives. 

Gentlemen, among the many attractions of our calling on which I shouldlike to congratulate you this is not the least, that it provides adefinite sphere for the exercise of the benevolent impulses which youmay feel as men and as Christians and, by exercising, develops them. These impulses may be the strongest and most sacred in our nature. Butin other occupations, in the excitement and competition of life, theyare in great danger of being slowly extinguished. In our calling, onthe contrary, they receive constant opportunities of nurture anddevelopment. Their healthy and spontaneous activity is the soul ofministerial work; and this is stimulated by the sense ofresponsibility to fill the sphere allotted to us and exhaust itspossibilities. 

But, besides the sense of duty, there is a stimulus of a still moreaffecting kind which comes to a man when he is set over a congregationof his own. When I first was settled in a church, I discovered a thingof which nobody had told me and which I had not anticipated, but whichproved a tremendous aid in doing the work of the ministry. I fell inlove with my congregation. I do not know how otherwise to express it. It was as genuine a blossom of the heart as any which I have everexperienced. It made it easy to do anything for my people; it made ita perfect joy to look them in the face on Sunday morning. I do notknow if this is a universal experience; but I should think it iscommon. For my part, I like to meet a man who thinks his owncongregation, however small it may be, the most important one in theChurch and is rather inclined to bore you with its details. When a manthus falls in love with his people, the probability is that somethingof the same kind happens to them likewise. Just as a wife prefers herown husband to every other man, though surely she does not necessarilysuppose him to be the most brilliant specimen in existence, so acongregation will generally be found to prefer their own minister, ifhe is a genuine man, to every other, although surely not alwaysentertaining the hallucination that he is a paragon of ability. Thusto love and to be loved is the secret of a happy and successfulministry. 

 * * * * *

Taking up the responsibilities of his office in the spirit which Ihave described, St. Paul would have found any sphere, however limited, laborious. But, in point of fact, the sphere allotted to him was anenormous one. It was nothing less than the whole Gentile world. 

The known world was not, indeed, in that age, of anything like thesame dimensions as it is today. It consisted only of a narrow disc ofcountries round the shores of the Mediterranean. Yet to any other manthe vocation to evangelize it all must have been bewildering and evenparalyzing. St. Paul, however, accepted it in all seriousness, andever afterwards, till the day of his death, he regarded thepopulations of these countries as people to whom he owed the messageof the Gospel. Speaking of the two recognised divisions of the Gentileworld of that day, he says, "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to thebarbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. "

Of course he did not live long enough to preach the Gospel to all theinhabitants of even the little world of his day. Yet it is amazing tothink of the range of his labours. He preached in nearly all the greatcities of that world--in Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, Rome andmany others--his predilection for cities being obviously due to thehope that, when Christ was made known in these crowded centres, thesound of his doctrine would echo through the surrounding regions. Andthis hope was justified. The cities in the province of Asia, forexample, to which St. John sent the letters in the beginning ofRevelation, were probably all evangelized from Ephesus by converts ofSt. Paul, though he himself may have visited none of them butEphesus. The passion burned continually in his mind to get forward andcover new ground. He could not bear to build on another man'sfoundation. The wide unfulfilled provinces of his apostolate evercalled him on. 

His first journey was merely a circuit of the countries bordering tothe west and north on his own native Cilicia, and lay chiefly amongbarbarians. But the second, after a still more extended tour among thebarbarians, brought him to the borders of that wonderful world ofculture and renown in which dwelt the Greeks as distinguished from thebarbarians. He was standing on the shore of Asia and looking across tothe shore of Europe. In Europe were the two great eyes of the Gentileworld--Athens and Rome--the one the centre of its wisdom and the otherof its power. How could the Apostle of the Gentiles help wishing topreach the Gospel there? He crossed the narrow strait, and thenadvanced from one Greek town to another, till he stood on the veryspot where Socrates had taught and Demosthenes thundered. In his thirdjourney he had to concentrate his work on Ephesus; because, like askilful general, he would not leave territory in the rear unconquered. But Rome was now the aim of all his desires--Rome, the very citadel ofthe world which he had to conquer. He approached it at last in thegarb of a prisoner and in a gang of prisoners. But, as we follow him, we feel as if we were going with a victorious army to take part in agrand triumph. Indeed, as you accompany this great spirit, this isoften the feeling you have. He had it himself. "Thanks be unto God, "he says, "who always causeth us to triumph. " Only to his mind theoccupant of the car of victory was not himself, but Christ; he wasonly a satellite, showering largess in the name of the Victor amongthe crowd around the chariot-wheels. 

Such is the image of the Apostle which grows on the imagination as weread his extraordinary life. Yet there was another side. To us now hiscareer is heroic and glorious; but to him, at the time, it was besetwith innumerable obstacles; and, wonderful as were his labours, morewonderful still were his sufferings. He went from town to townincessantly; but seldom did he leave any place without having been inperil of his life. Sometimes the mob rose against him and only lefthim when they had cast out of their town his apparently lifeless body, as they would have flung away the carcase of a dog. Sometimes theauthorities apprehended him and subjected him to the rigour of thelaw. But hear the catalogue of his sufferings from his own lips: "Arethey ministers of Christ? so am I: in labours more abundant, instripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft; of theJews five times received I forty stripes save one, thrice was I beatenwith rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night anda day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils ofwaters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, inperils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in thewilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; inweariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in cold and nakedness;besides those things which are without, that which cometh upon medaily, the care of all the churches. " Yet, when he wrote this, he wasonly midway in his career. 

These incidents are glorified now by the influence of time, but, whenthey had to be endured, they were real and painful enough. To take buta single instance, what must it have been to a man of such sensitivehonour and engaged only in doing good to be so frequently in the handsof the police and in the company of malefactors? In his epistles hecannot conceal the irritation caused by his "chain. " Although invictorious moods he felt himself, as we have seen, borne onwards intriumph, in other moods he felt himself at the opposite extreme: "Ithink that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it wereappointed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world and toangels and to men; we are made as the filth of the world and are theoffscourings of all things"; the reference being to the gladiatorswhose cheap lives were sacrificed to embellish the conqueror'striumph. 

Yet it was never long before he could rally from such depression atthe thought of the cause in which he suffered all; and his habitualmood, in the face of accumulating difficulties, was expressed in theseheart-stirring words, "None of these things move me, neither count Imy life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joyand the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testifythe Gospel of the grace of God. "

It is good to linger beside one who was so faithful to his charge, sohard a worker and so patient a sufferer. We may learn from theseextraordinary labours and sufferings to do honest work and to endurehardness ourselves. 

Our sphere is, indeed, very different from his. His was so vast as tobe almost limitless; ours may be very circumscribed. He wascontinually moving from place to place and encountering new people; wemay have to labour among the same handful of people for a lifetime. Helived amidst daily novelty and excitement; we may have to fulfil anexistence of deep monotony. And all the disadvantages do not belongto the large, difficult and dangerous lot. It may seem easy to befaithful in a small sphere and to exhaust all its possibilities. Butthe narrow lot has its trials as well as the wide one, and perhaps itdoes not require less virtue to overcome them. A stronger sense ofduty may be needed to prepare an honest sermon week by week to a smalland comparatively ignorant congregation than to bear the brunt ofdanger in an exposed post of the mission field. [55]

Nowhere can the ministry be easy if its responsibilities are realisedand its duties honestly discharged. Look forward, I would say to you, to a labourious life. If you are thinking of the ministry otherwise, you had better turn back. Ours is a more crowded existence than thatof any other profession. 

There is the work of study and preaching. I do not know the details ofa minister's week among you; but in Scotland ministers have, as arule, two discourses to prepare for Sunday, besides a lesson for theBible Class, which may involve as much work as a sermon; and we haveat least one week-day meeting at which a lengthy address is given. For these four discourses subjects have to be found; materials forexposition and illustration have to be collected; the mind has firstto make each subject its own and then to shape it into a form suitablefor popular effect. A sermon may sometimes, indeed, come in a flash, and perhaps there is something of sudden discovery in the very bestwork; but even then time is required to work out the thought andenrich it with subsidiary thinking; and there are many discourseswhich are of no value without extensive investigation and the patientworking-up of the quarried materials. Then follows the writing. Thiswill take at least six or eight hours for a discourse, and may easilytake much more. Many ministers do not write more than one discourse aweek fully out, and probably they are wise; but many write two. Here, then, there is obviously ample work for a long forenoon on five daysof the week. I have always had to add the afternoon of Friday andSaturday, and often the evening as well. Then comes the hard andexciting work of Sunday. It is a religious duty to rest on Monday, aswe do not get the bodily rest of the Sabbath. [56]

There is the work of visitation. The sick and the bed-ridden must bevisited; and it is of enormous profit to visit the whole congregationfrom house to house. As Dr. Chalmers said, the directest way to aman's heart is generally through the door of his home. Acquaintancewith the actual circumstances of the families of the congregationgives wonderful reality and point to the prelections of Sunday. Oursermons must rise out of the congregation if they are ever to reachdown to it again. Here, it is evident, there is abundant work for theafternoons which study leaves free. Many ministers have to add one ortwo evenings, the evening being the best time to find their people athome. 

There is a third mass of work of an exceedingly miscellaneouscharacter which absorbs much time and strength. It includes suchduties as performing the ceremonies at baptisms, marriages andfunerals; organizing the work of the congregation; attending churchcourts and sitting on committees; serving on school boards and theboards of benevolent societies; preaching from home and addressing themeetings of neighbour ministers; writing official letters; raisingmoney; receiving visitors; writing for the press. It would be easy forministers in positions of any prominence to spend their whole time induties of this description, none of which might appear useless; sogreat is the multitude of the claims which pour in from every side. 

I have said nothing of the time required for keeping abreast of theliterature of the day or for cultivating an intellectual specialty. Itis extraordinary what some of the busiest men achieve in this respect;but it is only managed by an economy and even penury of time for whicha kind of genius is requisite. Of course there are seasons of the yearwhen the pressure of public engagements is not so great; and ministersare allowed longer holidays than other professional men. A couple ofhours a day given from a holiday to great reading may shoot threads offresh colour through the whole web of a season's work. Nor have I saidanything of the time necessary for thinking over the devotionalportion of the service of the sanctuary, though in our churches, wherefree prayer prevails, this deserves as careful attention as thesermon. 

The glimpse which I have given you into the details of a minister'sweek will help you to realise that the life which lies before you is alabourious one. Of course the labour may be shirked. Ministers havetheir time in their own hands; they have no office hours; and, Isuppose, a minister's life may be more ignobly idle than any otherprofessional man's. That is, if he has no conscience. 

How far a man who is conscientious and works hard may be justified indevoting himself to one branch of ministerial work for which he hasspecial aptitudes or predilections, it is difficult to judge. Perhapsthe Protestant Church has failed in making use of special gifts. Someeminent preachers, for example, neglect pastoral visitation;[57] andthere are, I suppose, many ministers who keep out of more generalpublic work, because they have no taste for it. There may be some gainin this; but there is also loss. When a preacher does not visit, he isapt to become an orator, who dazzles but does not feed the flock. Whena minister keeps himself apart from public interests, the Church towhich he belongs is likely to be weak at that point. 

The most fatal neglect is that of study; and perhaps it is thecommonest. The part of our work which needs most moral resolution isundoubtedly the sermon--to get it begun, studied, written andfinished. It requires the discipline of years in even the mostconscientious to win the mastery of themselves in this particular; andit is probably at this point that three-fourths of all ministerialfailures take place. It is not the reading of the material bearing onthe subject which is difficult; indeed, this may be luxuriouslyprolonged, till it is too late to think and write the sermon out. Thehard and sour toil lies in facing the sweat of thought and theirksomeness of writing; although, when the difficulty is overcome, thehappiness and triumph of our calling lie here also. 

Of course this difficulty is greatest in the small sphere. Here thetemptation is, to be overcome by the monotony of the situation, toallow the powers to stagnate, to feel that anything will do, and putthe people off with that which has cost no exertion. "I know, " saysone who wields a trenchant pen, [58] "how plausible the excuses are, and I know what relaxation of study results in--laziness in themorning, increasing excesses in the daily papers, increased interestin gardening, several more pipes a day, and so forth. Breakfast comesfinally to its long-deferred end about ten; then there is aconsultation with the gardener, which is, of course, business, andmakes the idler feel that really his active habits are returning; thentwo letters have to be answered; then, just as he means to go to hisstudy, he sees Mr. Fritterday passing, and before he has finished hiscolloquy over the hedge with him, it is past midday. When he does getto his study, _Macmillan_ or _Blackwood_ is lying on his table, and hefeels he cannot settle till he knows what is the fate of the heroineof the current story, or his window overlooks the busy hayfield of hisneighbour, and he becomes ten times more interested in that work thanin his own; and so his whole forenoon is gone, and he is summoned todinner before he has earned his salt by one decent hand's turn. "

This kind of temptation, however, is not confined to the man in thesmall and easy situation: it is the common temptation of allministers. Only in the city it comes in another form. The man who hasa large congregation and a little popularity is beset with calls fromevery quarter to engage in every kind of duty outside his own sphere. His doorbell never ceases ringing. Every applicant supposes his owncase the most important. There is a whirl of excitement, and there isan exhilaration in being able in many ways to serve the public. But, if the man gives up his habits of study, he is lost. His appearancesbecome commonplace; the public tire of him, and throw him aside asruthlessly as they have senselessly idolized him. Robert Hall used tosay that, when the devil saw that a minister was likely to be usefulin the church, his way of disposing of him was to get on his back andride him to death with engagements. 

 * * * * *

To follow the course of St. Paul's labours and sufferings on the grandscale produces an overwhelming impression of earnestness and devotion;yet it is even more by entering into the minute details of hisactivity that we find the apostle. One who has to deal with vastmasses is apt to overlook details; and it is so even in the work ofChrist. An evangelist, for example, moving from place to place andsurrounded with multitudes, may know very little of individuals. Theminister of a large congregation is exposed to the same temptation. Indeed, we are all too desirous of crowds and too little occupied withthe units of which they are composed. But this is the greatest of allmistakes. St. Paul, amidst the constant change of scene and thepressure of large bodies of people in which he lived, never overlookedindividuals. In his speech to the elders of Ephesus he could challengethem to bear witness that he had taught not only publicly but fromhouse to house, and had warned everyone night and day with tears. While, like his Master, he was moved by the sight of a multitude andwelcomed the opportunity of making known the glad tidings to many, hewas quite as ready to preach to the small company of women of whomLydia was one at the riverside or to the soldier to whom he waschained in the Roman prison. 

St. Paul was never a mere evangelist. The evangelist's work is to dealwith the initial stage of the Christian life: he has to bring men todecision; and, when this is done, he passes on, leaving to otheragencies whatever more may be required. An evangelist sometimes knowsvery little of what becomes of his converts after he has quitted theplace. But St. Paul was as eager about this as about the firstimpressions. However small the company of the converted might be, heformed them into a Christian Church, and ordained elders in everycity. He often left an assistant behind to carry on and consolidatethe work which he had begun. When at a distance, he was always eagerfor news about his churches. His epistles are full of such anxieties;and, indeed, his epistles themselves are the best monument of hispastoral care; for they were written to ask after the welfare of thosewhom he had left behind, or to give counsel on points about which theyhad consulted him. They brim over with the expressions of a tender andheartfelt love. He is able to assure those to whom he is writing thathe is praying for them, and that not only in the mass but one by one. He kept their faces and names alive in his memory by thus recallingthem at the throne of grace; and his life must have been one longprayer about his work. 

Sometimes he lets the prayer which he has been offering slip throughhis pen; and then we see how high was the ideal of Christianattainment which he cherished on behalf of his converts. He was notcontent that they had turned from their old sins and taken the firststeps in the Divine life. He longed to see them becoming creditablespecimens of Christianity and ornaments to the Church--complete men, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It was life itself to him tohear of their progress: "Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. "And the crown to which he looked forward as the reward of all histoils and sufferings was to be permitted at last to present the soulof everyone of them as a chaste virgin to Christ. 

Gentlemen, I believe that almost any preacher, on reviewing a ministryof any considerable duration, would confess that his great mistake hadbeen the neglect of individuals. If I may be permitted a personalreference: when, not long ago, I had the opportunity, as I was passingfrom one charge to another, of reviewing a ministry of twelve years, the chief impression made on me, as I looked back, was that this wasthe point at which I had failed; and I said to myself that henceforthI would write Individuals on my heart as the watchword of my ministry. 

We make impressions in the church; but we do not follow them up, tosee that the decision is arrived at and the work of God accomplished;and so they are dissipated by the influences of the world; and thosewho have experienced them are perhaps made worse instead of better. Itis a very significant thing that is said of the pastor in our Lord'sparable--that he sought the lost sheep "until he found it. " We seek:we even seek labouriously and painfully: but we frequently leave offjust before finding. 

A minister told me that, on the Saturday evening before his firstSunday in his first charge, the experienced minister who was tointroduce him to his people next day was strolling with him in thevicinity of the village and talking about his duties, when theychanced to pass a plantation of trees. Pointing to them, the agedminister asked, "If you had to cut these trees down, how would you goabout it? would you go round the whole plantation, giving each tree asingle blow, and then go round them all again, giving each a secondblow"? "Well, no, " he answered, "I think I should attack one tree andcut at it till it came down; and then go on and do the same to asecond and a third, and so forth. " "Well, " said his experiencedfriend, "that is the way you must do here. After you have been settleda short time, you will discover which families and individuals aremost impressed by your first efforts, and you must devote yourself tothese susceptible souls, till you have won them thoroughly; and thenin their enthusiasm for yourself and their willingness to work for thecongregation you will have the best foundation for a successfulministry. "

In a former lecture I spoke of the power of discerning in men andwomen of every class and condition the humanity which is common to alland speaking straight to that, without reference to the superficialdifferences which distinguish class from class and one individual fromanother. But ministerial sympathy has to embrace what is peculiar toclasses and individuals as well as what is common to all. Though St. Paul, like his Master, had a powerful grasp of what is universal inhumanity, yet to the Jew he made himself a Jew, that he might gain theJew, and to them that were without law as without law, that he mightgain them who were without law; he was made all things to all men, that he might gain the more. 

His persuasion obviously was, that God was trying, by His revelationamong those who possessed the Written Word, and by His providenceamong those who did not possess it, to lead His children by diversways to Himself; and his own duty was to join himself to each companyat the stage which it had reached and offer to become its conductor. The Jew was more advanced, and he met him where he was; the Gentilewas further behind, and he had to go back and approach him also wherehe stood, that he might win his confidence and be allowed to lead himon. 

This is the persuasion which gives a minister faith in his own work. The souls of men are God's. His providence is a discipline intended tolead them to Himself; there are none with whom His Spirit does notstrive. And it is only as our work co-operates with His that it is ofany effect. Where God has been working, opening and softening theheart, very simple efforts, put forth at the right moment, may go along way, and the work of God be quickly done. 

What situation could be more pathetic to a sensitive and sympatheticmind than that of a minister when he stands up in the pulpit and looksdown on the congregation? What a variety of conditions are before him!In one pew there is a man who during the week has been fighting alosing battle with his business and sees himself on the verge ofbankruptcy; in the next may be a merchant into whose lap fortune hasbeen pouring her gifts in handfuls. Here is a mother who is thinkingof her son who has just left his home and is sailing on the sea; andthere a girl whose heart is rejoicing in the happy dreams of youth. Onthe right may be a young man who is trembling on the brink of thegreat temptation of his life, and on the left another who is reekingfrom some orgy of secret sin. There is endless variety; yet none areuninteresting; and probably there is no one but, if you could meet himexactly where he stands, would respond to the influence which youbring. It arrests men when you are able to show such a knowledge ofthe human heart that they feel themselves discovered; and it disposesa man to answer to your call if he sees that you are familiar with thecircumstances in which he will have to lead the life to which you areinviting him, and that you appreciate the difficulties of thesituation. Therefore the more a minister knows of the variety ofactual life the better; and, if he is to do really effective work, hemust know how to come down from the pulpit and put himself alongsideof individuals. [59]

Here I might again recommend the work of visitation and the practiceof being accessible at home to the visits of those who come withconfidences to communicate; but let me rather close this lecture witha word or two on some of the more favourable opportunities whichministerial life affords for direct dealing with individuals. [60]

One of the best opportunities of this kind is when parents comeseeking baptism for their children. When you are speaking in theirchildren's interest, men will welcome an amount of faithfulness whichthey would not endure at other times. You can show how much theirchildren's welfare in time and eternity may depend on their ownreligious condition; you can urge the duty of family worship; and youmust have very little skill if you cannot get very close to theirhearts. Especially when a man comes about the baptism of his firstchild, he is perhaps in the most favourable state for an earnest talkin which you can ever find him. His soul is opened with tendernessand overawed with the mystery of life; he is longing with his wholeheart to do his best for his child; and, if you show him that the besthe can do for it is to become connected with the great source of holyinfluence himself, there is no other occasion on which a goodimpression is more likely to be made. 

The other opportunity which I should like to mention is when the youngcome to join the Church. I well remember that, when I was a student, there was no part of a minister's duty to which I looked forward withso much fear and trembling as this; for I had the conviction, which Istill have, that it is our duty at this crisis to bring the questionof personal salvation in the most direct and solemn way before everyintending communicant, and that it is ministerial treason to let theopportunity slip. Some of you may be looking forward to this with thesame feelings; and, therefore, I am happy to tell you that in practiceit is not nearly so difficult as it seems at a distance. Theapplicants themselves expect you to be faithful; if you are, they willhonour you for it, and, if not, they will be disappointed. If they getthe opportunity, they are far franker than you would expect. No doubtit is delicate work, and one has to guard against harshness andanything inquisitorial; but it yields the most blessed results. Thisis the harvest-time of the minister's year, when he sees that hislabour is not in vain. Even one such close talk, brought about in thisway or otherwise, casts a glow of reality into one's work which doesnot pass away for weeks; and, if a minister is so highly honoured asto receive many of these confidences, he acquires a skill in layinghis finger on the very pulse of his hearers' deepest life whichnothing else can give. 

FOOTNOTES:

[54] An indication of the intensity with which St. Paul's mind workedupon the subject of the ministry is to be found in the number andvariety of his metaphors for it. The following are those which I havenoted, but there may be more--nurse (1 Thess. Ii. 7), father (1 Cor. Iv. 15), gardener (1 Cor. Iii. 6), labourer (1 Cor. Iii. 9), builder (1 Cor. Iii. 10), servant (1 Cor. Iv. 1), bondman (2 Tim. Ii. 24), steward (1Cor. Iv. 1), ambassador (Eph. Vi. 20), soldier (1 Tim. Vi. 12), herald(1 Tim. Ii. 7), shepherd (Acts xx. 28), workman (2 Tim. Ii. 15), athlete(1 Tim. Iv. 7), vessel (2 Tim. Ii. 21). 

[55] "Go where you can do most _for_ men, not where you can get most_from_ men. 

"Be more concerned about your ability than about your opportunity, andabout your walk with God than either. 

"Your sphere is where you are most needed. 

"There is no place without its difficulties: by removing you may changethem, it may be you will increase them; but you cannot escapethem. "--PREDIGER. 

[56] "A sermon which costs little is worth as much as it has cost. Yetmeasure not the value of the sermon by the length and hardness of yourlabour. "--DUPANLOUP. 

[57] The first Sunday I was in America, I worshipped in the churches ofRev. Dr. W. M. Taylor and Rev. Dr. John Hall, who are, I suppose, the twomost eminent ministers of New York; and I was astonished to hear both ofthem intimate that they would visit in certain streets during the week. There are no ministers anywhere more immersed than these in every kindof public duty; yet they find time for regular pastoral visitation. Oncoming home, I mentioned this fact to an equally eminent minister in myown country. "Well, " said he, "when I came to the city, the elders of mycongregation advised me not to visit, and I followed their advice; butit was the worst advice I ever got. "

[58] Dr. Marcus Dods. 

[59] "Get others to talk: what a man says to you has more influence uponhim than all you can say to him. 

"It is not the time of sickness so much as the time of convalescencethat decides the future life. Remember this, and seize opportunities. "--PREDIGER. 

[60] "Much of the Gospels is taken up with conversations between Christand individuals. Teaching so startling and difficult as His, with suchan element in it of attraction and hope, naturally drew around Him manywho sought to know further what this Gospel meant. He, on His part, wasas eager to meet inquirers as they were to seek Him; and we find that Hebestowed as much care and pains in expounding the nature of His kingdomto individuals as He did when He was speaking to great multitudes. Theaudience, if small, was fit. Not only so, but we find that He putHimself in the way of individuals. "--NICOLL, _The Incarnate Saviour_. 

LECTURE IX. 

THE PREACHER AS A THINKER. 

Gentlemen, in the foregoing lectures I have adverted very little tothe studies, in preparation for the work of the ministry, with whichyou are at present occupied. Indeed, I have rather ostentatiously keptto a standpoint at some distance from the academic one, for reasonswhich I explained in the opening lecture. But the clue which I haveendeavoured faithfully to follow has brought us at last to this pointalso; and I welcome the opportunity of saying something about the moreintellectual aspects of our work. The subject to-day is the Preacheras a Thinker. 

 * * * * *

In my last lecture I spoke of the vast sphere of operations assignedto St. Paul and of the almost superhuman exertions which he made tofill it. But what did he exert himself to fill it with? It was notmerely to overtake the ground and be himself present in so manycountries and cities that he was so zealous. That which drove him onwas the glorious message of which he was the bearer, with the soundof which he desired to fill the world. He often combines these twoideas in his writings--that the Gentile world had been committed tohim as a trust, to care for the souls which it contained, and that theGospel had been committed to him as a trust, to be communicated to theGentiles. These two things were included in his apostolate--on the onehand, the care of the heathen world, and, on the other, thepublication of the Gospel. 

Of course he had not, like the original apostles, heard the Gospelfrom the lips of Christ; but he had received it directly from Christin some other way; and you know how vigorously he claimed that he hadnot received it from man and was not indebted to the other apostlesfor it. He frequently calls it his own gospel, and he maintains it tobe as authentic and authoritative as that preached by any of the otherapostles. How it was revealed to him we cannot tell. This is the samemystery as we encountered in studying the prophets of the OldTestament. Both prophets and apostles speak with a knowledge of themind and will of God which has a certainty and authority peculiar totheir writings. We ought to speak, if we speak at all, with certaintyand authority too; but there is a difference between ours and theirs. I know how difficult it is to define the difference; we cover it upwith the vague word Inspiration; but I do not see any use in hidingfrom ourselves that it exists. 

Admitting, however, that there is this mystery, yet we can see, insome respects, how the truth, when it came, dealt with St. Paul, andhow his mind was exercised about it; and in these respects he is notbeyond our imitation. 

What I wish to emphasize in this lecture is, that Christianity didspecially lay hold of him in the region of the intellect. It is meantto lay hold of all parts of the inner man--the feelings, theconscience, the will, the intellect; and it may lay hold of certainpeople more fully in one part of their being and of others in anotheraccording to their constitutional peculiarities. Some suppose--andperhaps they are not far wrong--that the first preaching of the Gospelconsisted of little more than the simple story of the life and deathof Jesus; that those who heard it sympathetically began forthwith tolive new lives in imitation of Christ; and that this was the most oftheir Christianity. In a fine and peculiar nature like that of St. John, again, the Gospel caught hold chiefly in the region of theemotions; and his Christianity was a mystical union and fellowshipbetween the Saviour and the soul. St. Paul was not by any meansdeficient in the other elements of humanity; but he was conspicuouslystrong in intellect. That is to say, he was one of those natures towhich it is a necessity to know the why and the wherefore ofeverything--of the universe in which they live, of the experiencesthrough which they pass, of the ends which they are called upon topursue. This natural tendency was strengthened by the training of aneducated man. And therefore the Gospel came to him as a message oftruth, which cleared up the mysteries of existence and presented theuniverse to the mind as a realm of order. 

St. Paul often expresses the intense intellectual satisfaction whichChristianity brought him, and the joy he experienced in applying it tothe solution of the problems of life. The light which Christianitycast on the universe was to him, he says, like the morning ofcreation, when God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Before, all was darkness and chaos, but then all became sunshine andorder. He often speaks with wondering gratitude of the fact that themystery which had been hidden from ages and from generations had beenrevealed to him: Eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had enteredinto the heart of man, the things which God had prepared for them thatlove Him, but God had revealed them unto him by His Spirit. And bythis mystery he meant the tangle of God's providence in history, which the coming of Christ disentangled and smoothed out into a webwhose pattern the mind could discern. 

Having himself received Christianity as an intellectual system, hevery specially addressed himself to the intellect of others. The doorof the kingdom of heaven, it has been beautifully said, can only beopened from the inside; but to that observation this other may beadded, that in a sense there are many doors, but each man can onlyopen to others the one by which he has entered himself. Christianityhad come to St. Paul as the truth about God and the world and himself. There was plenty of emotion besides; but the emotion for him cameafter the clear intellectual conviction and sprang out of it. And heexpected that others would receive Christianity in the same way. Therefore he never spared the minds of those he addressed; he expectedthem to think; and he would have said that, if they would not open andexert their minds, they could not receive Christianity. 

I hardly know anything more puzzling than the audacity with which hecast himself on the minds of his hearers and trusted them tounderstand him, when he was thinking his strongest and his deepest. Imagine an epistle of his arriving in Rome or Ephesus, and read outin the audience of the church for the first time. Who were thehearers? The majority of them were slaves; many had till a short timebefore been unconcerned about religion; in all probability not a titheof them could read or write. Yet what did Paul give them? Not milk forbabes; not a compost of stories and practical remarks; but the Epistleto the Romans, with its strict logic and grand ideas, or the Epistleto the Ephesians, with its involved sentences and profound mysticism. He must have believed that they would understand what he wrote, thoughscholarship has considered it necessary to pile up a mountain ofcommentaries on these epistles. Christianity, as it went through thecities of the world in St. Paul's person, must have gone as a greatintellectual awakening, which taught men to use their minds ininvestigating the profoundest problems of life. 

How deeply he was interested in the intellectual reception of theGospel is shown by the earnestness with which he prays that hisconverts may excel in mental grasp of the truth. "I pray, " he says, "that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in alljudgment. " And again he says, "Making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may giveunto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, " etc. 

But nothing proves so clearly the value which he set on this elementof Christianity as his earnestness that his version of the Gospelshould be kept pure and entire. He called upon younger ministers, likeTimothy and Titus, to guard it as a precious treasure and to transmitit to faithful men who would be able to teach others also. It filledhim with the most poignant anxiety and pain when the minds of hisconverts were assailed with doctrines subversive of the truth which hehad taught. He had to encounter assaults of this kind coming from theside of orthodoxy as well as of heterodoxy, and no small portion ofhis energy had to be expended in refuting them. You remember, forexample, with what a heat of zeal and affection he cast himself on theGalatians, when they had lent an ear to false teachers: "O foolishGalatians, who hath bewitched you?" "If any man preach any othergospel unto you than that which ye have received, let him beaccursed. "

 * * * * *

Gentlemen, you are going to be teachers of Christianity, and thisimplies that you should yourselves have mastered it in thought. Acertain number of people will be more or less dependent on you forthe view they have of Christianity; and this really means the viewthey have of all the most important and solemn objects of existence;for to them all things will be comprehended in Christianity; and onyou will largely depend whether this view is true or false, narrow ornoble. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance to men and women oftheir fundamental convictions about this universe in which they live. There is current, indeed, at present a way of speaking about theintellect, as if, while all the other faculties have to do withreligion, it were only an intruder; and there is a way of speakingabout definite religious truth which really implies, if any strictmeaning is to be attached to it, that in religion, when the truth isnot found, the opposite may answer quite as well; and yet, strange tosay, this language is usually to be heard from the lips of those whomake special claims to intellectuality and affect to be the specialchampions of truth. But the intellect is a noble faculty and has animportant office in religion. It is, properly speaking, antecedent toboth feeling and will; and what is put into it determines both whatfeeling and choice will be. People are often, indeed, swept into theChurch on some current of feeling; and the pressure on every side ofthe Christian society, along with the examples of superiorChristians, does much to develop the religious nature; but probably inthe great crises of temptation, when a flood of passion or some greatworldly opportunity is about to sweep a man away from his connectionwith Christ, that which keeps hold of him is the force ofconviction--if the roots of his mind have gone deep down and claspedthemselves about the great verities of the faith. Our Lord Himselfcalled the truth the foundation on which the whole structure of lifeis built. All that a man is and does depends, in the last resort, onwhat he knows and believes. It will be a calamity for your hearers, iffrom your preaching they are not able by degrees to put together intheir minds a conception of Christianity both true and elevating, which will supply them with the fundamental principles of their life. 

Besides this sacred obligation to our people, there is the obligationto the truth itself. This was felt by St. Paul profoundly. Arevelation of Christianity had been committed to him, and he had topresent it in all its splendour and apply it to all the details oflife. So the Word of God is committed to us, and we are responsiblefor delivering its whole message. If we take up a single text of theBible, our merit as preachers lies in bringing out attractively andcomprehensively the truth which it contains. It would be consideredstill more meritorious to present the whole message contained in abook of the Bible; and it would be quite in accordance with thetheological fashion of the time if a preacher were able to show thathe was master of some single section of Scripture, say, the Prophetsof the Old Testament or the writings of St. John. I do not know why weshould hesitate about the next step, which, if we have gone so far, weare logically bound to take--the mastery of the message of the Bibleas a whole. This is what we are responsible for. The Bible is themessage of the mind and will of the loving and redeeming God; and thiswe are bound to deliver in such a way that neither its truth nor itsglory will suffer in our hands. 

How this is to be done, of course it requires wisdom to decide, andthere will doubtless be different ways for different men and fordifferent times. In a former generation a president of thiscollege[61] preached in the College Chapel straight through thedoctrines of Christianity, taking them up one by one in systematicorder; and his book was long a model to preachers both in this countryand Great Britain. He was preaching to an academic audience, and thereare probably few congregations for which such a course would besuitable now; although I know at least one able young minister in acountry village who has been pursuing this method from thecommencement of his ministry. Once a month he gives a sermon of thecourse; perhaps his people do not know that he is doing so; but he isgiving his own mind the discipline of investigating the doctrines ofChristianity in their order; and I am certain both that he himself isgrowing a strong man in the process and that his people, thoughunconsciously, are getting the benefit of it. In the Lutheran andEpiscopal Churches the observance of the Christian festivals givesoccasion for regularly bringing the circle of the grand Christianfacts before the minds of the people. We have not this guidance; but afaithful minister is bound to make sure that he is preaching withsufficient frequency on the leading Christian facts and doctrines, andthat he is not omitting any essential element of Christianity. [62]

Not unfrequently ministers are exhorted to cultivate extremesimplicity in their preaching. Everything ought, we are told, to bebrought down to the comprehension of the most ignorant hearer, andeven of children. Far be it from me to depreciate the place of thesimplest in the congregation; it is one of the best features of theChurch of the present day that it cares for the lambs. I dealt withthis subject, not unsympathetically I hope, in a former lecture. Butdo not ask us to be always speaking to children or to beginners. Isthe Bible always simple? Is Job simple, or Isaiah? Is the Epistle tothe Romans simple, or Galatians? This cry for simplicity isthree-fourths intellectual laziness; and that Church is doomed inwhich there is not supplied meat for men as well as milk for babes. Weowe the Gospel not only to the barbarian but also to the Greek, notonly to the unwise but also to the wise. [63]

I do not believe, however, that it is only in cultured congregationsthat this element of preaching is required. There is no greatermistake than to suppose that you will drive the common man away fromthe Church by strong intellectual preaching. You will do so no doubtif you preach over his head, [64] and use a language which he does notunderstand. You must find him where he is, and either speak to him inhis own language or teach him yours by slow degrees. But, if youaccommodate yourself to him so far, you will find him alert andwilling to accompany you; you will find that he has not only sturdylimbs for climbing, but even wings for soaring to the heights oftruth. 

A greater difficulty lies in the preacher himself. At the beginning ofhis ministry he may be encumbered with doubts and far from clear inhis faith. This is a real obstacle, and the first years of ministeriallife may be a time of great perplexity and pain. I suspect ourcongregations have often a good deal to suffer while we areendeavouring to preach ourselves clear. It is vicarious suffering; forthey do not know what is perplexing us. They have to stand by and lookon while their minister is fighting his doubts. But, if he is a trueman, it is worth their while to wait. If these are the pangs ofintellectual birth, and the truth is merely divesting itself of atraditional form in order to invest itself in a form which is his own, he will preach with far greater power when the process is complete, and he is able to speak with the strength of personal conviction. 

But, gentlemen, it is important for you to see that your openingministry is not enveloped in mist simply because you have never made areal study of Christianity. This, I am afraid, is the commonest sourceof a vague theology. In a former lecture I have recommended a wideacquaintance with the masterpieces of literature; but some able men atcollege substitute this for the studies of their profession; and thisis a fatal mistake. Literature ought to be a supplement to these, nota substitute for them. I have watched the subsequent career of morethan one student who had pursued this course; and I must say it is notencouraging. Their supply of ideas soon runs out; their tone becomessecular; and the people turn away from them dissatisfied. 

A student ought, while at college, to make himself master of at leastone or two of the great books of the Christian centuries in whichChristianity is exhibited as a whole by a master mind. If I may beallowed to mention my own experience, it happened to me, more bychance, perhaps, than wise choice, to master, when I was a student, three such books. One was Owen's work on _The Holy Spirit_, anotherWeiss' _New Testament Theology_, and the third Conybeare and Howson's_Life and Epistles of St. Paul_. Each of these may be said, in its ownway, to exhibit Christianity entire, and I learned them almost byheart, as one does a text-book. I was not then thinking much ofsubsequent benefit; but I can say, that each of them has ever sincebeen a quarry out of which I have dug, and probably I have hardly everpreached a sermon which has not exhibited traces of their influence. 

There is another valuable result which will follow from the earlymastery of books of this kind. You will be laying the foundation ofthe habit of what may be called Great Reading, by which I mean thesystematic study of great theological works in addition to the specialreading for the work of each Sunday. Week by week a conscientiousminister has to do an immense amount of miscellaneous reading incommentaries, dictionaries, etc. , in connection with the discourses inhand; but, in addition to this, he should be enriching the subsoil ofhis mind by larger efforts in wider fields. It is far from easy tocarry this on in a busy pastorate; and it is almost impossible unlessthe foundation has been laid at college. [65]

One more hint I should like to give: it is a reminiscence from acasual lecture which I listened to when a student and profited by. Besides attending to theological studies in general, one ought to havea specialty. The minister, and even the student before he leavescollege, should be spoken of as the man who knows this or that. Perhaps the best specialty to choose is some subject which is justcoming into notice, such as, at present, Comparative Religion, orChristian Ethics, or, best of all, Biblical Theology. Such aspecialty, early taken up, is like a well dug on one's property, whichyear by year becomes deeper. All the little streams and rivulets ofreading and experience find their way into it; and almost unawares thehappy possessor comes to have within himself a fountain which makes itimpossible that his mind should ever run dry. 

 * * * * *

Of course I cannot attempt to give here even the slightest sketch ofthe doctrinal system of St. Paul; but there are two characteristics ofit which I should like to mention in closing, as they are essential tothe right management of the element of preaching with which I haveoccupied you to-day. 

The thinking of St. Paul went hand in hand with his experience. HisChristianity began in a great experience, in which he discovered thesecret of life and found peace with God. He set his mind to reflectupon this, so as to comprehend how it came about and what it involved;and the theology of the first part of his apostolate was nothing butthe result of these broodings under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. These in their turn, however, brought him still nearer to God andcloser to Christ; and so he obtained new and deeper experiences, ofwhich the doctrines of his more advanced life are again theexposition. Thus his thinking was both experimental and progressive. If his Epistles be arranged in chronological order, it will easily beseen that there is a splendid growth in his theology from first tolast. He never, indeed, gave up the doctrines of his earlier life;there is no inconsistency between one part of his writings andanother; but neither his experience nor his thinking ever stood still;he made his first doctrines the foundations on which he reared astructure which was rising higher and higher to the very close of hislife. 

St. Paul had the heartiest scorn for intellectualism in religiondivorced from experience; and it cannot be denied that it is thisdivorce which has brought contempt on the intellectual element inpreaching. When doctrine is preached as mere dogma, imposed as a formon the mind of the preacher from without, no wonder it is dry andbarren. It is when the preacher's own experience is growing, and he iscoming up with the doctrines of Christianity one by one as the naturalexpression for what he knows in his deepest consciousness to be true, that he utters the truth with power. Never, perhaps, is a sermon soliving as when the preacher has found out the truth during the week asa novelty to himself, and comes forth on Sunday to deliver it with thejoy of discovery. 

The other feature to which I wish to draw attention is the perfectbalance in St. Paul of the doctrinal and the ethical. If reproach hasbeen cast on the intellectual element in preaching by its want ofconnection with experience, this has been done no less by its want ofconnection with conduct. But St. Paul is not open to this reproach. This is made clear by the very external form of his writings. AnEpistle of St. Paul is divided into two parts, the first containingdoctrines and the second practical rules for the conduct of life; andnot unfrequently the two parts are of about equal length. 

But the connection is far closer than this. In St. Paul's mind all thegreat doctrines of the Gospel were living fountains of motives forwell-doing; and even the smallest and commonest duties of every-daylife were magnified and made sacred by being connected with the factsof salvation. Take a single instance. There is no plainer duty ofevery-day life than telling the truth. Well, how does St. Paul treatit? "Lie not one to another, " he says, "seeing ye have put off the oldman with his deeds. " Thus truthfulness flows out of regeneration. Treating of the same subject again, he says, "Lie not one to another, for ye are members one of another, " deriving the duty from the unionof believers to one another through their common union withChrist. [66] Thus does St. Paul everywhere show great principles insmall duties and stamp the commonest actions of life with the imageand the superscription of Christ. 

This balance between the doctrinal and the moral is difficult tomaintain. Seldom has the mind of the Church been able to preserve itfor any length of time. It has oscillated from one kind ofone-sidedness to another, sometimes exalting doctrines and neglectingduties and at other times preaching up morality and disparagingdoctrine. To which side the balance may be dipping at the present timeamong you I do not know; but among us, I should say, it was fromdoctrines towards duties. 

Perhaps in the last generation we had too much preaching of doctrine, or rather I should say, too little preaching of duty. Youngerpreachers are beginning to dwell much on a nobler conception of theChristian life, and there is a strong demand for practical preaching. Undoubtedly there is room for a healthy development in this direction. Yet this is a transition about which our country has good cause to bejealous; because it passed through a terrible experience of theeffects of preaching morality without doctrine. I question if in thewhole history of the pulpit there is a document more worthy of theattention of preachers than the address which Dr. Chalmers sent to thepeople of his first charge at Kilmeny, when he was leaving it forGlasgow. It is well known that for seven years after his settlement inthis rural parish he was ignorant of the Gospel and preached only theplatitudes of the Moderate creed; but, the grace of God havingvisited his heart, he lived for other five years among his people as atrue ambassador of Christ, beseeching them in Christ's name to bereconciled to God. This is his summing up of the results of the twoperiods:--

"And here I cannot but record the effect of an actual thoughundesigned experiment, which I prosecuted for upwards of twelve yearsamong you. For the greater part of that time I could expatiate on themeanness of dishonesty, on the villany of falsehood, on the despicablearts of calumny; in a word, upon all those deformities of characterwhich awaken the natural indignation of the human heart against thepests and the disturbers of human society. Now, could I, upon thestrength of these warm expostulations, have got the thief to give uphis stealing, and the evil speaker his censoriousness, and the liarhis deviations from truth, I should have felt all the repose of onewho had gotten his ultimate object. It never occurred to me that allthis might have been done, and yet the soul of every hearer haveremained in full alienation from God; and that, even could I haveestablished in the bosom of one who stole such a principle ofabhorrence at the meanness of dishonesty that he was prevailed upon tosteal no more, he might still have retained a heart as completelyunturned to God and as totally unpossessed by a principle of love toHim as before. In a word, though I might have made him a more uprightand honourable man, I might have left him as destitute of the essenceof religious principle as ever. But the interesting fact is, thatduring the whole of that period in which I made no attempt against thenatural enmity of the mind to God; while I was inattentive to the wayin which this enmity is dissolved, even by the free offer on the onehand, and the believing acceptance on the other, of the Gospelsalvation; while Christ, through whose blood the sinner, who by naturestands afar off, is brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver, whom he hasoffended, was scarcely ever spoken of, or spoken of in such a way asstripped Him of all the importance of His character and His offices;even at this time I certainly did press the reformations of honour andtruth and integrity among my people; but I never once heard of anysuch reformations having been effected amongst them. If there wasanything at all brought about in this way, it was more than ever I gotany account of. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with which Iurged the virtues and the proprieties of social life had the weight ofa feather on the moral habits of my parishioners. And it was not tillI got impressed by the utter alienation of the heart in all itsdesires and affections from God; it was not till reconciliation to Himbecame the distinct and the prominent object of my ministerialexertions; it was not till I took the Scriptural way of laying themethod of reconciliation before them; it was not till the free offerof forgiveness through the blood of Christ was urged upon theiracceptance, and the Holy Spirit, given through the channel of Christ'smediatorship to all who ask Him, was set before them as the unceasingobject of their dependence and their prayers; in one word, it was nottill the contemplations of my people were turned to these great andessential elements in the business of a soul providing for itsinterest with God and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever heardof any of those subordinate reformations which I aforetime made theearnest and the zealous, but, I am afraid, at the same time theultimate object of my earlier ministrations. Ye servants, whosescrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice, and drawn forth inmy hearing a delightful testimony from your masters, what mischief youwould have done, had your zeal for doctrines and sacraments beenaccompanied by the sloth and the remissness, and what, in theprevailing tone of moral relaxation, is counted the allowablepurloining of your earlier days. But a sense of your Heavenly Master'seye has brought another influence to bear upon you; and, while youare thus striving to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in allthings, you may, poor as you are, reclaim the great ones of the landto the acknowledgment of the faith. You have at least taught me thatto preach Christ is the only effective way of preaching morality inall its branches; and out of your humble cottages have I gathered alesson, which I pray God I may be enabled to carry with all itssimplicity into a wider theatre, and to bring with all the power ofits subduing efficacy upon the voices of a more crowded population. "

 * * * * *

There is nothing which I should more like to leave ringing in yourears than this remarkable statement of my great fellow-countryman. ButI cannot close and bid you farewell without expressing the happinesswhich I have derived from these weeks spent in your society andthanking you for the extremely encouraging attendance with which youhave honoured me from first to last. To the authorities of thecollege, as well as to many citizens of this town, I have to expressmy indebtedness for an amount of kindness and courtesy which I cannever forget, and which will always make my visit to this country oneof the pleasantest of memories. 

Let us, in parting, commend each other to the grace of God:

 O God our Father, the infinite Power, the perfect Wisdom and the immortal Love, in Thy hands are all our ways, and the success of our purposes proceeds from Thee alone. Follow with Thy blessing our intercourse together and the work which we have now completed. Bless this University--its president, its professors and students. May knowledge grow in it from more to more, and, along with knowledge, reverence and love. May those especially who are preparing for the ministry of Thy Son be filled with Thy Spirit, and in due time may they prove faithful stewards of the mysteries of God. Bless them in their studies, in their fellowship with one another, and in their efforts to advance Thy kingdom. We commend each other affectionately to Thee; be our God and our Guide in life and in death, in time and in eternity. For Christ's sake. Amen. 

FOOTNOTES:

[61] The earlier President Dwight. 

[62] "Great subjects insure solid thinking. Solid thinking prompts asensible style, an athletic style, on some themes a magnificent style, and on all themes a natural style. "--PHELPS, _My Note-book_. 

[63] "We owe it to the Church, we owe it to the time in which God hascalled us to labour, we owe it to the restless and perplexed but oftenhonest minds in whose presence we carry on our ministry, to be notmerely a hard-working but a learned clergy. To those great questionswhich both stir and disquiet men, we are bound to bring that knowledgewhich will give us a claim to be listened to. 'Know as much as you can;'that ought to be the rule to which an educated clergyman should holdhimself forever tied. A clergyman ought to be a _student_, a reader anda thinker, to the very end. "--DEAN CHURCH. 

[64] Richard Baxter confesses that he deliberately preached over theheads of his people once a year, for the purpose of keeping them humbleand showing them what their minister could do every Sunday of the year, if he chose!

[65] "A sentence of Pascal would sometimes shoot more light and lifethrough a sermon than all the commentators upon the text since the daysof Noah. "--PRINCIPAL RAINY. 

[66] Rev. Dr. Henderson, of Crieff, told me a story which illustrates inan amusing yet significant way the change which passed over thereligious mind of Scotland in the beginning of the present century. Hisfather, the late Rev. Dr. Henderson, of Glasgow, when newly licensed, was preaching, on the Saturday before a communion, for an extremelyModerate minister of the dignified and pompous school. "I do not know, Mr. Henderson, " said the latter, "what is the difference between youevangelicals and us; but I suppose it is that you preach doctrines, while we preach duties. " "I do not know about that, " said Mr. Henderson;"we preach duties too. " "Well, " said the old man, "for example, myaction sermon to-morrow is to be on lying; and my divisions are--first, the nature of lying; secondly, the sin of lying; and thirdly, theconsequences of lying: now what could you add to that?" "Well, " repliedMr. Henderson, "I would add two things--first, 'Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds, ' and secondly, 'Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour; for weare members one of another. '" "Mr. Henderson, these suggestions areadmirable: I shall add them to my discourse!"

APPENDIX

AN ORDINATION CHARGE

APPENDIX. 

AN ORDINATION CHARGE. [67]

I should like to connect what I have to say with a text of Scripture, which you may remember as a motto for this occasion. Take, then, thatpastoral exhortation to a young minister in 1 Tim. Iv. 16: "Take heedunto thyself, and to the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing thisthou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. "

There are three subjects recommended in this text to one in yourposition--_first_, yourself; _second_, your doctrine; _third_, thosethat hear you. 

I. _Take heed unto thyself. _--Perhaps there is no profession which sothoroughly as ours tests and reveals what is in a man--the stature ofhis manhood, the mass and quality of his character, the poverty orrichness of his mind, the coldness or warmth of his spirituality. These all come out in our work, and become known to our congregationand the community in which we labour. 

When a man comes into a neighbourhood, as you are doing now, he is toa large extent an unknown quantity; and it is very touching to observethe exaggeration with which we are generally looked on at first, people attributing to us a sort of indefinite largeness. But it ismarvellous how soon the measure of a man is taken, how he finds hislevel in the community, and people know whether he is a large or apetty man, whether he is a thinker or not, whether he is a deeplyreligious man or not. The glamour of romance passes off, andeverything is seen in the light of common day. 

The sooner this takes place the better. A true man does not need tofear it. He is what he is, and nothing else. He cannot by takingthought add one cubit to his stature. Any exaggeration of his image inthe minds of others does not in reality make him one inch bigger thanhe is. 

It seems to me to lie at the very root of a right ministerial life tobe possessed with this idea--to get quit of everything like pretenceand untruthfulness, to wish for no success to which one is notentitled, and to look upon elevation into any position for which oneis unfit as a pure calamity. 

The man's self--the very thing he is, standing with his bare feet onthe bare earth--this is the great concern. This is the self to whichyou are to take heed--what you really are, what you are growing to, what you may yet become. 

All our work is determined by this--the spirit and power of ourpreaching, the quality of the influence we exert, and the tenor of ourwalk and conversation. We can no more rise above ourselves than watercan rise above its own level. We may, indeed, often fail to doourselves justice, and sometimes may do ourselves more than justice. But that is only for a moment; the total impression made by ourselvesis an unmistakable thing. What is in us must come out, and nothingelse. All we say and do is merely the expression of what we are. 

Evidently, therefore, there can be nothing so important as carefullyto watch over our inner life, and see that it be large, sweet andspiritual, and that it be growing. 

Yet the temptations to neglect and overlook this and turn ourattention in other directions are terribly strong. The ministeriallife is a very outside life; it is lived in the glare of publicity; itis always pouring out. We are continually preaching, addressingmeetings, giving private counsel, attending public gatherings, goingfrom home, frequenting church courts, receiving visits, and occupiedwith details of every kind. We live in a time when all men are busy, and ministers are the busiest of men. From Monday morning till Sundaynight the bustle goes on continually. 

Our life is in danger of becoming _all_ outside. We are called upon toexpress ourselves before conviction has time to ripen. Our spirits gettoo hot and unsettled to allow the dew to fall on them. We arecompelled to speak what is merely the recollection of conviction whichwe had some time ago, and to use past feelings over again. Many a dayyou will feel this; you will long with your whole heart to escape awaysomewhere into obscurity, and be able to keep your mouth closed forweeks. You will know the meaning of that great text for ministers, "The talk of the lips tendeth only to penury, "--that is, it shallowsthe spirit within. 

This is what we have to fight against. The people we live among andthe hundred details of our calling will steal away our inner lifealtogether, if they can. And then, what is our outer life worth? It isworth nothing. If the inner life get thin and shallow, the outer lifemust become a perfunctory discharge of duties. Our preaching will beempty, and our conversation and intercourse unspiritual, unenrichingand flavourless. We may please our people for a time by doing all theydesire and being at everybody's call; but they will turn round on usin disappointment and anger in the day when, by living merely theouter life, we have become empty, shallow and unprofitable. 

Take heed to thyself! If we grow strong and large inwardly, our peoplewill reap the fruit of it in due time: our preaching will have sap andpower and unction; and our intercourse will have about it the breathof another world. 

We _must_ find time for reading, study, meditation and prayer. Weshould at least insist on having a large forenoon, up, say, to twoo'clock every day, clear of interruptions. These hours of quietnessare our real life! It is these that make the ministerial life a grandlife. When we are shut in alone, and, the spirit having been silencedand collected by prayer, the mind gets slowly down into the heart of atext, like a bee in a flower, it is like heaven upon earth; it is asif the soul were bathing itself in morning dews; the dust and fret arewashed off, and the noises recede into the distance; peace comes; wemove aloft in another world--the world of ideas and realities; themind mounts joyfully from one height to another; it sees the commonworld far beneath, yet clearly, in its true meaning and size andrelations to other worlds. And then one comes down on Sabbath, tospeak to the people, calm, strong and clear, like Moses from themount, and with a true Divine message. 

In so doing, my dear brother, thou shalt save thyself. Lose your innerlife, and you lose yourself, sure enough; for that _is_ yourself. Youwill often have to tell your people that salvation is not the one actof conversion, nor the one act of passing through the gate of heavenat last; but the renewal, the sanctification, the growth, into largeand symmetrical stature, of the whole character. Tell that to yourselfoften too. We take it for granted that you are a regenerated man, orwe would not have ordained you to be a minister of the Gospel to-day. But it is possible for a man to be regenerate and to be a minister, and yet to remain very worldly, shallow, undeveloped and unsanctified. We who are your brethren in the ministry could tell sad histories inillustration of this out of our own inner life. We could tell you how, in keeping the vineyard of others, we have often neglected our own;and how now, at the end of years of ministerial activity and incessanttoil, we turn round and look with dismay at our shallow characters, our unenriched minds, and our lack of spirituality and Christlikeness. O brother! take heed to thyself--save thyself!

II. _Take heed to the Doctrine. _--A very little experience ofpreaching will convince you that in relation to the truth which youhave to minister week by week to your people you will have to sustaina double character--that of an interpreter of Scripture and that of aprophet. 

Let me first say something of the former. With whatever high-flownnotions a man may begin his ministry, yet, if he is to stay for yearsin a place and keep up a fresh kind of preaching and build up acongregation, delivering such discourses as Scotchmen like to hear, hewill find that he must heartily accept the _rôle_ of an interpreter ofScripture, and lean on the Bible as his great support. 

This is your work; the Book is put into your hands to-day, that youmay unfold its contents to your people, conveying them into theirminds by all possible avenues and applying them to all parts of theirdaily life. 

It is a grand task. I cannot help congratulating you on being ordainedto the ministry to-day, for this above everything, that the Bible ishenceforth to be continually in your hands; that the study of it is tobe the work of your life; that you are to be continually sinking andbathing your mind in its truths; and that you are to have the pleasureof bringing forth what you have discovered in it to feed the minds ofmen. The ministerial profession is to be envied more for this thananything else. I promise you that, if you be true to it, this Bookwill become dearer to you every day; it will enrich every part of yournature; you will become more and more convinced that it is the Word ofGod and contains the only remedy for the woes of man. 

But be true to it! The Bible will be what I have said to you only ifyou go deep into it. If you keep to the surface, you will weary of it. There are some ministers who begin their ministry with a certainquantity of religious doctrine in their mind, and what they do alltheir life afterwards is to pick out texts and make them into vesselsto hold so much of it. The vessels are of different shapes and sizes, but they are all filled with the same thing; and oh! it is poor stuff, however orthodox and evangelical it may seem. 

To become a dearly loved friend and an endless source of intellectualand spiritual delight, the Bible must be thoroughly studied. We mustnot pour our ideas into it, but apply our minds to it and faithfullyreceive the impressions which it makes on them. One learns thus totrust the Bible as an inexhaustible resource and lean back upon itwith all one's might. It is only such preaching, enriching itself outof the wealth of the Bible and getting from it freshness, variety andpower, that can build up a congregation and satisfy the minds ofreally living Christians. 

The intellectual demand on the pulpit is rapidly rising. I should liketo draw your earnest attention to a revolution which is silentlytaking place in Scotland, but is receiving from very few the noticewhich it deserves. I refer to the changes that are being made by thenew system of national education. No one can have travelled much forseveral years past through this part of the island without hisattention being attracted by the new and imposing school buildingsrising in almost every parish. These are the index of a revolution;for inside, in their management and in the efficiency of theeducation, there has also been an immense change. I venture to saythat nothing which has taken place in Scotland this century--and I amremembering both the Reform Bill and the Disruption--will be found tohave been of more importance. There will be a far more educatedScotland to preach to in a short time, which will demand of theministry a high intellectual standard. It is a just demand. Our peopleshould go away from the church feeling that they have received new andinteresting information, that their intellects have been illuminatedby fresh and great ideas, and that to hear their minister regularly isa liberal education. 

Nothing will meet this demand except thorough study of Scripture byminds equipped with all the technical helps, as well as enriched bythe constant reading of the best literature, both on our own andkindred subjects. One of our hymns says that the Bible "gives a lightto every age; it gives, but borrows none. " Nothing could be moreuntrue. The Bible borrows light from every age and from everydepartment of human knowledge. Whatever especially makes us acquaintedwith the mysterious depths of human nature is deserving of ourattention. The Bible and human nature call to each other like deepunto deep. Every addition to our knowledge of man will be a new key toopen the secrets of the Word; and the deeper you go in your preachinginto the mysteries of the Word, the more subtle and powerful will bethe springs you touch in the minds and hearts of your hearers. 

But preparation of this sort for the pulpit is not easy. It requirestime, self-conquest and hard work. Perhaps the greatest ministerialtemptation is idleness in study--not in going about and doingsomething, but in finding and rightly using precious hours in one'slibrary, avoiding reverie and light or desultory reading, and stickinghard and fast to the Sabbath work. I, for one, must confess that Ihave had, and still have, a terrible battle to fight for this. No menhave their time so much at their own disposal as we. I often wish wehad regular office-hours, like business men; but even that would notremedy the evil, for every man shut up alone in a study is notstudying. Nothing can remedy it but faithfulness to duty and love ofwork. 

You will find it necessary to be hard at it from Tuesday morning toSaturday night. If you lecture, as I trust you will--for it bringsone, far more than sermonising, into contact with Scripture--you willknow your subject at once, and be able to begin to read on it. Thetext of the other discourse should be got by the middle of the week atlatest, and the more elaborate of the two finished on Friday. Thismakes a hard week; but it has its reward. There are few moods moresplendid than a preacher's when, after a hard week's work, duringwhich his mind has been incessantly active on the truth of God and hisspirit exalted by communion with the Divine Spirit, he appears beforehis congregation on Sabbath, knowing he has an honestly gotten messageto lavish on them; just as there can be no coward and craven moreabject than a minister with any conscience who appears in the pulpitafter an idle, dishonest week, to cheat his congregation with a dietof fragments seasoned with counterfeit fervour. 

But, besides being an interpreter of Scripture, a true minister fillsthe still higher position of a prophet. This congregation has askedyou to become its spiritual overseer. But a minister is no ministerunless he come to his sphere of labour under a far highersanction--unless he be sent from God, with a message in his heartwhich he is burning to pour forth upon men. An apostle (that is, amessenger sent from God) and a prophet (that is, a man whose lips areimpatient to speak the Divine message which his heart is full of)every true minister must be. I trust you have such a message, thesubstance of which you could at this moment, if called upon, speak outin very few words. There is something wrong if from a man's preachinghis hearers do not gather by degrees a scheme of doctrine--a messagewhich the plainest of them could give account of. 

What this message should be, there exists no doubt at all in theChurch of which you have to-day been ordained a minister. It can benothing else than the evangelical scheme, as it has been understoodand expounded by the greatest and most godly minds in all generationsof the Church and preached with fresh power in this country since thebeginning of the present century. It has proved itself the power ofGod, to the revival of the Church and the conversion of souls, wherever it has been faithfully proclaimed; and it is a great trustwhich is committed to your hands to-day to be one of its heralds andconservators. 

Not that we in this generation are to pledge ourselves to preachnothing except what was preached last generation. That would be a poorway of following in the footsteps of men who thought so independentlyand so faithfully fulfilled their own task. The area of topicsintroduced in the pulpit is widening, I think. Why should it not? TheBible is far greater and wider than any school or any generation; andwe will fearlessly commit ourselves to it and go wherever it carriesus, even though it should be far beyond the range of topics withinwhich we are expected to confine ourselves. Your congregation will putone utterance side by side with another; and, if you are a trulyevangelical man, there will be no fear of their mistaking yourstandpoint. There is no kind of preaching so wearisome andunprofitable as an anxious, constrained and formal repetition of themost prominent points of evangelical doctrine. The only cure for thisis to keep in close contact with both human nature and the Bible, andbe absolutely faithful to the impressions which they make. 

Yet take heed that your doctrine be such as will save them that hearyou. What saving doctrine is has been determined in this land by agrand experiment; and it is only faithfulness to the history ofScotland, as well as to God and your people, to make it the sum andsubstance and the very breath of life for all you preaching. Ourcalling is emphatically "the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, thatGod was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputingtheir trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word ofreconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though Goddid beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciledto God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that wemight be made the righteousness of God in Him. " This is the gloriousmessage of the Gospel, which alone can meet the deep spiritual wantsof men. 

Preach it out of a living experience. Bunyan, in his autobiography, gives an account of his own preaching, telling how, for the first twoyears of his ministry, he dwelt continually on the terrors of the law, because he was then quailing beneath them himself; how for the nexttwo years he discoursed chiefly on Christ in his offices, because hewas then enjoying the comfort of these doctrines; and how, for a thirdcouple of years, the mystery of union to Christ was the centre both ofhis preaching and his experience; and so on. That appears to me thevery model of a true ministry--to be always preaching the truth one isexperiencing oneself at the time, and so giving it out fresh, like adiscovery just made; while at the same time the centre of gravity, soto speak, of one's doctrine is constantly in motion, passing from onesection of the sphere of evangelical truth to another, till it has insuccession passed through them all. 

III. _Take heed to them that hear you. _--I almost envy you the new joythat will fill your heart soon, when you fairly get connected withyour congregation. The first love of a minister for his own flock isas original and peculiar a blossom of the heart as any other thatcould be named. And the bond that unites him to those whom he has beenthe means of converting or raising to higher levels of life is one ofthe tenderest in existence. 

You have come to a hearty people, who will be quite disposed to put agood construction on all you do. This is a busy community, thatappreciates a man who works hard. If you do your work faithfully andpreach with the heart and the head, they will come to hear you. It iswonderful how lenient those who hear us are. You will wonder, Idaresay, some Sabbaths, that they sit to hear you at all, or that, having heard you, they ever come back again. But, if a man is reallytrue, he is not condemned for a single poor sermon. Honesty andthorough work and good thinking are not so easily found in the worldthat a man who generally exhibits them can be neglected. If we fail, it must surely generally be our own fault. 

The more we put ourselves on a level with the people the better. Westoop to conquer. It is better to feel that we belong to thecongregation than that it belongs to us. I like to think of theminister as only one of the congregation set apart by the rest for aparticular purpose. A congregation is a number of people associatedfor their moral and spiritual improvement. And they say to one oftheir number, Look, brother, we are busy with our daily toils andconfused with domestic and worldly cares; we live in confusion anddarkness; but we eagerly long for peace and light to cheer andilluminate our life; and we have heard there is a land where these areto be found--a land of repose and joy, full of thoughts that breatheand words that burn: but we cannot go thither ourselves; we are tooembroiled in daily cares: come, we will elect you, and set you freefrom our toils, and you shall go thither for us, and week by weektrade with that land and bring us its treasures and its spoils. Oh, woe to him who accepts this election, and yet, failing throughidleness to carry on the noble merchandise, appears week by weekempty-handed or with merely counterfeit treasure in his hands! Woe tohim too, if, going to that land, he forgets those who sent him andspends his time there in selfish enjoyment of the delights ofknowledge! Woe to him if he does not week by week return laden, andever more richly laden, and saying, Yes, brothers, I have been to thatland; and it is a land of light and peace and nobleness: but I havenever forgotten you and your needs and the dear bonds of brotherhood;and look, I have brought back this, and this, and this: take it togladden and purify your life!

I esteem it one of the chief rewards of our profession, that it makesus respect our fellow-men. It makes us continually think of even themost degraded of them as immortal souls, with magnificent undevelopedpossibilities in them--as possible sons of God, and brethren ofChrist, and heirs of heaven. Some men, by their profession, arecontinually tempted to take low views of human nature. But we areforced to think worthily of it. A minister is no minister who does notsee wonder in the child in the cradle and in the peasant in the fieldrelations with all time behind and before, and all eternity above andbeneath. Not but that we see the seamy side too--the depths as well asthe heights. We get glimpses of the awful sin of the heart; we aremade to feel the force of corrupt nature's mere inert resistance togood influences; we have to feel the pain of the slowness of themovement of goodness, as perhaps no other men do. Yet love and undyingfaith in the value of the soul and hope for all men are themainsprings of our activity. 

For the end we always aim at is to save those who hear us. Think whatthat is! What a magnificent life work! It is to fight against sin, todestroy the works of the devil, to make human souls gentle, noble andgodlike, to help on the progress of the world, to sow the seed of thefuture, to prepare the population of heaven, to be fellow-sufferersand fellow-workers with Christ, and to glorify God. 

This is your work; and the only true measure of ministerial success ishow many souls you save--save in every sense--in the sense ofregeneration, and sanctification and redemption. 

THE END. 

FOOTNOTES:

[67] Delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. William Agnew, Gallatown, Kirkcaldy, 1879. 

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