Frameworks
I have given you a few hints upon figures; let me now further expose myself to your criticism by offering you a few crude outlines of discourses. I have not spared you; there is no occasion for you to spare me. Use your keenest edge and give full swing to your young strength. I care less and less for mere outlines, and more and more for a sympathetic and intelligent discussion of the subject of any text. Some preachers are outline mad; they are nothing but outline; they plan beautifully, but build nothing. Give them the word tkinMng as a text, and they will see in it: (1) Man in a reduced physical state — thin; (2) man in a high social state — hing; (3) man in a true intellectual state — thinking. Give them as a text the word feeblest, and they will see in it: (1) A professional income — lee; (2) an indication of supreme happiness — blest; (3) a description of a human state deserving commiseration — feeblest. Give them for a text the words Gome unto Me, and they will see in fchem: (1) A state of activity — come; (2) activity well directed — unto; (3) activity terminating upon the best of beings — Me. The outlining of which this is hardly an exaggeration is irreverent trifling with the inspired word; it shows off the poor powers of the textual gymnast, and by so much degrades and insults the holy vocation of the Christian
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ministry. Study the idea of the text; try to pierce to its very heart; and having seized the truth, expound it with all simplicity and earnestness. With these introductory remarks, let me place before you a few outlines which may be quite as useful as warnings as examples.
I. The Private Ministry of the Gospel.
“Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write;” etc. — John i. 45-51.
The scene: one man speaking to another about Jesus Christ!
I. Every Christian has a message to the world: ‘^ we have found Him/^ etc. The message is founded upon matter of fact, and is supported hj personal testimony. The responsibility of silence.
II. Every Christian may expect to encounter controversial INQUIRIES. Nathanael put the question of prejudice: others will start critical, metaphysical, and ethical difficulties. No subject more deeply agitates the mind than Christianity. This is in its favour; so profound and comprehensive a revelation must appeal to all that is highest and mightiest in man.
III. Every Christian has a practical answer to such inquiries: ^’ Philip saith unta him. Come and see; ‘’ — not discussion, but fact. Jesus adopted the same method with the disciples of John, The works of Christianity are its best defence. We know that the Bible is inspired because of its inspiring influence upon human life. The Christian advocate should always take the inquirer directly to Jesus Christ. A Christian man should be a convincing reply to all scepticism; his life should be his argument.
TV. Every Christian will witness the happiest results OF AN ACCEPTANCE OF HIS MESSAGE. It was SO in the case of Nathanael. (1) Jesus Christ showed familiarity with his history; every man feels that Jesus Christ speaks to him personally; in no case did Jesus Chris fc require any information respecting those who came to Him. He seemed to carry each mans history in His own great life. (2) Jesus Christ wrought in him the joy of personal conviction: “Thou art the Son of God/^ etc. Christianity is not altogether a matter of external evidence; it becomes part of the man’s very soul; hence the authority with which men can speak of their Divinest experiences. (3) He gave him the prospect of still fuller revelation; “hereafter ye shall see heaven opened,” etc. Acceptance of Christ is not a final act; it is the initiation of the soul into an unending course of development of strength and love. The Christian will ever have more to ‘’ see ‘’ than he has yet seen. ‘^ Eye hath not seen,” etc. ‘^ He is able to do exceedingly above,” etc.
Aioplicatioyi: Preach to one man; preach Christ to him; preach Christ to him on the authority of personal experience.
II. The Divine Echo in the Human Heart. ‘♦ Well, Master, Thou hast said the truth.” — Make xii. 32.
God’s word may be received controversially, speculatively, or lovingly; men may argue about it, or let it argue with them to their conviction and redemption. Take for example the doctrine, Man is a sinner. You may make
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it a matter of controversy and by all the poor devices of self conceit may endeavour to escape its consequences; it may be met by flat denial, or received with, many modifications. But take it into the heart, when the heart is in its best mood, ponder it when far from the influence of the worlds excitement and flattery, and say whether there be not a voice which responds affirmatively to the tremendous charge. Take again the doctrine, Man needs a Saviour. It is possible to meet such a doctrine in a captious and resentful spirit; it denies the possibility of self redemption; it dismisses all the fancies which the soul has been treasuring, and shows man his poverty and weakness. But take it also into the heart, under circumstances which allow it to be fairly considered, when the heart knows most of its own bitterness, and has seen the limit of the worlds little power, and say whether there be not a voice answering God’s appeal with, ‘’Well, Master, Thou hast said the truth.’’’ We do not ask for the acceptance of doctrines which ignore or override the instincts and experience of the world; on the contrary, Christianity addresses itself to the intuitions of every man.
What are the loradical consequences of our having this responsive faculty? I. Man is made a co-woeker with God; not a machine, but a cooperating agent. This gives confidence to personal hope and authority to personal teaching. II. Man enjoys the eesteaints of conscience. Upon practical morals man is his own Bible; he carries an unwritten law which warns him from forbidden ground. The conscience i& Gods witness in our apostasy. The Bible appeals to it, and works ‘with its full consent. III. God bases His judgment upon this
28G Ad Clenim: Advices to a Young Preacher.
EESPONSiVE FACULTY: “To him that knoweth to do good/^ etc.; ^’ Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knowest,” etc. The judgment day will be shorty because every man will be his own witness.
Application: Is there nothing in you which responds to the appeals of the gospel, which says, Master, Thou hast said the truth ‘’? Your treatment of that voice will determine your destiny. “Quench not the Spirit.’’^ “He that knoweth his Lords will, and doeth it not,”*^ etc.
III. God’s Revelation of Himself.
«’ I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?” — Jer. sxxii. 27.
This is Gods revelation of Himself — not the fancy of a speculator, not the dream of a poet, but a Divine and authoritative declaration of personality, relationship, and power. Peculiar importance attaches to the very form of expression, inasmuch as it assumes to be the precise language which has fallen from the lips of the Almighty. No man is at liberty to adopt the words; if they are not what they profess to be, they are the utterance of daring blasphemy. It is our joy to believe in their simple truth, and to govern our lives by the holy principles which they imply.
“I am the Lord:’’ here is a direct assertion of personality; it is not the voice of creation, but the voice of the Creator; not only life, but the living One. We have need to be assured of Grods personality; He never appears t(S our natural vision: we see the works, but not the Worker; and many a time the heart desires a clearer
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revelation of the Divine nature than is supplied by the sublimities and beauties of creation. In all ages man bas desired to come near bis Maker, to get beyond the courts of the temple in wbicb He is entbroned, and to behold Him as it were face to face. Job said:” Ob, that I knew where I might find Him/^ It was not enough to live in His light, and to be surrounded by the tokens of His power; be wished to look upon Him and to speak to Him, as a man might speak to bis friend. We cannot enter into all the reasons wby we are excluded from a sight of Gods personality; but we have rest in the belief that in another tbeatre we shall be satisfied that while in the flesh, oppressed by its guilt and limited by its weakness, we could not have borne the revelation for wbicb, in our ignorance, we have often sigbed. Surely God will not reproacb us for our desire to look upon Him, if that desire be the expression of filial love and not of sinful audacity. Is it unnatural that a child should wish to see bis Fatber, especially when that Fatber is so near as to be able to speak to him, often by name and always in the language of wisdom and love? Tbe very nearness constitutes a temptation. Were the name announced in distant tbuuder, as if it were too awful to be uttered in the language of men, we might tremble, and reverently abide the time of more intimate revelation; but when the voice is nigb us, when it is even in our souls, stimulating and comforting us, it is not to be wondered at that we should wish to see the all-gracious and ever abiding Speaker. Denied this sight, we take refuge in such declarations as the text; we accept the abounding manifestations of goodness as a pledge that when our discipline is complete and our
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faculties are mature we shall assuredly see the King in His beauty.
“I am the Lord.’* Here is a direct assertion, not only of personality, but of absolute dominion. God does not announce Himself as a lord, one of many; but as the Lord, the one and only Sovereign, whose glory is incommunicable, and whose empire is the universe. There is no hesitation in the language; it is complete, absolute, and final. To accept it is to be saved from all wandering of heart towards the” lords many and gods many ‘^ of pagan superstition or semi-Christian speculation. This gives steadiness of heart; it defines alike the Divine and human position, and develops the strength by showing the weakness of all finite life.
IV. Christian Experience..
“I am crucified with Christ,’”
“I would to God that all that hear me were such as I am.”
“By the grace of God I am what I am.”
I. Christian experience is personal. “I am*’: (a) internal; {h) intense; (c) vital.
II. Christian experience is benevolent. ^’ I would to God,^’ etc.: {a) Christianity enlarges human sympathies; {b) Christianity compels to noble action in behalf of others.
III. Christian experience is Divine. *’ By the grace of God.-’^ It is a Divine eSect: {a) mysterious; {h) generous; (c) complete.
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V. First Efforts. “This beginning of miracles did Jesus,” etc. — John ii. 11.
I. The memorahleness of first eflPorts (in every department of life).
II. The determining effects of first efi’orts (encouraging discouraging; beginnings often determine ends).
III. The modesty of first efforts (compared with Christs other miracleS; this seems, in many respects to be the simplest of them all). Encourage men to make first efi’orts — first efi*orts in family prayer public prayer Christian service; etc.
YI. The Mission of Christ.
“The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” — Luke xix. 10.
I. The most magnificent historical fact: ‘’came.”
II. The most appallingly significant mission: ‘’ to seel.’’
III. The most transcendently beneficent jpiirose: ‘’ to save.’’
IV. The most perfect description of the state of humanity: ‘’lost.”
(a) If Christ came, manV responsibility is increased. (b) If Christ came to seeh, then seek ye the Lord while He may be found, (c) If Christ came to save, then the sinner is without excuse, (d) If Christ came to save the lost, then the worst may welcome Him, (e) Christ will come, will come to seeh, once more.
Such is a handful of outlines. Every man must have his own way of making plans of sermons; there is no best way; that way is best which the preacher himself has proved to be best. We should aim at variety in division; sometimes the division may be very formal sometimes it may be quite subordinate. It is not always necessary to describe the outline to the congregation; occasionally it may be specified with advantage. You must judge of the circumstances and act accordingly. Beware — suffer this word of exhortation — of having an artistic framework and a lifeless expansion. Men will be affected more by your tones than by your heads.