Introduction to the American Edition

By J. B. Condit

The Christian ministry, in its character and work, is a subject of growing interest in this country. During the last twenty-five years it has been the object of much effort to furnish a sufficient number of men to meet the demand. The claims of the office have been set forth strongly in view of our extending and destitute population. Institutions have been multiplied for the purpose of educating men for the work. So deeply has this necessity been felt, and so many were the agencies to be organized and sustained to supply it, that we have been in danger of thinking too little of the character of the ministry. While the efforts to increase its numbers ought not to be diminished, it must not be forgotten that a numerous ministry may not be an efficient one.

Many, it is believed, will rejoice in the appearance of this work by Mr. James, who has presented the subject, in one of its departments, in a most impressive manner. If the respected author had written for American readers, doubtless some things would have been omitted. But nothing will be found in the book to hinder its usefulness.

It is obvious that the subject has deeply interested the mind of the writer. An earnest heart guides his able pen, No minister, or candidate for the ministry, can read the book without receiving a deep impression of the greatness of the trust, and some valuable aid in the discharge of tilt is generally acknowledged, that we must rely on the living ministry as the principal agency for the extension of the Gospel in this land, not simply in view of the prominence which Christ has given it in his word, and in the progress of the Church, but because of its adaptation to the condition and character of the people.

The mind of this nation presents some remarkable features in its present character and position, deeply interesting to the Christian as well as the philosopher and statesman. It is an intellectual life which is not marked by the quiet pursuit of its object, but by an incessant and hurried movement. It is not the intellectual action of a few, concentrating in one constellation the light of the age, but it involves the entire people. It is pre-eminently a diffused mental activity. The superiority of mental energy is acknowledged from the town-hall of the country village, to the chamber of the Senate. If this action is somewhat superficial, and if it is often sustained by unhealthy means, yet it is everywhere discernible.

This mind is not of one common type, not having been educated under the same political institutions, nor taken the impress of any one system of religious faith. Many old erroneous opinions, as well as new, have their adherents, and are struggling for prevalence over the truth. We have a mixture of intellectual and moral elements, strikingly diverse. Tributaries from every quarter of the globe are finding their way into our stream, and must ultimately impart to it their different hues. We wonder not

that the wisest are unable to foretell what is to be the result in respect to the strength and permanence of government or the religious character of coming generations. We wonder not that we witness the conflict of thought and feeling; or that we are sometimes shaken with a sudden and violent concussion. These cross-currents of mind will be likely to keep up a deep agitation.

We must have a religious agency which is fitted to meet this posture of things. It must be that which will powerfully arrest mind, in the midst of its warm conflicts, and bring the Gospel in its full power to the sympathies and hearts of the people. It must be that which will come in where worldliness, ignorance and corruption reign, with resources adapted to overcome prejudice, supplant error, and lay broad and permanent foundations for the reign of truth and righteousness. It must possess the wisdom, energy and facility in action, to meet character and opinion of every type, and with the divine blessing to mould them according to the truth and law of God.

To what agency do such qualifications belong, if not to the Christian ministry? It comes with the power of a living character, visibly illustrating and practically enforcing the truth. By its ever-living presence it encompasses mind with an attracting and moulding influence. To this, it adds the wondrous influence of oral delivery. We impute no magic charm to the human voice and countenance. Yet that voice is made to speak the truth in tones which move the heart. In the human face there is a strange power of speech. It is the language of the soul kindling into sympathy with it the souls of the hearers. Reason about it as we may, the fact is as wonderful now as it ever was. There is no example of influence (nor mind more simple and sublime than that of a man of (rod in the

earnest delivery of the gospel message. He does not exert it by means of unholy stratagem or mere novelties in style and action, but by the exhibition of truth on old, familiar themes, with old and familiar tones. But he exhibits that truth with a heart all glowing under its power. He separates his hearers from the associations of worldly business, and gathers them into the presence of Jehovah. He charges their sins against them, arraigns them at the bar of God, and pronounces their doom as impenitent men. Now he collects over them the clouds of Divine wrath, and then he draws them around the cross, and makes them hear the winning voice of the Redeemer. He does it with the strength and courage imparted by confidence in God, but with the humility and love of a man and a sinner. They love to hear the tones of such a voice; to feel the power of that speaking eye, as that voice and that eye utter the gushing thoughts of a spirit intensely moved in sympathy with them. What reader of Edwards’ sermon, entitled “Sinners in the hands of an angry God,” is impressed as they were who heard him utter it in the solemn earnestness of the pulpit? We read the sermons of Whitfield without the realization of the power which accompanied his preaching. We by no means attribute the astonishing effects of his preaching only to his look, tone and action as a speaker. We forget not that these were the expression of a soul, into the depths of which the truth had come with a penetrating, awakening influence, and that the power of God attended him. Yet, in his ready speech, so as never “to stumble at a word, and never to stop for the want of one;” in his natural gracefulness and inimitable power of action; in his ability “to paint with all the effect of real scenery,” and to make sinners tremble, as if about to sink into perdition, and even believe themselves doomed.

as in the tone and air of a judge lie pronounced the sentence, “Depart!” — we have those qualities which constitute the peculiar advantage of the preacher in gaining attention to the truth, and which are worthy of being diligently cultivated.

Now we affirm that in view of the genius and habits of our people, we must look to the living ministry to do a great work in this nation. Such an agency will accord with the method of awakening and guiding mind in other departments of thought and action among all classes. If this is true of the older sections of the country, it is even more characteristic of communities less enlightened, and less disciplined to the patient study of truth. The people are accustomed to instruction and persuasion by the earnest speaker. So the voice of the living preacher must obtain the ear of the people, as with the Bible in his hand, he unfolds its doctrines, if these glorious truths find a lodgment, and mould the mind and character of successive generations. We tremble to think of the amazing responsibility resting on the gospel ministry in its relation to our country’s salvation. In view of its intrusted work, what importance belongs to its spirit and character. How shall it execute its trust without a large endowment of the graces of the Spirit, and a Christ-like devotion and self-denial?

In view of the work which it is called to perform, the Christian ministry in this land must be eminently spiritual and practical in its character. The importance of a complete intellectual furniture is not disputed. The point is settled that the men who are to occupy the sacred office, must have the opportunity for making thorough literary and theological attainments. The demand for learning in the ministry is too loud to be disregarded. Wherever the preacher finds his field of action, he will have occasion for the most skillful use of the best weapons. Let him not venture forth into the field of battle without full armor. But if the result of that intellectual training is to appear in abstract, philosophical preaching, the American pulpit will never accomplish its appropriate work. Far off be the day when the ministers of Christ shall exalt metaphysical subtleties above the doctrine of the cross; when they shall seek, to attain skill in frigid argumentation, rather than a holy facility in the spiritual and practical work of guiding souls to Christ and to heaven; when intellectual gratification shall be more thought of, than the edification of the humble Christian, in their mode of exhibiting truth, overlooking the spiritual wants and difficulties of the common mind. Such ministers will make the pulpit jejune and powerless in respect to its most essential objects. Their cold light will shine without touching the hearts of men. They will defeat the mission of truth from the throne to this world of sin and darkness. They cannot compass the mighty work which God puts into their hands. We need a ministry whose intellectual furniture and energy have come under the influence of a spiritual piety, nurtured in communion with Christ. Then it will be “strong and do exploits.” The preacher must not only know what conscience is, but how to reach it with the truth. He must know what is the hungering of a soul after the bread of life, and how to divide and distribute the word so as to satisfy the hungry. It must be the “living bread,” and not the speculations of the theorist, however expert he may be; that which will be the element of vigor and life to the spiritual man. To show unto men the way of salvation, he must regard as the object worthy of his most select and untiring efforts. The practical rules of

Christian living, must be his familiar themes of discourse. Hence scholastic learning is not enough, lest he be a mere scholastic preacher. Rhetorical rules, however thoroughly mastered, are not enough, lest he be a mere orator. His investigations of truth, though pursued with enthusiasm and presented in elaborate discussion, will affect no human heart, if they are not made to bear directly on the repentance, faith and sanctification of men. If his commission as minister of the gospel is executed in a manner appropriate to its high designs, he must be a man skilled in the workings of the human soul, interested in all the relations of common life, and apt in the inculcation of truth with regard to all the difficulties and duties of those relations; while he is absorbed in the one great object for which Christ died.

This characteristic of the ministry is worthy to be greatly exalted above the observance of any one law in the structure of sermons* Yet this is not a point of little moment. We should much regret if the American pulpit should ever become chiefly hortatory. Examples have proved that the pulpit has lost power when the hortatory style has been habitually adopted. That man will most deeply impress a generation of mind, who, while skillful in appeals to the conscience, is also the able teacher and expounder of truth. “We believe, also, that the practice of delivering written sermons is essential to the greatest usefulness of the ministry. Without it, in all ordinary cases, the permanent interest and power of the pulpit will not be sustained. It is admitted that the immediate effects of Pay son’s preaching were often most striking in connection with some of his unwritten discourses. But this might not have been, if he had not preached one written sermon every Sabbath. This, his practice, was doubtless indis-Xll INTRODUCTION.

pensable to make his ministry what it was, and to perpetuate its remarkable influence. t

The quality of the ministry to which allusion has been made, would naturally tend to give it a more scriptural character. And what improvement is more desirable than a richer infusion into the discourses of the pulpit of the pure word of God? Not only make the text penetrate the sermon, but let other parts of the Scriptures be made to gather around it, to shed light upon it and receive light from it. Occasional American hearers of some ministers in England and Scotland have marked this characteristic with great pleasure. If it should diminish the brilliancy of the pulpit, it would add to its richness. Fewer orations will be delivered, but many better sermons. A prevalent unhealthy taste may not be so well satisfied for a time, but a better taste will soon be formed. It will furnish the best opportunity for awakening emotion and affecting the conscience, as well as -imparting instruction. Thus obtaining vivid impressions of truth, the preacher will possess one element of true earnestness in the pulpit; for he will speak not only with all the authority of truth, but with a soul deeply imbued with the spirit of it. Then he will have a holy unction, and will give forth both light and heat. A spiritual, practical, scriptural, as well as learned ministry, will be earnest; and that is the ministry God will bless for the enlightenment and salvation of our country.

PROFESSORS AND COMMITTEE
OF CHESHUNT COLLEGE,

THE FOLLOWING TREATISE.

BEING THE EXPANSION OF A SERMON

PREACHED

BEFORE THEM AT THEIR LAST ANNIVERSARY,

IS INSCRIBED

WITH SENTIMENTS OF AFFECTIONATE RESPECT,

AND WITH EARNEST PRAYERS

FOR THE PROSPERITY

OF THEIR VALUABLE INSTITUTION.

BY

THE AUTHOR,