Preface

Has the modern evangelical pulpit lost,, and is it still losing, any of its power? This is a question far too momentous to be asked in the spirit of mere curiosity, or to be answered in unreflecting and ignorant haste. An affirmative reply involves consequences so deeply and so painfully affecting the eternal welfare of mankind, as well as the cause of orthodox doctrine, that it should not be given but upon indubitable evidence; while on the other hand, a negative answer will only perpetuate the evil, if it really exists, by preventing all measures which might be taken “to correct it. In settling this question, it is necessary to define what is meant by the loss of the power of the pulpit. If by this it is intended only to ask whether evangelical ministrations have lost their attractiveness in drawing the people together to hear them, it may be unhesitatingly affirmed that they have not, for perhaps there was never anything approaching the numbers which now are found listening to the glad tidings of salvation. The true intent of the inquiry then is this: Has the modern pulpit lost any of its efficiency as regards the great end for which the gospel is preached, that is, the conversion of sinners, and the spiritual advancement of believers? In coming to a right conclusion upon this matter, another inquiry still must be proposed, which is this: With what past period of history is the present compared? If we go back to the time of Baxter, Howe, Owex, Bates, Maxtox, and Ciiarxock, there can be little reason to believe, it may be presumed, that the moderns preach with the same results that these men did. As little can it be questioned whether Whitfield and Wesley, with the men called up by their labors, proclaimed the gospel of the grace of God, with more power and success than the preachers of the present day. It is better, therefore, to limit the range of inquiry to the last quarter of a century, and to state the matter thus: Does the preaching of the gospel now, taking all evangelical denominations into the investigation, appear to be followed with the same saving and sanctifying results, as it was then; and if not, does there appear to be a progressive diminution of effect still going on?

This, it must be obvious, is a question which cannot be settled by very accurate statistics, and for the solution of which we must depend pretty much upon general reports, and concurrent testimony. It may be asked, then, whether the want of efficiency is not matter of acknowledgment and lamentation by all evangelical bodies? True it is that to a certain extent similar acknowledgments and lamentations have been made in every age, and by ministers of all denominations. But the inquiry now supposed is made chiefly by those who compare themselves with themselves; and their success at the present time, with their own success in a past time. The confession from the United States, made by Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Methodists, is concurrent, that there is a flatness over the churches, that revivals are rare, and conversions few, while the power of godliness among professing Christians is low.. The Methodist body in these United Kingdoms, reported last year but an increase of about seven hundred members. The evangelical clergy of the Church of England lament the want of conversions by their preaching, and confess that the power of Venn, and Romaine, and Cecil, and Newton, seems wanting to their successors. The Baptists and Independents have no better report to make. Dr. Chalmers, in a late article in the North British Review, in speaking of Scotland, and that at a time when the disruption of the Presbyterian Establishment might have been supposed to have given new activity to the Free Church at least, uses the following mournful language: “As things stand at present, our creeds and confessions have become effete, and the Bible a dead letter; and the orthodoxy which was at one time the glory, by withering into the inert and lifeless, is now the shame and reproach of all our churches.” This is strong language, and a startling opinion. But the most melancholy thing connected with it is its truth.

Assuming then the fact that the modern evangelical pulpit has lost, and is losing, something of its power, in the way of converting sinners and carrying forward the spiritual life of believers, it surely becomes us all to reflect upon the painful fact with the deepest seriousness, and the most intense anxiety, and at the same time to inquire after the cause. It would ill become us, in a spirit of antinomian indolence or fanaticism, to resolve this whole matter into Divine sovereignty, and to say, “God wills it.” With the same reason, and on as good ground, might the impenitent sinner be satisfied with his condition, and trace ii up to a withholding of the influence necessary for his conversion. That there is a suspension of Divine influence must be admitted, if there be a diminished saving result; but as the Spirit uses appropriate means, may not this very suspension itself be traced up to some fault of the preachers themselves? Would not a different order of means lead to a removal of this suspension of the Spirit’s power? The question for us to ask in all seriousness and prayerful examination, is this: Does the diminished power of the pulpit arise from a diminished adaptation of the pulpit, or is the deficiency which is lamented to be traced up exclusively to the circumstances of the times that are now passing over us? Something may be set down to both these causes.

This is a matter that concerns all, and deeply concerns them too, for the tendency of decline is always downward; what is weak will become weaker, if not stopped.

There is another consideration which may account for the diminished effect of the pulpit, and that is an increased power of the press and of the school. At one time the preacher had the public mind almost to himself. There were indeed Bibles, and schools, and tracts, but how few and uninfluential, compared with what they are in the present day! Evangelical truth now comes before the million in every possible variety of form, and in every variable quantity: the child learns its lessons from the Sunday school teacher, and the poorest adult reads it at home in the tract and the penny magazine; and though this is a help in one respect to the preacher, it takes from him all the advantage which novelty of representation can give him, for he has been already forestalled by the living voice of the teacher, and the silent invitations of the tract. These auxiliary means of conversion will never supersede the pulpit, if the pulpit does not allow itself to be superseded; but it is evident that such competitors with it as these for the public mind, should increase its labors to be, what God ever intended it to be, his power to the salvation of men. That the pulpit has nothing to fear from the increase of religious knowledge by the school and the press, is evident from the fact that as science multiplies its treatises, and cheapens them down to the poorest pocket, it multiplies in equal proportion its public lecturers.

The views thus set forth in this preface will account for the subject of the volume which they introduce. We live in an earnest age, and nothing but an earnest ministry may hope to succeed in it. With this conviction, when honored with an invitation to preach last year the anniversary sermon for Cheshunt College, the author found his subject in his own views and convictions. The publication of the discourse then preached was solicited at the time of its delivery; but as it was given to the world pretty fully in the pages of the Patriot newspaper, he abandoned all thoughts of complying with a request so kindly preferred. His attention was, however, called again to the subject, and his resolution changed by the solicitation of that distinguished man who presides over the collegiate institution at Cheshunt with so much wisdom and dignity; and who to all his other works, so rich in practical piety, has added another of a very different kind, which, while it lays the world under deep obligations to its author, will associate the name of Dr. Harris with the most profound religious philosophers of any age or any country. May his valuable life be spared to complete that magnificent series of treatises, which, with such adventurous but well-balanced intellect, he has projected, and of which the volume lately issued is but the commencement!

When revising the manuscript for publication, the- author of this work found it admitted of more expansion of thought

and more extended amplification than at first struck him; and he resolved as soon as time should be found for it, to prepare a small treatise which should have a better chance of living than an ephemeral pamphlet. The subject grew under his hand, and has at length swelled into this volume. In undertaking to become, especially at such length, the counsellor of his brethren, he can scarcely acquit himself of the charge of presumption. He feels that he has little claim upon the attention of his fellow laborers in the ministry, even the youngest of them, and very little right to ask it. True it is that he is now arrived at an ae when he takes his place among the fathers; but then years do not always teach wisdom. It is no less true that he has now labored two and forty years in the ministry of the Word, and has had no very limited opportunity of observing and of knowing, experimentally, what contributes to ministerial acceptableness and usefulness; still he can truly say, without a grain of vanity concealed under a simulated modesty, he offers the present treatise to the notice of his brethren, with fear and trembling. He knows that what is offered to them should, both as to matter and manner* be worthy of their attention; and had he a literary reputation to sustain, over which he was jealous even to fastidiousness, he would feel still more solicitude about the reception of his work; but as he aims at nothing but usefulness, without making any pretensions to a finished style, he can ask them to accept it as an affectionate endeavor, made in his own way, to aid their usefulness. God has helped him to do something for His cause, and knowing how it has been done, he is anxious to draw others into the same way. And now while his shadows lengthen on the plain, and his eye is on the declining sun, he feels that in the review of life, the thought of having done something to save souls from death is more precious, than could have been his consciousness of having made the largest acquirements of learning and science. There is a time coming in every man’s history when the knowledge of having been the instrument to pluck a single brand from the eternal burning, will yield more real satisfaction than the certainty of having accomplished the loftiest objects of literary ambition.

The author anticipates a remark which will be made by many of the readers of this volume, that it is a book of extracts. They will, however, have no cause to complain of this, since what he has given from the stores of other men’s thoughts is so much better than what he could have brought from his own. Besides, in so important a matter as advice to the ministry, he was anxious to be sustained in what he advanced, by the authority of men, whose names and counsels would carry far more weight than his own. Be it so, then, that the book will present the appearance of a literary mosaic, — the author is quite content, for the sake of such precious stones, that his own part of the volume should perform no higher office than to be the framework in which they are set.

There will be found some repetitions of sentiment, and even of expression, in the work; and this was hardly to be avoided from the nature of the subject. It is a poor excuse for imperfections, to plead the want of time for correcting them; and yet it is the best excuse the author has to make for the many that will be found in his little volume. His situation exposes him to a thousand vexatious interruptions, which many in more retired nooks know nothing about. These pages have been written amidst such abounding and various occupations, that they could be composed only during snatches of time redeemed from other duties, and from the intervals of busy activities.

If this work should do nothing more than draw the attention of writers in our Reviews and Magazines, as well as of our more talented authors, to a renewed consideration of that most vital point, our ministry, it will, however humble are its pretensions and low its merits, have accomplished a high and holy vocation.