The Great Object of Preaching

The third general object we have in view in illustrating the power of the pulpit, relates to the duty of ministers themselves. The inquiry is certainly an appropriate one, What course of conduct is incmnbent on ministers themselves, in order to makefidl iwoof of the power with which the jndpit is invested?

The constituent elements of this power are more than human, yet are they intrusted to men. It is no infringement upon the Divine prerogative to affirm, that the preacher himself has an agency in carrying the designs of the pulpit into effect. If he is a mere blower of the Gospel trumpet, he ought to know how to blow it; his own heart must be in sweet accordance with the glad tidings which he utters, and his fingers trained to sweep the strings of the sacred lyre. It is a mighty trust which is committed to him. He has something to do in the work which the pulpit accomplishes; he himself is employed in giving direction to this great moral machinery. He is not a mere automaton, set up in the sanctuary for show; a something for men to look at, and then go away and (nlk about, as they wouhl about the acts, and scenes, and persons, of a dramatic exhibition. It is not enough that he go through the labor of preparing two or three discourses a week; and then, when the Sabbath bell calls him, repair to the house of God, and with all sobriety and decency deliver them to the people of his charge, in the name and by the authority of his divine Master. His work is not done then; it may be it is not truly begun. Nor may he, if this is all that he does, soothe his conscience with the thought that though his pulpit be powerless, and his hearers are not saved, “he has delivered his own soul.” The Gospel ought not to lose its energy in his hands; rather ought his ministrations to be such, and so fortified and adorned, as to develop and express that energy, to the glory of God, and the salvation of men.

A broad field here opens upon us, did we purpose to traverse it. Our course is a limited one, and must exclude many topics, for the purpose of dwelling on the few No man of evangelical views hesitates to affirm that those who occupy the pulpit should be men of respectable talents, and “apt to teach;” nor that they should be able and thoroughly educated men, fitted by their intellectual furniture for the exigencies of the Church and the world; nor that they should be orthodox men, and fearless advocates of God’s truth. These qualifications cannot be too thoioughly urged, and insisted on: where they are wanting, the pulpit is shorn of its strength.

This is not all that the pulpit demands. It must have something more than this, or it can never exert its appropriate influence. Just before Paul was about to be led forth from his prison at Rome to the scaffold, among other paternal and divinely-inspired counsels, he uttered many of deep interest to the ministry of reconciliation. He himself had struggled hard, and was just about to finish his course. He had contended honorably and lawfully, and was in daily expectation of his crown. “I am now,” says he, “ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” Timothy was young; he had just put on the armor; and it was a most seasonable and every way fitting injunction for such an one as “Paul the aged “to say to him,” Do the work of an evangelist; 7nahe full 2^roof oi thy VLiiwiiYj.’’ These general remarks, though we cannot enforce them as we desire to do, deserve at least the following illustrations.

The first thought which suggests itself on this branch of our subject is the importance of a single eye to the great object of preaching the Gospel.

In this world men are educated for eternity; a process is here going on which is destined to exert an influence, when earth and time shall have passed away. This is but the dawn of intelligence. The movement of the human intellect, but for an occasional untoward and anomalous influence, is perpetually onward. There are instances in which its approach to the confines of the eternal world has given an unwonted impetus to its powers, and imparted not only the consciousness that God made it to live, and think, and act forever, but some strong anticipations of its progressive career. It does not brighten in its course, to sink like the setting sun, dazzling with its splendor, and gilding the scenery only as long as it is seen; it sets to rise on other spheres, where millions follow it with their admiring gaze. Time is but the outer court of the temple where this thinking existence remains only to be ushered into the sanctuary of God, and to stand in the presence of the ineffable glory. From the sun in the firmament, to the humblest flower that blushes on its stalk, an influence goes out to train it up for eternity. Sympathies and solicitudes are exhausted upon it, that find no such -fitting objects in the universe; nor may it ever be forgotten, that under every one of these influences, it is making its way to the splendors of the throne, or to the outer darkness. Yet, can it not go from this world of ignorance and sin, into the presence of the Holy One, except by a miracle of his mercy. He makes it the pupil of his providence and truth, giving it line upon line, precept upon precept, and commissioning unnumbered agencies in the natural and moral world, to “show to it the path of life.”

Of all the agencies he thus employs, the most important is the Gospel of his grace; the most eflfective dispensation of that Gospel is the preached word, — the living ministry of his Son. All the goodness, and all the high-born hopes in this fallen world, are to be attributed to the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ, and to a cordial reception of him as there revealed. If we advert to the teaching of the Apostles, we find that their first object was to make men Christians; and then their great solicitude was that they should become well-informed, stable, and useful Christians, who should shine as lights in the world. Not only must truth find its way to the conscience and heart, and men be elevated from a state of sin to a state of grace; but there must be the habitual presence and power of godliness, like the rising light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Hallowed desires must be awakened, renewed, and inviir-orated; there must be a clear, and still more clear perception of divine things, and that assurance of them which is enriched by heavenly consolations, and which is the great impulse to spiritual attainment. There must be an abiding awe of God, chastened by fdial confidence; by joy in him and from him; and by that fellowship of man with his Maker, by which God dwells in us, and we in him. There must be a sensitiveness to evil, which makes sin abhorred and loathsome; which resists its snares under every name and form; which trembles for the future, and is humbled for the past; which sinks in sorrow at the foot of the cross, ashamed, vet forgiven, confounded, yet filled with praise. There must be obedience to the will of our Father who is in heaven; obedience that is habitual and cheerful, under every difficulty, and at every sacrifice. The love of God to his people must be more fully responded to by the love of his people to God: there must be a more affectionate and deeper toned piety; — a piety that is less paralyzed by earth, and that receives daily and fresh incitements from heaven; — a piety that holds all things in subordination to Christ; — a piety that, in the pursuit of things temporal and eternal, has but this one object, to “glorify God, and enjoy him forever,” and that aspires to the higher regions of the Christian’s Ufe. The object the pulpit has in view is no common one. It looks upon the world as it is, alienated from God by wicked works, and under his wrath and curse. The primitive formations of the mass on which it operates, are the sins and miseries of lost men; and forming- that chaos of unsightly things, where “darkness is upon the face of the deep.” There must be new, and better, and purer formations; the Spirit of God must move upon the face of the waters, and he who sits upon the throne must create all things new.

This object also is as single as it is important. When the risen and ascended Saviour appeared to Saul of Tarsus, for the purpose of making him a Christian man and a Christian minister, he addressed him in the following impressive language: “Rise, and stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom now / send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith that is in me’’ From the hour this commission was put into the hands and written upon the heart of. Paul, his high distinction was to be a minister of the everlasting Go.spel, and his single aim to” turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” Every design that is hostile to this, or in any way inconsistent with it, is at war with the great object of the Christian ministry. God called them to the sacred office, that they might co-operate with his once suffering and now exalted Son, and his mighty and condescending Spirit, in converting a great multitude which no man can number, intercepting their course to the gates of death, overthrowing the empire of darkness and sin, and establishing, extending, and perpetuating the kingdom of truth, and righteousness, and peace, and joy. Whatever subordinate ends, therefore, the Christian pulpit may secure in this or the coming world, its legitimate, paramount aim is the glory of God in the salvation of men. Its great end is one, and only one. If “the chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever,” the chief end of those who serve at his altars is to glorify him in that great work with which his manifested glory is most intimately allied. “Unto me,” says the Apostle,” who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, to the end that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places.

might be known, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God.” It is God first, God midst, God last, God everywhere, God exalted in the Gospel of his Son. It is to bring forward, and sustain, and magnify the full claims of the adorable Godhead; so that men who do not know may know him; men who despise may have honorable thoughts of him; men wdio suspect and slander him, may look upon him with a trustino- confidence. It is not to make them hypocrites, and induce them to put on the show of friendship, and thus prepare themselves for a greater damnation; it is to prevail upon them truly and honestly to give up their controversy vv ith God, and make peace with him through the blood of his Son. It is not the favor of the people; “we seek not yours’’ says the Apostle,” but you’’ Nor is it their wealth, nor their honors; it is themselves, and their salvation. It is the soul that a faithful minister is thinking of, — the deathless soul; it is this that he is praying for, and preaching to, and that he may present it to his great Lord as “his joy and his crown.” Such is the high,, the graiul aim of the Christian ministry, and such it will appear to have been, when such a man as Paul goes up with those who were given to him as the seals of his ministry, to bow themselves before God and the Lamb. It is this which gives such grandeur and power to the pulpit.

Such it am’II appear to have been “vvhenthe joys of lieavcn and the torments of hell are felt in their everlastini wei<];^ht and reality, and when the magnitude of God’s redemption, and the wondrous results that have flowed from it, shall he unfolded.

All men do not comprehend this commanding motive and object of ministerial devotement: would that it were comprehended by all of us who are Christ’s ministers! “Never forget,” says the youthful McCheyne, writing to one of his brethren in the ministry, “that the end of a sermon is the salvation of the people.” We would have our minds imbued with this truth, and are greatly desirous that the minds of others should be more deeply imbued than our own. This is what our pulpits so imperatively demand. In this great object, the mind and heart of the preacher must be concentrated; tlijs great end he must pursue with great singleness of purpose, and great strength and ardor of affection. His efforts will rise as high as his own impressions of the importance of his object, and no higher. He may expect to accomplish very little, unless his own mind is absorbed in his high calling. He need not be afraid of being too much excited in the pursuit of such an end; for it is impossible that the affections of an enlightened and well-balanced mind should be too strong and ardent, where those affections can be gratified only by the salvation of men, and through the instrumentality of God’s truth. It is but for the salvation of men to become his great object; his thoughts are but to dwell here, and his desires centre so habitually, so tenderly, so solemnly, on this great object, as to make it the paramount passion; and his pulpit would read different lessons from those it often reads. Let this be wanting, and the preacher’s heart freezes, his lips freeze, and his pulpit is but an icy tablet.

There is a fixed and steady aim towards this great object discernible in some ministers, which in others is a very slight and cursory one. It needs not much discernment to discover which are the more powerful preachers. No two men in this land appeared to have the great object of preaching more directly or more steadily before their minds, than those departed and beloved servants of God, the late Dr. Payson, of Portland, and the late Dr. Nettleton of Killingworth; nor do I know of any who were more successful in winning souls. There was a period in the life of Andrew Fuller, when he said, “I think I never yet entered into the true idea of the work of the ministry.” Happy, timely thought! and the subsequent usefulness of this man of God shows how much the power of the pulpit depends upon the aim and end of the preacher. Many a minister could tell a similar experience; they were new days to him, and, in some sort, a new conversion, when he first “entered into the true idea of the work of the ministry.” What impulse is like this 1 What is the pulpit, without this impulse? How can it gain the object of its appointment, if it does not aim at attaining it? Is it any marvel that it should he powerless, when it seeks not to be powerful? We ask for the pulpit that engrossing attention, and thought, and zeal, which the great object of it demands; well assured that it has weight and influence enough to take full possession of the soul, to fill it, to exhaust it; and when it has exhausted it to fill it again; to stimulate what it has exhausted, and invigorate and refresh what it has made weak and weary. There is surely no ant of motives to such a spirit, nor any lack of aliment to it in the truth of God. For with all the richness and variety of that exhaustless volume, there is not a principle nor a fact it reveals but has a bearing upon the object which the Christian ministry has in view, and which, if their own hearts are set upon that object, may not be so enforced as to aim at this great end.

We hear not a little about elevating the standard of preaching, and rendering it more in keeping with “the spirit of the age.” Is there not some delusion in this matter; and in these efforts to elevate the pulpit, may we not be insensibly depressing it below the high and revealed standard? The age is indeed distinguished for great advances in science and the arts, great enterprise, expansive benevolence, and high independence of thought, and freedom of inquiry. This advance in science and the arts has added greatly to the richness of language; it furnishes matter for new and more varied illustrations of religious truth; while it erects new” fortresses of defence against the attacks of inlidelity, and puts into the hands of God’s servants new weapons of aggression and assault. The enterprise of the age does, indeed, call for an enterprising ministry; and its public spirit and independence of thought give the pulpit great advantages for urging the claims of God’s truth. It is incumbent on the ministry to stand abreast with these advances, and to make the most of them for the honor of God and the souls of men.

Yet is it a mistaken view, that these advances have made advances upon the Gospel, or disclosed any new method of enforcing its great truths, or discovered any new way to the Kingdom of God. The Gospel is in advance of them all. Modern science and improvements, with all their boasting, will not make men better preachers than Christ and the Apostles. The essential and peculiar power of tlic pulpit, as uc have already shown, consists “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” The “foolishness of God is wiser than men.” Give me the power of illustrating and enforcing God’s truth, and I care not who has the treasures of human learning. Human learning is valuable only to this end; and that it does not always attain this end, is quite obvious from the fact, that the most learned men are not the best preachers, nor the most sought after by the popular mind. When John Bunyan preached in London, he attracted greater audiences than the most learned divines of the land, because he preached with greater power. The celebrated Dr. Owen was often among his hearers; and when Charles H. expressed his astonishment that a man of the Doctor’s learning could hear “the tinker preach,” Owen is said to have replied, “Had I the tinker’s abilities, please your majesty, I would most gladly relinquish my learning.” The fact is, there are wo peculiar qualifications for the pulpit required by the age in which we live, above those required by former ages. We have no better preachers than Bunyan, and Baxter, and Owen. Baxter’s “Saints’ Rest,” and his “Call to the Unconverted,” are not equalled by modern pulpits. Bunyan’s “Heavenly Footman,” his” Come and Welcome to Jesus

Christ,” his “Barren Fig Tree,” and his “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,” would now perhaps be deemed far behind the spirit of the age. And so would Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress,” and AUeyn’s “Alarm,” and Flavel’s “Fountain of Life,” and Owen on the “Glory of Christ.” Men have outlived these old-fashioned preachers. They have outrun the Bible; and if ever they wake up to the great and single object the pulpit has in view, it will be by a “voice behind them.” The spirit of the age is not the spirit of Paul; and were this greatest of human teachers to return to our world, I fear he would be accused as a tardy imitator of the age in which we live; and that the laurels he earned in Arabia, at Jerusalem, at Antioch, at Thessalonica, at Athens, at Corinth, at Ephesus, and at Rome, would no longer be preserved fresh and green upon his brow. I repeat the thought, there is some illusion here, and some subtle snare of the great Deceiver. The Gospel preached by Paul is not less powerful now than it was eighteen hundred years ago; it is still adapted to all ages, — all climes, — all states of society, — every degree of intellectual advancement, and all men. Nor may we doubt, that if preached now just as he preached it, it would furnish exemplifications of the power of the pulpit, “not a whit beliiiid,” the spirit of the age, or the chief of its apostles.

It is a melancholy fact that, so far as it regards the great object of preaching, the American pulpit is not on the advance. Not a few preachers there are whom it would seem captious to complain of, but who at the same time do not satisfy an intelligent and spiritual auditory. There is something wanting in their discourses; they are not full of light and power; the unction of the Priesthood is not there. They are not so absorbed in the great object of preaching, that their hearers perceive the object they are aiming at; nor so intent upon it, that they themselves are cheerful or depressed, joyful or sad, as the pleasure of the Lord prospers, or does not prosper, in their hands.

These are “hard sayings,” and might come better from one who is better authorized to “cast the first stone.” Nor is it without a painful struggle between a sense of shame and a sense of duty, that the author allows himself to utter them. His own conscience smites him; and he feels the glow of self-reproach coming up in his face when he ventures to say, that the great deficiency in the Church of the present age is the want of a spiritual and urgent ministry. Older ministers are deeply conscious of this deficiency in themselves; they feel it when they look toward their beloved and younger brethren. Other professions are on the advance, but the pulpit is retrograde. There are more learned thinofs and more beautiful things uttered from it than were once uttered; but it is fast losing its energy. It has more touches of the German artists, but less of plain dealing with the conscience, less of tenderness and love. It has more of transcendentalism, but less of Christianity. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the mantle of Tennent and Davies, Edwards and Bellamy, Brainerd and Payson?

Yet would we not be misunderstood. It is not absolutely a degenerate ministry that we speak of; it is not an irreligious and corrupt ministry, but an inefficient ministry. The strength of the pulpit has been insensibly and gradually decaying; and not the less so because the youthful ministry themselves are slow to perceive it. In some respects, it has made great and rapid advances; while in the important article of effective preaching, it has become so manifestly retrograde, that I have heard the thought expressed, with great tenderness, by cultivated intelligence and matured piety, “We know not where the Church can look for able ministers!”

This state of things demands sober reflection. Iniquity abounds, the love of many is

■waxing cold, and tlic enemy is coming in lilce a Hood. Never, since the days of Luther, was there a louder call for an effective ministry. Ministers may he pious, able, and evangelical in their views; yet not be good preachers. They may possess talent, competent intellectual furniture, and large measures of theological knowledge; yet not be able ministers of the New Testament. They may be familiar with theology as a science, yet not know how to preach it. And the reason is, their hearts are not ardently set on the great object of the Christian ministry; they are drawn from it to other things, and contemplate the one thing needful with diminished interest. They do not glide down with the current of the world, and allow themselves to become ensnared by pursuits that are purely secular; but they fall in with the infectious spirit of the times, and are slow to elevate their own minds and discourses to the true standard and the great object of preaching.

It is no easy matter to keep the great object of the pulpit distinctly and steadily before the mind; to do so requires great self-denial, spirituality, and imparted grace, and more especially during prolonged seasons of declension in the Church, and insensibility in the world. The mind of an active, enterprising minister cannot be idle. If not employed in the most appropriate duties of his vocation, it seeks employment in those pursuits which, while they have a distant, have no direct and immediate relation to his great object. May not many of us “lay our hand upon our own mouth?” If I were not such a traitor to my Divine Lord, right sure am I that I should have the great and commanding object more constantly and more delightfully present to my thoughts, for which “he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,” Oh, it would be delightful to learn that such men as Baxter, and Bunyan, and Edwards, were about to come down upon our churches with a message that would disturb and stir up us placid, self-complacent, dreamy preachers!

Would that better days might dawn upon the Church and the pulpit, and that as we sink to the silence of the tomb, better and abler men, men full of the Holy Ghost, might occupy the places which will so soon know us no more!