The Pulpit Associated with the Power of God
The more immediate result to be secured by the instructions of the pulpit, is the reception of the truth it inculcates. The alienated mind and heart of man must be made to fall in with the truth of God, else is the word preached no better than seed cast upon the barren rock.
There is one fact in relation to the pulpit, which is of more importance than any one which we have hitherto suggested. It is that the is associated with the mighty power of God in the conviction and conversion of men. Let this fact be determined, and the pulpit is just as powerful as Omnipotence itself.
The different views which have been taken of the doctrine of Divine influence are altogether dependent on the views which different persons have taken of the revealed doctrine of human depravity. The Scriptural views of this latter doctrine, we conceive to be very plain. Man is far off from God by nature; he is very far gone from original righteousness.
It is a fearful charge, but no less true than fearful, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” “That which is born of the flesh is flesh;” and this carnal mind, this whole nature of fallen man is corrupt; there is nothing either in his understanding, conscience, or affections that leads him to sincere and cordial subjection to the truth of God, He is not an ignorant man merely, he is a wicked man; he is not a mistaken and inadvertent rebel, he is a deliberate and obdurate one; he is not merelydead to holiness, but active to sin. He loves not the character of God; he cannot abide his government and law; his heart is desperatelywicked, and he is restrained from the greatest excesses in wickedness, only by those outward circumstances, and those inward fears that are found in the preventing Providence and grace of the Most High.
Nothing can subdue such a spirit but Omnipotent power. Every man in this fallen world is sure to fall out with the truth of God, unless there be superadded to the presentation of the truth itself, the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit, causing him to receive it in love. The sacred Scriptures are full of this truth. It is taught by all those instructions in the Okl Testament, which speak of “circumcising the heart to love the Lord;” — of “creating a clean heart, and renewing a right spirit;” — of “takins: away the heart of stone, and givinc: a heart of flesh;” — of “putting the fear of God in the heart, and writing his law upon it;” and of “making his people willing in (he day of his power.” And what is the import of those instructions in the New Testament, which speak of “heing born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;” — of “God working in them to will and to do of his good pleasure;” — of no man being able “to come to Christ, except the Father draw him;” — of the Spirit “convincing of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment;” — of his “taking the things that are Christ’s, and showing them to men;” — of his “opening the heart to attend to the things spoken;” — his “turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” his “commanding the light to shine out of darkness, and shining in the heart to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ;” — his rescuing “from the power of darkness, and translating into the kingdom of God’s dear Son;” and his quickening those who are dead in trespasses and sins?” There can be no doubt as to the import of such declarations as these.
Nor can there be any doubt that the word of God teaches with ecpial exj)licitness, that while his Spirif is the cause, his truth is the instrument of this great moral transformation. It is the truth which affects us, but it is the Spirit of God which causes us to receive the truth. God does not operate less really, or less effectually, because he operates instrumentally. He is the cause, the omnipotent cause, whether he condescends to make use of the most brilliant, or the meanest preacher. The pulpit is the great instrumentality in this work of mercy, but it is no more. “Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but it is God that giveth the increase.”
The dependence of men on the efficient power of the Holy Spirit, is one of the great peculiarities of the Christian faith. And, like all its great peculiarities, it is as precious as it is peculiar. To none is it more precious than the pulpit; it is not its auxiliary, but its life-giving power. When we preach that the foundation of the spiritual edifice is laid deep, and its corner-stone cemented with the blood of the Lamb, we fix our hopes on the Spirit of God as the Almighty Architect who is to rear, and beautify the living temple. We cut the sinews of the Christian ministry when we depreciate the work of the Holy Spirit. Better, so far as the spiritual interests of men are concerned, demolish our sanctuaries than exclude from them this heavenly guest.
We feel our dependence upon God for mcmicr tliiiiii.s tliaii the conversion of the soul. “Except the Lord l)uil(l the house, they labor in vain that build it.” The meanest seed does not vegetate without his power; the lily grows and is arrayed in all its gorgeous beauty by his unseen, but omnipotent hand. The achievements of science, the triumphs of liberty, the wealth and powers of man, are all his gift. Why his presence and power should be excluded from other scenes, and why men should be eager to throw it into retirement in that greatest of all his works, the perfected redemption of the human soul, it is difficult to tell. There is a point where every other work of God terminates and dies; this is onward, forever onward, and because it is God’s work. No created thing is greater than the power of the human mind; it is power which Omnipotence only can control. The arguments of the pulpit may convince it; the eloquence of the pulpit may move it; but neither argument, nor persuasion can effect the great moral transformation which it needs. It cannot break one chain of its fearful vassalage. It can scarcely arrest the ravages of the malady which curses it, much less reach the sources of the disease, and cure the plague within. There is not even any great display of human instrumentality in the work. They are the weak contending with the strong; the instrument is like the saw and the hammer, effective only by extraneous power. The “strong man armed” is to be overcome, and is vanquished only by One who is “stronger than he.” Human instrumentality is never so effective in this work as when it is most conscious of its own weakness, and keeps itself most out of sight. It is the secret agency of God that accomplishes it; and no flesh may glory in his presence. “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” His power shines and triumphs. It is an influence from above, designed to prostrate the creature in the dust, and give everlasting glory to him who died. “He shall glorify me; for he shall take of mine, and show it unto you.” If there is any thing in which man is nothing, and God is all, it is in the great work of quickening those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
Nothing is more plain than that this is God’s method of saving the souls of men. To lose sight of it is either to sink in dejection, or be puffed with pride and fall into the snare of the devil. “He giveth grace to the humble; the proud he knoweth afar off.”
We have not been without fears for the pulpit, within a few years past, because, in some quarters of the land, there is so much loose teaching on the subject of which we are speaking. One teaches that the Spirit of CJod does as much for one man as another; another affirms, that the holiness which is caused by Omnipotent polyer cannot he holiness because it is thus caused; and a third more boldly declares with Pelagius, that “for us to be men is of God, but that for us to be righteous is of ourselves.” We look upon all such teaching as a death-blow to the power of the pulpit. If it ended in mere theory, and were a question which concerns different systems of intellectual philosophy only, we would not open our lips. But these are matters which strike at the highest interests of holiness. It is not a little to be wondered at that men are not afraid thus to tamper with a truth on which all the success of the Christian ministry depends, lest they should grieve the Spirit from the churches, and be left to mourn over their own folly, though too late to repair the evil they have done. If there be any hope for the anxious heart of a minister of the Gospel, this dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit is the rock on which he rests. And never is that dependence more deeply felt than when the Spirit is most freely imparted. The work of Christ in the matter of the sinner’s justification is not more important than the work of his Spirit in his conversion and progressive fitness for heaven. I would no sooner take the crown from the head of God the Sanctifier than from the head of God the Redeemer. I would prove the true and proper divinity of the Sanctifier, just as I would the true and proper divinity of the Redeemer, — by his tvorks. A creature might as well commission the sun to rise, and appoint the place of his going down, as assume the prerogative of God’s mighty Spirit in the work of man’s salvation. Nor would I guard this prerogative the less cautiously, because it is recorded of this ever-blessed Spirit, that he “shall not speak of himself;” he has left his great tuork in our world to speak for him, to be the asserter of his divine glories. I would guard it the more cautiously, too, because he has but just entered on his wonder-working career, and because his divine glory has been left so long in abeyance, and seen only in dim retirement compared with the bright splendor with which he will hereafter be encircled. The time is comins: when this third Person in the adorable Trinity will more illustriously clothe himself with Deity, and his Godhead will shine forth in all the wonders of his power, and when the evidence of it will be carried home to the soul. As the Church and the world behold more and more of his omnipotent influence, and as the mountains flow down at his presence, no longer will it be questioned that he is the graciously*
God, and that (he fruits of his grace are proofs of his omnipotence.
We read in the Scriptures of “the love of the Spirit.” We should be cautious lest we show ourselves ungrateful. One of the most affecting views of the thought we are attemptins: to illustrate is the wide, the infinite contrast it presents between the rigid and severe obduracy of the human heart and the unutterable love of the Heavenly Comf(jrter. Where truth cnliglitens, convinces, urges, and is repelled; his work is eminently one of love and mercy. He bows the heavens, and comes down; yea, he dwells with men. Such love is more than human. It is not found on earth. It does not belong to men. Its dwelling is in heaven. Heaven is the residence of infinite love, — love that stoops to dwell with men on the earth, to light up their hopes and smiles, and throw such rich charms over this desponding world.” Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. The pastures shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens forever; a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks, imtil the Sjnrit he poured from on highr
It may be thought, by some, that these remarks are not called for. We difler from those who form such conclusions, and think them in keeping “with our theme. None need to feel them so deeply as the ministers of Christ. No matter how learned or simple the instructions of the pulpit may be; no matter how rich and varied, or how well adapted and spiritual; did it speak with the tongue of Paul, or of angels, it would be powerless without the superadded power of God. Depression and discouragement would everywhere attend it, could not the ministry, and the people, on their behalf, take hold of God’s everlasting strength. I see not how any man could consent to occupy it, who calls in question this delightfully animating truth. Cast down, discouraged, depressed even to despair may those of us be who minister at the altar, if we despair not of help from creatures, and betake not ourselves to higher resources than an arm of flesh.
When the Prophet Ezekiel was set down in the valley of bones, “very many and very dry,” the God of Israel said to him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” What answer could he give? “O Lord God, thou knowest!” There was no other answer. When God’s ministers are sent to prophesy to men dead in sin, they do not know the results of their message. There is nothing in ministers themselves, nothing in the mere truth they utter, nothing in the present character of those they address, that furnishes a fuvorable .solution of this great problem, (»()(! only knows, because he only sees the end iVoni the beginning, and he only is able (() (j[uieken those who arc dead in trespasses and sins. There is but this one source of light and hope: “Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say unto the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live!” Now the death-like scene is altered; it is no longer the silent and motionless valley. There is a noise and a shaking; bone comes to his bone, flesh and sinews come up upon them; that field of death is transformed to an exceeding great multitude of living men, the strong pulsations of the warm heart are there, and there are the voices of praise.
So it is with every preacher of the Gospel, so far as it regards his perfect and absolute dependence upon the Spirit of God for the success of his ministrations. The treasures of truth are committed to him, “earthen vessel” as he is, that “the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of him.” Never, till the excellency of God’s power is revealed, is the power of the pulpit known. Nor may we hope that God’s mighty arm will be revealed, until this truth is known and felt. One reason why God’s Spirit is so often withheld is, that this great truth is lost sight of; or, if not lost sight of, is coldly recognized, and does but form a feature of that languid and dead orthodoxy, which, while it may govern the views, has very little to do with the heart. This is not the place which such a truth deserves; it must be thought of, and prized, and leaned upon, and prove itself the most delightful of all incitements to effort. Just as the sinner, in the last stages of conviction, is driven from every other refuge to the power and sovereignty of that immeasurable grace which he has so long quarrelled with, must the ministers of the Gospel, as well as those to whom they minister, after they have labored in vain, and spent their strength for nought and in vain, lift their eyes beyond the everlasting hills, and say, — “My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him!” They would not so often labor in vain, were those happy seasons of more frequent recurrence when this truth is truly felt. Jehoshaphat was strong, even before the combined forces of Amnion, and Moab, and Mount Seir, when he” stood in the house of the Lord before the new court, and said, O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know tve what to do; but our eyes are upon thee T The strength of the pulpit is in its own conscious weakness.
aiul in God’s almighty y)ower. Ministers always feel strong when they have this reliance. “Never,” said the sainted Pearce, “have I been more deeply taught my own notjiingness; and never hath the power of God more evidently rested upon me.” And thousands of the living ministry, and tens of thousands among the dead, have responded to this delghtful truth.
There is power in the pulpit when it is thus allied to the power of God. We can do everything through him, without whom we can do nothing. The pulpit asks but this; in this it is diligent in labor, resolute in trial, buoyant with hope, and strong in weakness. Study and research are no longer abortive, because the power of the Highest overshadows the retirement of the preacher. Sabbaths are no longer powerless, because the Lord of the Sabbath gives testimony to the word of his grace. The patient and untiring man of God no longer faints under difficulty and discouragement, nor sinks under a sense of his own responsibility and infirmities, because he staggers not at the promise, “As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be, that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return void, but accomplish that which I please, and prosper in the thing whereto I send it.” Light dawns upon the preacher’s path then. “He goes out with joy, and is led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills break forth before him into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands.” The fir comes up instead of the thorn, and the myrtle in the place of the brier. Such days there have been, and such days there will be, whenever the arm of the Eternal King is made bare, and Jesus, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, sheds forth his influence upon the sons of men. Ministers will then have more honorable thoughts of God, and the promise will be fulfilled, — “Them that honor me, I will honor.” The lofty shall be bowed down, and the lowly shall be lifted up, and the Lord alone exalted in that day. “When the Lord doth build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” He that dwells between the cherubim shall shine forth in the glory of his holiness, in the glory of his justice, in the glory of his mercy, in the glory of his faithfulness, in the glory of all his great and glorious designs, and in nothing more than in the glory of his power. The Father shall be exalted, the Son shall be exalted, and the Spirit, little known hitherto among men, shall claim his honors by his mighty deeds. There are no scenes more beauliilil Uiis side the heavenly city, than these; scenes amid which the an-Cfels of God may well delight to linger, and from which they retire only to bear the tidings that the dead live, and the lost are found.
Such is the powder of the pulpit, and such are the constituent elements of that power. They are the truth of w hich it is the vehicle; truth from the living teacher; truth uttered in the name and by the authority of God; truth accompanied with his ^nighty power. This is the great agency by w hich our lost race, in augmented numbers, is to be subdued to the faith of the Gospel. Other agencies there are, and will be; but they are all associated w ith a preached Gospel, — derive their influence from it, and to this selected instrumentality of heavenly wisdom is to be attributed their very being. By these four great elements of power, the pulpit is destined to govern the world, to the full extent to w hich it will be governed by the truth and grace that are revealed from heaven. Its influence will run parallel with the religious and moral advancement of the race. The gloomy speculations of infidelity w ill give way before it, and give place to a faith that generates immortal hopes. The mutual animosities of men will be lost in the tranquillity of their social joys, and lawless anarchy and iron-hearted depotism will be superseded by that rapid and general progress of human society that is based on good and wholesome laws, wisely administered by men who fear God, and hate evil. Senates will yet listen to the voice of God’s messengers, and kings will respect their message. It will yet make kings nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to God’s Church. It will yet vanquish and annihilate armies, and beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, so that the nations shall learn war no more. As the Lord liveth, and his only begotten Son sits on the right hand of Majesty in the heavens, it shall yet pursue its conquests over ignorance, idolatry, error, and every species of immorality and crime, till the “skies drop down from above, and the earth opens and brings forth salvation;” till there shall be “new heavens and a new earth,” because the Lord God ‘’ clothes his priests with salvation,” and creates “Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” “Not by might, nor by power:” man is a little thing, God is all. The pulpit is nothing, save when these elements of an unearthly influence gather around it. Heaven is the seat of power. The controversy is sharp and bitter; yet He “that hath the key of David, and openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth,” will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron asunder.” His Spirit slmll disarm the strong man, dislodge the enemy from his fortresses, gather his honors on the field of a bloodless conquest, and fnid his reward in the purity and blessedness of a redeemed and regenerated world.