One
of the latest injunctions of the aged Paul, just before his martyrdom,was
that to Timothy, which constitutes the text of my address, "Preach theWord."
Thirty years of Christian experience, fifteen years of apostolicsurvey,
and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, all spoke in those words. Itwas
a command from heaven itself, not to Timothy only, but to all who fillthe
office of evangelists or preachers in the New Testament Church. Theorder,
thus succinctly given, is a condensation of all that Paul had said toTimothy
or to the Church on the subject of preaching.
The
sound or healthy doctrine on which he lays so much stress, and theavoidance
of fables and the world’s wisdom, are both
included in this curtcommand. There has been a tendency from the very
beginning to conformthe doctrine of Christ to the philosophy of man,
to fuse the two together,and to show that all religions have the same
Divine element at their roots.
This
was seen in gnosticism, in the Alexandrian school of Clement
andOrigen,
and in a score of heresies that sprang up within the later Church.The
distinctive character of Christianity has displeased the philosophicmind,
and men have sought to explain away many of its features from thestandpoint
of the human consciousness and by an appeal to the teachings ofnature.
These efforts have certain marks in common. They diminish theheinousness
of sin, they exaggerate the powers of man, and they suggest auniformity
of destiny. Sin is a defect, perhaps a disease. The defect can besupplied,
the disease can be cured by human applications; the Divine helpbeing
valuable as encouragement to the human effort. High civilization andmoral
reform are what man needs, and these can be obtained by the use ofgeneral
principles common to our race, of which Christianity is only one ofthe
forms.
It
is natural and inevitable that, with this teaching, the written Word ofGod
should be neglected, if not ignored. No one can study that Word andthen
use it for so broad and indiscriminating a purpose. No one can studythat
Word and then be contented with a superficial polish of society, and auniversal
brotherhood founded upon such a scheme. Paul saw this tendencyin
his own day, and he warns the Church earnestly against it. "Beware,"
ishis
language —"Beware lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit,after the tradition of men, after the rudiments
of the world, and notafter Christ" (Colossians 2:8).
The
evil principle is ever at work. Human nature is ever the same. TheChurch
is always subject to the same efforts of human nature within itselfto
remove the foundations of grace and substitute the inventions of pride. Whether
it appears in the form of hierarchical assumption, or in thecharacter
of rational inquiry and scientific research, the evil principle hides,mutilates,
or contradicts the Holy Scripture. The Scriptures, as they are,with
their Divine claim and their uncompromising teachings, it cannotendure,
and the appeal to Scripture it counts as a mark of credulity and anexhibition
of ignorance.
One
of the saddest sights in the Church
of Christ is the yielding
to thisspirit
of pride on the part of the ordained preachers of the Word. Manymodern
Timothys use the pulpit for discourses on art and literature; otherstake
the opportunity for the display of rhetoric and oratory; othersproclaim
an ethics of expediency; while still others seek only to tickle theears
of an audience that desires to be amused. In all this you look in vainfor
the Gospel. Plato or Aristotle, and in some cases Lucian, could havesaid
it all. Churches are filled by appealing to carnal desires and aesthetictastes.
Brilliant oratory, scientific music, sensational topics and fashionablepew
holders, are the baits to lure people into the churches, and a church iscalled
prosperous as these wretched devices succeed. The preacher delightsto
get himself into the newspaper and he accommodates his preaching tothe
newspaper level. Such churches will, of course, have worldly-mindedofficers
and a worldly-minded membership, while godly souls either fleefrom
them, or else mourn in secret, if they are not themselves chilled by thelack
of Gospel heat.
It
is directly against all this that the holy apostle utters his clarion cry downthrough
the ages, "Preach the Word." What is the Word? It is not man’sphilosophy
nor man’s rhetoric. It is the
Divine revelation. It is called theWord of God, because it is not of man. As
God’s it has both authority andpower
— authority to demand attention, and power
to convert and savethe soul. It is not to be pounded in man’s
mortar, nor run into man’smould.
It is not to be twisted and fitted to man’s
preconceived ideas. It isnot to be filtered through man’s
strainer, nor mixed with man’s conceits. Itis
God’s and as God’s
let no man dare add to it, or take from it, or alter itin
any way. The Lord Jesus stands by His cross, where He offered up thesacrifice
for sin, and points backward to the Old Testament, and forward tothe
New, as alike the Word of God. Of the former He cries, "Search theScriptures";
of the latter He tells His apostles that the Paraclete wouldcome
and teach them all things, and they should bear witness. This Old andNew
Testament is one revelation of God —
one Bible — one unerring ruleof
faith. God has not given us a doubtful and deceitful light for our path.
He
has not given us a bundle of truth and fable tied up together. He has notleft
us to our weak and discordant reason, and thus made revelationsuperfluous.
He has given His people a "sure word of prophecy" as theonly
reasonable guide for our weak reason and our sinful natures; and onthis
sure Word is His Church built. The doctrines of grace have neitherhuman
origin nor human support. They are altogether Divine, and arereceived
only by the soul that becomes partaker of the Divine nature. Togo,
therefore, to human philosophy or to man’s
inner consciousness fortheir confirmation or explanation, is to go to
the sentenced criminal tounderstand the excellences of criminal law. The
error of errors is theseeking for the truths of religion from man. It
is but the adaptation ofreligion to the carnal heart. It is the essence
of pride and rebellion againstGod. Thousands of tomes have been written by men
who called themselvesChristian scholars and Christian philosophers,
which are but volumes ofconfusing metaphysics and specious rationalizing
from the basis of naturalexperience, and which have undermined faith in
the Word of God, andutterly perverted the Gospel of Christ. Students
of Christian theologywaste precious time in studying the works of these
conceited thinkers,whose names are lauded as those of giants in the
Church, while they arecorrupting the pulpit and secularizing the pew.
It
is a favorite charge of the advocates of this looseness that we areworshipping
a Book. "Bibliolatry" is the formidable word that they cast atus;
But we worship no book. We do worship God who sent the Book, andit
is no true worship of God that slights the Book which He gives. If wehonor
God, we shall honor the Word He has sent, and we shall be jealousfor
that Word, that not one jot or one tittle of it be disturbed by thevagaries
of dreamers or the impious hands of boasting critics. It is theWord
of God, and, as such, we shall not allow, for a moment, thespeculations,
imaginings, and guesses of men, ever so learned, to weigh afeather’s
weight against it. They have been convicted over and over againof
grossest fallacies in their hot endeavor to detract from the influence ofthe
holy Word, and their criticisms have returned upon themselves to theirconfusion.
What gross absurdities have been promulgated by these learnedenemies
of Revelation! Myth, romance, the fiction of poetry, a patchworkof
traditions, contradictory records, pious fraud, these are some of thelabels
that the strutting pride of man has affixed to the books of the Bible,while
not one of his sneers has been sustained in the light of honestcriticism.
No scientific truth has been found opposed, and no historic truthmisstated,
in all the sacred writings, from Moses to John. The mostmicroscopic
investigations have been made by the most eager and learnedenemies
of the truth in order to find some inaccuracy, but not one has beendiscovered,
except those necessarily resulting from the process oftranscription,
and those imaginary ones which are perfectly resolvable byordinary
common sense. Apply these tests to the Vedas, the Avesta, or theKoran,
and the contrast is overwhelming. These fairly bristle with error andfalsehood,
but the Bible comes out from the crucible without spot, as thepure
Word of God. Men just as learned as the inimical critics, and just asthorough
in their investigation, men known and revered in the world ofletters,
have accepted the Bible, the whole Bible, as the inerrant truth ofGod.
If the verdict of the inimical critics can be thus set aside in an equallylearned
court, the result shows that their learning goes for nothing in thematter.
But
far above all this testimony to the letter is the witness of millions whohave
found the joy unutterable and the peace which passeth allunderstanding
in the sacred Volume, and who are drawn to it as a child isdrawn
to its father, without question regarding his worth and authority.They
never suppose (and the position is a right one) that the fountain thatrefreshes
their soul is defective or corrupt, but they value its every drop asa
gift of the Divine grace. They go constantly to its blessed waters andalways
derive strength from the draught. To such the carping critics are asunworthy
of regard as those who would argue against the sunshine. Theknowledge
of the heart is a profounder thing than the knowledge of thehead,
and, in the Spirit-led disciple, can correct and rebuke the errors ofthe
latter. Now, it is this holy Word, thus spotless and thus powerful forrighteousness
and comfort, that the Christian preacher is to preach. Thepreacher
is a proclaimer, a herald, not a college professor or an originatorof
theories. He has the Word given him, and that he is to proclaim. He isnot
to draw from the wells of human philosophy, but from the stream thatflows
directly from the throne of God. He is to tell the people what Godhas
said. He is to hide himself behind his message, and to receive it equallywith
those he addresses. Nor is the preacher the mouthpiece of a Church toissue
ecclesiastical decrees and fulminate ecclesiastical censures. This is asfar
from preaching the Word as the other. As a herald of Christ, while thereis
nothing before him but human hearts and consciences to appeal to, thereis
nothing behind him but the revealed Word of God to utter and enforce.
All
Church commands laid upon him as to his preaching are as nothingexcept
as they are conformed to that Word. He is responsible as a herald toGod
and not to the Church. He is God’s
herald and not the Church’s. Thesame
reason that forbids him from making the people’s
approbation theguide to his preaching will forbid him from making Church
authority theguide.
He will be happy to please both people and authorities, but hecannot
make that pleasing a criterion or standard. His duty is above allthat.
His allegiance is higher.
In
thus limiting himself to the preaching of God's Word, the preacher is not
circumscribing his power, but enlarging it. Bythe
jealous use of that Word alone he will accomplish far more for thekingdom of Christ and the
salvation of men than by mixing humanexpedients with the Word. Human
expedients are very specious andattractive, and, alas! many preachers
betake themselves to them. Theythink they will attract the multitude and fill
up the pews and produce alarger rental; and so they may, but these are
not the objects for which theLord sent out His heralds. Success is not to be
reckoned by full houses andpopular applause, but by convicted and converted
hearts, and by thestrengthening of the faith and piety of God’s
people. A holier life, a morepronounced separation from the world, a
stainless integrity in businesspursuits, a Christly devotion to the interests
of others, a more thoroughknowledge of the Word these are the true signs
of success which thepreacher may justly seek, even though he wear
homespun and his peoplemeet in a barn. These are the glorious results
which the consecrated soulwill pray for, and in them he will rejoice with
a purer, holier joy than thatwhich comes from numbers, wealth, or popular
admiration.
If
the preacher preaches the Word only, then He will teach his people to handle
the Word — to follow him in his
reading andexpounding
— to study over the Scripture lesson at
home, and to pray itsblessed truths into their souls. A people will,
in this way, become mighty inthe Scriptures; and he who is mighty in the
Scriptures is a mighty powerfor Christ and salvation, and in his own soul
will have a full experience ofthe power of Divine truth, deriving it directly
from its source, and provinghow the entrance of God’s
Word giveth light.
Still
again, if the preacher preaches the Word only, he will
himself be a dilligent student of the Word - He will bathe in God’srevelation
and be permeated by it; and so be proof against all the shafts ofignorance
and conceit. He will become familiar with every detail of thesacred
history, chronology, ethnology, geography, prophecy, precept, anddoctrine,
and will take nothing at second hand. He will not go to Pope orCouncil,
nor to Calvin or Schleiermacher, to know what to preach, but hisdelight
will be in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate dayand
night.
It
is a lamentable fact, that in too many of our seminaries where preachersare
prepared for their work, the Word of God is not taught, but in its steadthe
philosophic schemes of so-called "fathers" and great divines are
givenas
the basis of doctrinal belief. It is true, that these schemes are brought tothe
Scripture for support, and texts are quoted in their defence, It is truealso
that some of these schemes are consonant with Scripture more or less.
But,
with these admissions, the mistake still exists, that the Word of Godplays
a secondary part in the instruction. It is not taught; that is, it is notmade
the authoritative text-book. It is even sometimes introduced as asubject
for criticism, and men like Reuss and Robertson Smith are broughtin
as the critical guides or, at least, helpers. As if a school of the prophetswas
intended to examine the credentials of God’s
Word, and not to take ithumbly and gratefully for personal use and for
use before the people.
Some
theological schools might without exaggeration be called "schoolsfor
turning believers into doubters." The excuse, that men who are goingto
be preachers should know all that is said against the credibility,genuineness,
and authenticity of the Scriptures, is a flimsy one. If that werethe
object, these objections would be considered only by way ofparenthesis,
and the overwhelming evidence of the Scriptures would be themain
current of thought; but this is not the way it is done. On the contrary,the
objections are magnified, and their authors are commended to thestudents
for their perusal, and the hint is often thrown out that conservativeviews
of the inspiration of God’s Word are antiquated,
obsolete, and marksof ignorance. We have thus, in the very places
where, most of all, weshould expect to see the profoundest reverence
for God’s Word, and itsfaithful
study for the understanding of the Divine will, the machinery forundermining
the doctrine of Scripture inspiration and authority, on whichall
Christian truth rests, and that, too, in the young minds which are beingprepared
to become Christ’s preachers to a
sinful and dying world. It is amost painful thought, and it becomes the Church of Jesus Christ to arise toa
sense of the evil, and to correct it before the whole Church is poisoned bythis
insidious influence.
We
wish our young Timothy’s to go out to their
work with the onecontrolling desire to put God’s
Word before the people and to avoidquestions and strifes of words which do
not minister to godly edifying,knowing that the power to convert and edify is
not the wisdom of man, butthe power of God.
In
these days when so much is made of science, let them leave sciencealone.
All the knowledge of the material world, which science deals in, hasnothing
to do with the soul’s salvation. That is
in a different spherealtogether. While it is in accordance with
propriety that a preacher shouldhave a general acquaintance with life and
things about him, which wouldinclude the main principles of natural science
(which is simply to say thathe ought to be an educated man), yet it is not
through material science thathe is to teach heavenly truths, nor is he to
waste his time on protoplasm,bathybius, and natural selection, into which and
like subjects Satan wouldgladly draw him, that he may not present the
subjects of sin and the crossof Christ. If a preacher illustrate Scripture
doctrine from facts in the naturalworld, it is well. He follows the Master’s
example. But if he puts thenatural world in its scientific aspects forward
as the text of his discourse,he is using a Bible of a very weak and uncertain
sort, and of which heknows very little, and he is making the Word of
God subordinate to hisown inferences and guesses from nature. Science
and religion are too oftenspoken of as if they occupied the same plane.
Both those who say they areantagonistic, and those who say they are at one,
equally talk of the two ason a level. You might as well talk of
bread-baking and religion as if theywere co-ordinates.
Of
course there is a connection between science and religion. So there isbetween
bread-baking and religion. The scientific man ought to bereligious.
So ought the bread-baker. Science can furnish examples of God’swonders
in nature. So can bread-baking. But such connections cannot putthe
subjects on the same level.
Science
is merely the; study of matter, an examination into naturalsequences;
but what has that to do with man’s
immortal soul, and theWord of God to that soul? Who dares to bring the
latter down to the levelof the former? What has the analysis of any body
and its division intocarbon, oxygen, and hydrogen to do with my eternal
relation to God as aresponsible and sinful being? Why mingle things
so utterly diverse? And yetthis babble about science and religion (where
science is always ever putfirst) is heard ad nauseam from those who are
commissioned to preach theWord. Is this Paul’s
way? Is this John’s way? Is this Christ’s
way? Thenwhy
should it be the way of our modern Timothys? Science at its utmostreach
can never touch the sphere of the soul’s
pressing wants. All its truthstogether can make no impression on a guilty
conscience needing the Divinepardon. Nature is as dumb as any of its own
stones in the matter of thesoul’s
salvation. Then why meddle with it in the pulpit? Why bow to it as ateacher?
Why be guilty of the blasphemy of putting it on a level with theWord
of God?
It is as preachers depart from that Word that their
preaching becomes barren and fruitless. The Divine Spirit will only accompany
the Divine Word. His mighty power will act only in His own way and by His own means.
The Word is supernatural, and woe to the preacher who leaves the supernatural
for the natural; who sets aside the sword of the Spirit to use in its stead a
blade of his own tempering!