CHAPTER I.

As a divinely commissioned teacher and religious guide, the preacher is not to be limited to the gospel or Christian dispensation. In the patriarchal age such a character figured in the person and office of Noah, no less celebrated for building the ark than as a "preacher of righteousness" during the one hundred and twenty years of his preparation for the flood. The success of the ministry of this antediluvian preacher is not so pronounced if judged by the few souls numbered among his converts during Jehovah, however, along 000914with his patient construction of the ark and his eight souls across the destructive deluge, stamp this remarkable man as a peerless preacher in point of faith and achievements. He was to the old dispensation what John the Baptist was to the new, or what Martin Luther, or John Wesley, or Richard Allen was to our modern faith.

The prophetic age is also illustrious for its mighty array of sterling ambassadors of truth. Those who interpreted the Divine plan in the light of past history and present conduct were as emphatically preachers as they were prophets or seers through the misty veil of undeveloped events. When Moses appeared as God's spokesman to Pharaoh, he was as much a minister and preacher as when he pronounced his parting blessing upon the twelve tribes, or foretold the Divine purpose with reference to his successor of over-mastering office and majesty.

The central figure and crowning point of all preaching is the essential, rather than historic, Christ. Prophetic dreams and utterances, theophanic movements and revelations, angelic intercourse and ministrations, all embody life and matchless grandeur in the light of the eternal Word. "The testimony of Jesus" as "the spirit of prophesy," was no more evident to John than to the endless array of witnesses in all ages, who declared the whole counsel of God, or were conversant with the deep things of the spirit.

II.

In former times it was customary, when referring to a minister of the gospel, to style him as the "person." Though thus designated by way of prominence, to make his identity less uncertain, he 001116gradually became known as the "parson." The office filled by him is one involving tenderness and fidelity, and so to the extent of answering the requirements, he is worthy of being styled the "pastor." This is one of the sweetest words in the English tongue, as Dr. Townsend (Boston University) used to tell his students. The title "parson" is suggestive of the ideal, perfect man. In ancient times when he entered the church, it was the custom for all to rise. Such an individual is highly estimated by the Bible. Here he is both "Man of God" and "Ambassador." In or out of the pulpit, therefore, ministers should be men of character.

Aside from the social relation he sustains to his charge there are grave duties which ever and anon he must perform. It is his duty to visit the sick, aid the needy, perform the matrimonial rite and the rite 001217of Baptism, bind the broken heart in the hour of sorrow, and in the hour of death, it is his to pay final tribute to the dead. If he does this faithfully and well, he is a minister of the Lord indeed.

The prime duty of a minister of Christ, however, is to publish the tidings of salvation. Whatever else he does he must preach the gospel. Paul's instruction to Timothy was "Preach the Word." That word was Christ, the Divine Logos. Our Lord's commission to the apostles was: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

III.

The office and work of the minister is not simply a high calling, but the highest calling. All other vocations are earthly and involve only temporal issues. 001318He who is called of God may well turn a deaf ear to most flattering notes of earthly promises. The grass withereth, the flowers fade and die, crowns and sceptres with those who possess them must turn to dust, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Whether prophet of old or as apostle of the present, whether evangelist at home or missionary on distant shores, the preacher belongs to that excellent and heavenly commissioned fellowship of whom it may be said, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things."

By scanning the busy ranks of successful humanity or by observing that elect number who have achieved most for their fellows or posterity, it will be discovered that their lives or courses were regulated by the plumb-lines of adaptation and fitness. On the other hand where short-coming 001419has been notorious, and failure the outcome of otherwise promising individuals, it will be seen that this prime consideration was undervalued; that the square pegs had wandered into round holes, and that the latter had become usurped by square pegs. To make sure proof of one's ministry, it is of prime importance to know that the ministry is one's place. In this high calling the alien subject may perchance hope to assume the aspect of the lion only to betray the proclivities and short-comings of his real asinine nature in the end. He may don the professional ermine and encase himself in the regulation collar and coat, but these will be no symbols of inward correspondence or adaptation. Like Saul's armour on David, the ministry to the unchosen incumbent will prove an unwieldy, bungling instrument of fatal hindrance rather than material aid. 001520Those who would assume it as a means of income, pastime or convenience, would do well to consider the examples of Balaam, Judas and Ananias.

IV.

Among the ancient Greeks, a favorite watchword was "Know thyself." No less urgent is the same exhortation to him who would enlist in the embassy of the King eternal, immortal, invisible. Whatever figure it may cut, or part it may play in the minister's stock in trade, so to speak, knowledge must become individualized and personally applied before the highest success can be looked for on the part of the minister, or before he is on the road that tends to success in any sense. He is a great man, who in the Lord's name would assail the world or 001621take a city, but a greater man by far is he who first masters his own spirit. But as there can be no self-conquest without self-knowledge, how important it is that this first principle of victory be understood. The importance of this law and mode of procedure, the Great Teacher emphasized in the parable of the tower builder. Said he to those contemplating discipleship in His service: "Which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? lest haply after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all, those that behold it begin to mock him saying 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'" The superstructure you would rear is a spiritual edifice. It is loftier by far than the towers of Siloam or Babel or Eifel. Its base is the Lord Christ Jesus and its summit towers beyond the cloud. 001722Is it begun and will you complete it, my brethren?

Before attempting to build for others, see to it that your own foundation is well laid and secure. There are four cornerstones that I would have your supestructure rest upon, if as preachers you would hope to endure the test of time or withstand the winds that shall test you. Without attaching any priority or superiority to the one or the other, I may begin by emphasizing knowledge as a prime essential in the fact of one's call to, or usefulness in, the ministry. By this I mean a good stock of common sense or mother-wit to begin with. It may please God by the foolishness of preaching to save some, but never by foolish preaching or the preaching of fools, does he save any one. Ignorance as such is never sanctified. It is a result of the fall and the fall is the result of sin. Ignorance, therefore, is a 001823form of natural sinfulness. As an off-set to this claim, it need not be contended that the disciples were ignorant men. It must not be forgotten that they were three years in the school of prophets under the great Teacher. Again, it must be borne in mind that He whose office it is to guide into all truths took charge of them after their Master's departure from earth.

All knowledge is of some value, but the minister need not set out to know everything. Whatever else he knows he must know the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. In The declaration: "I know that my Redeemer liveth," Job was in touch with this requirement. The Apostle Paul affirms thereto when he says "I know in whom I trust." This was his foundation stone, as it were. The climax was reached in the superstructure later on, when he exclaimed "O the depth of the riches, 001924both of the wisdom and knowledge of God."

The indifference of many to the high place and importance of knowledge is indicated by too frequent undervaluing remarks respecting it, as well as contentment with a modicum of the same. It used to be a frequent boast among our preachers of a certain type, that "their coat tails never brushed the walls of a college." Because one knows or does not know is no sufficient reason why he should become idiotic and boast about it. I particularly recall a certain young man among a number of others whom knowledge had so puffed up, and whom much learning had so maddened that his room became more desirable than his company to the ministry. Demas-like he returned to the world, and Judas-like he has stumbled and fallen so that his very name is both a by-word and a reproach. When 002025the servant becomes above his master, or the disciple feigns to be greater than his Lord, there is room only for his failure and dishonor. There is said to be such a disease among horses known as the "big head," which is quite fatal. Avoid all symptoms of such, my brethren, if you would live or prosper in the office and work of the ministry.

While I would not have you parade your acquirements, I would have you ever diligent in your search for knowledge. Time often wasted in ministerial, in intemperate talking, in undue visitations, in over late risings from beds, if otherwise employed would do much toward adding giants to our ministerial ranks, and much more in reducing the weeds of sin and ignorance which infest our kind and the world.

The universe of knowledge, full of variety and attractiveness, with open arms 002126invites the preacher, if only he will draw night thereto in the name of Christ. Let him seek knowledge and inquire for wisdom. He cannot be too learned or too wise who would unfold the mind of God or conduct the finite to the infinite through nature, providence, revelation and grace. The right direction or application of knowledge is wisdom and he that winneth souls is wise. As our time is limited, I pass on to the next thought after reminding you to the value and necessity of self-improvement and after enjoining you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

V.

If called to preach, my brethren need not be afraid to look for an evidence in the possession of natural gifts. I would 002227have you regard a sound mind in a sound body as among the chief endowments of the Creator to his rational creatures. It is to the value and excellence of this latter endowment as a condition of ministerial acceptableness and success that your attention is especially called. Under the old dispensation, he who was marred in any member or the subject of any physical shortcoming was not considered eligible to the priesthood. The reason was both logical and theological. Until he that is blind can command others to receive their sight, or the lame compel others to walk, or the dumb constrain others to speak, those who would enter or labor in the ministry under any of these disadvantages do so at the peril of failure. The eye is the preacher's keenest weapon and it should be kept in constant exercise. You have seen speakers who seem at a loss to 002328know what to do with their eyes. It is only by directing them to the congregation that the magnetic current which supplies the circuit of truth between preacher and hearer is kept in wholesome expression. The eyes are the windows of the soul and should always be kept in the best possible condition. So with the ear and mouth also. Indeed upon this latter organ, its health, exercise, discipline and proper utilization, the preachers' all depends. More will be said on this point, however, when we come to discuss the subject of delivery.

It is to be hoped that you are impressed with the value of a complete physical outfit in the preacher of to-day and in the preacher for our race variety, if you please. Whether you consider the demands and promises of our people in the South and West; the claims of our kinsmen in Africa or the isles of the 002429sea; their universal tendency to the real rather than the ideal; their imaginative rather than philosophic peculiarities; their strong religious rather than skeptical proclivities; their express preference for truth through the channel of the feelings rather than through the gateway of the intellect; and withal, when their gradual ascent from a degraded environment and unhappy estate is considered, and the place of some urging motive power to hasten the process is conceded, the need of a robust, vigorous and steel-armoured make-up in the preacher becomes but the more imperative. There is no calling which requires so much health, strength, hope, heart and power as that of him who would seek and save the lost sheep of the tribes of Africa and African descent.

I would not have any misunderstand, or be discouraged by the standard 002530laid down as to a complete physical outfit in the preacher. There may be those who to some extent are deficient in this respect, either by nature, or through the wear and tear of professional service. Through exposure and hardship some have drawn heavily upon the physical resources with which they started in the ministry. To this class it is a glory and no shame to die daily for Christ. Should any of you, my brethren, find yourselves in possession of but a moderate share of natural gifts, set to work, and cultivate that, rather than lose heart and lose all. Suppose Demosthenes, the stammerer, had allowed his poverty of speech to dishearten him, Demosthenes the orator then would have been lost to the world. It is said that the late Phillips Brooks hesitated in the choice of a profession after his graduation, and went to his president for advice on that score. This 002631gentleman, mindful of Brook's shortcoming in speech, was unable to suggest any line of future engagement to the young man, except to remind that he was never cut out to be a preacher. Had the unsound counsel been heeded the sequel too well proves what the pulpit of the present century would have lost. You who have weak voices and faulty speech may be surprised what strength and excellency you may secure by systematic labor and painstaking. Miracles here as elsewhere may be accomplished on the same principle as by beginning with the calf, one may presently bear the ox.

VI.

In dissecting the anatomy of our modern preacher, we find that skill is another important constituent of his 002732make-up. The elephant-in-the- crockery-shop of a preacher of to-day is six thousand years behind the times. To be a minister of the times and preacher for the people, the individual we endorse must be able to handle himself and others also. He must be able to assert himself and surrender himself whenever principle or expediency requires it. If he is skilled he will adapt himself to circumstances and adjust himself to emergencies. When stubborn obstacles are in his pathway, rather than break up a church or impair his own usefulness, he will follow the example of all prudent farmers and plow around such stumps. Deeply rooted customs, long standing forms and beliefs, popular shortcomings of redeeming phases are among the things with which the minister can only deal by exercising great skill. Professor Townsend, our preacher-trainer in Boston 002833University, would tell us when the poker falls out of the fire never take it up by the end that's hot. By skillful presentation, the most unpalatable truth, the most painful revelation, may be imparted. He was a skillful boy whose negligence occasioned the death of his employer's yoke of oxen. Knowing that the news would be unpleasant, he gave it in broken doses. "Master, one of your oxen got killed," said he, and after pausing himself and giving his employer time to draw his breath, also, concluded by remarking, "Yes sir, and the other one too."

The skillful soul-winner in dealing with men will learn much from experience and observation. He will learn that he often leads best who would seem to follow. He will find that one's highest success is assured by his stooping to conquer when such becomes necessary. 002934He who would continue as chief must be servant at times.

Nowhere will the skill of the ideal preacher be so markedly displayed as in his ability to handle the word of God. This he will rightly divide and make it his study so to do. It is his two-edge sword which he will ever keep tempered and prepared for skillful execution at all times. It is his armory whereunto he can resort at any moment and find a weapon for every emergency. If skilled he will waste no ammunition unwisely, but will aim between the joints of the harness or drive the centre shot straight to the vital parts of the King's enemies at every crack of his rifle.

VII.

THE last pillar, but by no means the least, that the temple of your vocation as preachers must rest upon, is 003035genuine piety. The difference between the man of the world and the man of God must be so marked and manifest that there will be no mistaking the one for the other. Scorn the idea of it ever being said of you as was said of a certain seventh-day clergyman by those who knew him best. While preaching they would say: "He is such a saint he should never leave the pulpit." When out of the pulpit, he was such a Satan, they would say "He should never be allowed to enter it again."

Too much stress cannot be placed upon the essential of piety in the preacher's make-up or outfit. The minister who has no piety can have no prestige as a man of God among the people of God, or among any other people, as a matter of fact. His words, however well-spoken, will be without unction. His grammar and rhetoric may be artificial flowers without a flaw, but they 003136will be as roses without fragrance, or the salt that has lost its savor. They may fall upon the multitude as the rushing wind or gentlest zephyr, but their impressiveness will be scarcely more affective than the proverbial water on the back of a duck.

Upon a thoroughly consecrated life depends your highest success as a minister of the Word and of the New Testament. If you would always be fruitful and abound; if you would be thoroughly furnished unto every good work; if you would do all things and become mighty to the pulling down of every stronghold of every kind, I urge you to be filled with the fullness of God, I exhort you to let that mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Men are called to preach not by precept, but by examples as well. Every gospel torch-bearer should have his vessels well 003237supplied with the oil of divine grace. This oil is for the purpose of making light, not for the possessor simply, but for all within the range of its influence. Your light, therefore, is to shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

VIII.

In his "Ars Poetica" is found this excellent advice from Horace to amateur writers- "Examine well, ye writers, weigh with careWhat suits your shoulders, what your strength will bear."

With no little profit might the enjoinder be heeded by the sermon writer and professional preacher. Often by undertaking too much, the powers of men for usefulness are paralyzed if not destroyed. While it is true that much 003338harm can result from overwork as well underwork; while it is harm can result from overwork as well underwork; while it is true that Whosoever aimeth at the sky,Hits higher far than he who means a tree--

It is none the less true that he who constantly shoots at stars will most likely hit nothing. It makes no difference how richly a man may be endowed, he should guard well his health and jealously husband his resources. Upon this success in the highest sense is invariably conditioned. Some preachers are very enthusiastic and ambitious. They mean well but undertake too much. They attend all board meetings, superintend the Sunday School and church concerts, build churches, act as financial agents during the week, visit the sick, bury the dead, make calls, and on Sunday would preach three times without estimating the cost or anticipating the penalty. Rather than rust themselves away upon 003439stools of do-nothing or in cradles of carnal security, they suffer the wear and tear of tireless engagements and are killed all the day long for the sake of Christ. They may be burning and shining lights for the Master, ignited at both ends but soon consumed. To a greater or less extent was such true of Summerfield and Cookman of the mother church, and our Bishop Dickerson, Revs. Bryant and Upshaw, along with countless others. Though dead, the speaking voice of these self-consumed heroes may be heard warning others to beware of the things which lead to an untimely end.

The first installment of our proposed discussion is at an end unless there are those who would have us consider some pertinent questions for a few moments.

What would you regard as the surest evidence of a call to the ministry? --REV. P. A. Hubbard.

Answer.--Natural qualification as to mind and body. Both must be sound and complete. Their discipline and exercise condition the highest results. Again, there must be an innate consciousness of the fact attested by divine testimony. There should also be a sense of self-condemnation, "woe is me if I preach not the gospel," the result of a disposition to evade the same. Among the highest evidences, however, is that of fruit bearing. "By their fruit ye shall know them."

Have signs and voices any place or significance in the matter and facts of calls? --REV. B. A. J. Nixon.

Answer.--None, I opine, except in a favourable sense. They are generally no more significant than the dream of the individual who saw the letters G. P. C., and construed them as abbreviations for Go Preach Christ. The astute chairman of the committee before whom application 003641for license was made, on the strength of the applicant's manifest shortcomings accepted the revelation but rejected the version preferring to regard the G. P. C. as symbolic of "Go Plow Corn".

IX.

The word is from the Latin sermo, signifying discourse, speaking. It may be defined, therefore, as a discourse written or uttered for religious instruction and grounded upon some passage or test of scripture. The sermon implies a text. Whatever to the contrary may be true of essays, dissertations, orations, or exhortations, this much is true of all sermons--they have their foundations and warrant in Scriptural passages known as tests. A word, therefore, concerning the preacher's duty to the text is highly in order.

To be able to read a text correctly, I 003742conceive to be a prime necessity on the part of the preacher, and yet how frequently is this obligation ignored or violated? The preacher who stood up and opened his Bible and deliberately announced that "The ark rested on the mountains of A-rat," while deserving of pity and censure, could do no less than excite the grotesque and ludicious in the most sober-sided listener. In this blame-worthy class, I would also place that minister who deliberately made the Psalmist to say, "Thou makest my feet like hen's feet" instead of "like hind's feet." You will not regard it as vanity in the lecturer to interject a bit of personal experience on this score. I remember having once heard a preacher introduce the three Hebrew children to his congregation under the novel titles of "Shedrick, Fredrick and Bendebo." Another poor stumbler at the King's English, much less the original tongue, 003843was guilty of mild form of blasphemy when he ignorantly paraphrased the dying words of our Lord into "Eli, Eli, Lem me whack yer in yer eye." The late John Gough in one of his lectures on "Ramble about London," states that in stepping into a certain church, he heard a preacher, in attempting to read the words "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, read, "He that hath yaws to yaw let him yaw." The text should be announced and pronounced in such a manner as to leave no room for the question whether the preacher himself understands the message which he would bear to others in the name of the Lord. To do this effectively, he will find the aid afforded by a knowledge of etymology, grammar, rheotic and expression, to be of indispensable value. To spend some time regularly in the practice of reading aloud to friendly critics will also be of special service to you as ministers.

But let us not disgress. In the consideration of the sermon that which should chiefly concern you in its preparation. Between the written sermon or unwritten method of sermonizing, tastes and conditions may justify a difference, but in either case you are not to escape the duty of thoroughly preparing yourselves before delivering the sermon. Strictly speaking there is no such thing as extemporaneous speaking. He who would preach consistently and with effect must prepare the substance of his sermon beforehand. There are discourses delivered at times with great success--off-hand efforts; but they are invariably the fruits of former thought or study. Doubtful and audacious is that inspiration which claims ignorance as its basis.

X.

Written sermons have their uses and advantages; therefore, write your sermons. Writing sermons will 004045make the preacher no less an exact man than the literary man addicted to the same habit and referred to by Lord Bacon. By writing your discourses you may also develop a faculty for style and method. The written sermon is also best adapted to certain constitutions. The sermon should be made a "thing of art" as Dr. Latimer (Boston University) used to say, but such is likely to be the case only when pen and brain are skillfully employed. Having taken our advice in writing your sermons, you will do well to observe a further caution. Other things being equal never take your manuscript into the pulpit. Again, adopt the memoriter method only when you can't help it. In this connection the words of the great Beecher are quite apropos. "No man who is tied up to written lines can in any emergency, throw the whole power of his manhood upon an audience. There is a freedom 004146of swiftness, a versatility, and a gradual rush which comes to no man but him whose thoughts are free from trammels, and who like the eagle, far above thicket and forest and in the full sunlight, has the whole wide air in which to make his flight."

XI.

There is a marked difference of opinion respecting the length of sermons. 1. An inductive from one class of data authorizes the preaching of short sermons,i.e. able preachers advocate that sermons should be short, from twenty to forty minutes. The services should occupy only about seventy-five minutes.

The preacher, however, must judge the length of the sermon by watching the eye of the auditors rather than by the clock. He should work toward the long sermon but try to make the long sermon short. 004247He should venture to give ample time to ample themes, even if occasionally there is carried with it the incidental evil of weariness. In the long run the method will produce a nobler class of mind and a higher class of education than can possibly belong to the school of dwarf sermons or sermonettes. Work hard and perhaps the compliment that Theophrastus paid Demosthenes will be yours. He was asked, "Which of Demosthenes orations do you like best?" He said, "The longer."

Question.--What about the disciplinary enjoinder upon young preachers not to talk too loud or too long? --Bishop Handy.

Answer.--I regard it as both timely and of standing value. There is little room for doubt that as a general thing our young preachers talk too loud and too long. As to over-long speaking you have a striking warning in the scriptural instance of the young man going to sleep 004348and falling from the window under Paul's preaching. No preacher can persist in straining his throat without paying the penalty of what Mr. Ingersoll has been pleased to term parsonitis, i.e. bronchitis or ministerial sore throat. To froth and foam at the mouth with intermittent growls is a disgusting and abominable practice more suggestive of "dog days" than otherwise.

Question.--Is it the proper posture for the lecturer or preacher to sit while addressing his audience? --Bishop Gaines.

Answer.--In Bible times it was the universal method. The Great Teacher seldom departed from it. The Scriptures introduce the sermon on the Mount in this wise: "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying."

In European circles the scholastic lecturer occupies a sitting posture. The same is true in America. All of the preludes to Joseph Cook's lectures are delivered while he occupies a chair.