The work of preaching Christ [microform] : a charge, delivered to the clergy of the Diocese of Ohio, at its forty-sixth annual convention, in St. Paul's Church, Akron, on the 3d of June, 1863

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DELITBEED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF OHIO, AT ITS FOETZ-

i.NNUAL CONTENTION, IN ST. PAUL'S

AKRON, ON THE 3D OF JUNE, 1863.

SIXTH ANNUAL CONTENTION, IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH,

BY CHAELES PETTIT McILVAINE, D. D., D. 0. L.,

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BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE.

Second Edition.

NEW YORK:
ANSON D. P. RANDOLPH,

770 BROADWAY,

# 1864.

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864,

BY OHAELES PETTIT MoILTAINE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

EDWAKD O. JENKINS,
printer atrti Stmotsprr,

No. 20 NOETH "WHLIAM 8*.

CHARGE

To THE CLERGY OP THE DIOCESE OF OHIO :

BRETHREN, It is a lon^ time since I addressed
you in the form of a Charge. Various have been
the causes ; the chief of them, as you well know,

having been connected with the state of my health.

Addressing you again in that mode, and with exclu-
sive reference to matters peculiar to our office as
Ministers of Christ, realizing how near my time is
to lay it down, I choose a subject with which a
Bishop may well desire to close his ministry ; which
indeed all our work should be identified with, and
which, I am thankful to say, has been obtaining, ever
since mine began, a deeper and stronger possession
of my mind, my affections, and my ministry I mean
the work of preaching Christ, according to the Scrip-
tures, j,nd the example of the Apostles.
" Go preach the Gospel," were the words of our

(3)

4 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

Lord to his Apostles, which conveyed to them and
to us the whole weight and substance of the com-
mission of his Ministers and Ambassadors. . It was
the unquestioning obedience of a simple and unhesi-
tating faith to that one command, animated by an
unquenchable love to its divine Author and to the
souls he died to save, enlightened by the teaching
and made mighty by the power of the Holy Ghost,
that constituted all the vigour and efficacy of the
ministry of the Apostles. It was thus that their
weapons of warfare became " mighty through God,"
and achieved those stupendous victories of the truth
over " the spirit that ruleth in the children of diso-
bedience," which the weaker faith and more timid
obedience of the Church in later days have so poorly
imitated. And, as in the beginning, so also in all
times of the Christian dispensation, it has pleased
(rod that sinners shall be brought " into captivity to
the obedience of Christ" and made partakers of his
salvation, by the obedience of his ministers to that
one original charge and command "preach the
Gospel" Faith by hearing ; Gospel faith, by hear-
ing Gospel truth ; and such hearing, by the preach-

TJi':''

ing of the word of God, is His standing rule accord-

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 5

ing to which He bestows His Spirit for the convic-
tion, conversion, and sanctification of men.

But it is manifest from the Scriptures that the
Apostles identified the Gospel with Christ ; so that,
in their view and practice, to preach the Gospel was
neither more nor less than to preach Christ. The
record which, in a few words, describes their minis-
try is that, " daily in the temple and in every house,
they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ."
St. Paul to the Romans defines the whole Gospel by
saying that it is "concerning Jesus Christ."* The
employment of his two years' imprisonment at Rome
was all comprehended in "teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus." And his whole
ministry was given unto him, he , testifies, that* he
"might preach .the unsearchable riches of Christ."
As he could say, " For me to live is Christ ;" so for
him to preach was Christ. To him Christ and the
Gospel were one.

But we must here note the chief feature in their
preaching of Christ. They omitted nothing pertain-
ing to him ; but there was one thing on which, more
than anything else, they very particularly and em-

* Rom. i. 3.

6 THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST.

phatieally dwelled. They took great . pains to set
forth, the Lord Jesus in all that he was and is, in
person and office, as once on earth and" now in
heaven, his preexistent glory with the Father, his
incarnation and humiliation in our nature, his death,
resurrection, and intercession ; all his love, all his
promises, all his commandments ; so that there was
no part of the whole counsel- of God " concerning
His Son Jesus Christ," which they kept back. But
manifestly there was one event in his history, one
work amidst all his works, which stood in their view
as the great event and work, around which they
gathered the force of their testimony, as. its central
light and power to which they made all that went
before it look forward for consummation, and all
that succeeded look back as to its foundation, and
on the faithful declaration of which, with its imme-
diate connections, they very especially rested the
faithfulness of their work as preachers of the Gos-
pel. No doubt you anticipate me. Such passages
of the Apostles arise to your minds, as, " we preach .
Christ crucified ;" " I determined not to know any-
thing among you (while declaring unto you the testi-
mony of God) save Jesus Christ and him crucified ;"

THE; WOEK OP PEEACHING CHEIST. 7

" God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" " For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God." They
preached Christ but as Christ crucified. They
said continually, like John the Baptist, " Behold the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the
world," but it was the " Lamb slain" : Christ in his ...
death bearing " our sins in his own body on the
tree,".that they pointed to. They rejoiced in every-
thing pertaining to their Lord, from his birth at
Bethlehem to his present glory at the Father's right
hand ; but the one thing in which they rejoiced so
supremely, that everything else was lost in compari-
son, was his cross. Of the two sacraments ordained
of Christ for his Church, that which alone goes with
the believer to be renewed and repeated all along
the way of his earthly life, has for its great object
to " show the Lord's death until he come." It was
a great lesson which the Lord thus taught us as to
how we must preach him. His Apostles therefore
became in speech, what that sacrament is in sym-
bol ; constantly showing the Lord's death as the
sinner's life. Thus, when they spoke of the Chris-

I
8 THE WOEK OP PEEACHING CHEIST.

tian's race for " the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus"- and when they exhorted us while
in that contest to be always " looking unto Jesus"
the special aspect in which they presented him, was
as enduring the cross. And I need not here say
that their sense of the supreme importance in their
ministry of the death of Christ was because they
beheld therein the one only and the one all-sufficient
sacrifice and propitiation, the vicarious atonement,
for the sins of the whole world ; that great work of
God wherein he laid in Zion, for a sure foundation,
the precious cornerstone, on which the sinner be-
lieving shall not be confounded. It is all contained
in one verse " Christ hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust to bring us to God."* And
again, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us."t

Thus, brethren, we have our lesson and example.
In the way the Apostles preached the Gospel we must
try to preach it. As they preached Christ, so must
we. God forbid that we should glory in anything
else as ministers of the word. Preachers of Christ,
according to the mind of Christ ah, how all hon-

* 1 Pet. iii. 18. f GaL iii. 18.

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 9

ors, all satisfaction in our work will perish but that !
When our stewardship is to be accounted for, and
we are just departing, and the veil, half drawn aside,
discloses what we are to meet and what to be for-
ever, bow then shall we care for praise of learning
or praise of speech or any vapors of men's applause 1
But then, to have " the testimony of our conscience
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with
enticing words of man's wisdom/' we have made it
our life-business and our heart-pleasure to "teach
and preach Jesus Christ," as they did whom he
gave to be our examples, having ourselves first learn-
ed his preciousness to our own souls ; oh, what con-
solation and thankfulness with which to die.

Evidently then, my brethren, it is a most serious
question to be always studying, ' how we may so
proclaim the truth committed to us in Holy Scrip-
ture, that in the sense of the Apostles it may be said
of us in our whole ministry that " we preach Christ
crucified," To this we devote this address. It is
a great question indeed. Many are the failures -
many the egregious failures. Sometimes it seems as
if the preacher could preach just as he does if

Christ and his work were a mere incident in reli-
1* ,

10. THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

gion, a name, and little more answering ncm and
then as a convenience to a sentence ; introduced
occasionally, because, under some texts, not easily
avoided, but. never as the root and foundation out
of which our whole ministry proceeds. But what
awful condemnation to be thus essentially defective
at the very heart of the great work- committed to us !
Nothing can in the least atone for its absence. You
might as well attempt to turn night into day, by
lighting a candle as a substitute for the sun. Our
ministry is all darkness, emptiness, and impotence ;
all condemnation to us, all delusion to those who
hear us, all dishonor to the grace of God, whatever
the breath of man may say of it, except as it is
pervaded, illumined, filled with the testimony of
Christ as once the sacrifice for sin, crucified and
slain; now the glorified and ever-living intercessor
for all that come unto God by him.

'There are many ways of approaching more or leSs
to that attainment without ever reaching it. Some
of the most common we will endeavor to state :

It is very possible to preach a great deal of import-
ant religious truth, and so that there shall be no ad-
mixture of important error in doctrine or precept-

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 11

yea, truth having an important relation to Christ and
his office, .and yet not to preach Christ. The defect
will be not in the presence of what should not be
there, but in the absence of what should be, of that
which is necessary to give all the truth delivered, the
character of " truth as in Jesus." Such absence, when
nevertheless all is true, may be morei destructive to
the Gospel character of the preaching, than even the
introduction of some positive error. The preaching
may be very earnest. It may contain much that is
affecting and deeply impressive strong emotions
may be stirred in the hearers. The earnest enquiry
may be excited what must we do ? And yet, the
preaching may wholly fail in giving any such dis-
tinct answer to that question, as will turn the atten-
tion of the enquirer to Christ as all his refuge. We
may say a great deal about and around the Gospel
and never preach the Gospel. Religious truths are
not the Gospel, except in proportion as, like John
the Baptist, they point to the Lamb of God. For
example suppose you preach on the vanity of the
world ; the uncertainty of life ; the awfulness of
death unprepared .for ; the tremendous events of the
judgment-day ; the little profit of gaining the whok

12 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHEIST.

world and losing -the soul; suppose yon enlarge on
the necessity and blessedness of a religious life, and
the happiness of the saved. Does it follow that
yon have preached the Gospel, or any part of it ?
If deep impressions are made, and serious enquiries
excited, does it follow that Christ is preached?
Such topics unquestionably belong most legitimately
to our ministry ; they are important parts of the
truth given us to enforce ; but they are entirely
subordinate and preliminary. They are not the
distinctive seed of the word from which God has
ordained that newness of life shall spring. They
are rather the plough and the harrow to open and
stir the ground, that it may receive the seed of life.
You may spend all your time in such work not
omitting to sprinkle your discourses with the oft-
repeated name of Christ and with much (rospel
language ; and just because there is no pervading
exhibition of Christ, in his work of Justification by
his righteousness and of Sanctification by his Spirit,
given so pointedly and plainly that whosoever will
may understand, you may never attain to the honor,
in the sight of God, of teaching and preaching Jesus
Christ, whatever the estimate of those who have not

THE VfORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 13

learned to discriminate between truth that is re-
ligious, and truth that is not only religious, but dis-
tinctively grospeZ-truth ; who know not the difference
between such preaching as makes the hearer feel
some spiritual want, and that which tells him what
he wants and where and how he is to find it. The
hearer who has learned Christ, as his lesson of heart
and life, of hope and peace, and knows nothing as
precious to his soul, but as it leads him to Jesus, on
the cross of sacrifice and on the throne of inter-
cession, Jesus in his invitations and promises, Jesus
in his grace to help, his righteousness to clothe, and
his power to sanctify, will feel that in all that minis-
try " one thing is needful" and that one thing, the
very thing on which all its character hinges,
CHRIST.

But let us advance a little further. You may
preach with faithfulness and plainness the -strictness
and holiness of the law, how it enters with its re-
quirements into all the thoughts and affections of
the heart, pronouncing condemnation on the sinner,
and bringing us all in guilty before God. There
may be no shrinking from the fullest exposition of
the Scriptures concerning the end of the impenitent.

14 THE WOEK OP PBEACHING CHEIST.

Still more : the office of Christ as the only Saviour,
and his merits as the only plea, may be introduced
not unfrequently, and yet may there be a great
lack of such distinct setting forth of Christ such
holding up of Christ crucified, as Moses lifted up

f the serpent in the wilderness before the dying
Israelites for all to see and live such presentation
of God's great remedy for every man's necessities,
as belongs to the consistency, simplicity and fullness

' of the work committed to the minister of the Gos-
pel. While speaking much of duty, the grace to
enable us to do it may not be propor-tionably pre-
sented. While the penalties of sin may be kept in
full view, the fullness and tenderness and earnestness
of the invitations and promises of Christ to the
sinner turning unto -God, may be very dimly ex-
hibited. That great lesson, which we have need to
be always studying, may have been but little learned,
how to preach the law as showing our need of the
righteousness of Christ, and how to preach the Gos-
pel as establishing and honouring the law ; the one
to convince of sin and condemnation, the other as
providing a deliverance so complete that to the
"believer there is no condemnation .; the one as tak-

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 15

ing away all pleas derived from ourselves, the other
as furnishing a most perfect and prevailing plea in
the mediation of Christ ; the law as giving the rule
of life, the Gospel as giving the power of life, yea,
life from death, in Jesus Christ ; the law to humble
us under a consciousness of an utter beggary before
God ; the Gospel as directing us to him in whom
it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell.
Again. " It may be that doctrine immediately con-
cerning the Lord 'Jesus, and bringing his person and
office into view, may be much introduced. We may
take opportunity to speak of his infinite dignity of
being ; the mystery of his incarnation ; the humili-
ation and love and grace of his coming in our na-
ture ; his tenderness and compassion, and power to
save ; the perfectness of his example and the depth
of his sufferings. Indeed, everything revealed
concerning him may at times be found in our teach-
ing, without error, and in each particular, as it
stands by itself, without serious defect. But there
may be still an important deficiency. The propor-
tion of truth may not be kept. There is a propor-
tion of parts in the whole body of gospel truth just
as there is the same in our own bodies. We must

16 THE WORK OF PKEACHING CHEIST.

omit none of the parts, but put each in its right
relation to all the rest. To fail in this, so that
wMlo we embrace all we deform all, by a dispropor-
tionate exaltation of some, and depression of others,
may be just as destructive of the gospel character
of our ministry, just as confusing and misleading, as
if we omitted some truths, and perverted others.
For example, you may preach Christ in various as-
pects ; but Christ crucified, the great sacrifice of
propitiation, though not omitted, may not have that
high-place, that central place, that all-controlling
place, that place of the head-stone of the corner,
which is necessary to its right adjustment to all
parts of the system of faith. You may preach the
Incarnation of Christ in all its truth as a separate
event, and yet in great .error as regards its relation
to other events, making it so unduly prominent that
his death shall be made to appear comparatively
subordinate and unessential the means exalted
above the end the preparation of the body of
Christ for sacrifice, being made of more importance
and more effective in our salvation than his offering
of that body on the cross. But the great Sacrament
which we carry with us all the way of our journey,

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 17

as our great confession, and joy and glory, is to
show, as oft as we *t that bread and drink that
cup, not the Lord's birth, but "the Lord's death until
he coine." -

You may preach all of Christ's work as well as
person, and all in due proportion of parts, and yet
some other vital truth essentially connected may be
so disproportionately presented as to create in the
whole a most important defect. You have exhibited
the foundation which. God hath laid in Zion. The
question remains, how the sinner is to avail himself
of that foundation. He is to build thereon. But
How ? The Apostle answers, " He that ~bdieveth on
him shall not be confounded." We build by faith.
"We cannot preach Christ without preaching on that
by which we become partakers of Christ. Evi-
dently confusion, indistinctness, feebleness, defici-
ency* there, must produce the same effect, throughout
the whole Gospel. If faith, -in its nature, office, effi-
cacy and distinctive operation and fruits, be kept in
a place so obscure, so subordinate, or taught so con-
fusedly that either it is wholly out of sight or hid in
a crowd of other things ; placed in the outer court
of the temple instead of immediately by the altar

18 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

of sacrifice, as the one instrumental grace by which
the sinner partakes of the " Eamb of God ;" if the
works which are its fruits be so confounded with
itself that the grace by which we are " rooted and
grounded " in Christ, is made of no more influence
in our participation of him than the several works
of righteousness which grow out of its life, and fol-
low upon the participation of Christ through its
agency, then is the relative adjustment of truth most
seriously spoiled and deformed.

Lastly, under this head of our inquiry j it may be
that occasionally in a discourse, now and then, the
setting forth of Christ is satisfactory in point of
doctrine and the proportion of truth. But it may be
only occasionally thus, when the text so obliges, -ac-
cording to rhetorical propriety, that we cannot avoid
it. But such texts may not be chosen very often.
Passing from subject to subject, the preacher comes,
from time to time, to one which necessarily leads to
the manifestation of Christ, in some leading feature
of his grace and salvation, and then all may be well
done and calculated to enlighten a mind hungering
for the truth. But, meanwhile, you may hear many a
discourse which contains scarcely more of anything

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 19

distinctive of the Gospel, or pertaining to Christ, ex-
cept perhaps his name sometimes introduced, than if
it were some other religion than Christ's of which. the
preacher is the minister. And in the general course
of his work we may look in vain after that evident
fondness of heart for views which most intimately
and directly look unto Jesus ; that habitual feeding
of the flock in pastures watered by the river that
proceedeth qut 6f the throne of God and the Lamb ;
that strong tendency, when subjects not directly tes-
tifying of Christ must be handled, to keep them as
near to him as possible, and to return from them as
soon as possible to others of a nearer neighborhood
to the cross ; that desire to illuminate all subjects
with light from " the face of Jesus Christ," which
proves the preacher's determination " to know noth-
ing among men, but Jesus Christ and him crucified."
We miss that Jidbitualness of the testimony- of
Christ, that special love for all the region round
about Gethsemane and Calvary, the atonement and
the intercession, and the great gifts of the Spirit
purchased thereby ; we miss that constant tracing
of all spiritual life and consolation, in its every influ-
ence and fruit, to Christ as the life, and that careful

20 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

binding of all spiritual affections and duties upon,
.him for support and strength, as the vine-dresser
trains 1 his vine upon" its trellis, which appears so re-
markably in the teaching of the Apostles. -

We have thus endeavored to indicate some of the
paths by which, without delivering anything untrue,
and While delivering much important truth, we may
come short of the duty under consideration. We
proceed to consider how we may fulfill it. What is
it to preach Christ ?

We have a great example in our Lord's own teach-
ing. When, after his resurrection, he met the two
disciples on the way to Bmmaus, and found them in
such darkness and doubt concerning himself, it is
written that, " beginning at Moses, and all the pro-
phets, he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures,
the things concerning himself :" the things concern-
ing Himself. Our office as Christian ministers, ex-
pounding the Scriptures, is to bring forth all their
teaching concerning that glorious One, Himself. St.
Paul therefore said that he was " separated unto the
Gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ."*
To teach sinners to know Christ, and to " count all

* Rom. i. 1-3.

'THE WOEK OF PEEACHING CHBIST. 21

things "but loss for the 'excellency of the knowledge
of Him," looking to the power of the Holy Ghost
to communicate, through the truth which we give
only in the letter, that spiritual and saving knowl-
edge which only God giveth, is the general expres-
sion of our duty.

But in the Gospel "concerning our; Lord Jesus
Christ," that is, in the circle of doctrines and duties
and promises and blessings which constitute the
message of great salvation in him, there is, as we
have already hinted, a system of parts mutually re-
lated and dependent, all in perfect harmony, none
so obscure or remote as to be of no importance to
the right representation of the whole. That system,
like that of "our sun, has a centre, by which all the
parts are held in place, from which all their light
and life proceed, and around which all revclve.
You cannot exhibit the, system of truth and duty
till you have made known that central light and
power ; nor can you make known that power in all
its truth, without exhibiting those surrounding and
dependent parts of doctrine and precept. That cen-
tral sun of light and life is Christ. All of gospel

- ...

truth and duty, of consolation and strength, abides

22 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

in Christ derives from Christ, and glorifies Christ
and must "be so presented or it is divorced from
its only life and loses its gospel character. He is
the True Vine, and all parts of > gospel truth are
branches in him. Let such truth be presented with-
out that connection, then its character as truth may
remain, but its character for " truth as in Jesus " is
lost. Its vitality is gone. Fruit of life in Christ
Jesus, it cannot produce. It is just as true and
important concerning truth as concerning men, that
" the branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide
in the vine."

Now what is the best mode of setting forth this
system of grace ? Where shall we begin ? Shall
we first take up the elements of religion (the out-
sides of the circle ; reasoning upward from gen-
eral truths to the more particular j explaining and
enforcing ordinances and institutions of the Church)
as our road of approach to the Head and Life of the
Church ; confining attention to means of grace be-
fore we have directed our hearers to the grace itself
in the great fountain head ; and thus gradually, and
after a long process of preparatory work, arriving
at last at the person and mission and sacrifice of

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 23

Christ ? But we must remember who they are whom
we are thus keeping so long in the cold and in the
dark. They are sinners under the condemnation of
the law of God. They are dying sinners. How brief
the time of some of them to learn, you know not.
You have no time to spend on preliminaries before
you have introduced them to the great salvation.
What they have most need to know is, He who came
to seek and to save the lost how they may find him,
and what are the terms of his salvation. Begin at
once with Christ " Behold the Lamb of God " is
the voice. There is no light till that light appears. The
icy-bondage of the sinner's heart yields not till that
sun is risen. Astronomers, when they teach the solar
system, begin with the sun. Thence, to the related
and independent orbits, is easy. So the apostles
taught. See how, when they had the whole system
of the Gospel, as distinguished from that of the law,
to teach the Jews the whole outward and visible
of the Christian Church, as well as all the inward
and spiritual of the Christian life, all so new and
strange and unpalatable to a people so unprepared,
so entangled with traditionary aversions and deep-
seated perversions, see how they leaped over all

24: THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST.

liminaries and began at once with Christ and him
crucified, the sacrifice of his death, " and the power
of his resurrection." At once they broke ground
and set up the banner of their ministry there. Just
at the point where the pride of the sinner would
most revolt, and the wisdom of man was most at
fault, and the ignorance of Jew and Gentile was
most complete, where the Jew saw only a stumbling
block and the Greek only foolishness, there they
opened their message. " I delivered unto jcm, first
of all (said St. Paul), that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures."* They could not wait to root out pre-
judice, plant first principles, approach the en-
trenched power " that ruleth in the children of dis-
obedience," by the strategy of man's wisdom, when
they knew that Christ was the great " power of God
unto salvation." At once to open $ie windows and
let in the sun was their way of giving light to them
that sat in darkness. At once to show the amazing
love of God to sinners in not sparing His own Son,
but delivering him up for us all, was their way to
draw the sinner's heart to God. Human device

* 1 Cor. xv. 3.

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 25

would have said, as it has often said, in substance,
Make philosophy prepare the. way. Clothe your
teaching in robes of man's wisdom. Keep back the
offence of the cross till you have first conciliated the
respect of your hearers by a show of human learning
and reasoning. And when your master must be
preached directly, don't begin at his death. Speak of
his life, its benevolence, its beauty. Compare his
moral precepts with those of heathen sages. Christ
as the example and the teacher, is your great theme.
" No (said St. Paul), lest the cross should be of none
effect," "that your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God." They
remembered the words of' their Lord, " I, if I be
lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Lifted
up in the cross he had now been. Lifted up as
Christ crucified for us, in the sight of the whole
world, by the ministry of the Gospel he was next to
be. Such was God's argument with sinful men.

They believed and therefore preached. God gave
the increase, and wonderful was the harvest.

Thus, dear brethren, we have our lesson. "We
must begin as well as end with Christ, and always

abide in him, for the life and power of our ministry,

2

26 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

just as for the peace and joy of our own souls. But
having thus begun, what remains ? It is the revealed
office of the Holy Ghost, as the Sanctifier and the
Comforter, to glorify Christ. " He shall glorify
me," said the Lord. But how ? " He shall taJce of
mine, and show it unto you." It is our office also,
under the power of the Holy Ghost, to glorify Christ
in all his person and relations to us, and by the same
method, namely, to take of what pertains to him and
show it unto men. Whatever pertains to him, we
are to show. We must '' expound in all the Scrip-
tures the things concerning himself." Of those
things we will attempt a brief sketch and outline,
but it must be only the merest outline, and that very
imperfect.

We must preach Christ in regard to the glory of
the Godhead which lie had with the Father before
the world was. We cannot exhibit the death of the
cross to which he became obedient, without consid-
ering the infinite majesty of the throne from which
he descended. We must keep the connection which
the apostle has given us between the glory of our
Lord before he came in the flesh, and his humilia-
tion in the flesh. You remember that " he became

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 27

obedient unto death, even tlie death of the cross," is
introduced by " being in the form of God, he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God."*

In the same connection is the Incarnation and

*

Birth of our Lord. Very near are the mysteries of
'Bethlehem to those of Calvary. We cannot tell
how Jesus bore our sins, without telling how he
took our nature. To show that he could stand in
man's place under the law, we must show that he
was made very man. Hence, in the apostle's ac-
count, between the form of God from all eternity
and the obedience unto death, the connecting event
is, " he was made in the likeness of man" "We must
take care that in a just zeal for his divinity we do
not impair or put in a place of comparative unim-
portance his humanity. The one is as essential to the
Gospel as the other the perfect man as the perfect
God. Our confession glories as much in the Word
" made flesh," as in the truth that the same Word
" was God." In beholding and showing the great
salvation, we are to consider as of equal necessity
thereto " the Man, Christ Jesus," and that he was, and
is, "Jehovah our Rightepusness." In the earliest

* Phil. ii. 6-8.

28 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

ages of Satan's attack upon the integrity of the
gospel, the heresies did not more assail the essential
divinity than the real humanity of Christ ; knowing
that if he were not perfect man, the sacrifice for
man's sins were as unavailing as if he had been only
man. The assaults of these present times are indi-
cative, we think,*of the same strategy. How care-
fully and minutely do the Scriptures exhibit our
Lord as man in all that is of man, while at the same
time we are made to behold his glory, " as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
" In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman," that in all time and to all eter-
nity, he might be "made unto us of God," through
his death, " wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi-
cation and redemption."

In setting forth oar Lord's atoning death, we
must keep in full view his perfect life that suffer-
ing life between the cradle and the cross, in which
his obedience to the law, completed by the endur-
ance of its curse for us, was all wrought out. He
was the Lamb without spot, that he might be the
sacrifice all-sufficient. It was his rneetness as the
purchase-price of our redemption, and at the same

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 29

time the pattern of the mind which must be in us to
make us meet to be partakers of that redemption.
Christ our example of holiness is a most important
part of the setting forth of Christ as our foundation
of hope. There was one hour in his life for which he
came into this world ;* but every hour while he was
in this world, as leading to that, exhibited the mind
that was in Christ Jesus, and which must be also in
us. In preaching Christ crucified, let us take care
that we avoid the mistake, not unfrequently made, of
terminating our representation almost entirely with
the crucifixion as if the slaying of the sacrifice
completed the oblation of the sacrifice ; forgetting
the office of the High Priest to enter within the veil
with the blood of sprinkling, carrying the sacrifice
before the mercy-seat, there to appear in the pres-
ence of God for us, and thus to " obtain eternal re-
demption- for us." " Christ crucified ;? is not merely
Christ on the cross, but Christ also " on the right
hand of the throne of God," as having " endured the
cross." That throne is called " the throne of the
Lamb," and the redeemed in heaven are represented
as praising " the Lamb that wag slain" ' The

* John xii. 23, and xvii. 1.

30 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

preaching of Christ crucified goes necessarily into
all that Christ did and obtained for us after, and in
consequence of, his crucifixion. The Resurrection,
Ascension, and Exaltation to head-ship over all
things, are great themes, vitally associated with
what immediately preceded them, forming the essen-
tial connection between what was finished " once for
all " when Jesus died, and what is yet to be finished
" for all that come unto God by him," now that he
" ever liveth." We must preach Christ in his ever
living intercession Christ the High Priest above
with the incense and the blood, or we leave incom-
plete the view of Christ crucified. When he cried
"It is finished" and " gave up the ghost," it was the
slaying of the sacrifice ; it was the suffering of the
Lamb of God for us j it was the being " made a
curse for us," that was then finished. " There re-
rnaineth no more sacrifice for sin ;" but there does
remain the perpetual oblation of the one finished
sacrifice. Our hope stops not at the cross, but " en-
tereth to that within the veil whither Jesus our fore-
runner is also, for us, entered, made a High Priest
after the order of Melchizedek." Thither, there-
fore, our ministry must also enter. Too often does

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 31

what otherwise is well as gospel preaching come
short of that mark. Our preaching follows Christ
in his resurrection, and perhaps in his ascension ;
but do we sufficiently place "before the faith of the
sinner, for his prayers and his hopes to rest on, for
his consolation and peace to drink of when he strives
to come unto God, Jesus as now the glorious Inter-
cessor showing in his hands tire print of the nails
of the crucifixion, and bearing; in his heart all the
necessities of every believer ? When we exhort to
the running the race with patience " looking unto
Jesus" do we sufficiently direct the eye of the hearer
to Jesus, the glorified, in his present office and work
for us ? Remember, that when the apostle said,
" He is able to save to the uttermost," he added, as
the essential evidence, "seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for us"

I must not pass from this immediate neighborhood
of the great sacrifice, without a few words about its
nature. To speak of it as a sacrifice for sin in such
general terms only as leave room for the most un-
real, figurative and accommodated sense, is to come
far short of our duty and of what the special ten-
dency of error in these days demands. When we

32 THE WORK OF PEEACHING CHEIST.

administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we
" show the Lord's death" Let us take care that when

we show the same in words, we do not come short of

*

the teaching of the Sacrament. Our church inter-
prets that teaching with studied precision, in -her
communion office, in reference to errors prevalent
when that office was framed. She calls the sacrifice " a
full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satis-
faction for the sins of the whole world." She teaches
us to pray for remission of sins through faith in th&
filood of Christ. We must imitate that precision
in reference to errors now propagated. Besides the
perfectness and sufficiency of the sacrifice, in opposi-
tion to those who would add to it, we must insist
strongly and pointedly on its strictly propitiatory
and vicarious nature, in opposition to those who
would destroy it. Under such strong texts as
" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us ;"* " He hath made
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,"f we must
teach Christ as standing literally in our stead under
the condemnation of our sins ; all our guilt laid upon
him ; he, the condemned one for us, that we might

* Gal. iii. 13. f 2 Cor. v. 21.

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 33

be accounted the righteous in him. I see not how
we can come short <of such a sacrifice and yet preach
Christ crucified, according to the Scriptures.*

Closely allied to our Lord's priesthood, offering
the perpetual oblation of his sacrifice, is his office as
the great Prophet and Teacher of his Church. " In
him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowl-
edge." He is "made unto us of God, wisdom" as
well as " righteousness." Christ crucified is Christ
the Light as well as the Life. To his invitation,
" Come unto me and I will give you rest," is joined
the precept, "learn of me." The great subject of
saving learning is Christ himself, and he is the only
effectual teacher of that learning. , They that have
" learned Christ," so as truly to know him, are de-
clared to have " been taught by him the truth as in
Jesus" Whatever our advantages of human teach-
ing, even of the truest exposition of G-od's inspired

* The strictly subntitutionary character of Christ's sacrifice for
our sins I consider of the most vital importance to be clearly
taught, if we would satisfy the language of Scripture, or do our
duty to God and man. " He was made sin for us ;" by which I
understand that he stood for us under the law, by imputation of
our sins, bearing all our sins, and as perfectly identified and
charged with them as it was possible for one "who knew no
sin" in himself to bo.

2*

. 34 THE WOKE: OP PREACHING CHRIST.

word, all is powerless spiritually to enlighten us in
the knowledge of God and of Christ, till he who
speaks as never man spake shall add to it the teaching
of his Spirit, so that we shall learn, not merely by the
Scriptures, but in them from and of Him. Christ
as " the truth " as well as " the way" " the wisdom "
as well as " the righteousness of God," the living
" Word " as well as the ever-living Priest and Inter-
cessor, must be showed in our ministry, if we preach
Christ crucified, not merely as once on the cross,
but as now in his glory.

But Christ crucified is not only " the righteous-
ness of God" and "the wisdom of God," but "the
power of God unto salvation." "Him hath God
exalted to be a Prince" that he may be a Saviour,
" mighty to save" " Unto the Son, He saith, Thy
throne, God, is forever and ever, a sceptre of
righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."
Christ as King, in a glorious sovereignty over all ,
things in heaven and earth, we must declare. It is
the crowning aspect of Christ, the crucified. It is
" the THRONE of the Lamb that was slain" before
which the multitudes without number, of the saved
in heaven are represented as ascribing " power and

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. ., 35

riches and strength and glory and honour and bless-
ing." By his death he purchased, as Mediator, a
glorious kingdom of redemption. At his ascension,
he went to receive it. There now he reigns over
all his people in earth and heaven, and over all else,
for his people. When he shall come again, it will
"be in the glory of that kingdom. It was a grand
introduction to that precious invitation, " Come unto
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden," and that
attending precept, " take my yoke and learn of me,"
when he said (in the verse next before), " AU things
arc delivered unto me of my father.' 1 ''*

It was when he was in the humiliation and suffer-
ings of the cross that, as the great King, he
stretched forth the sceptre of his power to the mal-
efactor at his side, and gave him repentance and
remission of sins, and opened imto him the kingdom
of heaven. And now that, having endured the cross,
he is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God, to reign forever and ever, he hath all power
to make good all his promises to those who receive
him and to punish with everlasting destruction those
who reject him. There is no part of our Te Deum

*Mat. xi. 27.

36 . THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST.

that more animates the worship of my heart than
these two sentences, " Thou art the King of Glory,
Christ ! " " When thou hadst overcome the sharp-
ness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of
heaven to all believers." It is as King of Saints
that he freely receives every sinner who seeks his
salvation, writing the law of his kingdom in his
heart, giving him victory over the enemies of his
soul, making him triumphant in death, and finally
saying unto him from his throne, " Enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord." It is as Christ crucified and
glorified and " King of Saints " that he utters that
promise of royal authority and power, " To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame and am set down with my
Father in His throne."*

Here then is another aspect in which we must lift
up the Lord Jesus in our ministry. We must not
let it be forgotten that, in all the tenderness of his
invitations and promises, he speaks " as one that hath
authority," not only to make them good, but to
punish their rejection. The invitations of his grace
are the commandments of his throne, to be answered

* Rev. in. 21.

" THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 37

for at his bar. Hence, the preaching of Christ
crucified ceases not till it has exhibited " the judg-
ment-seat of Christ." It must be noted that, when
the Apostle says, " Knowing the terror of the Lord
we persuade men," he is speaking of the terror of
our Lord Jesujj in his day of judgment.* That day
is called " the great day of the wrath of the Lamb"^
Why the wrath of the Lamb ? Why but to keep
still in view the great sacrifice of atonement ; to
teach that Christ on the throne of judgment is
Christ that was crucified ; that the chief question of
that day will be, whether we have accepted or neg-
lected the great salvation purchased by his blood ;
and the chief terror of that day will be the ven-
geance of that blood upon its rejection ? While we
love to speak of the blessedness of " the saints in
light " as "joint heirs with Christ," we can not dis-
charge our whole duty as preachers of Christ, unless
we speak of the heritage of those who " receive his
graceln vain." We have a most impressive exam-
ple in St. Paul, who, knowing nothing in his ministry
" but Jesus Christ and him crucified," pictured so sol-
emnly that day when, coming " to be glorified in his

* 2 Cor. v. 10, 11. f Rev. vi. 17.

38 THE WOEK OF PEE ACHING CHEIST.

saints and to be admired in all them that believe,"
the Lord Jesus " shall be revealed from heaven, in
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not
the gospel, and who shall be punished with everlast-
ing destruction from th'e presence of the Lord and
from the glory of his power."*

But the preaching of Christ as the crucified ex-
tends through all the inheritance of his people for-
ever and ever. It deserves your particular remark
how carefully, in many places, the Scriptures, in
speaking of the actual condition of the redeemed in
heaven, and its connection with the Lord Jesus as
its author, source 3 and substance, so speak of it as
to keep not only Christ on the throne, but Christ
crucified, Christ the sacrifice, in most conspicuous
view. This is especially seen wherever he is spoken
of in his glory as "the Lamb" which of course
means the Lamb of sacrifice the antitype of the
paschal lamb and of the daily sacrifice of the law ;
the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, " He is led as
a lamb to the slaughter," " wounded for our trans-
gressions. Thus the multitude which no man can-
number, who stand in white raiment and with palms

*2Thess. i. 7-]0.

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 89

of victory before the throne, are represented as
" before the Lamb" and their adoration is in ascrib-
ing " salvation to the Lamb" and notice is carefully
drawn to their having " washed their robes in the
blood of the Lamb" and all that high communion
and blessedness is called " the marriage-supper of
the Lamb" and in all that dwelling-place " the Lamb
is the light thereof" and he that " feeds them and
leads them to living fountains of water" is " the

If;

Lamb which is in the midst of the throne," and " the
river of the water of life," representing their whole
felicity, proceeds " out of the throne of the Lamb"
and the book of citizenship of the New Jerusalem,
in which are written the names of all that are to
inhabit there, is "the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world" * Most
evidently the intent of all this is to carry adoring
thoughts of the sacrifice of the cross into our every
thought of heavenly happiness, and to represent the
heir of that felicity as never forgetting that great
price ; never seeing the Lord in his glory without
seeing him as once " crucified and slain ; " never
ascending any height of " the heavenly places," or

*Rer. xiii. 8 andxx. 12, 14.

40 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

drinking at any stream of their blessedness, without
seeing in Christ not only " the Author and the Fin-
isher," but all in him as " the Lamb slain" as he
that " liveth and was dead" Christ the propiti-
ation, Christ crucified. Atonement by sacrifice is
written all over the heritage of the righteous. It is
the chorus of every song of the saints in light. All
heaven echoes with " Unto him that washed us from
our sins in his own Hood" So must it be in all
our preaching concerning the happiness of the
saved Christ the purchaser and dispenser, but the
glory of his cross never separated from the glory of
his throne. When we " shall see him as he is," we
shall not cease to think of him as he was.

Here a word about our representations of what
is the happiness of the redeemed in heaven what
constitutes it. There is a chilling effect of many
books and sermons on that subject so much gener-
ality, so little about what the Scriptures place so
above all ; so much made of the subordinate and
accessory features, the pastures and the flowers of
the heavenly land, and so little of the Sun that
gives them all their beauty and life ; as if you
should speak of the garden of Eden, and make

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 41

more of what God planted than of the presence
and communion of God therein not remembering
what Paradise in all its beauty became to man when
that communion was withdrawn. '*Christ is carefully
to be preached, as being, himself, in his glory
and communion, the heaven of his people ; as well
as, in his humiliation and sacrifice, its purchase-
price. How striking is the testimony of the Scrip-
tures to this point. Has Jesus gone away to pre-
pare a place for us in his father's house? His
promise is, " I will come again, and receive you
unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also."
Does he pray his Father in behalf of the happiness
of his people, the prayer is, " that they may be with

*

me where I am and behold my glory." While it
doth not appear what we shall be " as sons of God "
and " joint heirs with Christ," does St. John speak
of one thing that we do know. It is that " we shall
be like and see him as he is." Does Jesus promise to
them that overcome, that they " shall eat of the hid-
den manna"? That manna is himself. "I am that
bread of life." Is heaven described as a glorious
city of habitation ? " The Larnb is the temple " and
" the light thereof." Hath it a river of water of

42 THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST.

life, and on either side the tr-ee of life ? All that
river comes forth from " the throne of the Lamb."
Christ is " the Finisher of our faith " in this, that he
is, in himself, thte consummation of our hope ; his
presence, his communion, his everlasting .love be-
ing the prize of our high calling, and the goal of
our race. We come to him now, and he is our
peace. We go to be with him forever, and he is our
glory. Ask the way to heaven ; we say, Christ.
Ask where heaven is ; we say, where Christ is.
Ask what heaven is ; we answer, what Christ is.
Thus preach we Christ crucified, whenever we speak
according to the Scriptures of what constitutes the
life eternal of the sinner " redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb."

But we must take good heed, that we do not so
speak of our Lord in his heavenly power and glory
as not to give due place to his ever present personal
ministry, in and to, his Church on earth. The im-
pression is too prevalent that here in our duties and
wants and prayers we have only a Saviour and
helper afar off.

The precious assurance of the Scriptures is, 'that
we have a Saviour so near to every one of us, that

THE WOEK OP PEEACHING CHEIST. 43

if

he is " a very present help" so present that noth-
ing can separate us from him ; that nothing but un-
belief ever intervenes between our wants and his
fullness, neither space nor time, nor unworthiness nor
weakness so present that he is ever at the door,
waiting to be received, or beneath our weakness
ready to be leaned on. No presence is so "very

-

present" as that of Christ, in the power of his Spirit
to every heart that seeks him enlightening, guid-
ing, comforting, upholding, drawing sinners to him-
self, making himself known to them, giving efficacy
to means of grace ; whatever the instruments, He
the only power. " I am the good shepherd." All is
comprehended in that declaration. As the good
shepherd, he is the present shepherd, so present to
each of the flock that he " calleth every one by
name and leadeth him out." Oh, what a help and
comfort it is when we get a full comprehension and
an abiding impression of that presence. How it
strengthens the Minister of the Gospel! How it
lifts up the heart of the Christian !

In this connection, the faithful preaching of Christ
will keep in great prominence, that aspect of him-
self which he taught with such emphasis, when he

44 THE WOBK OP PEE ACHING CHEIST.

4

spake of himself as " the living firead the toead of
God" of whom the manna in the wilderness was the
type and the bread of our Eucharist' is the Sacra-
ment ; Christ the present daily life of his people
they abiding in him by faith, he in them by his
Spirit ; all their life as children of God now all
their hopes of life forever, depending on that habit-
ual communion the vine and the branches. The -
more we ourselves enjoy of that abiding, the better
shall we know how to teach it. Nowhere does
mere book-knowledge of what is given us to preach
assist us less.

When we speak of Christ as " the life," fulfilling
the type of the manna, let us take care that we set
in clear view, not only our dependence, but His
freeness. It was one prominent aspect of that
" spiritual meat" of which " all our fathers" of the
Church in the wilderness ate, that all classes and
conditions of people partook of it alike, and all with
equal and perfect freeness. It lay all around the
camp, as accessible to one as another. Moses, nor
Aaron, nor any priest or ruler had any privilege at
that table which the humblest Israelite had not.

The priesthood had no office of intervention between

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 45

the hungry and that bread. Whosoever will, let
him take and eat, was the proclamation. Let us
take good heed that what we cannot deny in the
type be not narrowed or concealed in the antitype.
Our text is, " Him that cometh to me, I will in
no wise cast out" * And I do not know a text that
contains more of the essence of the preaching of
Christ in the richness and freeness of his salvation.
Oh, let us take care that our ministry shall keep
full in the sight of men that open way, that free
access, that directness of coming, not to some mere
symbolical representation, but to the very present
Christ, in all his tenderness of love and power to
save. Ordinances, ministers, are sadly out of place,
no matter how divinely appointed for certain uses,
when instead of mere helps in coming to Christ,
they are made, in any sense, conditions or terms
of approach, so that the sinner gets to Christ only
or, in any degree, by them. The light of the sun
is not more free to every man that cometh into the
world, than is the salvation of Jesus to every be-
lieving sinner. It is our business to be continu-
, ally showing that precious truth ; coming by faith,

* John vi. 3V.

46 THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST.

all the condition ; Christ, the full and perfect sal-
vation of all that come.

But in the range of gospel truth, there are sub-
jects of instruction, which though not directly con-
cerning his person and office, are so connected with
all right appreciation of his saving grace that we
cannot keep them out of view-, without affecting
most injuriously our whole ministry. Be it remem-
bered that while the cross with its immediate neigh-
borhood, is the metropolis of Christianity all the
region round about is Holy. Land, more or less
holy according to the nearness to that " city of our
God ;" " a laud of milk and honey," " of brooks and
fountains of water," intersected in all directions
with highways by which pilgrims to Zion approach
the desire of their hearts. It is the office of the
gospel preacher to map out that land ; to trace
those converging roads to set up the way-marks to
the city of Refuge. Christ is not fully preached
when any truth which teaches the sinner's need of
such a Saviour illustrating his preciousness by
showing our ruin and beggary through sin dwelling
in us and bringing condemnation upon us, is kept in
obscurity. The wisdom of " the scribe, instructed

THE WOKK OP PEEACHING CHEIST. 47

unto the kingdom of God, to bring out of his treas-
ure things new and old," is found in his omitting
nothing connected with the Gospel, however remote
from the great central truths and duties ; and in his
giving to each its portion in due season, as well as its
place in due relation. *

For example : Christ is " our righteousness" unto
justification to every one that believeth, so that in
him there is no condemnation.* But we shall preach
him in vain, in that light, unless we *show the sin-
ner's absolute need of such righteousness. We must
seek, under the power of the Hply Ghost, so to con-
vince him of sin that he shall see himself to be under
the condemnation of God's law, without excuse and
without hope, till he flees to that refuge. Blessed
is he whose ministry the Spirit employs to teach
that lesson of ruin and beggary. It is the threshold
of the way of life. The text-book in that teaching
is the law God's will, however, and wherever ex-
pressed. Preached in a spiritual application to the
secrets of the heart, not only as the rule of obedi-
ence but as the condition of peace with Goji to
every one thai is not in Christ Jesus, and on the

* Romans viii. 1.

48 THE WOEK OF PEEACHING CHRIST.

perfect keeping of which all his hope depends ;
preached in view of the salvation of Jesus as only
increasing the condemnation so long as it is salva-
tion neglected ; it is the instrument of the Holy
Ghost to strip the sinner of self-reliance and self-
justification, to 'humble him before God under a
a sense of guilt and ruin, and as a " schoolmaster
to lead him to Christ that he may be justified by
faith." He that would preach a full justification in
Christ, withoift works, must preach entire condemna-
tion under the law, by works. By the law is
the knowledge of sin and hence the knowledge in
part of Christ. Clear, unequivocal statements of
the divine law ; the full exhibition of the text,
" Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things written in 'the Tjook of the law to do them"
(that continueth not in all things from first to
last of life), thus carrying the sword of the Spirit
into the discerning of the thoughts and intents of
the heart, is the special basis of and preparation for
all saving knowledge of Christ. The . way of the
Lord is prepared by that fore-runner. How many
more consciences would cry out for relief under the
load of sin ; how much oftener would the careless

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 49

heart be awakened to seek mercy through Christ,
were there only a more searching comparison of all
that is in man with all the holiness of the will of
God.

Again : Christ is " made unto -as-sanctijication"*
But how can we do justice to so cardinal a truth of
God's grace, unless we do ample justice to that
other great truth of man's nature out of which arises
all the need of a sanctifier the entire " corruption
the nature of every man that is naturally engendered
of the offspring of Adam ?" t The beginning of sane-
tification is to be born again of the Holy Ghost.
According to men's views of the extent to which
by nature they are corrupt and alienated from God,
will be their views of the spiritual nature, necessity
and extent of that great change. Hence to preach
Christ in sanctification, we must preach man in his
natural corruption. The " carnal mind" is " en-
mity against God, and is not subject to the law of
God neither indeed can !)&"% Let us faithfully ex-
pound those words of St. Paul. Wo need no
stronger declaration as the basis of the whole
superstructure of the need of an entire inward regen-

* 1 Cor. i. 30. f Article IX. \ Rom. viii. 7

3

50 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

eration, making the sinner a new creature in Christ
Jesus new in heart, new in life and hope. That
this preaching of the necessity of such new creature
is eminently the preaching of Christ, we have a
striking testimony in these words of the Epistle of
the Ephesians (chap. iv. 20-24), " Ye have not so
learned Christ ; if so be ye have heard him and
been taught by him the truth as in Jesus ; that ye
put off the old man which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of
your mind and that ye put on. the new man which
after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness."

But how shall we speak of so great spiritual
transformation without speaking with equal stress
of Him who produces it ? "What sanctification is to
salvation, such is. the right teaching of the power
and office of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, the Spirit
of Christ, and all comprehending gift of God. What
is there in the Christian life, from first to last, that
is not the work of tha Holy Ghost ? Is the sinner
convinced of sin, Jesus sent the Spirit to do that
work. Is he quickened from spiritual death ? "/
is the Spirit that quicJceneth" Is he born agaii ?

1

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 51

He is " born of the /Spirit." Is he spiritually minded ?
It is because lie " minds the things of th& Spirit.
Is he a " follower of God," as a dear child ? It is be-
couse he is "led by the Spirit of God." Hath he
an internal evidence of that sonship ? It is because
the Spirit beareth witness with his spirit. Is the
love of God " shed abroad in our hearts ?" It is " by
the, Holy Ghost given unto us" Do we learn how
to pray as we ought ? It is because " the Spirit help-
cth our infirmities" Are we comforted with the
consolation of Christ? The Spirit is "the Comforter"
Are we strengthened in our duty ? It is " by the Spirit
in the inner man" Do we grow in the knowledge
of Christ ? Jesus said of the Holy Ghost : "He shall
take of mine and show it unto you" And beside
the spiritual resurrection and sanetification, will
these vile bodies also rise ; will they also be sancti-
fied and made glorious according to the glory of our
risen Lord ? It is written that " He shall quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dweUeth in

Rightly to honor the Holy Ghost as He is thus
revealed in His own inspired word, how important

* Horn. viii. 11.

52 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

to the faithfulness, the fruitfulness of our ministry.
We may so come short of it we may so contradict
it, that while bearing a very reputable character
before men, we may all the while be " grieving the
Holy Ghost," yea, even " resisting the Holy Ghost."
How much barrenness in the work of the ministry,
in making not church-members, but spiritually en-
lightened and spiritually-minded followers of Christ,
may be ascribed to deficiency negativeness at
least, in this great department of our teaching ! In
no part of his work does a minister more need to be
taught of God or to sit humbly at the feet of Jesus
to learn of him ; nowhere does a decline of spiritu-
ality of mind so soon show itself as here. In no
part of our work do we depend more upon a decided,
habitual, personal experience in our own souls of
God's gracious operation. It is here that great de-
partures from the truth which go on to carry away
eventually whole communities of professing Chris-
tians into manifold and essential errors, almost
always secretly or overtly begin ; as it is the final
construction of a system from which the personal
office of the Holy Ghost is virtually if not professedly
excluded, in which they culminate. The Scriptural

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 53

description of a spiritual mind is, that it " minds
the things of the Spirit." It is equally the te^t of
a spiritual and evangelical ministry. That which
specially tries our spiritual discernment and skill in
rightly dividing the word of truth is the right ad-
justment of means of grace in their relation to the

*

power of grace, of instruments of "blessing to the hand
that employs them and that gives them all their effica-
cy. The Spirit hath His instruments. His grace hath
its means. His great instrument in our sanctification,
is His own revealed Truth, by which he testifies of
and glorifies the Lord Jesus in our eves. Sacra-

O V

ments are that same essential truth, taught under
other signs, and sealed with a special impressiveness.
The preaching of that same truth by an ordained
Ministry, is the great instrumentality of the Spirit.
The point of caution is, while giving all due place
to the instrument that we keep it exclusively in the
place of a mere instrument of no avail in itself ;
that we treat it as we treat the glass by which we
seek to see some distant star not as an object to be
looked at but only as a help to look immeasurably
beyond and above it ; that as the glass is nothing
without the light, so the means of grace are nothing

54: THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST.

without " the Spirit of grace ;" that all the power is
of the Holy Ghost, and that power not deposited in
the means, as we put bread into the hand of a dis-
tributor, so that whosoever receives the latter re-
ceives the bread ; that power never divorced from the
personal ministry of the Spirit, but applied directly
by Himself to each heart that receives His grace ;
He " dividing to every man severally as He will."
To speak of an ordinance, a sacrament, any means
of grace, even the Holy Scriptures of truth, as if
they were in any sense the power unto salvation, or
as if they contained, whatever its original source,
the grace by which we live unto God, thus leading
men to look to them, instead of only, by their help,
to Christ and His Spirit, is to " do despite to the
Spirit of grace."

The whole truth in this connection is found where
the Apostle says : " Who is Paul and who is Apollos,
but Ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord
gave to every man"* Instead of Paul and Apollos,
read any ordinance or means of grace. "What are
they but ministrations of man by help of which ye
believe, even as the Lord giveth to every man.

* 1 Gor. iii. 5.

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 55

There is a text which the full and explicit preach-
ing of Christ will be always directly or indirectly,
consciously or unconsciously, illustrating. It is
those verses in the second chapter of the Epistle to
the Ephesians, "By grace are ye saved, through
faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God :
Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works." Salvation all of grace only ; in its
origin in the love of G-od ; in its purchase by the
blood of Christ ; in the first quickening of the sin-
ner from the death of sin ; in all the renewal of his
nature; in his acceptance through Christ, to the
peace of Gad ; in his whole ability to live as a child
of G-od ; and in his final admission to the glory of
God all of grace only wonderful grace ; but
through faith alone and that faith itself a gift of
grace ; our works in every degree and aspect wholly
excluded from the work of saving us, though neces-
sarily included as fruits of the grace that does save
us we being created anew in Christ Jesus unto
good works and not in any degree by good works
first God's workmanship making us new creatures,
then our working as so created "unto, good works

56 THE WOEK OP PREACHING CHEIST.

which God hath ordained that we should walk in
them." We preach such works, first, as absolutely
excluded from having any part in procuring our Jus-
tification before God ; secondly, as essential fruits
and evidences of our having obtained such Justi-
fication. We preach the office of Faith as so vital
that only by it are we united to Christ, as living
stones built upon the living head of the corner ; and
the necessity of good works as so absolute, that only
in them can we walk as God hath ordained and have
evidence that we are true believers in Jesus ; and
at the same time both faith and works deriving all
being from the Spirit of God and all value and effi-
cacy to salvation from the Righteousness of Christ.
Here let me add some few miscellaneous ob-
servations. We are bound ,to instruct the believer
in all the privileges and consolations that are in
Christ that his joy may be full. But we must lay
equal stress on all his obligations, that Christ may
be glorified. Out of the same wounds of the cross
come privilege and duty, promise and commandment,
the consolation of faith and the duty of obedience ;
and the same preaching that leads to the one must
alike insist on the other, and on both as necessary

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 61

to our having that rest which Jesus promises. It is
a great matter so to preach the precepts of Christ
as to lead men to embrace his promises ; and so the
promises as to draw the disobedient to the love of
his precepts. In all our work we have two great
sources of persuasion, according to the example of
St. Paul, namely, " We beseech you by the mercies
of God/ 7 and again, " Knowing the terror of the
Lord, we persuade men ;" the love of God in Christ
as a Saviour, and the wrath of God in Christ as
Judge of quick and dead ; a cloud of light and a
cloud of darkness, each proceeding from the cross as
accepted or rejected. We must do all in tenderness,
but all in faithfulness. The whole counsel of God
embraces the fearful penalty of unpardoned gin as
well as the glorious inheritance of the reconciled in
Christ. The faithful preacher of Christ keeps back
none of it. While he delights in the loving aspects
of his grace, he is not ashamed of the severities of
his justice. He does not indeed denounce or judge.
It is not for him to command or condemn. His work
is always to entreat and persuade ; tenderly, lovingly,
patiently, in the mind of Christ. But persuasion
has the alarming truths to use as well as the encour-
3*

58 THE WOEK OP PREACHING CHRIST.

aging. That, " God is a consuming fire" out of
Christ, is as much an argument of persuasion and
tenderness, as that in Christ, " God is Love." We
read of " the goodness and severity of 6W."* We
must exhibit both. They interpret and enforce one
another. But how to balance aright judgment and
mercy, invitation and warning, precepts of obe-
dience, and promises of consolation, the tender
"Come unto me and 1 will give you rest" with the
stern "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire " the
darkness and the light the loving voice from the
Mercy-seat and the dreadful sentence from the Judg-
ment-seat all under the duty of teaching and
preaching Jesus Christ, is not learned from books
only, is not given by specific rule, conies chiefly out
of the state of the heart, under the general light
of the Scriptures, and by a careful endeavor to learn
of, and be like, him of whom it is beautifully written
that he hath " the tongue of the learned to know
how to speak a word in season to him that is
weary."t

From all that has now been said, it appears how
mistaken is the idea that by confining our preach-

* Rom. xi. 22. f Isaiah 1. 4.

THE WOEK OF PEEACHING CHEIST. 59

ing to Christ and him crucified we have a very nar-
row" range of truth to expatiate in. In reality, we -
have the whole vast range of natural and revealed
religion. A wider field no preacher can find who
does not seek it beyond the confines of religious
truth. The difference between the man who con-
fines himself to the preaching of Christ and him who
does not, need not be that the latter embraces any
portion of divine truth of doctrine or duty, of his-
tory or prophecy or precept which enters not into
the range of the former. It may be wholly a differ-
ence in the mode of presenting precisely the same
truth a difference in the bearings ; in the relations
assigned to every part ; in -the cardinal points to
which all is adjusted ; in the polarity, so to speak,
which governs such manifestation of truth as de-
serves the name and praise of the preaching of
Qhrist. You may take truth from the immediate
neighborhood of the cross, or from the farthest
boundaries of the domain of Christianity, and when
its just relation to Christ and his redemption is ex-
hibited Christ is preached. Thus there is no reason
why, in the most faithful ministry, there may not be
ajbundant variety of topic and of- instruction. The

60 THE WOBK OP PEEACHING CHRIST.

sermon may be always shining in the light of our
glorious Lord, while receiving it either by direct
looking unto him, or indirectly from secondary ob-
jects which, as satellites of the sun, revolve around
him and shine in his glory. The sermon, in all its
spirit and tendency, may say, " Behold the. Lamb of
God" and yet the view may be as changing as the
positions from which it is taken, the circumstances
which influence it, the lights and shadows of the
several conditions and necessities of the minds be-
fore which it is placed. In general we may say
that, as no .subject is legitimate in the preaching of
a minister of Christ that does not admit of being

presented in some important relation to Christ j so
no sermon is evangelical that does not truly exhibit
such relation, giving him the same position to the
whole discourse that he holds in the Scriptures to
the whole body of truth therein. As some subjects
have a much nearer and more vital relation to him
than others, they will be much the most frequent
and engrossing in the preaching of a faithful Chris-
tian minister. The great truths, the great facts, the

^

great duties and privileges and interests and conso-
lations which proceed the most directly from

THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 61

person and office- the death and intercession of
Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit as well as
those which lead the most immediately thereto, will
be so habitually the subjects of his preaching, that
the more remote and indirect will be only occa-
sional, exceptions to the standing rule and habit.
And which of these classes of subjects his mind and
heart most Delight j n , and which draw forth the
deepest earnestness and the strongest emotions of
his soul, will not be doubtful.

We have now exhibited as much of our great and
wide subject as we could with any propriety occupy

*

your time with. You will, of course, understand
that we have not attempted to embrace the whole
field. What has been attempted, we are deeply
conscious is most imperfect and inadequate. Still,
we have not withheld our best endeavors, where
even St. Paul exclaimed, " Who 'is sufficient for these
things!" We conclude with a brief view of the
state of mind and spirit which qualifies a minister
to be a faithful preacher of Christ.

1. A spirit of Faith. I mean Faith- not merely
in such of its exercises as make the minister a
living Christian, and a growing, vigorous Christian ;

62 THE WOEK OP PEEACHING CHEIST.

but in that special exercise which enables him to
go on patiently, persistently, hopefully, immovably,
preaching the Gospel as we have seen the Apostles
preached it, in like- simplicity and spirituality with
as little of the devices and mixtures and dilutions
and subterfuges of man's wisdom, no matter what the
obstacles or what the apparent fruitlessness believ-
ing it is God's own way, to which alone His blessing
is promised and which He will bless as Ms own
"wisdom and power unto salvation." It was pre-
cisely with such meaning that St. Paul, just after
he had pronounced, " We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord " and v just after he had
adverted to the fact that such preaching failed to
open the eyes of many that heard saying " If our Gos-
pel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the
god of this world had blinded the minds of them
which believe not."* It was in full view of all
whom their preaching did not succeed in convincing,
but only made the more hardened and hopeless, that
he said, " We believe and therefore speak" t meaning
not only that they believed what they spoke, but that
they believed it was just what God commanded

* 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. f v. 13.

THE WOBK OP PBEACHING CHEIST. 63

them to speak. And no rejection of it by man could
shake that confidence or lead them to speak any
thing else or in any other way. Well they knew
what a "stumbling-block to the Jew," and what
utter "foolishness to the Greek," was their testimony
concerning Christ crucified ; but not a word would
they change " We believe and therefore speak"
It was this lesson of faith that Paul gave to Timothy.
He warned him of a time of apostacy approaching
"The time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine and they shall turn away their ears

from the truth and be turned unto fables." * How

*

then was Timothy -to do in such times ? What
" sound doctrine" meant in the mind of St. Paul, we
well know all that way of justification by the
righteousness of Christ imputed and of sanctification
by the Spirit of God imparted to the believer ; that
whole way of life of which the vicarious propitiation
by the sacrifice of Christ was the central power and
life. It was all that doctrine which men would not
endure. And what was Timothy to do ? Conclude
that he, and other preachers of Christ, had taken
the wrong method because thus unsuccessful ? that

* 2 Tim. iv. 8, 4.

64 THE WORK OP PKEACHING CHRIST.

they must find out some other sort of preaching be-
cause that was so rejected ? Since men would not
endure sound doctrine, must he try to get them into
the church, or if in the church already, to make
them satisfied to stay there, by giving them unsound
doctrine ? If the truth caused them to turn away
from it, must he turn away from it also and give
them something else to correct the evil? What
said the faith of an Apostle? No compromise
no accommodation only so much more earnestly
and continually that same rejected doctrine. Hear
Paul's remedy ! ' " I charge thee before God and
the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach
the word (the same offensive word), be instant in
season, out of season reprove, rebuke, exhort, with
all long suffering and doctrine."* The more the
truth is turned away from, so much the more
proclaim it. God will see to the issue. "So
we preach, not as pleasing men, but God, which
trieth the heart." Such is the faith of which we
are speaking, as of such importance in our ministry.
The times which St. Paul predicted, and which

* 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2.

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 65

began before Timothy had ended his labors, are yet
in being. We all know how they have been ex-
hibited since the beginning of this century ; in this
country, under the name of Uniiarianism, and on the
continent of Europe, under that of Rationalism. And
we have heard with amazement and grief how they
, have appeared of late in the venerable Church of
England, among some of her clergy, in her high
places of college and pulpit teaching, and how even
a Bishop takes the lead j and how while it is mani-
fest that he cannot endure the sound doctrine of the
Scriptures, and therefore labors to destroy"- their au-
thority, he dares, with a dishonesty most astonishing,
and an effrontery unexampled, to persist in holding
the office of a Bishop in the Church of Christ
against 'the remonstrance of all his peers, and to
the great disgust of right-minded people. The case
is singular. There were Bishops of the Romish
Church who under the reign of infidelity in France
during the Revolution, renounced the faith ; but they
renounced also their office in the Church. We have
a more primitive example. Judas Iscariot, when he
had betrayed his Lord, having been " guide to them
that took Jesus," had too much conscience left to

66 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

continue in his " apostleship." " His Bishopric" an-
other took.

But perhaps we have adverted with more point
to the case of this English Bishop than his import-
ance deserved. We were speaking of the new as-
pect of affairs among certain of the Church of Eng-
land. True, the most prominent manifestation is in
attacks on the Inspiration of the Scriptures. But
let not any suppose the ultimate or inspiring object
to be there. The citadel of truth and life can not
be reached till that outwork is reduced. Aton&m&nt
is the final object. Atonement for sin by the pre-
cious blood of Christ, with all the precious doctrines
of salvation which reside therein, as branches in the
vine, and which are dead and only fit to be cast
away as rubbish the -moment such atonement is
taken away ; That is the doctrine they cannot en-
dure. That is the truth from which they turn away,
but which they know is safe so long as the Scrip-
tures are the final Rule of Faith. Meanwhile they
would counsel us to give up the old way of preach-
ing Christ, as no doubt the best way for the old

.4

times, but unfit for these times when through mature
growth of man's wisdom such doctrine is counted, just

THE WOKE OF PREACHING CHRIST. 67

indeed as it was by similar minds in the old times,
"foolishness." They would have us lay aside creeds
and confessions, in order that they who cannot en-
dure the doctrine of Apostles and Prophets may be
accounted Christians no less than those who believe
and love it. They would make the Church so broad
that any varieties or oppositions of belief may be
embraced in its communion and even in its ministry,
thus strangely sacrificing gospel-truth to church-
comprehensiveness.

Now suppose such evil times should visit us in
our church what must we do ? I ask it to illus-
trate what I mean by the faith of which I am speak-
ing. Must we preach the word, as Paul understood
it, any the less? Shall we suppose that to preach
Christ crucified is not as much " the wisdom and
power of God," as when apostles set us the example?
Or shall we believe as they believed, and therefore
continue to speak as they spoke, even though the
whole earth should be covered with a flood of apos-
tacy, and men everywhere should be turned unto
fables? What says a true faith in God? No
change, but in more earnestness with the unchanged.
" Preach the word " the same word " Instant in

68 THE WOEK OF PEEACHING CHEIST.

season, out of season," "with all long suffering and
doctrine." Let patience have her perfect work. Be
not faithless but believing God's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save by that same word
now as in the ancient times.

These observations are not applicable only to cir-
cumstanees which may hereafter exist among us.
Always, everywhere in our ministry we find those
calling themselves Christians, or at least numbered
in Christian congregations, to whom what St. Paul
meant by " sound doctrine" is an aversion. They do
not like to hear, they turn away from hearing so
much about atonement and justification, and a new
heart, and faith, and all the inward work of the Holy
Ghost. A less spiritual religion would be far more
to their taste and they think if we would preach
much less about the great distinctive features of the
Gospel and more about mere moral duties that is,
less religion and more of something else, many ears,
now turned away, would hear. Yery likely. And
under the influence of such views, the testimony of the
pulpit is sometimes grievously deformed. The min-
ister seeks to commend himself more to the people's
preferences than their consciences^ and hence, of

THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 69

course, not by manifestation of the truth, in its sim-
plicity, directness, spirituality and completeness.
He enlarges the list of communicants by reducing the
spiritual qualifications for the communion. He makes
the narrow gate wider ; invites a condition of mind
which the Lord invites not. The middle wall of
partition between the church and the world is broken
down, the more to please -the world, the more to en-
large the church. Such compliances we have no
right to make. They spring out of unbelief. They
poison the life of the church. If men will not en-
dure sound doctrine we cannot help it, we have no
unsound to give. If the ground will not receive the
good seed given us to sow, we cannot mend the mat-
ter by sowing bad seed. To the end of the world,
come what may, that seed and that only must we
sow, " God (that giveth the seed) giveth the in-
crease," and wiU give it. Our strength is to betieve.
But to preach Christ is not only " a work of faith,"
it is '* a labor of love." I will not say that no man
can do it in a certain sense, that is, with doctrinal
correctness, without the love of Christ in his heart ;
for St. Paul speaks of some in his day who preached
Christ, "even of envy and strife, not sincerely,"

70 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST.

from selfish and evil nlotives. I will not prolong this
discourse in enlarging on the elementary truth that
without a personal experience of the preciousness of
Christ to our own souls, by each one's individual par-
ticipation in the hope that rests on his justifying
righteousness, and is witnessed by the sanctifying
power of His Spirit dwelling in us, we cannot preach

*

Christ, according to his will, in his mind, in the ten-
derness and earnestness and patience and godly wis-
dom which alone become our office, however correct
our teaching in a mere doctrinal aspect. What I wish,
in these concluding words to insist on is, the import-
ance of a very earnest, tender and overcoming love, to
give spirituality to our theology, and the mind of
Christ to our teachings concerning him. Two preach-
ers, alike in accurate and full statement of all that
is revealed concerning our blessed Lord and his
salvation, may be very different in the spiritual
power of their ministry, and the difference will not
depend so much on the superiority of talent or of
eloquence, or even of diligence in one over -the other,
as on their comparison in point of love. He will
preach best who loves most. His preaching will go
most to the heart, and will be attended with most

THE WORK OF PEEACHING CHEIST. 71

of " the demonstration of the Spirit,'' who, in all he
says and does, is most constrained by the love of
Christ, dictating, animating, sanctifying, with the ten-
derness and patient earnestness of his Masters' mind,
his whole discourse. Oh, brethren, that we were
more earnest to grow in this grace 1 "What ought
we to value in personal attainment, compared with
it ? If your ministry fail in spiritual efficacy, inquire
into the cause by searching the state of- your hearts
in regard to the love of Christ therein, to what
extent the aim, the zeal, the topics, the temper of
your work, and the whole character of your personal
example are under the dominion of that love.

But I have already occupied too much of your
time, and yet I feel that I have come very far short
of the height and breadth of what I have sought to
exhibit. " We have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of 'the power may be of God and
not of us." Blessed be God, that in our weakness we
have His power to lean on. I humbly pray that
power of God to bless to you, dear brethren, what in
so much weakness and imperfectness and unworthi-
ness I have now addressed to you. Nothing in this
world could I rejoice in so much as to be instrumental,

72 THE WOBK OP PKEACHING CHRIST.

under God's grace, in promoting the spiritual excel-
lency and efficacy of your work and your personal
growth in the faith and love of Christ. The time
is at hand when nothing else will seem of the small-
est value. I commend you to God and the word of
His grace which is able to build you up and make
you good stewards of the unsearchable riches of
Christ. "The God of peace who brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work
to do his will, working in you that which is well
pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Amen.