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Cuyler, Theodore L.
1909.
The young preacher
1822-
THE YOUNG PREACHER
THE YOUNG PREACHER
BY
THEODORE L. CUYLER, D. D.
LATE PASTOR OF LAFAYETTE AVENUE CHURCH, BROOKLYN
£
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
NEW YORK CHICAGO
112 Fifth Avenue 148 & 150 Madison St.
Publishers 0/ Evangelical Literature
Copyright,
1893,
Fleming H. Revell Company.
The following chapters have already ap-
peared in the "Golden Rule," and are now
published in a more permanent form, at the
request of many readers of that journal.
T. L. C.
TO
MY YOUNG BRETHREN WHO ARE CALLED OF GOD
TO PREACH
"JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED"
THIS LITTLE VOLUME
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
Vll
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Why should you be a Minister ? 1
II. Pastoral Work 13
III. Growing Sermons 25
IV. More about Sermcn-Growing 37
V. The Delivery of Sermons 49
VI. Health and Habits 61
VII. Winning Souls 73
VIII. How to have a Working Church 87
IX. The Man behind the Message 99
IX
CHAPTER I.
WHY SHOULD YOU BE A MINISTER?
I.
WHY SHOULD YOU BE A MINISTER?
IN this series of articles addressed to
young preachers I shall draw chiefly
from ray own personal experience and
observations during the last forty-six
years. Superlatively happy years have
they been to me; for I have often said
that no monarch's throne and no presi-
dential chair is so exalted as a pulpit in
which a living preacher presents a living
Christ to dying souls. Every minister
who reads these columns, and is worthy
of his high calling, will doubtless echo
the same sentiment. But a vast number
of young Christians among our readers
are raising the question, Ought I to
enter the ministry? Let me say a few
3
4 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
frank words to those who are debating
with themselves this vitally important
question.
That the demand in our country for
effective ministers is far in excess of the
present supply is very evident. Our
population increases more rapidly than
the supply of preachers; and of those
who have entered the ministry, a con-
siderable proportion have evidently mis-
taken their calling. No mistake can be
more lamentable than this ; sometimes it
is made from a false estimate of one's
self, and sometimes from the urgent per-
suasions of indiscreet friends. But if
there are some in the sacred ministry
who ought not to be there, I feel quite
sure that there are many more outside
of the ministry who ought to be there.
The legal, medical, editorial, engineering,
and some other professions, are over-
crowded. The only occupation in Amer-
ica that is not overdone is the occupa-
WHY SHOULD YOU BE A MINISTER? 5
tion of serving Jesus Christ and saving
souls. I do not undervalue the conse-
crated labor of laymen ; I do not affirm
that a Christian cannot serve his Master
effectively in any other sphere than that
of the ministry ; but I do affirm that the
ambition for worldly gains and worldly
honors is drawing some of the church's
best blood into their greedy outlets. All
this is undeniably true ; yet, whenever a
young man comes to me for advice in re-
gard to entering the ministry, I generally
put him through a course of pretty close
questions.
In the first place, my good brother,
have you any natural gift of speech?
The chief business of a preacher is to
speak; and if, from either physical or
mental deficiency, you have no ability to
address an audience, then you will be as
useless as a bell without any clapper.
Great orators are few, and it is not nec-
essary that you should be one ; mere flu-
6 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
ency of utterance with nothing to utter
will make you only a " tinkling cymbal" ;
and yet a certain degree of fluent speech
is indispensable if you ever expect to
command any auditors. Test yourself in
the Christian Endeavor meetings or else-
where, and find out whether you can say
a good thing in such a way as to make
people listen to you. If, after several
fair and honest trials, you completely
fail, then you may conclude that God did
not make you for a preacher. Serve him
in some other way; but do not let a
pious intention deceive you into a pro-
fession for which you are not fitted.
Second, have you the physical health
to endure the strain that the duties of
the ministry will lay upon you? Some
preachers, like Richard Baxter, Robert
Hall, and Dr. Pay son, of Portland, have
wrought a glorious work in spite of the
bodily infirmities that overtook them;
but it is not safe for any young man to
WHY SHOULD YOU BE A MINISTER? 7
undertake the ministry if he is an inva-
lid, or even likely to become one. Next
to a heart full of love to Christ, and a clear
brain, you will need good lungs and good
legs; the first, in order to preach; and
the other, in order to go about among
your flock. If you are too frail to endure
the strain of study and public speaking,
if your nerves are rickety and your stom-
ach hopelessly dyspeptic, then you will
enter upon your work heavily handi-
capped. At a later time I will offer
some hints to ministers on the preserva-
tion of health ; but do not start out with
no health to preserve.
Third, have you the mental furniture
to equip you for the ministry of the gos-
pel ! Genius is not essential, unless it be
" a genius of godliness." Pulpit geniuses
are rare; and, if God intended to save
the world by them, he would have created
more of them. Some of the most thor-
oughly useful, effective, and blessed miu-
8 THE TOUXG PREACHER.
isters I know of have been, or are, men
of very moderate intellectual powers. No
two pastors in New York led more of
their congregations to Jesus Christ than
did the late Dr. B. and Dr. N. ; yet
neither of them ever uttered a brilliant
thing. They both had eminent piety,
warm, loving hearts, and an abundance
of good common sense. This last quality
is indispensable. If you have not learn-
ing, you can by hard study acquire it ; if
you have not a strong constitution, you
may by wise regimen strengthen it; if
you have not money to pay for your
education, you may earn it; but if you
have not good common sense, then (as a
quaint old preacher said) " may God pity
you, for you cannot get that anywhere."
Fourth, are you fervently and honestly
praying for heavenly direction and care-
fully watching the leadings of Providence ?
When God calls a man to the ministry,
•he is apt to let the man know it. I be-
WHY SHOULD YOU BE A MINISTER? 9
lieve in answers to honest prayer, and I
believe in the leadings of the Holy Spirit ;
and if yon believe in them also, and will
keep yonr eyes open and heart hnmble
and docile, yon will be likely to get some
clear indications as to yonr dnty. Dur-
ing the first eighteen months after I grad-
uated from college — months mostly spent
in teaching— I was balancing between the
law and the ministry. Many of my rela-
tives urged me to become a lawyer, as
my father and grandfather had been ; but
my godly mother had dedicated me to the
ministry from infancy, and her counsels
all leaned toward the pulpit. One win-
ter afternoon I rode off five miles to a
prayer-meeting in a neighboring village.
It was held in the parlor of a private
house. I arose and spoke for ten min-
utes ; and, when the meeting was over, a
person said to me, " Your talk did me
good." On my way home the thought
flashed into my mind, " If ten minutes'
10 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
talk to-day helped one soul, why not
preach all the time ? " That one thought
decided me on the spot. Our lives turn
on small pivots ; and, if you will let God
lead you, the path will open before your
footsteps.
Finally, let me say that no young man
ought to enter the ministry unless he
feels an intense and invincible longing
for the work, — a desire so strong that he
will gladly submit to any hardships and
privations in order to carry out his holy
purpose. When Dr. John Todd, the au-
thor of the " Student's Manual," set out
for his education for the ministry, he
walked all the way to college, and slept
on the ground out-of-doors for lack of
money to pay for his lodgings. If you
do not feel in your very bones, " Woe is
me if I cannot preach the gospel ! " then
let it alone. God is not calling you to
a work that an archangel might covet.
You will need all your zeal, all your
WHY SHOULD YOU BE A MINISTER f 11
faith, and all your staying power, to
carry you through ; for the life of a faith-
ful, courageous, and consecrated minister
is not a swing in a hammock. It is the
happiest life on earth, if you enter upon
it with a pure, unselfish motive, and pur-
sue it, not for your own glory, but for
the glory of your Master. Go to that
all-wise and loving Master, my young
brother, and ask him the question that
Saul of Tarsus asked, " Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do f " Whatever he saith
unto your conscience, do it.
CHAPTER II.
PASTORAL WORK—HOW TO DO IT.
13
II.
PASTORAL WORK — HOW TO DO IT.
THE work of every minister is twofold ;
it is partly in the pulpit and partly
out of the pulpit. The first is the work
of the preacher; the second is that of
the pastor. The two ought to be insep-
arable ; what the providence of God and
good common sense have joined togeth-
er, let no man venture to put asunder.
You will be in your pulpit only four or
five hours in each week; what you are
to be and to do during those infinitely
important hours will be the theme of my
plain, loving counsels to you in a future
article. But your labors outside of your
pulpit will occupy more or less of your
time during every day of the week ; they
15
16 THE YOVXG PREACHER.
embrace the whole sphere of your pas-
toral intercourse with your flock, — your
dealings with the awakened, with the
sick and the afflicted, with the bereaved
and the troubled; your organization of
Christian work in your parish, and your
executive oversight of all the manifold
activities of the church. Your great busi-
ness is to win souls to Jesus Christ, and
to build them up in godly living ; and
all this cannot be accomplished by two
sermons a week, even if they were the
best that Paul himself could deliver. In
fact, the largest part of Paul's recorded
work was quite other than public preach-
ing. As for our blessed Lord, he has
left us one extended discourse and a few
shorter ones; but oh, how niany narra-
tives we have of his personal visits, per-
sonal conversations, and labors of love
with the sick, the sinning, and the suffer-
ing! He was the Shepherd who knew
every sheep.
PASTORAL WORK— HOW TO DO IT. 17
Determine, then, from the very start,
that you will be a thorough pastor. Only
a few men can be great preachers, but
every minister who has a good heart and
good sense can be a good pastor. Devote
the forenoon of every day, except Mon-
day, to your study, and do not allow any-
body to intrude upon you, unless he or
she comes there on the Master's business.
My custom was to pin on my study-
door a card, " Very Busy ; " this had the
wholesome effect of shutting out mere
formal calls, and of shortening the calls
of those who had some important errand.
Having given your forenoon to your stud-
ies, give your afternoons to pastoral visi-
tation. The physical exercise alone will
be a benefit, and the spiritual benefits will
be tenfold more. Secure a complete rec-
ord of the "whereabouts" of your con-
gregation. Request from the pulpit that
prompt information be given you of any
change of residence, and also of any case
18 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
of sickness or trouble of any kind. En-
courage your people to send you word
when there is any case of religious inter-
est in their families or any matter of im-
portance to discuss with you. In short,
treat your flock exactly as if they were
your own family. Be perfectly at home
in their homes.
You should manage to visit every fam-
ily at least once in each year, and as much
oftener as circumstances may require.
If you are wise enough not to have
any " loafing " places, you can easily get
through the largest congregation that you
are likely ever to have. Spurgeon had an
assistant pastor for his immense flock;
but he made it a rule to visit the sick or
the dying in as many cases as possible.
He once remarked to a friend, "I have
been to-day to visit two of my church-
members who are near eternity, and both
are as happy as if they were going to a
wedding. Oh, it makes me preach like
PASTORAL WORK— HOW TO DO IT. 19
a lion when I see how my people can
die."
It has always been my custom to take
a particular neighborhood, and to call on
every parishioner in that street or dis-
trict ; but I have seldom found it wise to
send word in advance to any family that
I would visit them on a certain day or
hour. For I might be prevented from
coming, and thus subject them to disap-
pointment or annoyance. Eun the risk
as to finding them at home ; and, if they
are all absent, then leave your card, and
try again at another time. If you come
in upon your people unawares, as you
commonly will, it will depend upon your-
self to secure a cordial welcome. If you
come in with a hearty salutation, and ask
them to allow you to sit down with them
wherever they are, regardless of dress
or ceremony, you will soon be perfectly
at home with them. No one should be
so welcome as a loving pastor. Do not
20 THE TOUXG PREACHER.
squander your call in idle trivialities or
gossip. Encourage them to talk with you
about the affairs of your church, about the
Sabbath services and the truths preached,
and the influence that your message is
having upon them. In this way you may
discover whether your shots are striking,
for the gunnery that hits no one is not
worth the powder. Fishing for compli-
ments is beneath you ; but it does cheer
a pastor's heart to be told, " Your sermon
last Sunday brought me a great blessing ; "
" It helped me all the week ; " or, better
still, " Your sermon brought me to decide
for Christ." In a careful and delicate way
seek to draw out your people in regard
to their spiritual condition; if you find
that any of the family is anxious about
his or her soul, or has any peculiar spir-
itual trouble, then manage to have a pri-
vate and unreserved conversation with
that person. Be careful how you ever
violate the confidence reposed in you. A
PASTORAL WORK— HOW TO DO IT. 21
family physician and a faithful pastor
often have to know some things that they
do not like to know, but they should not
let any one else know them.
This intimate, personal intercourse with
your flock will enable you to bring the un-
decided to a decision for Christ. It will
also enable you to clear up difficulties and
to solve doubts, gently to rebuke the de-
linquent, and to encourage the diffident
and desponding. A close, hearty, person-
al talk will often accomplish more than a
hundred sermons. As a school of practi-
cal theology there is nothing like dealing
with a human soul in its various needs or
conflicts and temptations. The first re-
vival that I ever had (in my little church
at Burlington, K J.) was worth more to
me than the same length of time spent in
the theological seminary. Next to God's
Word, the most important thing for you
to understand is the human heart. Out
of the knowledge that you gain in your
22 THE YOUXG PREACHER.
intimate intercourse with your people you
will often make some of your best practi-
cal discourses. My people have given me
almost as many sermons as I have given
to them. A living person is worth a
dozen dead books to instruct you.
"A house-going minister makes a
church-going people." He wins hearts.
If you make yourself at home in every-
body's home, if you are hearty in . your
manner, — especially with the children, —
if you come often to visit them in their
sickness and in their sorrow, if you deal
with them frankly and lovingly, you will
gradually weave a cord around their
hearts that is not easily broken. They
will forgive a poor sermon, and stand a
plain sermon without flinching. It is
your business to be popular, not to grat-
ify vanity, but to make your heaven ly
message winsome. You represent Christ.
Study to win everybody. Take an inter-
est in everybody. Never slight the
PASTORAL WORK— HOW TO DO IT. 23
smallest child, or poorest or most ob-
scure human creature in your parish.
Never knuckle to the rich ; never neglect
the poor. The most effective ministers,
who build up the most solid churches,
are the good pastors. If many a minis-
ter would take part of the time that he
now spends in polishing his sermons (and
often polishing all the edge off), and would
devote it to going among his flock, he
would have a bigger congregation and
vastly more conversions to Christ. All
this pastoral work will consume time,
and will often put a sharp strain on your
nerves. No matter; it will pay in the
end. Nothing costs too much that will
save a soul. The shepherd who is above
the watching and the tending and the
nursing of his flock will soon have no
flock to watch.
CHAPTER III.
GROWING SERMONS.
25
III.
GROWING SERMONS.
A GREAT many sermons are made, and
very bunglingly made, too; but the
best sermons grow. The seed, or root,
of them is lodged in the preacher's mind,
and often by the direct agency of the
Holy Spirit. It should always be a pas-
sage from God's inspired and infallible
Word. Your divine commission is to
"preach the Word," and whatever topic
or subject should be revolving in your
mind, yet the sermon on that topic should
have a root in the Bible. The men who
draw from God's inexhaustible reservoir
of truth are commonly the men who hold
out ; for human brains often run dry, but
the Bible never does. Spurgeon was al-
27
28 THE YOUXG PREACHEB.
ways a closely textual preacher, and that
was one great secret of his perennial
power. The brilliant Theodore Parker,
of Boston, sometimes took his text from
Shakespeare; he concocted therefrom
bright essays, but they did not contain
gospel enough to save a mouse.
It has always been my custom to
keep a little memorandum-book in which
I noted down any Bible passage that
seemed especially adapted to the pulpit,
and so I always had by me a supply to
draw from when I sat down to work on
my sermon on Tuesday morning; for I
seldom left the choice of my theme any
later than that day in the week. Be on
the lookout for themes all the time and
everywhere. As I happened to meet a
man one day, and mentioned to him the
fact that a criminal was to be hanged on
that day, he replied, "Yes, poor creature,
the wages of sin is death." That old, fa-
miliar passage so impressed me at the
GROWING SERMONS. 29
moment that I went home and began a
discourse on it immediately. It is a hap-
py thing for you when some out-of-the-
way passage that is seldom preached from
opens itself to you in a fresh and striking
way; for then you can present to your
people something that they had probably
never heard before, and the very novelty
of the text excites curiosity and enchains
attention. Sensational preachers often
hit upon odd texts, and handle them
grotesquely; as when one of this tribe
preached on the words, " Let her drive ! "
and another one founded a discousre
against the practice of immersion on the
words, " Beware of divers." While clowns
in the pulpit perpetrate such follies, there
is still a legitimate argument in favor of
novel texts, when handled wisely and de-
voutly ; for such presentations of sacred
truth give your hearers a new idea of the
inexhaustible wealth and wide applica-
tions of God's Word.
30 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
When you have selected your passage
from the Bible, let your sermon grow
legitimately out of it. The connection
between every good sermon and its text
is just as vital as the connection between
an apple-tree and its roots. Sometimes
a lazy minister endeavors to palm off an
old sermon for a new one by changing
the text; but this artifice should soon
expose itself, for the change would be
like the decapitation of "a man, fatal to
life. The text ought to spring up as the
root of your discourse, and send its trunk
towering aloft as the central idea of that
discourse. All the arguments, instruc-
tions, and exhortations are but as the
boughs branching off from this central
truth, giving breadth, vigor, and spiritual
beauty to the whole organic production.
The unity of your sermon — yes, and the
spiritual power of it, also — will common-
ly depend upon its adherence to the great
divine truth contained in the inspired
GROWING SERMONS. 31
text. Remember that your text is God's
part of your sermou; aud from that
should sprout out manifold vital and vig-
orous thoughts, like the fruit-laden limbs
of a Bartlett pear-tree. Be careful that
you do not tie on the trunk a lot of dead
sticks that have no organic connection
with the trunk, and only disfigure its
comeliness. The more thoroughly you
get your text into your very soul, the
more you will get it into your sermon.
Very often you may introduce the results
of your own personal experience into
your preaching ; and, if you live close to
God, he will be pouring his Spirit into
your heart; and these experiences will
be among the most richly profitable por-
tions of your pulpit instructions. If you
water your text with prayer, it will assur-
edly grow into a goodly tree, and "the
fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon."
As to what may be called the mechan-
ical process of sermonizing, you must fol-
32 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
low your own instincts. There lias been,
and probably will ever be, an endless dis-
cussion about the comparative merits of
written and of extemporaneous preach-
ing. No rule is the best rule. Find out
by practice which method you can use to
the best advantage, and then pursue it.
No man ever fails who understands his
forte, and no man succeeds who does not.
Some ministers cannot extemporize ef-
fectively, if they try ever so hard ; there
are others who, like Gladstone, can think
best when they are on their legs, and are
inspired by an audience. Probably the
two greatest British preachers of this
century were Chalmers and Spurgeon.
Chalmers wrote every line of his magnifi-
cent discourses, and delivered them with
such tremendous vehemence that he made
the rafters roar. Spurgeon was a prince
of extemporaneous orators. When I once
asked him whether he ever wrote any of
his sermons, or even any portion of them,
GROWING SERMONS. 33
his reply was, "I had rather be hung."
His method was to fill up the cask all
through the week by diligent study of
God's Word and of all nutritious books ;
and then, when Saturday evening came,
he selected his particular text, and on Sun-
day morning he just turned the spigot,
and out flowed the pure, sweet gospel
in an abundant stream. No man could
preach after that fashion who was not a
close student of books and of human na-
ture, and who had not a great gift of
ready, fluent speech. Young brother, if
you find that your sermons are running
out, or furnish only a thin, scanty stream,
fill up your cask.
The great danger of extemporaneous
preaching is that it may lead you into
disconnected rambling, or mere effusive
gush. Therefore you ought to form your
style, at the outset, by careful and sys-
tematic writing. When Spurgeon was
a youth, he wrote most of his sermons.
34 TEE TOrXG PREACHER.
Dr. Richard S. Storrs is by all odds the
most elegant and affluent extemporane-
ous orator in America; but for twenty
years he carefully wrote all his discourses.
Henry Ward Beecher was in the habit of
writing about half of the sermon; and
then, turning away from his notes, he in-
terjected the thoughts that came to him
in the heat of the moment, and presently
returned to his manuscript. This has
been my own method of sermonizing,
until about fifteen years ago, when I
adopted the plan of preparing a short
brief and tucking it into a Bagster's
Bible. Dr. John Hall writes carefully,
and leaves his manuscripts at home. So
does Dr. Alexander McLaren, of Man-
chester, who is to-day the most splendid
sermonizer in Great Britain. The elo-
quent Guthrie of Scotland committed
his discourses to memory, and delivered
them in a torrent of godly emotion.
Without citing any further cases, let
GBOWING SERMONS. 35
me exhort you to study your sermons
most thoroughly, conscientiously, and
prayerfully, whether you commit them
to paper or not. The most slipshod and
abominable of all methods is that of ex-
temporaneous thinking, or attempting to
shake a sermon out of an empty sleeve.
It is this style of offhand pulpit chatter
that has brought extemporaneous preach-
ing into discredit. If you are careful to
plant a text in your mind, water it with
prayer, and let it grow all the week, and
branch out into fruitful boughs of prac-
tical spiritual truth, you will never be
ashamed to look at your people from
your pulpit, or to look at yourself when
you go home from church.
CHAPTER IV.
MORE ABOUT SERMON-GROWING.
37
IV.
MORE ABOUT SERMON-GROWING.
AS every orchard contains a variety of
fruit-trees, so you should aim at
variety in the growth of your discourses.
Some preachers run into an excess of
doctrinal sermons; others, into the con-
troversial ; and others, into the hortatory.
Dr. Charles Hodge used to select his texts
from the epistles, and he preached theol-
ogy— and very sound theology, too; Dr.
Talmage is apt to find his texts in the
narrative portions of the Old Testament,
and his sermons are vivid pictures. The
Bible is a miracle of variety ; every note
of the gamut is struck in its pages, and
every chord in the human heart is made
to vibrate by its truths.
39
40 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
The backbone of your work in the pul-
pit ought to be doctrinal. Jesus Christ
dealt in doctrine ; in the third chapter of
John, during the course of a single con-
versation with Nicodemus, he discussed
human guilt, the atonement, regenera-
tion, the Trinity, divine love in redemp-
tion, the need of faith, and the promise
of heaven. These great central truths
are all packed into one short, simple,
solemn talk. Paul is the great master
of divine theology; his Epistle to the
Romans was well pronounced by Cole-
ridge to be the profoundest book in
existence. And oh, how his mighty soul
kindles and burns with holy emotion !
My young brother, if you are ever dry
or ever dull, do not let it be when you
are handling these great central truths.
Preach doctrine with passion. Make your
arguments red-hot with heavenly fire.
A man who cannot get into a holy glow
over such themes as the atonement, the
MOBE ABOUT SERMON-GROWING. 41
new birth, the glories of redemption, the
resurrection, and the judgment to come,
can never be a great precaher or hold
thoughtful minds under the spell of his
power. Finney, the king of modern evan-
gelists, bombarded the consciences of sin-
ners with a tremendous broadside -of doc-
trine ; the most acute lawyers and judges
were attracted by his logical discourses,
and many of them were converted. Yet
he could be very rich and tender in deal-
ing with the desponding and the troubled.
He used to say that the Bible fared very
badly ; some Christians gave away all of
its precious promises, and sinners threw
away all of its threatenings ; and so there
was not much left of it. In our day Eev.
B. Fay Mills exhibits many of the traits
of Finney, and his close, pungent, doctri-
nal preaching to the conscience is the
chief element of his power. Solid in-
struction ought to come before the most
persuasive appeals ; in other words, you
42 TEE YOUNG PREACHER.
must tell your hearers what to believe and
what to do before you urge them to do it.
Merely hortatory sermons seldom amount
to much.
Your main reliance must be upon the
great central, doctrinal truths of God's
Word ; these you should preach with all
the fresh and vivid illustrations, and all
the fervor, that you can command. But
the Bible is very rich in history and biog-
raphy. This is one of the internal evi-
dences of its divine origin ; being written
for human instruction and guidance, it
contains every variety of human charac-
ter. What a marvelous portrait-gallery
is that which begins with Adam, and is
followed by such a procession of patri-
archs, soldiers, statesmen, singers, proph-
ets, rulers, apostles, mingled with hum-
ble maidens, servants, and little children !
Some of these characters — such as Enoch,
G-aius, Dorcas, Demas, and Tertius — are
painted in a single sentence. Out of all
MORE ABOUT SERMOX-GBOWIXG. 43
this immense gallery you can select sub-
jects for scores, yes, for hundreds, of
sermons. I have always found that bio-
graphical discourses were not only inter-
esting to almost every class of auditors,
but could often be made the most practi-
cal and profitable. Robertson of Brigh-
ton has a sermon on Eli, and Dr. Guthrie
one on Demas, and Dr. McLaren one on
Judas (the text being " See thou to that "),
which are superb specimens of portraiture,
that present pungent truth to every man's
conscience. Rev. John McNeill, who is
often styled " the Scottish Spurgeon,"
deals very largely with biographical inci-
dents; and his sermons on the sacrifice
of Abraham and the expulsion of Hagar
are brilliant specimens of word-painting,
and at the same time of acute analysis of
character and presentation of some cen-
tral truths of the gospel. When present-
ing Scripture incidents, be careful to ad-
here to the inspired narrative, and not to
44 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
overlay it with any " modern improve-
ments." Even one of the greatest evan-
gelists of the day, who is a grand practi-
cal expounder of Scripture, was tempted
to make the servants of Naaman say to
him, " Suppose the prophet had told you
to take cod-liver oil three times a day for
ten years, wouldn't you have doiie it ? "
There is a third kind of sermons, which
our forefathers used to call experimental,
because they deal mostly with the inner
life and the spiritual experience of God's
people. The seeds of this sort of dis-
courses are found in great abundance in
the Psalms and in John's Gospel. Bun-
yan's immortal Pilgrim is the unrivaled
masterpiece in the line of Christian ex-
perience ; after him come Jeremy Taylor's
" Holy Living and Dying," Rutherford's
"Letters," and President Edwards on
the " Religious Affections " ; of all living
preachers along this line, none excels
Rev. F. B. Meyer, of London, who has
MORE ABOUT SERMON-GROWING. 45
attended the Northfield conferences for
two summers. Tliis is a sort of preach-
ing that requires close, prayerful study
of the Word and of the workings of the
Holy Spirit on your own heart. The
deeper the soil of godliness in your own
soul, the richer will be the crop of exper-
imental sermons sprouting out of it. If
you are a faithful pastor, studying the
experiences of your own people, you will
gather no little material from them also.
Preach, my dear brother, to the heart.
The head is of but half as much conse-
quence. Your pulpit is, not a professor's
chair, nor your audience a class of uni-
versity students. They are a company
of immortal creatures, who come to your
church every Sunday from the toils, the
temptations, the trials, the joys, and the
sorrows of the week. They want to be
fed, and not with whipped syllabub or
confectionery. Most of them will need a
lift ; bruised hearts will need to be bound
46 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
up; feeble knees to be strengthened; a
word in season must be spoken to the
weak, the weary, and the woebegone.
Tonic sermons are always in order; the
stronger, the better. Many of our people
are like eight-day clocks ; they get terri-
bly run down during the week, and re-
quire to be wound up again on Sunday.
Try to steep your sermons in God's Word
and in prayer, so that when you preach
them they will infuse iron into the blood.
Of course you will use all the illustra-
tions you can get hold of; but be careful
that they illustrate something. When
lugged into a sermon merely for the sake
of ornament, they are as absurdly out of
place as a bouquet would be if tied fast
to a plough-handle. The divine Teacher
set us the example of making vital truths
intelligible by illustrations when he spake
so often in parables. All congregations
relish incidents, when they are pat for the
purpose. Do not be afraid of an anec-
MORE ABOUT SERMON-GROWING. 47
dote, if it is serious enough for God's
house, and helps to drive the truth into
the hearts of your auditors. During my
early ministry I delivered a discourse to
young men, at Saratoga, and closed it
with a solemn story of a man who died
of remorse at the exposure of his crime.
The late Hon. John McLean, a judge of
the United States Supreme Court, was
in the congregation ; and the next day I
called to pay my respects to him. He
said to me, "My young brother, I was
much interested in that story you told
last evening; it clinched the sermon.
Our ministers at C used to introduce
illustrative anecdotes; but it seems to
have gone out of fashion, and I am sorry
for it." I replied to him, "Well, I am
glad to have a decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States in favor of
telling an anecdote or personal incident
in the pulpit." There is one principle
that covers all cases; it is this: What-
48 TEE YOUXG PREACHER.
ever makes the gospel of Jesus Christ
more clear to the understanding, and
more effective in awakening sinners, in
converting souls, in edifying believers,
and in promoting holiness, is never out
of place in your pulpit. When you are
preaching for souls, use any and every
weapon of truth within your reach.
CHAPTER V.
THE DELIVERY OF SERMONS.
49
V.
THE DELIVERY OF SERMONS.
THE preaching of the gospel is spiritual
gunnery; and many a well-loaded
cartridge has failed to reach its mark
from the lack of powder to propel it. A
good sermon committed to paper, or care-
fully prepared in your mind, is merely a
preliminary process ; when you get into
your pulpit, you must preach. And
preaching is not paper-reading, nor is it
mere frothy gush. It is the faithful pres-
entation of God's inspired truth to im-
mortal souls; and that truth must be
addressed not only to the reason, but
to the conscience and to the affections.
Your aim must be to arrest the attention
of your auditors, — to arouse those who
51
52 ■ TEE YOUNG PREACHER.
are indifferent, to warn the careless, to
rebuke the faithless professor, as well as
to "comfort the sorrowing, strengthen the
weak, and edify believers. As the am-
bassador of the living God, yon must de-
mand and command a hearing, cost what
it may. An advocate strikes for the jury ;
and if he does not gain the verdict, his
effort is a failure. You must strike for
souls; and if you do not succeed (with
the sought help of the Holy Spirit) in
moving your hearers one inch toward a
better life, then your preaching is a fail-
ure. Results are what you are after, and
they will never be secured if you address
your auditors in a cold, or careless, or
formal and perfunctory manner.
The delivery of your sermons, my
young brother, is half the battle. Why
load your gun, unless you can send your
charge to the mark ? Many an ordinary
discourse has produced an extraordinary
effect by an intensely earnest delivery.
THE DELIVERY OF SERMOXS. 53
It is equally true that many an excellent
discourse has failed to produce any im-
pression on account of the dull and
monotonous manner of the speaker. If
you do not warm yourself up, you may
be sure that you will never warm up
your congregation. I once asked Albert
Barnes, "Who is the greatest preacher
you have ever heard ! " Mr. Barnes, who
was himself a very calm, clear-headed
thinker, replied, " I cannot answer your
question exactly ; but I can tell you what
was the grandest specimen of preaching
I ever heard ; it was by Edward N. Kirk,
before my congregation during the height
of a revival. It produced a tremendous
effect." Dr. Kirk was not a profound
scholar or thinker; but he was a born
orator, with a superb voice and grace-
ful manner and persuasive tone, and his
whole soul was red-hot with a holy love
of Jesus and of dying souls. About the
time that I had this talk with Mr. Barnes
54 THE YOUNG PREACHES.
I was in Boston, and at a public meeting
there I heard a very able production read
in a lifeless manner before a listless audi-
ence. As I was coming out, a gentleman
said to me, "If Edward N. Kirk had
had hold of that address, he would have
thrilled everybody in the house." Cer-
tainly, my old friend Kirk had a remark-
able gift of saying even a common thing
with most uncommon power.
You may call this " magnetism" if you
choose, or by any other name; but I
would define it as the fire in your own
soul that not only kindles your tongue,
but also kindles the hearts before you.
Paul must have had this when he ceased
not to warn the Ephesians, night and day,
with tears. It has been the characteristic
of nearly all the most effective preachers.
Dr. Chalmers had it ; McCheyne had it ;
Dr. Guthrie had it to such a degree that
a Highland drover standing in the packed
auditory spoke out audibly, " And did ye
THE DELIVERY OF SERMONS. 55
iver hear the like o' that ! " The sermons
of Frederick W. Robertson, of Brighton,
are models of vigorous thought and clear-
cut expression ; yet they owed much of
their power at the time to their being
delivered "with a fiery glow." In my
own humble experience I have seen my
congregation much moved by a certain
discourse, and spiritual results have fol-
lowed it. At another time and place the
same sermon has produced no impression,
and I feel quite confident that the differ-
ence was more with me than with my
hearers. Physical condition may have
something to do with a minister's power
in delivery; but the chief element in "y\dt
the eloquence that awakens and converts /a
souls is the unction of the Holy Spirit.
Your best power, my brother, is power
from the Holy Ghost. You may have
that if you empty yourself of pride and
vainglory and foolish fear of man, and
then seek the inpouring of the divine
56 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
Spirit in his fullness. Do not be discour-
aged if your voice is weak, or is harsh
and unmusical; do not trouble yourself
too much about the gracefulness of your
gestures. Dr. Alexander Duff's eloquence
swept his audience like a hurricane,"but
such outlandish contortions of gestures as
his, I never witnessed elsewhere. Phys-
ical defects may often be overcome by res-
olute training, as Bishop Phillips Brooks
overcame them ; and, if you fall into un-
couth and disagreeable habits of intona-
tion or gesticulation, get some good friend
to score you out of them. You never will
become an effective preacher if you are
unwilling to accept the sharpest criticisms
kindly; and faithful are the wounds of
a wife, if she sometimes cuts your self-
conceit to the quick, or prunes off your
bad habits without mercy.
During my three years in Princeton
Theological Seminary I made it a rule to
go out as often as possible and address
THE DELIVERY OF SERMONS. 57
little meetings in the neighboring school-
houses, and found this a very beneficial
method of gaining practice. A young
preacher must get accustomed to the
sound of his own voice; if he is natu-
rally timid and bashful, he must learn to
face an audience. He must first learn
to speak at all; afterward he may learn
to speak well. " I spoke every evening
but one during my first session of Par-
liament," said Charles James Fox, " and
I am only sorry that I did "not speak on
that evening also." It was by such con-
stant practicing on the patience of his
auditors that Fox became one of the most
splendid masters of parliamentary debate.
It is a happy thing for a young minister
to begin his ministry in a small congre-
gation. He has more time for study ; he
has a better chance to become intimately
acquainted with individual characters,
and also a smaller audience to face. The
first congregation that I was called to
58 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
serve contained about forty families;
three or four of these were wealthy and
cultured, and the rest were plain mechan-
ics, with a few gardeners and coachmen.
I aimed my sermons at the comprehen-
sion of the gardeners and the coachmen
at the rear of the house, leaving my cul-
tured parishioners to gather what they
could from the sermon on its way. One
of these rich folks was a very distin-
guished lawyer. After I had delivered
a very earnest sermon on " the worth of
the soul " I went home and said to my-
self, " Lawyer C must have thought
that was a camp-meeting exhortation."
He met me during the week, and to my
astonishment he said to me, "Young
man, I thank you for that sermon last
Sunday ; it had the two best qualities of
preaching — simplicity and earnestness.
If I had a student in my office who was
not more in earnest to win his first ten-
dollar suit before a justice of the peace
THE DELIVERY OF SERMONS. 59
than some ministers seem to be in trying
to save souls, I would kick such a student
out of my office."
That lawyer's remark did me more good
than any month's study in the seminary.
It taught me that the cultured relish plain,
simple truth as much as do the ignorant,
and that downright earnestness to save
souls " hides a multitude of sins " in us
raw young preachers. If you want to
be a natural and forceful speaker, do not
trammel yourself too much with the can-
ons of elocution. Load your piece with
God's truth, take good aim, and then fire
away. The less you think about your-
self while in the pulpit, the better. Leave
your own self-consciousness and your
own reputation down under the pulpit
stairs. Look at your auditors as immor-
tal beings bound to the judgment-seat
of Christ, and remember that you are to
meet them there, and to render your ac-
count for discharging your duty to them.
60 THE TOVXG PREACHER.
Then seek the power from on high, and
preach for sonls ! Preach as if the light
of eternity flashed into your face. The
more soul you put into your preaching,
the more souls you will bring to Jesus
Christ.
CHAPTER VI.
HEALTH AND HABITS.
61
M
VI.
HEALTH AND HABITS.
ANY people have the very foolish
impression that the life of a minis-
ter is a very easy one. But the pastor of
a large parish, who devotes himself con-
scientiously to his work, needs a strong
mind in a strong body. Every student
for the ministry should use abundant
physical exercise during his preparatory
training, so that when he enters upon his
labors he may be able to " endure hard-
ness as a good soldier," and not be a
candidate for the hospital. It is rarely
a wise thing to have a first settlement
in a great city. A small parish in the
rural regions is the best place in which
to begin. There the young man will
63
C4 TEE TOUNO riiEACEEE.
have undisturbed opportunity for study-
ing God's Word, and human nature, too ;
he will have the bracing influence of
country air, and of long walks or rides
to visit his flock. Almost all the great-
est ministers of both Britain and America
have served their apprenticeship in hum-
ble parishes, while those who rush pre-
cipitately into ambitious settlements com-
monly break down. The clock that is
not content to strike one will never strike
twelve.
Bodily health, my young brother, is
more easily kept than regained ; and Dr.
Prevention is the best physician that you
can employ. I am not very strong phys-
ically, but I have taken good care of a
good constitution, so that, during an
active ministry of forty-seven years, I
have never spent an entire Sabbath in
bed. On three or four occasions I have
suffered from ailments that kept me from
church, but did not put me on my back.
HEALTH AND HABITS. 65
The best parts of me have always been
my lungs and my legs; they are really
the most important parts, for the one
does the preaching, and the other does
the pastoral visiting. As to the voice, I
have avoided too many warm wrappings
about the throat, have applied plenty of
cold water and friction, and have never
been addicted to troches and other like
trumpery. Nor is it a good practice to
drink cold water very often while speak-
ing.
Take a total-abstinence pledge, at the
very start, to refrain from all sorts of"
alcoholic stimulants and all sorts of in-
digestible food. A minister sometimes
calls in as an ally what proves to be a
deadly enemy. Long years ago, the elo-
quent Dr. K fell into sad inebriation
from having used port-wine to enable
him, as he honestly said, " to preach with
more power." He repented in dust and
ashes, and spent the closing years of his
66 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
godly life as an entire abstainer. One of
the most zealous ministers of this city
probably shortened his life by a lamenta-
ble slavery to strong coffee and tobacco.
Both coffee and tea are harmless luxuries
to most of us when used in moderation.
Famous old Dr. Emmons, who died at
ninety-five, used to drink his coffee " one
half milk, and the other half sugar " ; but
when I saw the British prime minister,
Lord Beaconsfield, trembling like an aspen
leaf, I was not surprised that his wife
said, "My husband likes his coffee as
black as ink and as hot as Tophet."
God's prohibitory law against the use of
exciting stimulants appears in that they
are all armed with a whip of scorpions.
My chief panacea has always been
sound, healthful sleep. This is the great
secret of Mr. Gladstone's longevity and
marvelous power at the age of eighty-
three. He once told me that he managed
to lock all his cares, and parliamentary
HEALTH AND HABITS. 67
debates, and perplexities of public office,
outside of his bedchamber door. The
men who live the longest, and do the most
effective work, are commonly good sleep-
ers. If they cannot secure enough sleep at
night, they make it up by a short nap in
the middle of the day. When a man who
has so much strain on his brain and his
nervous sensibilities as a pastor has, goes
to his pillow, he should school himself to
the habit of dismissing all thoughts about
outside matters. If this costs him some
difficulty, he should pray for divine help
to do it. As for anodynes to quiet down
the nervous excitements of preaching, or
of revival meetings, I have found nothing
so wholesome as a good bowl of bread
and milk. Dr. Lyman Beecher used to
accomplish the same result by shoveling
a pile of gravel to and fro in his cellar,
and sometimes by dancing to the music
of his own violin.
Too many ministers toil at their ser-
68 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
nions until ten or eleven o'clock, and then
retire, with throbbing nerves, to their
sleepless beds. This is suicide. The man
that invented " midnight oil " deserves a
purgatory of everlasting nightmare. My
own rule is never to touch a sermon by
lamplight. One hour in the morning is
worth two or three at night. Get into
your study every morning — except Mon-
day— as early as you can, and then to
your books and your pen. If your mind
is dull and inactive, do not attempt to
force it into the preparation of a sermon
that will probably put your congregation
to sleep. Throw down your pen ; take up
a book, or try a short nap or a short
walk. But when your mind is especial-
ly clear and alert, then bolt your study-
door against all intruders, and make the
very most of such precious golden hours.
More than once I have had a whole ser-
mon burst on me at a single sitting, and
I did not stay my pen until every nimble
HEALTH AND HABITS. 69
thought was captured aud securely fast-
ened to paper. " Redeeming the time"
literally signifies " buying up opportuni-
ties " ; and when these favored moments
for coining thought are vouchsafed to
you, let no thief break in and steal the
mintage.
Do not be surprised that I exhort you
so earnestly to the care of your bodily
health and to the formation of good men-
tal habits. They are both of vital impor-
tance for your usefulness. Your health
affects the spirtual health of your flock.
If you are sleepless during the week,
you will become enervated and irritable,
and will put your congregation to sleep
by your dull sermons. If you do not di-
gest your food, you will be very likely to
torment them with indigestible preach-
ments. As soon as your study becomes
so excessive as to fag you out, then shut
up your books, or drop your pen, and be
off at something else. It is the work
7i) TEE YOUNG PREACHER.
that we attempt when we are tired that
hurts us; yes, and hurts those that are
obliged to listen to us.
Sometimes you will be tempted to re-
peat a former discourse, from lack of time
to prepare a new one. If you do this,
see to it that the discourse is improved
on its second delivery. Cut out its weak
points ; strengthen it with fresh thought ;
and, if it was originally delivered on a
stormy Sabbath, it will be well to give it
a larger audience under better auspices.
Do not be afraid to repeat a thorough-
ly good thing. Many folks have short
memories. A poor, lean, juiceless ser-
mon ought never to be preached once;
but a rich, nutritious discourse, which
God has already blessed, may be made
still more forcible on a second or third
delivery. Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin de-
livered his great sermon on " The Worth
of the Sonl" ninety times; he never
wearied of it, nor did those who had
HEALTH AND HABITS. 71
heard it more than once. Fewer ser-
mons and richer ones should be the aim
of those that really edify Christ's people
and win souls to the Saviour. There is
an increasing fashion of advertising the
topics of discourse in the newspapers.
It is a bad fashion, and none of the great
preachers, such as Guthrie, McLaren, Lid-
don, Newman Hall and Spurgeon, have
practiced it abroad ; and very few of our
best preachers practice it in our country.
There are more objections to this custom
than I have time and space to specify.
The best topic is that which will save the
most souls ; the best advertisement is the
love of your people and the blessing of
God upon your ministry.
CHAPTER VII.
WINNING SOULS.
73
VII.
WINNING SOULS.
SOME one asked Dr. Lyman Beecher,
in his old age, " What is the greatest
of all things!" The sturdy veteran re-
plied, " It is not theology ; it is not con-
troversy; it is saving souls." He had
been the king of the American pulpit;
but, as he looked back over his noble
career, he felt that the greatest good that
he had accomplished was in leading guilty
and polluted souls to their only Saviour.
David Brainerd, one of the most cele-
brated of our missionaries, while he was
laboring among the poor, benighted In-
dians on the banks of the Delaware, once
said, " I care not where I live, or what
hardships I go through, so that I can but
75
76 THE YOUXG PEE AC HER.
gain souls to Christ. While I am asleep,
I dream of these things; as soon as I
awake, the first thing I think of is this
great work. All my desire is the con-
version of sinners, and all my hope is in
God." Our blessed Master came into our
sin-cursed world to seek and to save the
lost. To convert men to Jesus Christ by
the aid of the Holy Spirit was the master-
purpose of Paul and his fellow-apostles.
The great Reformation, under the lead
of Luther and Calvin and Knox, was far
more than a protestation against Popish
errors; it was a direct bringing of be-
nighted souls to the cross for salvation.
Whiten1 eld and the Wesley s made this
their chief business. The most successful
preacher of modern times was Spurgeon ;
and he once asked me the question, " How
far do your ablest American ministers
aim mainly at the conversion of souls ? "
The question that my beloved British
brother asked me I would propound to
WINNING SOULS. 77
every young preacher that reads these
lines. No minister is likely to succeed in
anything that he undertakes with only
half a heart; he can never do what he
does not even attempt to do. If your
whole heart is not bent on the glorious
work of converting sinners, by the help of
God, you will never accomplish it. You
may produce much valuable and elevat-
ing thought ; you may argue ingeniously
against current skepticism ; you may un-
fold sound principles of morality; you
may say many eloquent things about
" developing humanity," and in behalf of
benevolent reform ; but if you stop short
of leading immortal souls to Jesus Christ,
then your ministry will be, at the most
vital point, a failure. Nor is it a vague
idea about " reaching the masses," or sav-
ing people in the general, that must in-
spire you. Men are saved or lost indi-
vidually. The Bible declares that "he
which converteth a sinner from the error
78 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
of his way shall save a soul from death,
and shall cover a multitude of sins." A
single soul was a sufficient audience for
the Son of God at the well of Syehar and
in the inquiry- room of Nicodemus.
1. Aim then, my brother, to make your
preaching direct, pointed, individualiz-
ing. Let every unconverted person in
the house be made to feel, " That means
me." Not every sermon is to be addressed
to the impenitent, by any means; but
when you are presenting Christ, present
him as each man's Saviour; and when
you discuss the guilt and danger of sin,
bring it home to each individual sinner.
" Thou art the man," sent Nathan's para-
ble into David's heart like an arrow. Do
not be afraid of any sinner in the house ;
and pray God to help you love every sin-
ner before you so fervently that you will
tell him plainly that if he does not repent
and accept Christ, he will be lost forever.
Do not be afraid of the word " hell " any
1VIXXIXG SOULS. 79
more than of the word " heaven." Oh !
it is sheer cruelty to conceal from your
hearers that the wages of sin is death. If
you are faithless and cowardly, the blood
of souls will be found in }Tour skirts.
Preach, therefore, plainly, lovingly, and
pungently the guilt of sin and the doom
of sin, and pray that every impenitent
soul before you may be convicted by the
Holy Spirit. Aim to reveal to every sin-
ner his or her own personal guilt before
God, for nobody is likely to flee to the
Lord Jesus Christ until he or she feels
the need of him. Deep convictions of sin
generally produce deep conversions ; shal-
low convictions produce shallow Chris-
tians. Put in the plowshare of divine
truth, and then bear down on the beam ;
if it reaches to the roots of sin, and tears
them up, all the better. When you have
made a sinner see himself, then try. to
make him see his Saviour. Then point
him to the all-sufficient Eedeemer, whose
80 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
atoning blood cleanseth from all sin.
That is the way in which Peter preached
at the time of Pentecost, when three thou-
sand souls were convicted and converted
in a single day. When you are preach-
ing repentance to the sinner, you cannot
deal too faithfully and pungently ; when
you are offering salvation to the sinner
through Jesus, you cannot be too win-
some and loving in your beseechings.
2. Only a part of your work in soul-
winning is likely to be done in your
pulpit. The most important part will
be done when you are brought face to
face with an awakened person. Be on
the lookout for such persons constantly.
During your pastoral visits you will en-
counter those that are inquirers, and you
should rejoice to converse with them im-
mediately. By the way, when I discov-
ered several such cases during my calls
in one afternoon (in 1856) I hailed this
fact as a token of the Holy Spirit's pres-
wixxixa SOULS. 81
ence; and I* summoned my church-offi-
cers, and appointed special services every
evening, which services resulted in a large
number of conversions. Always be on
the watch for the presence of the Holy
Spirit. Listen for the first drops of
heavenly blessings; then gird yourself
for the happy work. In dealing with
an awakened soul, your prime duty is
to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and
therefore you must pray fervently for his
guidance. Endeavor to ascertain just
what it is that is in the way of the in-
quirer, and what it is that keeps him
from surrendering to Christ. If it be
some bad habit or evil practice, then that
evil practice must be abandoned. If it
be some sin, cherished in the heart, then
he must yield, even if it be* like pluck-
ing out a right eye or cutting off a right
hand. In most cases the chief hindrance
lies in a wicked, stubborn heart. It has
always been my aim to convince awak-
82 THE TOUXG PREACHER.
ened persons that, unless they were will-
ing to give their hearts to Jesus and to
" do the will " of Jesus, there was no hope
for them. We must shut the inquiring
soul up to Christ. The experiences of
inquirers may differ as much as their
countenances; "but in two vital partic-
ulars all cases are to be treated alike.
Every sinner must cut loose from his
sins, and must cleave to the Lord Jesus.
Saving faith is vastly more than an opin-
ion or a feeling ; it is an act of the soul.
It is the act of joining our weakness to
Christ's strength, our ignorance to his
knowledge, our guiltiness to his atoning
love, our wills to his will, ourselves to
him. No one is soundly converted, and
no one should join the church, until he
has joined himself to Jesus Christ. This
is the one infallible test. It is not enough
to " feel happy " ; it is not enough to say,
" I am trying to be a Christian " ; no soul
is safe until it has surrendered uncondi-
WINNING SOULS. 8 3
tionally to Christ, and has been "born
anew " by the Holy Spirit. Do not " count
noses" too hastily, and do not be so
ambitious to swell the numbers of your
church that you will rush the uncon-
verted or the half-converted into it. It
will be your folly, and may be their ruin.
3. In addition to your conversations
with such awakened persons as you may
encounter in their homes, or such as may
call on you for conversation, it will often
be wise to appoint inquiry-meetings. Do
this when you discover a need for such
meetings, and not as a mere empty form.
Some zealous ministers insist that such
a meeting should be appointed after every
preaching-service ; but suppose there are
no inquirers to meet ; then the very word
becomes a solemn farce or failure. When
there are inquiring souls, and they are
gathered for instruction and guidance,
then be exceedingly careful as to whom
you allow to go in with you. Surely you
84 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
would not call in the first person that
happened to go by your door to treat
one of your family that was dangerously
sick. Be equally careful not to allow
rash and inexperienced persons, or pious
" cranks," to meddle with" immortal souls
that are settling the stupendous question
of their own salvation. If you require
help, invite only the men and women
possessing both grace and good com-
mon sense. Converse with each inquirer
as closely as possible, and as concisely.
Bring each to the point at once. Have
God's Word in your hand as well as in
your memory, and be ready to use the
right passages for the right case. With
the infallible Word to give 'you light,
call upon the Holy Spirit to apply his
almighty power and loving work to the
souls before you. Encourage the inquir-
ers to pray themselves. Try to keep
every eye fixed on Christ; urge imme-
diate surrender to Christ. Do not be-
WINNING SOULS. 85
grudge the time or labor required to help
a halting or perplexed soul. Hand-picked
apples keep the longest. Individual labor
with each inquirer is indispensable. The
happiest hours you will spend in this
world, my young brother, will be those
that you spend in leading sinners to
the Saviour. " He that is wise winneth
souls." To you, if you are thus wise,
will belong the crown that shineth as the
stars.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOW TO HAVE A WORKING CHURCH,
87
VIII.
HOW TO HAVE A WOKKING CHUKCH.
YOUR success will depend, under God,
not only upon your own devotion
and diligence, but also upon the thor-
ough cooperation of your people. You
are not only a shepherd of souls, but the
commander of a regiment in Christ's sac-
ramental host. It is not every godly min-
ister that has the gift of executive ability.
Henry Ward Beecher, with all his splen-
did genius and eloquence, had but small
executive faculty. Mr. Spurgeon, on the
other hand, was so masterly an organizer
that if he had taken to politics he might
have been a great parliamentary leader,
or perhaps the prime-minister of the
realm. Dr. James W. Alexander once
89
90 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
said to me, " There is no pastor in New
York whom I envy more than Dr. Asa
D. Smith [afterward the president of
Dartmouth College], for he has the knack
of keeping all his people at work."
It is indeed a peculiar " knack " of many
ministers; and, if you do not possess it
naturally, you must do your utmost to
acquire it in as large a degree as possible.
Common sense and godly zeal are indis-
pensable to every minister ; if you do not
possess these, God has never called you
to the ministry. If you do possess them,
then apply them to the task of develop-
ing and guiding the spiritual activities of
your flock. Be an untiring worker your-
self. A lazy pastor makes a lazy church.
Emphasize from your pulpit, again and
again, the duty and the joy of labor for
Christ, and exhort every member of your
church to find his or her place of useful-
ness— the place for which God created
him and the Holy Spirit converted him.
HOW TO HAVE A WORKING CHURCH. 91
Too. large a proportion, in nearly all our
churches, count for very little except
upon the muster-roll ; and, when that roll
is called for duty, they seldom answer
"Here." A large portion of the power
in the church, therefore, becomes latent ;
the stream is diverted upon the water-
wheels of wordliness, or else runs to waste
entirely. One reason is that young con-
verts are not trained into Christian ac-
tivity from the start. Another is that
when new members unite with the church
they are not set to work ; and so they drift
away into idleness, and become " dead-
heads " in the church.
Of course you will organize a society
of Christian Endeavor in your congrega-
tion, if there be none already in existence.
No church in these days is complete with-
out a thorough organization of its young
people for spiritual labor and spiritual
growth. As a training-school for young
converts it is as indispensable to the
92 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
church as the Sunday-school; it molds
the youth into a household, and into a
homelike relation with the church; it
supplies a social necessity, and keeps the
sons and daughters of Christ's family out
of the clutches of the devil. The danger
with all associations of young people is
that the social element may crowd out
the spiritual element, and so cause a
Christian organization to degenerate into
a semi-convivial club, bent on amuse-
ments. There is a place for innocent,
healthful entertainments, such as musi-
cal concerts, readings, sociables, instruc-
tive exhibitions, etc. ; but as soon as the
"daughter of Herodias" gets into the
association, and your young people try
to make a frolic of their religion, then
use your veto summarily. No society of
Christian Endeavor and no association of
young Christians is likely to lose its in-
terest or to languish, so long as the hearts
of the -members are full of Christ, and their
HOW TO HAVE A WORKING CHURCH. 93
hands are full of doing good. But, when
Satan " side-tracks " them into mere mirth
and merriment, they soon go over the
embankment, and end in a smash-up.
There is always enough of innocent rec-
reation and wholesome happiness to be
found on Christ's side of the dividing
line, without going over to the world's
side ; nor can we ever convert the world
to Christ by conforming to its follies, its
fashions, or its frolics.
In every society of Christian Endeavor
there ought to be a temperance commit-
tee. The decanter and the dramshop
are chronic curses in every community,
which your pulpit and your church have
no right to ignore. The title to member-
ship in a temperance society should be
the pledged practice of entire abstinence
from all intoxicating beverages ; the con-
stitution and by-laws should be brief;
the public meetings should be free to
everybody, and a collection should be
94 THE TOUXG PEE ACHE 11.
taken up to meet current expenses. I
found such an organization in my church*
to be a source of manifold blessings to
our own members and to tlie surround-
ing community.
Your prayer-meetings will be the spir-
itual thermometer of your church. A
prayer-meeting below freezing-point indi-
cates a cold church ; it is both a cause and
an effect of serious spiritual declension.
When a revival comes, it commonly begins
right there. Whatever else you neglect,
never neglect your prayer-meetings, and
never allow anything else to crowd them
out. Always attend them yourself, but
never take charge of them so long as any
church-officer or gifted member can be
found to conduct them. If you lead them,
there is a danger that you will be tempted
to monopolize them. A certain eminent
minister complained that his people did
not take part in the devotional gatherings,
and the reason was that he absorbed most
HOW TO HAVE A WORKING CHURCH. 95
of the time by his own addresses. The
main purpose of a prayer-meeting is not
a sermon ette by the pastor ; it is the de-
velopment of the church-members in their
spiritual life, the worship of God in fer-
vent prayers, songs of praise, and the
stirring up of one another's hearts in ex-
perimental talks and warm exhortations.
The more like a family gathering it is,
the better. Have your church-officers
conduct it, in alphabetical order. It is a
good practice to select some Bible passage
or practical topic beforehand, and to have
that announced from the pulpit on the
previous Sabbath. Exhort the leader to
come well prepared, and then leave the
helm in his hands. If the meeting drags,
be ready to give a timely lift; and you
will seldom allow the service to close
without some words of earnest exhorta-
tion or of prayer. Unless you are won-
derfully fortunate, you may be troubled
by some officious and indiscreet brethren
96 THE TOUXG PREACHER.
that persist in flying" like moths into the
candle. It is your duty to deal with such
offenders lovingly and kindly. If they
are genuine Christians, they will thank
you for setting them right, and so will
the rest of your people. If they are only
noisy, or self-conceited self-seekers, then
they ought to be abated as nuisances.
In dealing with the varieties of people
in your charge, and in developing their
activities, you will need to use a holy tact.
Study the characters of your members.
Put to the front the wisest, and gently
repress the blunderers. Some good peo-
ple will do good service if they are only
consulted ; to such it will be wise to say,
"Brother A, don't you think it would
be well for us to do this or that?" Tlie
brother will then imagine that he is hav-
ing his own way, when he is really going
your way. There is a vast deal of human
nature in the godliest men and women in
our flocks. Never wound a true disciple
of Christ ; never discourage any one that
HOW TO HAVE A WOE KING CHURCH. 97
longs and tries to be useful; and never
do anybody's work so long as lie or she
can be got to do it. You will have
enough work of your own.
Finally, let me exhort you to drive
every wheel in your machinery to its ut-
most ; but do not have more wheels than
power. Enlarge your work as fast and
as far as you have men and money to
propel it. Keep clear of hobbies and all
sorts of sensational devices. Feed your
flock with strong, solid, gospel food, if
you want them to be strong for work,
and then arouse their enthusiasm by your
own example and by leading them to seek
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Come
to them on Sunday with Christ on your
lips, and go among them all the week
with Christ in your heart and life. The
only power that can drive any church is
the Power from on high ; and that church
which is mighty in prayer will always be
mighty in work. Heaven's holy activi-
ties will be its sweetest rest.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MAN BEHIND THE MESSAGE.
99
IX.
THE MAN BEHIND THE MESSAGE.
THE ambassador of the United States
to a foreign court is both accorded
certain honors and exposed to critical
observation, because he represents the
great republic. Remember always, my
young brother, that you are the ambas-
sador of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bearer
of the gospel message from the court of
heaven ; therefore be very watchful of
the man that bears the message. Look
well after the man that walks in your
shoes. People have a right to expect
more than ordinary piety in a minister,
because he is a representative of Jesus
Christ, and has promised to be an "en-
sample to the flock." You have no right
101
102 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
to be a minister if you are not willing
to be closely watched and keenly scruti-
nized ; you ought to have taken account
of this when you voluntarily assumed so
high and holy an office. Do not shirk
the "fierce light " that may be expected
to beat upon your pulpit and your pas-
torate, and, above all, on your own per-
sonality. A torch-bearer must not expect
to be hidden; the light that he carries
will reveal to others what manner of man
he is.
The great object of preaching the gos-
pel is to form godly character, and there-
fore the preacher himself should strive to
exhibit a character of the highest possi-
ble type. We whose business it is to set
forth Christianity must not forget that
people look at us when outside of our
pulpits, to discover what we mean when
in our pulpits. If your conduct before
the community contradicts your utter-
ances of God's truth on God's day, then
THE MAX BEHIND THE .MESSAGE. 103
your tongue, if it had the charm of Chrys-
ostom's, would be but a tinkling cymbal.
A parishioner once remarked, "My pas-
tor's discourses are not brilliant, but his
daily life is a sermon all the week." Paul
stood behind all his inspired utterances ;
the " living epistle w was as eloquent and
convincing as any words he ever sent to
Corinth, or ever pronounced on the hill
of Mars. A large part of the power of
the best ministers lies in their own per-
sonality. -Phillips Brooks was generally
accounted the foremost American clergy-
man of these days; his discourses were
fresh, chaste, vigorous, often brilliant;
and, being constructed largely out of his
own spiritual experience, were adapted to
the experiences of his hearers; but the
magnificent manhood of Phillips Brooks
towered above his grandest discourses.
It was equally true of Spurgeon, the
most popular preacher of modern times.
Behind all his thousands of fervid gospel
104 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
messages stood Spurgeon, the fearless,
faithful, genial, warm-hearted man of
God, whom Protestants and Roman Cath-
olics, Jews and Quakers, alike revered
and loved. They did this, too, in spite
of all the sharp points of his Calvinistic
doctrines. He never trimmed his sails to
catch popular favor, and the world liked
him all the better for that. Time-servers
are always despised. If you want to
catch and to keep the popular ear, have
the courage of your convictions. Never
be afraid of your own congregation, or
of any one else but God. Yet plain, fear-
less speaking should never degenerate
into the bluster of a bully, or the exas-
perations of a common scold. Richard
Cecil, of London, once said that too many
ministers go to the opposite extreme.
" They are all milk and mildness. They
touch all sin with so much tenderness!
and if the patient shrinks, they will
touch no more. The gospel is some-
THE MAX BEHIXD THE MESSAGE. 105
times preached in this way till all the
people agree with the preacher ; he gives
no offense, and he does no good."
If compromising God's trnth in the
pnlpit is mischievous, so is compromis-
ing in your practice during the week. I
have a pretty strong conviction that the
reaction that has set in during these later
years is not a wholesome one. Ministers
in former times may have gone to an ex-
treme in punctiliousness of clerical dress
and in austerity of manners. Now the
danger is in the opposite direction; and
too many ministers try to be like every-
body else, both in their costume and their
customs. For fear of being thought puri-
tanical they become frivolous. In order
to win favor with the world they fall too
much into the ways of the world, forget-
ting that when they try to conform their
Christianity to the world they will never
be able to conform the world to Chris-
tianity. The standard is being lowered,
106 THE YOUNG PREACHER.
both in doctrine and in practice. The
dividing line between the church and
the world is becoming more indistinct;
as to some things, it is almost obliter-
ated. For example, a larger proportion
of church-members attend the theater
than attended forty years ago, not be-
cause the morals of the average stage
have been elevated, but because the mor-
al standard of too many professing Chris-
tians has been lowered. Set your face
like a flint against all impure and un-
wholesome amusements. There are cer-
tainly enough pure and innocent rec-
reations to be found without resorting
to the gilded nastiness of the average
playhouse, or the sensualities of the ball-
room. Never go where your Master
would not go. Never be found where
any one, especially one of your own
church, will be likely to say, " I did not
expect to see you here." Keep on Christ's
side of the dividing line ; and, where you
THE MAX. BEHIND THE MESSAGE. 107
are in doubt, give Christ and conscience
the casting vote. There are several things
that are not sinful per se, but which it
would be improper for a Christian min-
ister to do. God's Word may not pro-
nounce it a sin to touch a glass of wine ;
nevertheless, under the sanction of Paul's
precept to practice self-denial for the sake
of others, you ought to let the wine-glass
severely alone. Secret drinking is dan-
gerous to yourself; public drinking is
dangerous to other people. Entire ab-
stinence is the only safe course. There
may be no direct prohibition in the Bible
of certain games of chance ; yet a min-
ister should never be seen with a pack of
cards in his hands. "Keep thyself pure ; "
"let no man despise thee." Never in-
dulge in any practices that will require
you to make explanations or apologies.
Be rigidly careful in your pecuniary
transactions; and, however small your
salary may be, let me exhort you to bear
108 THE YOUNG PKEACHEK.
any privation sooner than incur the ter-
rible bondage of debt. This has eaten
like a cancer into more than one minis-
ter's health and happiness. Sterling hon-
esty, scrupulous truthfulness, rigid self-
denial, cheerful sobriety (that is not afraid
to laugh when laughter is in order), gen-
erous treatment of all your brethren, and
sympathy with the sorrowing, the sob-
bing, and the suffering around you — all
these virtues will tell upon your influence,
and will give a prodigious power to your
ministry.
If in your case the man is to be at all
like his divine message, then you must
keep your heart with all diligence ; for
your outward life before the world will
be measured by your inward life with the
Lord Jesus Christ. The water in a pub-
lic fountain never rises one inch higher
than its birthplace upon the mountain-
side. The greater your piety, the greater
your power. Genius, scholarship, elo-
THE MAX BEHIND THE MESSAGE. 109
quence, are no substitutes for whole-
souled love of Christ and holiness of life.
If you do not love your Master intensely,
you will soon get weary of your work;
if you do not love your people unselfishly
and devotedly, they will soon get weary
of you. The deeper you root down into
Christ's heart and your people's hearts,
the larger and the longer will be your
pastorate.
That prince of modern evangelists,
Charles Gr. Finney, used to have sea-
sons when he felt shorn of his spiritual
strength. Then he shut himself up with
God, went down on his knees, and, empty-
ing himself of all self-seekings and self-
reliance, he fervently prayed to be filled
with the Holy Spirit. Then he went to
his pulpit like a giant. The last hour
that I spent with my beloved friend
Spurgeon was spent at family worship.
After I had concluded my prayer, he
chimed in with a most wonderfully sim-
110 THE TOUXG PREACHER.
pie, fervent, artless converse with Goti;
it was like the reverent talk of a child
with the best of fathers. After I heard
that marvelous prayer I said to myself,
" Now I know the secret hiding-place of
Spurgeon's power." My brother, if you
cannot pray, you cannot preach.
With these few frank and fatherly
counsels I bid you Godspeed in your
work — a work so glorious that an arch-
angel might covet it, and yet it is in-
trusted to "earthen vessels." Preach
the Word. Feed the flock. Win souls.
An ordinary man may become extraor-
dinary when the Spirit of the Almighty
Son of God dwelleth in him. Carry
the sacred fire in your bones, as old
John Bunyan did when he warned his
hearers to flee from the wrath to come,
and to set their faces toward the Celes-
tial City. Keep eternity in view. Let
the light of the "great white throne"
fall on your page when you study, and
THE MAX BEHIND THE MESSAGE. Ill
on your pulpit when you preach. You
are a watchman who must give account
for souls in the great day of judgment.
There is no higher throne for any saint
in heaven, and no more radiant crown,
than is reserved for the faithful, fearless,
unselfish, holy-hearted minister of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He shall reign with
his Lord and King ; he shall shine as the
stars for ever and ever.
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by issuing your edition of The Treasury of Scripture Knowl-
edge. It is a great improvement on Bagster's edition. Bible
students who desire to compare scripture with scripture will find
the Treasury to be a better help than any other book of which I
have any knowledge."— R, B. McBurney, Gen'l Secyy T. M. C'.A.
wew York,
NBwvoRK.i Fleming H. Revell Company : .Chicago.
A ^TIPP F^TIfttf Send for the first volume and see what a mine of
want the full set.
wealth is in these "Notes." You will surely
"C. H.M.'s" NOTES.
OR
THE GOSPEL IN THE PENTATEUCH
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These Books are not Commen-
taries, in the ordinary under-
standing of that word ; they are
of a more popular style ; helpful,
suggestive, inspiring.
GENESIS, EXODUS,. LEVITICUS,
NUMBERS AND DEUTERONOMY.
Read thefollowmg Commendations from well-known
Pastors, Evangelists, L?.ymen, Etc.
"Some years since I had my attention called to C. H.
M.'s Notes, and was so much pleased, and at the same
time profited by the way they opened up Scriptural
truths, that I secured at once all the writings of the
same author. They have been to me a very key to the
Scriptures:' D. L. MOODY.
"Under God they have blessed me more than any
books outside of the Bible itself, that I have ever read,
and have led me to a love of the Bible that is proving
an unfailing source of profit."
Maj. D. W. WHITTLE.
Deuteronomy is issued in two volumes, the others complete in one
volume each.
Separate volumes may be had if desired. ' Sent post paid to any
address on receipt of price.
The complete set in six volumes* covering over 2,300 pages, it
offered at the reduced price of 7Bc. per Vol. or $4.50 per Set.
new yur K.-
Fleming H. Revell Company chicaqp
Date Due
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