Page images
PDF
EPUB

ened feeling which flows from deep interest in his subject. He may be all action, and will be if it is his nature to be so; but it is possible he may have very little action, and yet be a powerful preacher. He would come down upon his hearers, sometimes like the wind; sometimes like the earthquake; sometimes like the fire; and sometimes like the still, small voice. The elder Edwards had no action at all; yet such was his interest in his subject that crowded auditories burst into one universal weeping under his discourses. Such a preacher may not be accomplished, but he will be forcible; there may be classic embellishment, where the heart is cold as marble. He may even be awkward, but if his subject first live in his own heart, he will be effective.

* The late Dr. Stonehouse is said to have been one of the most correct and elegant preachers in the kingdom of Great Britain. When he entered into holy orders, he took occasion to profit by his acquaintance with Garrick, to procure from him some valuable instructions in elocution. Being once engaged to read prayers and preach in a church in the city, he prevailed upon Garrick to go with him. After the service, the British Roscius asked the doctor what particular business he had to do, when the duty was over? "None," said the other. 66 I thought you had,” said Garrick,“ on seeing you enter the reading desk in such a hurry." Nothing can be more indecent than to see a clergyman "set about his sacred business as if he were. a tradesman, and go into the church as if he wanted to get out of it as soon as possible." He next asked the doctor, "What books he had in the desk before him?” "Only the Bible and Prayer-book." "Only the Bible and Prayer-bock," replied the player; “why you tossed them backwards and forwards, and turned the leaves as carelessly as if they were those of a day-book and ledger."

He will not be vain, nor ambitious of distinction of any sort, save to win souls. He will not go out of his path in search of adornment and flowers; though he may pick them up when they lie in his way. He goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed; they are the sheaves that he is looking after, and he brings them home with rejoicing. If his sickle is not tipped with gold, it is of well-attempered steel; it is like a two-edged sword, and he uses it manfully, and as though he was wielding the "sword of the Spirit.'

[ocr errors]

The biographer of Archbishop Leighton remarks, that "he was too intent upon his subject to be choice of words and phrases; and his works discover a noble carelessness of diction, which in some respects enhances their beauty. His language is better than mere correctness would make it; more forcible and touching; attracting little notice to itself, but leaving the reader to the full impulse of the ideas of which it is the vehicle. It is great by the magnificence of thought; by the spontaneous emanation of a mind replete with sacred knowledge, and bursting with seraphic affections; by that pauseless gush of intellectual splendor, in which the outward shell, the intermediate letter is eclipsed and amost annihilated, that full scope may be given to the mighty effulgence of the informing spirit." Such a preacher throws the

ornate and scholastic preacher into the shade. He may not be a splendid and pompous declaimer; but he is an earnest preacher of the truth as it is in Jesus, and an able minister of the New Testament. He may not try to be eloquent, but he will be eloquent; his eloquence will be thrilling and impassioned, and tell on the conscience and heart. Pascal speaks of "the eloquence that despises eloquence;" and is not this the only true eloquence? "Eloquence," says he, "is a pictural representation of thought; and hence those who, after having painted it, make additions to it, give us a fancy picture, but not a portrait." Let the preacher utter that which comes in contact with the minds of his hearers, and let him so utter it as to establish the correspondence between what he utters and what they perceive and feel; and so far as human instrumentality can do it, he will not fail to carry the hearts of his auditory. This is his object; it is his sole object. Like an able and effective advocate at the bar, who is more intent on gaining the cause of his client, than on making a pretty speech, or a splendid argument, he delivers himself to the purpose. His obligations as a minister of the Gospel are present to his thoughts; he feels for men who are so soon to become the tenants of an unalterable eternity; and, like Paul, he is "pressed in spirit to testify to them that

Jesus is the Christ." He does not affect an interest in his subject he does not feel; he has that deep experience of God's truth which teaches him how to feel and how to speak. He "speaks that which he knows, and testifies that which he has seen." There is honesty in his spirit, and nature in his manner; and therefore is there impressiveness and urgency. And there is great variety, too. Sometimes he is plain and argumentative; sometimes authoritative; in his rebukes sometimes tender, and sometimes terrible; but more often a weeping suppliant, beseeching men to be reconciled to God. This is the highest style of the pulpit; especially if the preacher have gifts as well as graces, and possesses a vigorous and comprehensive mind. Men even of ordinary endowments, with such a spirit, are effective preachers. We have known many such; may the Lord of the harvest multiply them! He himself is with such ministers; and when his presence goes with them, the pulpit has power. It does execution; it saves; and where it saves not, it most fearfully damns the soul. It is this that makes the light of the pulpit shine, and its ministers a flame of fire.

CHAPTER XIV.

MINISTERS MUST BE MEN OF PRAYER.

AN occasional remark has been thrown out in the preceding pages, intimating the importance of prayer in the ministers of the Gospel. The thought is one which may not be passed over thus lightly.

The appropriate vocation of a minister of the Gospel is one which has much to do with God; it is a spiritual, and not a secular vocation. His own soul may indeed be greatly ensnared by this very circumstance; he must be familiar with spiritual things; this is his business, and he may be familiar with them as a matter of business only. If it be so with any of us, we are of all men most to be commiserated; because, "after having preached to others, we ourselves shall be cast away." If it may be said of any man in the world, that he lives very near to heaven, or very near to hell, it may be said of a minister of Jesus Christ. If he is not a pious man, he is among the most obdurate of the wicked; and though his feet may stand on the

« PreviousContinue »