revival3
LECTURE IX
MEANS TO BE USED WITH SINNERS
Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen . –
Isaiah. 43:10.
I the text it is affirmed of the children of God, that they are His
witnesses. In several preceding Lectures I have been dwelling on the
subject of prayer, or on that department of means for the promotion of a
revival, which is intended to move God to pour out His Spirit. I am now
to commence the other department, dealing with the means to be used for
the conviction and conversion of sinners.
It is true, in general, that persons are affected by the subject of religion in
proportion to their conviction of its truth. Inattention to religion is the
great reason why so little is felt concerning it. No being can look at the
great truths of religion, as truths, and not feel deeply concerning them. The
devil cannot. He believes and trembles. Angels in heaven feel, in view of
these things. God feels! An intellectual conviction of truth is always
accompanied with feeling of some kind.
One grand design of God in leaving Christians in the world after their
conversion is that they may be witnesses for God. It is that they may call
the attention of the thoughtless multitude to the subject, and make them
see the difference in the character and destiny of those who believe the
Gospel and those who reject it. This inattention is the grand difficulty in
the way of promoting religion. And what the Spirit of God does is to
awaken the attention of men to the subject of their sin and the plan of
salvation. Miracles have sometimes been employed to arrest the attention
of sinners, and in this way miracles may become instrumental in
conversion – although conversion is not itself a miracle, nor do miracles
themselves ever convert anybody. They may be the means of awakening.
Miracles are not always effectual even in that. And if continued or made
common, they would soon lose their power. What is wanted in the world
is something that can be a sort of omnipresent miracle, able not only to
arrest attention but to fix it, and keep the mind in warm contact with the
truth, till it yields.
Hence we see why God has scattered His children everywhere, in families
and among the nations. He never would suffer them to be altogether in one
place, however agreeable it might be to their feelings. He wishes them
scattered. When the Church at Jerusalem herded together, neglecting to go
forth as Christ had commanded, to spread the Gospel all over the world,
God let loose a persecution upon them and scattered them abroad, and
then they “went everywhere preaching the Word” (Acts 8:4).
In examining the text, I purpose to inquire:
I. On what particular points Christians are to testify for God.
II. The manner in which they are to testify.
I. ON WHAT POINTS ARE CHRISTIANS TO TESTIFY?
Generally, they are to testify to the truth of the Bible. They are
competent witnesses to this, for they have experience of its truth. The
experimental Christian has no more need of external evidence to prove the
truth of the Bible to his mind, than he has to prove his own existence. The
whole plan of salvation is so fully spread out and settled in his conviction,
that to undertake to reason him out of his belief in the Bible would be a
thing as impracticable as to reason him out of the belief in his own
existence. Men have tried to awaken a doubt of the existence of the
material world, but they cannot succeed. No man can doubt the existence
of the material world. To doubt it is against his own consciousness. You
may use arguments that he cannot answer, and may puzzle and perplex
him, and shut his mouth; he may be no logician or philosopher, and may
not be able to detect your fallacies. But, what he knows, he knows.
So it is in religion. The Christian is conscious that the Bible is true. The
veriest child in religion knows by his experience the truth of the Bible. He
may hear objections from infidels, that he never thought of, and that he
cannot answer, and he may be confounded; but he cannot be driven from
his ground. He will say: “I cannot answer you, but I know the Bible is
true.” It is as if a man should look in a mirror, and say: “That is my face.”
The question is put to him: “How do you know it is your face?” “Why,”
he replies, “by its looks.” So when a Christian sees himself drawn and
pictured forth in the Bible, he sees the likeness to be so exact, that he
knows it is true.
More particularly, Christians are to testify to:
- The immortality of the soul. This is clearly revealed in the Bible.
- The vanity and unsatisfying nature of all earthly good.
- The satisfying nature and glorious sufficiency of religion.
- The guilt and danger of sinners. On this point they can speak from
experience as well as from the Word of God. They have seen their own
sins, and they understand more of the nature of sin, and the guilt and
danger of sinners.
5. The reality of hell, as a place of eternal punishment for the wicked.
6. The love of Christ for sinners.
7. The necessity of a holy life, if we think of ever getting to heaven.
8. The necessity of self denial, and of living above the world.
9. The necessity of meekness, heavenly mindedness, humility, and
integrity.
10. The necessity of an entire renovation of character and life, for all who
would enter heaven.
These are the subjects on which they are to be witnesses for God. And
they are bound to testify in such a way as to constrain men to believe the
truth.
II. HOW ARE THEY TO TESTIFY?
By precept and example. On every proper occasion by their lips, but
mainly by their lives. Christians have no right to be silent with their lips;
they should “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine”
(2 Timothy 4:2). But their main influence as witnesses is by their example.
They are required to be witnesses in this way, because example teaches
with so much greater force than precept. This is universally known.
“Actions speak louder than words.” But where both precept and example
are brought to bear, the greatest amount of influence is brought to bear
upon the mind. As to the manner in which they are to testify; the way in
which they should bear witness to the truth of the points specified; in
general – they should live in their daily walk and conversation, as if they
believed the Bible.
- As if they believed the soul to be immortal, and as if they believed that
death was not the termination of their existence, but the entrance into an
unchanging state. They ought to live so as to make this impression upon
all around them. It is easy to see that precept without example will do no
good. All the arguments in the world will not convince mankind that you
really believe this, unless you live as if you believe it. Your reasoning may
be unanswerable, but if you do not live accordingly, your practice will
defeat your arguments. They will say you are an ingenious sophist, or an
acute reasoner, and perhaps admit that they cannot answer you; but then
they will say: it is evident that your reasoning is all false, and that you
know it is all false, because your life contradicts your theory. Or they will
say that, if it is true, you do not believe it, at any rate. And so all the
influence of your testimony goes to the other side.
2. Against the vanity and unsatisfying nature of the things of this world.
The failure to testify in this is the great stumbling block in the way of
mankind. Here the testimony of God’s children is needed more than
anywhere else. Men are so struck with the objects of sense, and so
constantly occupied with them, that they are very apt to shut out eternity
from their minds. A small object that is held close to the eye, may shut out
the distant ocean. So the things of the world, that are near, appear so
magnified in their minds, that they overlook everything else. One
important design in keeping Christians in the world is, to teach people on
this point, practically. But suppose professors of religion teach the vanity
of earthly things by precept, and contradict it in practice? Suppose the
women are just as fond of dress, and just as particular in observing all the
fashions, and the men as eager to have fine houses and equipages, as the
people of the world; who does not see that it would be quite ridiculous for
them to testify with their lips, that this world is all vanity, and its joys
unsatisfying and empty? People feel the absurdity, and this shuts up the
lips of Christians. They are ashamed to speak to their neighbors, while
they cumber themselves with these gewgaws, because their daily conduct
testifies, to everybody, the very reverse. How it would look for certain
Church members, men or women, to go about among the common people,
and talk to them about the vanity of the world! Who would believe what
they said?
3. To the satisfying nature of religion. Christians are bound to show, by
their conduct, that they are actually satisfied with the enjoyments of
religion, without the pomps and vanities of the world; that the joys of
religion and communion with God keep them above the world. They are to
manifest that this world is not their home. Their profession is, that heaven
is a reality and that they expect to dwell there for ever. But suppose they
contradict this by their conduct, and live in such a way as to prove that
they cannot be happy unless they have a full share of the fashion and
show of the world; and that as for going to heaven, they would much
rather remain on earth than die and go there! What does the world think,
when it sees a professor of religion just as much afraid to die as an infidel?
Such Christians perjure themselves – they swear to a lie, since their
testimony amounts to this, that there is nothing in religion for which a
person can afford to live above the world.
4. Regarding the guilt and danger of sinners. Christians are bound to warn
sinners of their awful condition, and exhort them to flee from the wrath to
come, and lay hold on everlasting life. But who does not know that the
manner of doing this is everything? Sinners are often struck under
conviction by the very manner of doing a thing. There was a man once
very much opposed to a certain preacher. On being asked to specify some
reason, he replied: “I cannot bear to hear him, for he says the word
‘HELL’ in such a way that it rings in my ears for a long time afterwards.”
He was displeased with the very thing that constituted the power of
speaking that word. The manner may be such as to convey an idea directly
opposite to the meaning of the words. A man may tell you that your
house is on fire in such a way as to make directly the opposite impression,
and you will take it for granted that it is not your house that is on fire. The
watchman might cry out: “Fire! fire!” in such a way that everybody would
think he was either drunk or talking in his sleep.
Go to a sinner, and talk with him about his guilt and danger; and if in your
manner you make an impression that does not correspond, you in effect
bear testimony the other way, and tell him he is in no danger. If the sinner
believes at all that he is in danger of hell, it is wholly on other grounds than
your saying so. If you live in such a way as to show that you do not feel
compassion for sinners around you; if you show no tenderness, by your
eyes, your features, your voice; if your manner is not solemn and earnest,
how can they believe you are sincere?
Woman, suppose you tell your unconverted husband, in an easy, laughing
way: “My dear, I believe you are going to hell”; will he believe you? If
your life is gay and trifling, you show that you either do not believe there
is a hell, or that you wish to have him go there, and are trying to keep off
every serious impression from his mind. Have you children that are
unconverted? Suppose you never say anything to them about religion, or
when you talk to them it is in a cold, hard, dry way, conveying the
impression that you have no feeling in the matter; do you suppose they
believe you? They do not see the same coldness in you in regard to other
things. They are in the habit of seeing all the mother in your eye, and in
the tones of your voice, your emphasis, and the like, and feeling the
warmth of a mother’s heart as it flows out from your lips on all that
concerns them. If, then, when you talk to them on the subject of religion,
you are cold and trifling, can they suppose that you believe it? If your
deportment holds up before your child this careless, heartless, prayer less
spirit, and then you talk to him about the importance of religion, the child
will go away and laugh, to think you should try to persuade him there is a
hell.
5. To the love of Christ. You are to bear witness to the reality of the love
of Christ, by the regard you show for His precepts, His honor, His
kingdom. You should act as if you believed that He died for the sins of the
whole world, and as if you blamed sinners for rejecting His great salvation.
This is the only legitimate way in which you can impress sinners with the
love of Christ. Christians, instead of this, often live so as to make the
impression on sinners that Christ is so compassionate that they have very
little to fear from Him. I have been amazed to see how a certain class of
professors want ministers to be always preaching about the love of Christ.
If a minister urges Christians to be holy, and to labor for Christ, they call
it “legal” preaching. They say they want to hear the Gospel. Well,
suppose you present the love of Christ. How will they bear testimony in
their lives? How will they show that they believe it? Why, by conformity
to the world they will testify, point-blank, that they do not believe a word
of it, and that they care nothing at all for the love of Christ, only to have it
for a cloak, that they can talk about it, and so cover up their sins. They
have no sympathy with His compassion, and no belief in it as a reality,
and no concern for the feelings of Christ, which fill His mind when He sees
the condition of sinners.
6. To the necessity of holiness in order to enter heaven. It will not do to
depend on talking about this. They must live holy. The idea has so long
prevailed that we “cannot be perfect here,” that many professors do not
so much as seriously aim at a sinless life. They cannot honestly say that
they even so much as really meant to live without sin. They drift along
before the tide, in a loose, sinful, unhappy, and abominable manner, at
which, doubtless, the devil laughs, because it is, of all others, the surest
way to hell.
7. To the necessity of self-denial, humility, and heavenly-mindedness.
Christians ought to show, by their own example, what the religious walk is
which is expected of men. That is the most powerful preaching, after all,
and the most likely to have influence on the impenitent, which shows
them the great difference between themselves and Christians. Many
people seem to think they can make men fall in with religion best by
bringing religion down to their standard. As if the nearer you bring religion
to the world, the more likely the world will be to embrace it. Now all this
is as wide as the poles are asunder from the true philosophy about making
Christians. But it is always the policy of carnal professors. And they
think they are displaying wonderful sagacity, and prudence, by taking so
much pains not to scare people at the mighty strictness and holiness of the
Gospel. They argue that if you exhibit religion to mankind as requiring
such a great change in their manner of life, such innovations upon their
habits, such a separation from their old associates, why, you will drive
them all away. This seems plausible at first sight. But it is not true. Let
professors live in this lax and easy way, and sinners say: “Why, I do not
see but I am about right, or at least so near right that it is impossible God
should send me to hell only for the difference between me and these
professors. It is true, they do a little more than I do; they go to the
Communion table, and pray in their families, and a few suchlike little
things, but these details cannot make any such great difference as between
heaven and hell.” No, the true way is, to exhibit religion and the world in
strong contrast, or you 34 can never make sinners feel the necessity of a
change. Until the necessity of this fundamental change is embodied and
held forth in strong light, by example, how can you make men believe they
are going to be sent to hell if they are not wholly transformed in heart and
life?
This is not only true in philosophy, but it has been proved by the history
of the world. Now, I was reading a letter from a missionary in the East,
who writes to this effect: that “a missionary must be able to rank with the
English nobility, and so recommend his religion to the respect of the
natives.” He must get away up above them, so as to show a superiority,
and thus impress them with respect! Is this the way to convert the world?
You can no more convert the world in this way than by blowing a ram’s
horn. What did the Jesuits do? They went about among the people in the
daily practice of self-denial, teaching, and preaching, and praying, and
laboring; mingling with every caste and grade, and bringing down their
instructions to the capacity of every individual. In that way their religion
spread over the vast empire of Japan. I am not saying anything in regard to
the religion they taught. I speak only of their following the true policy of
missions, by showing, by their lives, a wide contrast with a worldly spirit.
If Christians attempt to accommodate religion to the worldliness of men,
they render the salvation of the world impossible. How can you make
people believe that self-denial and separation from the world are
necessary, unless you practice them?
8. Again, they are to testify by meekness, humility, and
heavenly-mindedness. The people of God should always show a temper
like the Son of God, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again. If a
professor of religion is irritable, ready to resent an injury, to fly in a
passion, and to take the same measures as the world does to get redress,
by going to law and the like – how is he to make people believe there is
any reality in a change of heart! He cannot recommend religion while he
has such a spirit.
If you are in the habit of resenting injurious conduct; if you do not bear it
meekly, and put the best construction upon it, you contradict the Gospel.
Some people always show a bad spirit, ever ready to put the worst
construction upon what is done, and to take fire at any little thing. This
shows a great want of that charity which “beareth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). But if a
man always shows meekness under injuries, it will confound gainsaying.
Nothing makes so solemn an impression upon sinners, and bears down
with such tremendous weight on their consciences, as to see a Christian,
truly Christ-like, bearing affronts and injuries with the meekness of a lamb.
It cuts like a two-edged sword.
I will mention a case to illustrate this. A young man abused a minister to
his face, and reviled him in an unprecedented manner. The minister
possessed his soul in patience, and spoke mildly in reply, telling him the
truth pointedly, but yet in a very kind manner. This only made him the
more angry, and at length he went away in a rage, declaring that he was
“not going to stay and bear this vituperation,” as if it were the minister,
instead of himself, that had been scolding. The sinner went away, but with
the arrows of the Almighty in his heart; and in less than half an hour he
followed the minister to his lodgings in intolerable agony, wept, begged
forgiveness, and broke down before God, and yielded up his heart to
Christ. This calm and mild manner was more overwhelming to him than a
thousand arguments. Now, if that minister had been thrown off his guard,
and answered harshly, no doubt he would have ruined the soul of that
young man. How many of you have defeated every future effort you may
make with your impenitent friends or neighbors, in some such way as
this? On some occasion you have shown yourself so irascible that you
have sealed up your own lips, and laid a stumbling block over which that
sinner will stumble into hell. If you have done it in any instance, do not
sleep till you have done all you can to retrieve the mischief.
9. Finally, they are to testify to the necessity for entire honesty in a
Christian. Oh, what a field opens here for remark! It extends to all the
departments of life. Christians need to show the strictest regard to
integrity in every department of business, and in all their intercourse with
their fellow men. If every Christian would pay a scrupulous regard to
honesty, and always be conscientious to do exactly right, it would make a
powerful impression, on the minds of people, of the reality of religious
principle.
A lady was once buying some eggs in a store, and the clerk made a
miscount and gave her one more than the number. She saw it at the time,
but said nothing, and after she got home it troubled her. Feeling that she
had acted wrongly, she went back to the young man and confessed it, and
paid the difference. The impression of her conscientious integrity went to
his heart like a sword. It was a great sin in her in concealing the miscount,
because the temptation was so small; for if she would cheat him out of an
egg, it showed that she would cheat him out of his whole store, if she
could do it without being found out. But her prompt and humble
confession showed an honest conscience.
I am happy to say, there are some men who conduct their business on this
principle of integrity. The wicked hate them for it, railing against them,
and vociferating in barrooms that they will never buy goods of
such-and-such individuals; that such a hypocrite shall never touch a dollar
of their money, and all that; and then they will go right away and buy of
them, because they know they will be honestly dealt with. Suppose that
all Christians could be equally trusted: what would be the consequence?
Christians would run away with the business of the city. The Christians
would soon do the business of the world. The great argument which some
professed Christians urge, that if they do not do business upon the
common principle, of stating one price and taking another, they cannot
compete with men of the world, is all false – false in philosophy, false in
history. Only make it your invariable rule to do right, and do business
upon principle, and you control the market. The ungodly will be obliged to
conform to your standard. It is perfectly in the power of Christians to
regulate the commerce of the world, if they will only themselves maintain
perfect integrity.
Again, if Christians will do the same in politics they will sway the
destinies of nations, without involving themselves at all in the base and
corrupting strife of parties. Only let Christians generally determine to vote
for no man who is not an honest man, and a man of pure morals; only let it
be known that Christians are united in this, whatever may be their
difference in political sentiments, and no man would be put up for election
who was not such a character. In three years it would be talked about in
taverns, and published in newspapers, when any man set up as a candidate
for office: “What a good man he is – how moral – how pious!” and the
like. And any political party would no more set up a known
Sabbath-breaker, or a gambler, or a profane swearer, or a rum-seller, as
their candidate for office, than they would set up the devil himself for
President of the United States. The carnal policy of many professors, who
undertake to correct politics by such means as wicked men employ, and
who are determined to vote with a party, let the candidate be ever so
profligate, is all wrong – wrong in principle, contrary to philosophy and
common sense, and ruinous to the best interests of mankind. The
dishonesty of the Church is cursing the world. I am not going to preach a
political sermon; but I want to show you that if you mean to impress men
favorably to your religion by your lives, you must be honest, strictly
honest, in business, politics, and everything you do. What do you
suppose those ungodly politicians, who know themselves to be playing a
dishonest game in carrying an election, think of your religion, when they
see you uniting with them? They know you are a hypocrite!
REMARKS.
- It is unreasonable for professors of religion to wonder at the
thoughtlessness of sinners. Everything considered, the carelessness of
sinners is not wonderful. We are affected by testimony, and only by that
testimony which is received by our minds. Sinners are so taken up with
business, pleasure, and the things of the world, that they will not examine
the Bible to find what religion is. Their feelings are excited only on worldly
subjects, because these only are brought into warm contact with their
minds. The things of the world make, therefore, a strong impression. But
there is so little to make an impression on their minds in respect to
eternity, and to bring religion home to them, that they do not feel on the
subject. If they examined the subject, they would feel. But they do not
examine it, nor think upon it, nor care for it. And they never will, unless
God’s witnesses rise up and testify. But inasmuch as the great body of
Christians so live, as, by their conduct, to testify on the other side, how
can we expect that sinners will feel rightly upon the subject? Nearly all the
testimony and all the influence that comes to their minds tends to make
them feel the other way. God has left His cause here before the human
race, and left His witnesses to testify in His behalf; and, behold, they turn
round and testify the other way! Is it any wonder that sinners are
careless?
2. We see why it is that preaching does so little good; and how it is that so
many sinners get Gospel-hardened. Sinners that live under the Gospel are
often supposed to be Gospel-hardened; but only let the Church wake up
and act consistently, and they will feel. If the Church were to live one
week as if they believed the Bible, sinners would melt down before them.
Suppose I were a lawyer, and should go into court and spread out my
client’s case. The issue is joined; I make my statements, tell what I expect
to prove, and then call my witnesses. The first witness takes his oath, and
then rises up and contradicts me to my face. What good will all my
pleading do? I might address the jury for a month, and be as eloquent as
Cicero; but so long as my witnesses contradict me, all my pleading will do
no good. Just so it is with a minister who is preaching in the midst of a
cold, stupid, and God-dishonoring Church. In vain does he hold up to view
the great truths of religion, when every member of the Church is ready to
witness that he lies. Why, in such a Church, the very manner of the people
in going out of the aisles contradicts the sermon. They press out as
cheerful and as easy, bowing to one another, and whispering together, as if
nothing were the matter. If the devil should come in and see the state of
things, he would think he could not better the business for his interest.
Yet there are ministers who will go on in this way for years, preaching to a
people who, by their lives, contradict every word that is said. And these
ministers think it their duty to do so. Duty! For a minister to preach to a
Church that is undoing all his work, contradicting all his testimony, and
that will not alter! No. Let him shake off the dust from his feet for a
testimony, and go to the heathen, or to new settlements. The man is
wasting his energies, and wearing out his life, and just rocking the cradle
for a sleepy Church, which is testifying to sinners that there is no danger.
Their whole lives are a practical assertion that the Bible is not true. Shall
ministers continue to wear themselves out so? Probably not less than
ninety-nine-hundredths of the preaching in this country is lost, because it
is contradicted by the Church. Not one truth in a hundred, that is
preached, takes effect, because the lives of the professors declare that it is
not so.
3. It is evident that the standard of Christian living must be raised, or the
world will never be converted. If we had, scattered all over the world, a
minister to every five hundred souls, and every child in a Sabbath school,
and every young person in a Bible class, you might have all the machinery
you want; but, if the Church members should contradict the truth by their
lives, no revival would be produced.
They never will have a revival in any place while the whole Church in
effect testifies against the minister. Often it is the case that where there is
the most preaching, there is the least religion, because the Church
contradicts the preaching. I never knew means fail of a revival where
Christians live consistently. One of the first things is to raise the standard
of religion, so as to embody the truth of the Gospel in the sight of all men.
Unless ministers can get their people to wake up, and act as if religion
were true, and back their testimony by their lives, in vain will be the
attempt to promote a revival.
Many Churches are depending on their minister to do everything. When he
preaches, they will say: “What a great sermon that was! He is an excellent
minister. Such preaching must do good. We shall have a revival soon, no
doubt.” And all the while they are contradicting the preaching by their
lives. I tell you, if they are depending on preaching alone to carry on the
work, they must fail. Let an apostle rise from the dead, or an angel come
down from heaven and preach, without the Church to witness for God,
and it would have no effect. The novelty might produce a certain kind of
interest for a time, but as soon as the novelty was gone, the preaching
would have no saving effect, while contradicted by the witnesses.
4. Every Christian makes an impression by his conduct, and witnesses
either for one side or the other. His looks, dress, whole demeanor, make a
constant impression on one side or the other. He cannot help testifying for
or against religion. He is either gathering with Christ, or scattering abroad.
At every step you tread on chords that will vibrate to all eternity. Every
time you move, you touch keys whose sound will reecho all over the hills
and dales of heaven, and through all the dark caverns and vaults of hell.
Every movement of your lives, you are exerting a tremendous influence
that will tell on the immortal interests of souls all around you. Are you
asleep, while all your conduct is exerting such an influence?
Are you going to walk in the street? Take care how you dress. What is
that on your head? What does that gaudy ribbon, and those ornaments
upon your dress, say to every one who meets you? They make the
impression that you wish to be thought pretty. Take care! You might just
as well write on your clothes; “No truth in religion!” They say: “Give me
dress; Give me fashion; Give me flattery, and I am happy!” The world
understands this testimony as you walk the streets. You are living
“epistles, known and read of all men” (2 Corinthians 3:2). If you show
pride, levity, bad temper, it is like tearing open the wounds of the Savior.
How Christ might weep to see professors of religion going about hanging
up His cause to contempt at the corners of streets. Only let the “women
adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety;
not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which
becometh women professing godliness) with good works” (1 Timothy 2:9,
10); only let them act consistently, and their conduct will tell on the world
- heaven will rejoice and hell groan at their influence. But oh! let them
display vanity; try to be pretty; bow down to the goddess of fashion; fill
their ears with ornaments, and their fingers with rings: let them put
feathers in their hats and clasps upon their arms; lace themselves up till
they can hardly breathe; let them put on their “round tires like the moon,”
“walking and mincing as they go” (Isaiah 3:18, 16), and their influence is
reversed: heaven puts on the robes of mourning, and hell may hold a
jubilee!
5. It is easy to see why revivals do not prevail in a great city. How can
they? Just look at God’s witnesses, and see what they are testifying to!
They seem to be agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, and to lie
to the Holy Ghost! They make their vows to God, to consecrate
themselves wholly to Him, then they go bowing down at the shrine of
fashion – and next they wonder why there are no revivals! It would be
more than a miracle to have a revival under such circumstances. How can a
revival prevail here? Do you suppose I have such a vain imagination of my
own ability, as to think I can promote a revival by my preaching, merely,
while you live on as you do? Do you not know that so far as your
influence goes, many of you are right in the way of a revival? Your spirit
and deportment produce an influence on the world against religion. How
shall the world believe religion, when the witnesses are not agreed among
themselves? You contradict yourselves; you contradict one another; you
contradict your minister; and the sum of the whole testimony is, there is
no need of being pious.
Do you believe the things I have been preaching are true, or are they the
ravings of a disturbed mind? If they are true, do you recognize the fact that
they have reference to you? You say, perhaps: “I wish some of the rich
Churches could hear it!” But I am not preaching to them; I am preaching to
you. My responsibility is to you, and my fruits must come from you.
Now, are you contradicting it? What is the testimony on the leaf of the
record that is now sealed for the Judgment, concerning this day? Have you
manifested a sympathy with the Son of God, when His heart is bleeding in
view of the desolations of Zion? Have your children, your clerks, your
servants seen it to be so? Have they seen a solemnity on your
countenance, and tears in your eyes, in view of perishing souls?
Finally, I remark that God and all moral beings have great reason to
complain of this false testimony. There is ground to complain that God’s
witnesses turn and testify point-blank against Him. They declare by their
conduct that there is no truth in the Gospel. Heaven might weep and hell
rejoice to see this. Oh, how guilty! Here you are, going to the Judgment,
red all over with blood. Sinners are to meet you there; those who have seen
how you live, many of them already dead, and many others whom you
will never see again upon earth. What an influence you have exerted!
Perhaps hundreds of souls will meet you in the Judgment Day and curse
you (if they are allowed to speak) for leading them to hell, by practically
denying the truth of the Gospel. What will become of this city, and of the
world, when the Church is united in practically testifying that God is a
liar? They testify by their lives, that if they make a profession and live a
moral life, that is religion enough. Oh, what a doctrine of devils is that! It
is enough to ruin the whole human race!
LECTURE X
TO WIN SOULS REQUIRES WISDOM
He that winneth souls is wise. – Proverbs 11:30.
T HE most common definition of wisdom is, that it is the choice of the best
end and the selection of the most appropriate means for the
accomplishment of that end. “He that winneth souls,” God says, “is
wise.” The object of this Lecture is to direct Christians in the use of means
for accomplishing their infinitely desirable end, the salvation of souls. I
shall confine my attention to the private efforts of individuals for the
conversion and salvation of men. On another occasion, perhaps, I shall use
the same text in speaking of what is wise in the public preaching of the
Gospel, and the labors of ministers. In giving some directions to aid
private Christians in this work, I propose to show Christians:
I. How they should deal with careless sinners.
II. How they should deal with awakened sinners.
III. How they should deal with convicted sinners.
I. DEALING WITH CARELESS SINNERS.
- In regard to the time. It is important that you should select a proper
time to try to make a serious impression on the mind of a careless sinner.
For if you fail of selecting the most proper time, very probably you will
be defeated. True, you may say that it is your duty at all times to warn
sinners, and try to awaken them to think of their souls. And so it is; yet if
you do not pay due regard to the time and opportunity, your hope of
success may be very doubtful.
(a) It is desirable, if possible, to address a person who is careless, when he
is disengaged from other employments. In proportion as his attention is
taken up with something else, it will be difficult to awaken him to religion.
People who are careless and indifferent to religion are often offended,
rather than benefitted by being called off from important and lawful
business. For instance, a minister perhaps goes to visit the family of a
merchant, or mechanic, or farmer, and finds the man absorbed in his
business; perhaps he calls him off from his work when it is urgent, and the
man is uneasy and irritable, and feels as if it were an intrusion. In such a
case, there is little room to expect any good. Notwithstanding it is true
that religion is infinitely more important than all his worldly business, and
he ought to postpone everything to the salvation of his soul, yet he does
not feel it; for if he did, he would no longer be a careless sinner; and
therefore he regards it as unjustifiable, and gets offended. You must take
him as you find him, a careless, impenitent sinner, and deal with him
accordingly. He is absorbed in other things, and very apt to be offended, if
you select such a time to call his attention to religion.
(b) It is important to take a person, if possible, at a time when he is not
strongly excited with any other subject. Otherwise he will be in an unfit
frame to be addressed on the subject of religion. In proportion to the
strength of that excitement would be the probability that you would do no
good. You may possibly reach him. Persons have had their minds arrested
and turned to religion in the midst of a powerful excitement on other
subjects. But it is not likely.
Be sure that the person is perfectly sober. It used to be more common
than it is now for people to drink spirits every day, and become more or
less intoxicated. Precisely in proportion as they are so, they are rendered
unfit to be approached on the subject of religion. If they have been
drinking beer, or cider, or wine, so that you can smell their breath, you
may know there is but little chance of producing any lasting effect on
them. I have had professors of religion bring to me persons whom they
supposed were under conviction (people in liquor are very fond of talking
upon religion); but as soon as I came near enough to smell the breath of
such persons, I have asked: “Why do you bring this drunken man to me?”
“Why,” they have replied, “He is not drunk, he has only been drinking a
little.” Well, that little has made him a little drunk! The cases are
exceedingly rare where a person has been truly convicted, who had any
intoxicating liquor in him.
(d) If possible, where you wish to converse with a man on the subject of
salvation, take him when he is in a good temper. If you find him out of
humor, very probably he will get angry and abuse you. Better let him
alone for that time, or you will be likely to quench the Spirit. It is possible
you may be able to talk in such a way as to cool his temper, but it is not
likely. The truth is, men hate God; and though their hatred be dormant, it
is easily excited; and if you bring God fully before their minds when they
are already excited with anger, it will be so much the easier to arouse their
enmity to open violence.
(e) If possible, always take an opportunity to converse with careless
sinners when they are alone. Most men are too proud to be conversed
with freely respecting themselves in the presence of others, even their own
family. A man in such circumstances will brace up all his powers to defend
himself, while, if he were alone, he would melt down under the truth. He
will resist the truth, or try to laugh it off, for fear that, if he should
manifest any feeling, somebody will go and report that he is thinking
seriously about religion.
In visiting families, instead of calling all the family together at the same
time to be talked to, the better way is to see them all, one at a time. There
was a case of this kind. Several young ladies, of a proud, gay, and
fashionable character, lived together in a fashionable family. Two men
were strongly desirous to get the subject of religion before them, but were
at a loss how to accomplish it, for fear the ladies would combine to resist
every serious impression. At length they took this course: they called and
sent up their card to one of the young ladies by name. She came down, and
they conversed with her on the subject of her salvation, and, as she was
alone, she not only treated them politely, but seemed to receive the truth
with seriousness. A day or two after they called, in like manner, on
another; and then on another; and so on, till they had conversed with every
one separately. In a little time the ladies were all, I believe, hopefully
converted. 36 The impression made on one was followed up with the
others; so that one was not left to exert a bad influence over the rest.
There was a pious woman who kept a boardinghouse for young gentlemen;
she had twenty-one or two of them in her house, and at length she became
very anxious for their salvation. She made it a subject of prayer, but saw
no seriousness among them. At length she saw that there must be
something done besides praying, and yet she did not know what to do.
One morning, after breakfast, as the rest were retiring, she asked one of
them to stop a few minutes. She took him aside, and conversed with him
tenderly on the subject of religion, and prayed with him. She followed up
the impression made, and pretty soon he was hopefully converted. Then
she spoke to another, and so on, taking one at a time, and letting none of
the rest know what was going on, so as not to alarm them, till all these
young men were converted to God. Now, if she had brought the subject
before the whole of them together, very likely they would have turned it
all into ridicule; or perhaps they would have been offended and left the
house, and then she could have had no further influence over them. But
taking one alone, and treating him respectfully and kindly, he had no such
motive for resistance as arises out of the presence of others.
(f) Try to seize an opportunity to converse with a careless sinner, when
the events of Providence seem to favor your design. If any particular event
should occur, calculated to make a serious impression, be sure to improve
the occasion faithfully.
(g) Seize the earliest opportunity to converse with those around you who
are careless. Do not put it off from day to day, thinking a better
opportunity will come. You must seek an opportunity, and if none offers,
make one. Appoint a time or place, and get an interview with your friend
or neighbor, where you can speak to him freely. Send him a note; go to him
on purpose; make it look like a matter of business – as if you were in
earnest in endeavoring to promote his soul’s salvation. Then he will feel
that it is a matter of importance, at least in your eyes. Follow it up till you
succeed, or become convinced that, for the time, nothing more can be done.
(h) If you have any feeling for a particular individual, take an opportunity
to converse with that individual while this feeling continues. If it is a truly
benevolent feeling, you have reason to believe the Spirit of God is moving
you to desire the salvation of his soul, and that God is ready to bless your
efforts for his conversion. In such a case, make it the subject of special and
importunate prayer, and seek an early opportunity to pour out all your
heart to him, and bring him to Christ.
2. In regard to the manner of doing all this:
(a) When you approach a careless individual, be sure to treat him kindly.
Let him see that you address him, not because you seek a quarrel with
him, but because you love his soul, and desire his best good in time and
eternity. If you are harsh and overbearing in your manner, you will
probably offend him, and drive him farther off from the way of life.
(b) Be solemn. Avoid all lightness of manner or language. Levity will
produce anything but a right impression. You ought to feel that you are
engaged in a very solemn work, which is going to affect the character of
your friend or neighbor, and probably determine his destiny for eternity.
Who could trifle and use levity in such circumstances, if his heart were
sincere?
Be respectful. Some seem to suppose it necessary to be abrupt, and
rude, and coarse, in their intercourse with the careless and impenitent. No
mistake can be greater. The apostle Peter has given us a better rule on the
subject, where he says: “Be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for
evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing” (1 Peter 3:8, 9). A
rude and coarse style of address is only calculated to create an unfavorable
opinion both of yourself and of your religion.
(d) Be sure to be very plain. Do not suffer yourself to cover up any
circumstance of the person’s character, and his relations to God. Lay it all
open, not for the purpose of offending or wounding him, but because it is
necessary. Before you can cure a wound, you must probe it to the bottom.
Keep back none of the truth, but let it come out plainly before him.
(e) Be sure to address his conscience. Unless you address the conscience
pointedly, you get no hold of the mind at all.
(f) Bring the great and fundamental truths to bear upon the person’s mind.
Sinners are very apt to run off upon some pretext, or some subordinate
point, especially one of sectarianism. For instance, if the man is a
Presbyterian, he will try to turn the conversation on the points of
difference between Presbyterians and Methodists. Or he will fall foul of
“old school” divinity. Do not talk with him on any such point. Tell him
the present business is to save his soul, and not to settle controverted
questions in theology. Hold him to the great fundamental points, by which
he must be saved or lost.
(g) Be very patient. If he has a real difficulty in his mind, be very patient
till you find out what it is, and then clear it up. If what he alleges is a mere
cavil, make him see that it is a cavil. Do not try to answer it by argument,
but show him that he is not sincere in advancing it. It is not worth while to
spend your time in arguing against a cavil; make him feel that he is
committing sin to plead it, and thus enlist his conscience on your side.
(h) Be careful to guard your own spirit. There are many people who have
not good temper enough to converse with those who are much opposed to
religion. And such a person wants no better triumph than to see you
angry. He will go away exulting because he has “made one of these saints
mad.”
(I) If the sinner is inclined to entrench himself against God, be careful not
to take his part in anything. If he says he cannot do his duty, do not take
sides with him, or say anything to countenance his falsehood; do not tell
him he cannot, or help him to maintain himself in the controversy against
his Maker. Sometimes a careless sinner will commence finding fault with
Christians; do not take his part, do not side with him against Christians.
Just tell him he has not their sins to answer for: he had better see to his
own concerns. If you agree with him, he feels that he has you on his side.
Show him that it is a wicked and censorious spirit that prompts him to
make these remarks, and not a regard for the honor of the religion or the
laws of Jesus Christ.
(j) Bring up the individual’s particular sins. Talking in general terms
against sin will produce no results. You must make a man feel that you
mean him. A minister who cannot make his hearers feel that he means
them, cannot expect to accomplish much. Some people are very careful to
avoid mentioning the particular sins of which they know the individual to
be guilty, for fear of hurting his feelings. This is wrong. If you know his
history, bring up his particular sins; kindly, but plainly; not to give
offense, but to awaken conscience, and give full force to the truth.
(k) It is generally best to be short, and not spin out what we have to say.
Get the attention as soon as you can to the very point; say a few things
and press them home, and bring the matter to an issue. If possible, get
them to repent and give themselves to Christ at the time. This is the
proper issue. Carefully avoid making an impression that you do not wish
them to repent NOW.
(l) If possible, when you converse with sinners, be sure to pray with
them. If you converse with them, and leave them without praying, you
leave your work undone.
II. THE MANNER OF DEALING WITH AWAKENED SINNERS.
Be careful to distinguish between an awakened sinner, and one who is
under conviction. When you find a person who feels a little on the subject
of religion, do not take it for granted that he is convicted of sin, and thus
omit to use means to show him his sin. Persons are often awakened by
some providential circumstance; as sickness, thunderstorm, pestilence,
death in the family, disappointment, or the like; or directly by the Spirit of
God; so that their ears are open, and they are ready to hear on the subject
of religion with attention and seriousness, and some feeling. If you find a
person awakened, no matter by what means, lose no time to pour in light
upon his mind. Do not be afraid, but show him the breadth of the Divine
law, and the exceeding strictness of its precepts. Make him see how it
condemns his thoughts and life. Search out his heart, find what is there,
and bring it up before his mind, as far as you can. If possible, melt him
down on the spot. When once you have got a sinner’s attention, very
often his conviction and conversion are the work of a few moments. You
can sometimes do more in five minutes, than in years – or a whole
lifetime – while he is careless or indifferent.
I have been amazed at the conduct of those cruel parents, and other heads
of families, who will let an awakened sinner be in their families for days
and weeks, and not say a word to him on the subject. They say: “If the
Spirit of God has begun a work in him, He will certainly carry it on!”
Perhaps the person is anxious to converse, and puts himself in the way of
Christians, as often as possible, expecting they will converse with him,
and they do not say a word. Amazing! Such a person ought to be looked
out immediately, as soon as he is awakened, and a blaze of light be poured
into his mind without delay. Wherever you have reason to believe that a
person within your reach is awakened, do not sleep till you have poured in
the light upon his mind, and have tried to bring him to immediate
repentance. Then is the time to press the subject with effect.
In revivals, I have often seen Christians who were constantly on the
look-out to see if any persons appeared to be awakened; as soon as they
saw any one begin to manifest feeling under preaching they would mark
him, and (as soon as the meeting was over) invite him to a room, and
converse and pray with him – if possible not leaving him till he was
converted.
A remarkable case of this kind occurred in a town at the West. A merchant
came to the place from a distance, to buy goods. It was a time of powerful
revival, but he was determined to keep out of its influence; and so he
would not go to any meeting at all. At length he found everybody so much
engaged in religion that it met him at every turn; and he got vexed, and
vowed that he would go home. There was so much religion there, he said,
that he could do no business, and would not stay. Accordingly he booked
his seat for the coach, which was to leave at four o’clock the next morning.
As he spoke of going away, a gentleman belonging to the house, who was
one of the young-converts, asked him if he would not go to a meeting once
before he left town. He finally consented, and went to the meeting. The
sermon took hold of his mind, but not with sufficient power to bring him
into the Kingdom. He returned to his lodgings, and called the landlord to
bring his bill. The landlord, who had himself recently experienced religion,
saw that he was agitated. He accordingly spoke to him on the subject of
religion, and the man burst into tears. The landlord immediately called in
three or four young converts, and they prayed, and exhorted him; and at
four o’clock in the morning, when the coach called, he went on his way
rejoicing in God! When he got home he called his family together,
confessed to them his past sins, avowed his determination to live
differently, and prayed with them for the first time. It was so unexpected
that it was soon noised abroad; people began to inquire, and a revival
broke out in the place. Now, suppose these Christians had done as some
do, been careless, and let the man go off, slightly impressed? It is not
probable he ever could have been saved. Such opportunities are often lost
for ever, when once the favorable moment is passed.
III. THE MANNER OF DEALING WITH CONVICTED SINNERS.
By a convicted sinner, I mean one who feels himself condemned by the
law of God, as a guilty sinner. He has so much instruction as to
understand something of the extent of God’s law, and he sees and feels his
guilty state, and knows what his remedy is. To deal with these often
requires great wisdom.
- When a person is convicted, but not converted, and remains in an
anxious state, there is generally some specific reason for it. In such cases it
does no good to exhort him to repent, or to explain the law to him. He
knows all that; he understands these general points; but still he does not
repent. There must be some particular difficulty to overcome. You may
preach, and pray, and exhort, till doomsday, and not gain anything.
You must, then, set yourself to inquire what is that particular difficulty. A
physician, when he is called to a patient, and finds him sick with a
particular disease, first administers the general remedies that are applicable
to that disease. If they produce no effect, and the disease still continues,
he must examine the case, and learn the constitution of the individual, and
his habits, diet, manner of living, etc., and see what the matter is that the
medicine does not take effect. So it is with the case of a sinner convicted
but not converted. If your ordinary instructions and exhortations fail, there
must be a difficulty. The particular difficulty is often known to the
individual himself, though he keeps it concealed. Sometimes, however, it is
something that has escaped even his own observation.
(a) Sometimes the individual has some idol, something which he loves
more than God, which prevents him from giving himself up. You must
search out and see what it is that he will not give up. Perhaps it is wealth;
perhaps some earthly friend; perhaps gay dress or gay company, or some
favorite amusement. At any rate, there is something on which his heart is
so set that he will not yield to God.
(b) Perhaps he has done an injury to some individual that calls for redress,
and he is unwilling to confess it, or to make a just recompense. Now, until
he will confess and forsake this sin, he can find no mercy. If he has injured
the person in property or character, or has abused him, he must make it
up. Tell him frankly that there is no hope for him till he is willing to
confess it, and to do what is right.
Sometimes there is some particular sin which he will not forsake. He
pretends it is only a small one; or tries to persuade himself it is no sin at
all. No matter how small it is, he can never get into the Kingdom of God
till he gives it up. Sometimes an individual has seen it to be a sin to use
tobacco, and he can never find true peace till he gives it up. Perhaps he is
looking upon it as a small sin. But God knows nothing about small sins in
such a case. What is the sin? It is injuring your health, and setting a bad
example; and you are taking God’s money (which you are bound to
employ in His service) and spending it for tobacco. What would a
merchant say if he found one of his clerks in the habit of going to the
money drawer, and taking money enough to keep him in cigars? Would he
call it a small offense? No; he would say the clerk deserved to be sent to
the State prison. I mention this particular sin, because I have found it to be
one of the things to which men who are convicted will hold on, although
they know it to be wrong, and then wonder why they do not find peace.
(d) See if there is some work of restitution which he is bound to do.
Perhaps he has defrauded somebody in trade, or taken some unfair
advantage, contrary to the golden rule of doing as you would be done by,
and is unwilling to make satisfaction. This is a very common sin among
merchants and men of business. I have known many melancholy instances,
where men have grieved away the Spirit of God, or else have been driven
well-nigh to absolute despair, because they were unwilling to give
satisfaction where they have done such things. Now it is plain that such
persons never can have forgiveness until they make restitution.
(e) They may have entrenched themselves somewhere, and fortified their
minds in regard to some particular point, which they are determined not to
yield. For instance, they may have taken strong ground that they will not
do a particular thing. I knew a man who was determined not to go into a
certain grove to pray. Several other persons during the revival had gone
into the grove, and there, by prayer and meditation, given themselves to
God. His own clerk had been converted there. The lawyer himself was
awakened, but he was determined that he would not go into that grove. He
had powerful convictions, and went on for weeks in this way, with no
relief. He tried to make God believe that it was not pride that kept him
from Christ; and so, when he was going home from meeting he would kneel
down in the street and pray. And not only that, but he would look round
for a mud-puddle in the street, in which he might kneel, to show that he
was not proud. He once prayed all night in his parlor – but he would not
go into the grove. His distress was so great, and he was so wroth with
God, that he was strongly tempted to make away with himself, and
actually threw away his knife for fear he should cut his throat. At length
he concluded he would go into the grove and pray; and as soon as he got
there he was converted, and poured out his full heart to God.
So, individuals are sometimes entrenched in a determination that they will
not go to a particular meeting (perhaps the inquiry meeting, or some
prayer-meeting); or they will not have a certain person to pray with them;
or they will not take a particular seat, such as the “anxious seat.” They
say they can be converted just as well without yielding this point, for
religion does not consist in going to a particular meeting, or taking a
particular attitude in prayer, or a particular seat. This is true; but by
taking this ground they make it the material point. And so long as they are
entrenched there, and determined to bring God to their terms, they never
can be converted. Sinners will often yield anything else, and do anything
else, and do anything in the world, but yield the point upon which they
have taken a stand against God. They cannot be humbled, until they yield
this point, whatever it is. And if, without yielding, they get a hope, it
will be a false hope.
(f) Perhaps he has a prejudice against some one (a member of the Church,
perhaps), on account of some faithful dealing with his soul; and he hangs
on this, and will never be converted till he gives it up. Whatever it be, you
should search it out, and tell him the truth, plainly and faithfully.
(g) He may feel ill-will towards some one, or be angry, and cherish strong
feelings of resentment, which prevent him from obtaining mercy from
God. “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any:
that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven
forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:25, 26).
(h) Perhaps he entertains some errors in doctrine, or some wrong notions
respecting the thing to be done, or the way of doing it, which may be
keeping him out of the Kingdom. Perhaps he is waiting for God to do
something to him before he submits – in fact, is waiting for God to do for
him what God has required the sinner to do himself.
He may be waiting for more conviction. People often do not know what
conviction is, and think they are not under conviction when in fact they
are under powerful conviction. They often think nothing is conviction
unless they have great fears of hell. But the fact is, individuals often have
strong convictions, who have very little fear of hell. Show them what is
the truth, and let them see that they have no need to wait.
Perhaps he may be waiting for certain feelings, which he has heard
somebody else had before obtaining mercy. This is very common in
revivals where some one of the first converts has told of remarkable
experiences. Others who are awakened are very apt to think they must
wait for just such feelings. I knew a young man thus awakened; his
companion had been converted in a remarkable way, and this one was
waiting for just such feelings. He said he was “using the means, and
praying for them,” but he finally found that he was a Christian, although
he had not been through the course of feeling which he expected.
Sinners often lay out a plan of what they expect to feel, and how they
expect to be converted, and in fact lay out the work for God, determined
that they will go in that path or not at all. Tell them this is all wrong; they
must not lay out any such path beforehand, but let God lead them as He
sees to be the best. God always leads the blind by a way they know not.
There never was a sinner brought into the Kingdom through such a course
of feeling as he expected. Very often they are amazed to find that they are
in, and have had no such exercises as they expected.
It is very common for persons to be waiting to be made subjects of prayer,
or for some other particular means to be used, or to see if they cannot
make themselves better. They are so wicked, they say, that they cannot
come to Christ. They want to try, by humiliation, and suffering, and
prayer, to fit themselves to come. You will have to hunt them out of all
these refuges. It is astonishing into how many corners they will often run
before they will go to Christ. I have known persons almost deranged for
the want of a little correct instruction.
Sometimes such people think their sins are too great to be forgiven, or that
they have grieved the Spirit of God away, when that Spirit is all the while
convicting them. They pretend that their sins are greater than Christ’s
mercy, thus actually insulting the Lord Jesus.
Sometimes sinners get the idea that they are given up of God, and that
now they cannot be saved. It is often very difficult to beat persons off
from this ground. Many of the most distressing cases I have met with have
been of this character.
In a place where I was laboring in a revival, one day before the meeting
commenced, I heard a low, moaning, distressing, unearthly noise. I looked
and saw several women gathered round the person who made it. They said
she was a woman in despair. She had been a long time in that state. Her
husband was a drunkard. He had brought her to the meeting-place, and had
gone himself to the tavern. I conversed with her, saw her state, and
realized that it was very difficult to reach her case. As I was going to
commence the meeting she said she must go out, for she could not bear to
hear praying or singing. I told her she must not go, and asked the ladies to
detain her, if necessary, by force. I felt that, if the devil had hold of her,
God was stronger than the devil, and could deliver her. The meeting began,
and she made some noise at first. But presently she looked up. The
subject was chosen with special reference to her case, and as it proceeded
her attention was gained, her eyes were fixed – I never shall forget how
she looked – her eyes and mouth open, her head up – and how she
almost rose from her seat as the truth poured in upon her mind. Finally, as
the truth knocked away every foundation on which her despair had rested,
she shrieked out, put her head down, and sat perfectly still till the meeting
was over. I went to her, and found her perfectly calm and happy in God. I
saw her long afterwards, and she still remained in that state of rest. Thus
Providence led her where she never expected to be, and compelled her to
hear instruction adapted to her case. You may often do incalculable good
by finding out precisely where the difficulty lies, and then bringing the
truth to bear on that point.
Sometimes persons will strenuously maintain that they have committed
the unpardonable sin. When they get that idea into their minds, they will
turn everything you say against themselves. In some such cases, it is a
good way to take them on their own ground, and reason with them in this
way: “Suppose you have committed the unpardonable sin, what then? It
is reasonable that you should submit to God, and be sorry for your sins,
and break off from them, and do all the good you can, even if God will not
forgive you. Even if you go to hell, you ought to do this.” Press this
thought until you find they understand and consent to it.
It is common for persons in such cases to keep their eyes on themselves;
they will shut themselves up, and keep looking at their own darkness,
instead of looking away to Christ. Now, if you can take their minds off
from themselves, and get them to think of Christ, you may draw them
away from brooding over their own present feelings, and get them to lay
hold on the hope set before them in the Gospel.
2. Be careful, in conversing with convicted sinners, not to make any
compromise with them on any point where they have a difficulty. If you
do, they will be sure to take advantage of it, and thus get a false hope.
Convicted sinners often get into a difficulty, in regard to giving up some
darling sin, or yielding some point where conscience and the Holy Ghost
are at war with them. And if they come across an individual who will yield
the point, they feel better, and are happy, and think they are converted.
The young man who came to Christ was of this character. He had one
difficulty, and Jesus Christ knew just what it was. He knew he loved his
money; and instead of compromising the matter and thus trying to comfort
him, he just put His finger on the very place and told him: “Go and sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow Me” (Matthew
19:21). What was the effect? Why, the young man “went away
sorrowful.” Very likely, if Christ had told him to do anything else, he
would have felt relieved, and would have got a hope; would have professed
himself a disciple, joined the Church, and gone to hell.
People are often amazingly anxious to make a compromise. They will ask
such questions as this: Whether you do not think a person may be a
Christian, and yet do such-and-such things? Or: If he may be a Christian
and not do such-and-such things? Now, do not yield an inch to any such
questions. The questions themselves may often show you the very point
that is laboring in their minds. They will show you that it is pride, or love
of the world, or something of the kind, which is preventing them from
becoming Christians.
Be careful to make thorough work on this point – the love of the world. I
believe there have been more false hopes built on wrong instructions here,
than in any other way. I once heard a Doctor of Divinity trying to
persuade his hearers to give up the world; but he told them: “If you will
only give it up, God will give it right back to you. He is willing that you
should enjoy the world.” 38 Miserable! God never gives back the world to a
Christian, in the same sense that He requires a convicted sinner to give it
up. He requires us to give up the ownership of everything to Him, so that
we shall never again for a moment consider it as our own. A man must not
think he has a right to judge for himself how much of his property he shall
lay out for God. One man thinks he may spend seven thousand dollars a
year to support his family; he has a right to do it, because he has the
means of his own. Another thinks he may lay up fifty or a hundred
thousand dollars. One man said, the other day, that he had promised he
never would give any of his property to educate young men for the
ministry; so, when he is applied to, he just answers: “I have said I never
will give to any such object, and I never will.” Man! did Jesus Christ ever
tell you to act so with His money? Has he laid down any such rule?
Remember, it is His money you are talking about, and if He wants it to
educate ministers, you withhold it at your peril. Such a man has yet to
learn the first principle of religion, that he is not his own, and that the
money which he “possesses” is Jesus Christ’s.
Here is the great reason why the Church is so full of false hopes. Men
have been left to suppose they could be Christians while holding on to
their money. And this has served as a clog to every enterprise. It is an
undoubted fact, that the Church has funds enough to supply the world
with Bibles, and tracts, and missionaries, immediately. But the truth is,
that professors of religion do not believe that “the earth is the Lord’s, and
the fulness thereof.” Every man supposes he has a right to decide what
appropriation he shall make of his own money. And they have no idea
that Jesus Christ shall dictate to them on the subject.
Be sure to deal thoroughly on this point. The Church is now filled up with
hypocrites, because people were never made to see that unless they made
an entire consecration of all to Christ – all their time, all their talents,
all their influence – they would never get to heaven. Many think they can be
Christians, and yet dream along through life, and use all their time and
property for themselves, only giving a little now and then, just to save
appearances, and when they can do it with perfect convenience. But it is a
sad mistake, and they will find it so, if they do not employ their energies
for God. And when they die, instead of finding heaven at the end of the
path they are pursuing, they will find hell there.
In dealing with a convicted sinner, be sure to drive him away from every
refuge, and not leave him an inch of ground to stand on so long as he
resists God. This need not take a long time to do. When the Spirit of God
is at work striving with a sinner, it is easy to drive him from his refuges.
You will find the truth will be like a hammer, crushing wherever it strikes.
Make clean work with it, so that he shall give up all for God.
Make the sinner see clearly the nature and extent of the Divine law, and
press the main question of entire submission to God. Bear down on that
point as soon as you have made him clearly understand what you aim at,
and do not turn off upon anything else.
Be careful, in illustrating the subject, not to mislead the mind so as to leave
the impression that a selfish submission will answer, or a selfish
acceptance of the Atonement, or a selfish giving up to Christ and receiving
Him, as if a man were making a good bargain, giving up his sins, and
receiving salvation in exchange. This is mere barter, and not submission to
God. Leave no ground in your explanations or illustrations, for such a view
of the matter. Man’s selfish heart will eagerly seize such a view of religion,
if it be presented, and very likely close in with it, and thus get a false
hope.
REMARKS.
- Make it an object of constant study, and of daily reflection and prayer,
to learn how to deal with sinners so as to promote their conversion. It is
the great business on earth of every Christian, to save souls. People often
complain that they do not know how to take hold of this matter. Why, the
reason is plain enough; they have never studied it. They have never taken
the proper pains to qualify themselves for the work. If people made it no
more a matter of attention and thought to qualify themselves for their
worldly business, than they do to save souls, how do you think they
would succeed? Now, if you are thus neglecting the main business of life,
what are you living for? If you do not make it a matter of study, how you
may most successfully act in building up the Kingdom of Christ, you are
acting a very wicked and absurd part as a Christian.
2. Many professors of religion do more harm than good, when they
attempt to talk to impenitent sinners. They have so little knowledge and
skill, that their remarks rather divert attention than increase it.
3. Be careful to find the point where the Spirit of God is pressing a sinner,
and press the same point in all your remarks. If you divert his attention
from that, you will be in great danger of destroying his convictions. Take
pains to learn the state of his mind, what he is thinking of, how he feels,
and what he feels most deeply upon, and then press that chief point
thoroughly. Do not divert his mind by talking about anything else. Do not
fear to press that point for fear of driving him to distraction. Some people
fear to press a point to which the mind is tremblingly alive, lest they
should injure the mind, notwithstanding that the Spirit of God is evidently
debating that very point with the sinner. This is an attempt to be wiser
than God. You should clear up the point, throw the light of truth all
around it, and bring the soul to yield, and then the mind will be at rest.
4. Great evils have arisen, and many false hopes have been created, by not
discriminating between an awakened, and a convicted, sinner. For the want
of this, persons who are only awakened are immediately pressed to submit
- “you must repent,” “submit to God” – when they are in fact neither
convinced of their guilt, nor instructed so far as even to know what
submission means. This is one way in which revivals have been greatly
injured – by indiscriminate exhortations to repent, unaccompanied by
proper instruction.
5. Anxious sinners are to be regarded as being in a very solemn and critical
state. They have, in fact, come to a turning-point. It is a time when their
destiny is likely to be settled for ever. Christians ought to feel deeply for
them. In many respects their circumstances are more solemn than those of
the Judgment. Here their destiny is settled. The Judgment Day reveals it.
And the particular time when It is done is when the Spirit is striving with
them. Christians should remember their awful responsibility at such times.
The physician, if he knows anything of his duty, sometimes feels himself
under a very solemn responsibility. His patient is in a critical state, where
a little error will destroy life, and hangs quivering between life and death. If
such responsibility should be felt in relation to the body, what awful
responsibility should be felt in relation to the soul, when it is seen to hang
trembling on a point, and its destiny is now to be decided. One false
impression, one indiscreet remark, one sentence misunderstood, a slight
diversion of mind, may wear him the wrong way, and his soul be lost.
Never was an angel employed in a more solemn work, than that of dealing
with sinners who are under conviction. How solemnly and carefully then
should Christians walk, how wisely and skillfully work, if they do not
wish to be the means of the loss of a soul!
Finally, if there is a sinner in this house, let me say to him: “Abandon all
your excuses. You have been told tonight that they are all in vain. This
very hour may seal your eternal destiny. Will you submit to God tonight
- NOW?”
LECTURE XI
A WISE MINISTER WILL BE SUCCESSFUL
He that winneth souls is wise. – Proverbs 11:30.
I lectured last, from the same text, on the methods of dealing with
sinners by “private” Christians. My object at this time is to take up the
more public means of grace, with particular reference to the duties of
Ministers.
As I observed in my last Lecture, wisdom is the choice and pursuit of the
best end by the most appropriate means. The great end for which the
Christian ministry is appointed, is to glorify God in the salvation of souls.
In speaking on this subject I propose to show:
I. That a right discharge of the duties of a minister requires great wisdom.
II. That the amount of success in the discharge of his duties (other things
being equal) decides the amount of wisdom employed by him in the
exercise of his office.
I. THE RIGHT DISCHARGE OF MINISTERIAL DUTY.
A right discharge of the duties of a minister requires great wisdom: I. On
account of the opposition it encounters. The very end for which the
ministry is appointed is one against which is arrayed the most powerful
opposition of sinners themselves. If men were willing to receive the
Gospel, and there were nothing needed to be done but to tell the story of
Redemption, a child might convey the news. But men are opposed to the
Gospel. They are opposed to their own salvation, in this way. Their
opposition is often violent and determined. I once saw a maniac who had
formed designs against his own life, and he would exercise the utmost
sagacity and cunning to effect his purpose. He would be so artful as to
make his keepers believe he had no such design, that he had given it all up;
he would appear mild and sober, but the instant the keeper was off his
guard he would lay hands on himself. So, sinners often exercise great
cunning in evading all the efforts that are made to save them. In order to
meet this dreadful cunning, and overcome it, so as to save men, ministers
need a great amount of wisdom.
2. The particular means appointed to be employed in the work, show the
necessity of great wisdom in ministers. If men were converted by an act of
physical omnipotence, creating some new taste, or something like that, and
if sanctification were nothing but the same physical omnipotence rooting
out the remaining roots of sin from the soul, it would not require so much
sagacity and skill to win souls. Nor would there then be any meaning in
the text. But the truth is that regeneration and sanctification are to be
effected by moral means – by argument, and not by force. There never
was, and never will be, any one saved by anything but truth as the means.
Truth is the outward means, the outward motive presented first by man
and then by The Holy Spirit. Take into view the opposition of the sinner
himself, and you see that nothing, after all, short of the wisdom of God
and the moral power of the Holy Spirit, can break down this opposition,
and bring him to submit Still, the means are to be used by men – means
adapted to the end, and skillfully used. God has provided that the work of
conversion and sanctification shall in all cases be done by means of that
kind of truth, applied in that connection and relation, which is fitted to
produce such a result.
3. He has the powers of earth and hell to overcome, and that calls for
wisdom. The devil is constantly at work, trying to prevent the success of
ministers, laboring to divert attention from the subject of religion, and to
get the sinner away from God and lead him down to hell. The whole
framework of society, almost, is hostile to religion. Nearly all the
influences which surround a man, from his cradle to his grave, are
calculated to defeat the design of the ministry. Does not a minister, then,
need great wisdom to conflict with the powers of darkness and the whole
influence of the world, in addition to the sinner’s own opposition?
4. The same is seen from the infinite importance of the end itself. The end
of the ministry is the salvation of the soul. When we consider the
importance of the end, and the difficulties of the work, who will not say
with the apostle: “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians
2:16.)
5. He must understand how to wake up the professing Christians, and
thus prevent them from hindering the conversion of sinners. This is often
the most difficult part of a minister’s work, and requires more wisdom and
patience than anything else. Indeed, to do this successfully, is a most rare
qualification in the Christian ministry. It is a point where almost all
ministers fail. They know not how to wake up the Church, and raise the
tone of piety to a high standard, and thus clear the way for the work of
conversion. Many ministers can preach to sinners very well, but gain little
success, while the counteracting influence of the Church resists it all, and
they have not skill enough to remove the difficulty. There is only here and
there a minister in the country who knows how to probe the Church when
it is in a cold, backslidden state, so as effectually to awaken the members
and keep them awake. The members of the Church sin against such light,
that when they become cold it is very difficult to rouse them up. They
have a form of piety which wards off the truth, while at the same time it is
just that kind of piety which has no power or efficiency. Such professors
are the most difficult individuals to arouse from their slumbers. I do not
mean that they are always more wicked than the impenitent. They are
often employed about the machinery of religion, and pass for very good
Christians, but they are of no use in a revival.
I know ministers are sometimes amazed to hear it said that Churches are
not awake. No wonder such ministers do not know how to wake a
sleeping Church. There was a young licentiate heard Brother Foote the
other day, in this city, pouring out truth, and trying to waken up the
Churches; and he knew so little about it that he thought Mr. Foote was
abusing the Churches. So perfectly blind was he that he really thought the
Churches in New York were all awake on the subject of religion. So, some
years ago, there was a great controversy and opposition raised, because so
much was said about the Churches being asleep. It was all truth, yet many
ministers knew nothing about it, and were astonished to hear such things
said. When it has come to this, that ministers do not know when the
Church is asleep, no wonder we have revivals! I was invited once to
preach at a certain place. I asked the minister what was the state of the
Church. “Oh,” said he, “to a man they are awake.” I was delighted at the
idea of laboring in such a Church, for it was a sight I had never yet
witnessed, to see every single member awake in a revival. But when I got
there I found them sleepy and cold, and I doubt whether one of them was
awake.
Here is the great difficulty in keeping up revivals, to keep the Church
thoroughly awake and engaged. It is one thing for members to get up in
their sleep and bluster about and run over each other; and a widely
different thing for them to have their eyes open, and their senses about
them, and be wide awake, so as to know how to work for Christ.
6. He must know how to see the Church to work, when it is awake. If a
minister attempts to go to work singly, calculating to do it all himself, it is
like attempting to roll a great stone up a hill, alone. The Church can do
much to help forward a revival. Churches have sometimes had powerful
revivals without any minister. But when a minister has a Church that is
awake, and knows how to set his people to work, and how to sit at the
helm, and guide them, he may feel strong, and oftentimes may find that
they do more than he does himself in the conversion of sinners.
7. In order to be successful, a minister needs great wisdom to know how to
keep the Church to the work. Often the Church seems just like an
assembly of children. You set children to work, and they appear to be all
occupied, but as soon as your back is turned, they will stop and go to
play. The great difficulty in continuing a revival, lies here. And to meet it
requires great wisdom. To know how to break them down again, when
their hearts get lifted up because they have had such a great revival; to
wake them up afresh when their zeal begins to flag; to keep their hearts
full of zeal for the work; these are some of the most difficult things in the
world. Yet if a minister would be successful in winning souls, he must
know when they first begin to get proud, or to lose the spirit of prayer;
when to probe them, and how to search them; in fact, how to keep the
Church in the field, gathering the harvest of the Lord.
8. He must understand the Gospel. But you will ask: “Do not all ministers
understand the Gospel?” I answer that they certainly do not all understand
it alike, for they do not all preach alike.
9. He must know how to divide it, so as to bring forward the particular
truths, in that order, and at such times, as will be calculated to produce a
given result. A minister should understand the philosophy of the human
mind, so as to know how to plan and arrange his labors wisely. Truth,
when brought to bear upon the mind, is in itself calculated to produce
corresponding feelings. The minister must know what feelings he wishes
to produce, and how to bring to bear such truth as is calculated to produce
those feelings. He must know how to present truth which is calculated to
humble Christians, or to make them feel for sinners; or to awaken sinners,
or to convert them.
Often, when sinners are awakened, the ground is lost for want of wisdom
in following up the blow. Perhaps a rousing sermon is preached Christians
are moved, and sinners begin to feel, and yet, the next Sabbath, something
will be brought forward that has no connection with the state of feeling in
the congregation, and that is not calculated to lead the mind on to the
exercise of repentance, faith, or love. It shows how important it is that a
minister should understand how to produce a given impression, at what
time it may and should be done, and by what truth, and how to follow it
up till the sinner is broken down and brought in.
A great many good sermons that are preached, are lost for the want of a
little wisdom on this point. They are good sermons, and calculated, if well
timed, to do great good; but they have so little connection with the actual
state of feeling in the congregation, that it would be more than a miracle if
they should produce a revival. A minister may preach in this random way
till he has preached himself to death, and never produce any great results.
He may convert here and there a scattered soul; but he will not move the
mass of the congregation unless he knows how to follow up his
impressions – so to execute a general plan of operations as to carry on
the work when it is begun. He must not only be able to blow the trumpet
so loud as to start the sinner up from his lethargy, but when he is
awakened, he must lead him by the shortest way to Jesus Christ; and not,
as soon as sinners are roused by a sermon, immediately begin to preach
about some remote subject that has no tendency to carry on the work.
10. To reach different classes of sinners successfully requires great
wisdom on the part of a minister. For instance, a sermon on a particular
subject may impress a particular class of persons among his hearers.
Perhaps they will begin to look serious, or to talk about it, or to cavil
about it. Now, if the minister is wise, he will know how to observe those
indications, and to follow right on, with sermons adapted to this class,
until he leads them into the Kingdom of God. Then, let him go back and
take another class, find out where they are hid, break down their refuges,
and follow them up, till he leads them also, into the Kingdom. He should
thus beat about every bush where sinners hide themselves, as the voice of
God followed Adam in the garden: ADAM, WHERE ART THOU? till
one class of hearers after another is brought in, and so the whole
community converted. Now, a minister must be very wise to do this. It
never will be done till a minister sets himself to hunt out and bring in every
class of sinners in his congregation – the old and young, male and female,
rich and poor.
11. A minister needs great wisdom to get sinners away from their present
refuge of lies, without forming new hiding-places for them. I once sat
under the ministry of a man who had contracted a great alarm about
heresies, and was constantly employed in confuting them. And he used to
bring up heresies that his people had never heard of. He got his ideas
chiefly from books, and mingled very little among the people to know
what they thought. And the result of his labors often was, that the people
would be taken with the heresy, more than with the argument against it.
The novelty of the error attracted their attention so much that they forgot
the answer. And in that way he gave many of his people new objections
against religion, such as they had never thought of before. If a man does
not mingle enough with mankind to know how people think nowadays, he
cannot expect to be wise to meet their objections and difficulties.
I have heard a great deal of preaching against Universalists, that did more
harm than good, because the preachers did not understand how
Universalists of the present day reason. When ministers undertake to
oppose a present heresy, they ought to know what it actually is, at
present. It is of no use to misrepresent a man’s doctrines to his face, and
then try to reason him out of them. He will say of you: “That man cannot
argue with me on fair grounds; he has to misrepresent my doctrines in
order to confute me.” Great harm is done in this way. Ministers do not
intend to misrepresent their opponents; but the effect of it is, that the
poor miserable creatures who hold these errors go to hell because ministers
do not take care to inform themselves what are their real errors. I mention
this to show how much wisdom a minister must have to meet the cases
that occur.
12. Ministers ought to know what measures are best calculated to aid in
accomplishing the great end of their office, the salvation of souls. Some
measures are plainly necessary. By measures, I mean the things which
should be done to secure the attention of the people, and bring them to
listen to the truth. Erecting buildings for worship, visiting from house to
house, etc., are “measures,” the object of which is to get the attention of
people to the Gospel. Much wisdom is requisite to devise and carry
forward all the various measures that are adapted to favor the success of
the Gospel.
What do politicians do? They get up meetings, circulate handbills and
pamphlets, blaze away in the newspapers, send ships about the streets on
wheels with flags and sailors, send conveyances all over the town, with
handbills, to bring people up to the polls – all to gain attention to their
cause, and elect their candidate. All these are their “measures,” and for
their end they are wisely calculated. The object is to get up an excitement,
and bring the people out. They know that unless there can be an
excitement it is in vain to push their end. I do not mean to say that their
measures are pious, or right, but only that they are wise, in the sense that
they are the appropriate application of means to the end.
The object of the ministry is to get all the people to feel that the devil has
no right to rule this world, but that they ought all to give themselves to
God, and “vote in” the Lord Jesus Christ as the Governor of the universe.
Now, what shall be done? What measures shall we take? Says one: “Be
sure and have nothing that is new.” Strange! The object of our measure is
to gain attention, and you must have something new. As sure as the effect
of a measure becomes stereotyped, it ceases to give attention, and then
you must try something new. You need not make innovations in
everything. But whenever the state of things is such that anything more is
needed, it must be something new, otherwise it will fail. A minister should
never introduce innovations that are not called for. If he does, they will
embarrass him. He cannot alter the Gospel; that remains the same. But
new measures are necessary, from time to time, to awaken attention, and
bring the Gospel to bear upon the public mind. And a minister ought to
know how to introduce new things, so as to create the least possible
resistance or reaction. Mankind are fond of form in religion. They love to
have their religious duties stereotyped, so as to leave them at ease; and
they are therefore inclined to resist any new movement designed to rouse
them up to action and feeling. Hence it is all-important to introduce new
things wisely, so as not to give needless occasion for resistance.
13. Not a little wisdom is sometimes needed by a minister to know when
to put a stop to new measures. When a measure has novelty enough to
secure attention to the truth, ordinarily no other new measure should be
introduced. You have secured the great object of novelty. Anything more
will be in danger of diverting the public mind away from the great object,
and fixing it on the measures themselves. And then, if you introduce
novelties when they are not called for, you will go over so large a field
that, by and by, when you really want something new, you will have
nothing else to introduce, without doing something that will give too great
a shock to the public mind. The Bible has laid down no specific course of
measures for the promotion of revivals of religion, but has left it to
ministers to adopt such as are wisely calculated to secure the end. And the
more sparing we are of our new things, the longer we can use them, to
keep public attention awake to the great subject of religion. By a wise
course this may undoubtedly be done for a long series of years, until our
present measures will, by and by, have sufficient novelty in them again to
attract and fix public attention. And so we shall never want for something
new.
14. A minister, to win souls, must know how to deal with careless, with
awakened, and with anxious sinners, so as to lead them right to Christ in
the shortest and most direct way. It is amazing to see how many ministers
there are who do not know how to deal with sinners, or what to say to
them in their various states of mind. A good woman in Albany told me,
that when she was under concern she went to her minister, and asked him
to tell her what she must do to get relief. He said that God had not given
him much experience on the subject, and advised her to go to a certain
deacon, who perhaps could tell her what to do. The truth was, he did not
know what to say to a sinner under conviction, although there was nothing
peculiar in her case. Now, if you think this minister a rare case, you are
quite deceived. There are many ministers who do not know what to say to
sinners.
A minister once appointed an anxious meeting, which he duly attended,
but instead of going round to speak to the individuals, he began to ask
them the catechism question: “Wherein doth Christ execute the office of a
priest?” About as much in point to a great many of their minds as
anything else.
I know a minister who held an anxious meeting, and went to attend it with
a written discourse, which he had prepared for the occasion. This was just
as wise as it would be if a physician, going out to visit his patients, should
sit down at leisure and write all the prescriptions beforehand. A minister
needs to know the state of mind of individuals, before he can know what
truth it will be proper and useful to administer. I say these things, not
because I love to do it, but because truth and the object before me, require
them to be said. And such instances as I have mentioned are by no means
rare.
A minister should know how to apply truth to all the situations in which
he may find dying sinners going down to hell. He should know how to
preach, how to pray, how to conduct prayer meetings, and how to use all
the means for bringing the truth of God to bear upon the kingdom of
darkness. Does not this require wisdom? And who is sufficient for these
things?
II. SUCCESS PROPORTIONATE TO WISDOM.
The amount of a minister’s success in winning souls (other things being
equal) invariably decides the amount of wisdom he has exercised in the
discharge of his office.
- This is plainly asserted in the text. “He that winneth souls is wise.”
That is, if a man wins souls, he does skillfully adapt means to the end,
which is, to exercise wisdom. He is the more wise, by how much the
greater is the number of sinners that he saves. A blockhead may, indeed,
now and then, stumble on such truth, or such a manner of exhibiting it, as
to save a soul. It would be a wonder indeed if any minister did not
sometimes have something, in his sermons that would meet the case of
some individual. But the amount of wisdom is to be decided, other things
being equal, by the number of cases in which he is successful in converting
sinners.
Take the case of a physician. The greatest quack may now and then
stumble upon a remarkable cure, and so get his name up with the ignorant.
But sober and judicious people judge of the skill of a physician by the
uniformity of his success in overcoming disease, the variety of diseases he
can manage, and the number of cases in which he is successful in saving his
patients. The most skillful saves the most. This is common sense. It is the
truth. And it is just as true in regard to success in saving souls, and true in
just the same sense.
2. This principle is not only asserted in the text, but it is a matter of fact,
a historical truth, that “He that winneth souls is wise.” He has actually
employed means adapted to the end, in such a way as to secure the end.
3. Success in saving souls is evidence that a man understands the Gospel,
and understands human nature; that he knows how to adapt means to his
end; that he has common sense, and that kind of tact, that practical
discernment, to know how to get at people. And if his success is
extensive, it shows that he knows how to deal, in a great variety of
circumstances, with a great variety of characters, who are all the enemies
of God, and to bring them to Christ. To do this requires great wisdom.
And the minister who does it shows that he is wise.
4. Success in winning souls shows that a minister not only knows how to
labor wisely for that end, but also that he knows where his dependence is.
Fears are often expressed respecting those ministers who are aiming most
directly and earnestly at the conversion of sinners. People say: “Why, this
man is going to work in his own strength; one would imagine he thinks he
can convert souls himself.” How often has the event showed that the man
knew very well what he was about, and knew where his strength was, too.
He went to work to convert sinners so earnestly, just as if he could do it
all himself; but that was the very way he should do. He ought to reason
with sinners and plead with them, as faithfully and as fully as if he did not
expect any interposition of the Spirit of God. But whenever a man does
this successfully, it shows that, after all, he knows he must depend for
success upon the Spirit of God alone.
There are many who feel an objection against this subject, arising out of
the view they have taken of the ministry of Jesus Christ. They ask us:
“What will you say of the ministry of Jesus Christ – was not He wise?”
I answer: “Yes, infinitely wise.” But in regard to His alleged “want of
success” in the conversion of sinners, you will observe the following
things:
(a) That His ministry was vastly more successful than is generally
supposed. We read in one of the sacred writers, that after His resurrection
and before His ascension, “He was seen of above five hundred brethren at
once” (1 Corinthians 15:6). If so many as five hundred brethren were
found assembled together at one place, we judge that there must have been
a vast number of them scattered over the country.
(b) Another circumstance to be observed is that His public ministry was
very short, less than three years.
Consider, too, the peculiar design of His ministry. His main object was
to make Atonement for the sins of the world. It was not aimed so much at
promoting revivals. The “dispensation of the Spirit” was not yet given. He
did not preach the Gospel so fully as His apostles did afterwards. The
prejudices of the people were so fixed and violent that they would not
bear it. That He did not, is plain from the fact that even His apostles, who
were constantly with Him, did not understand the Atonement. They did
not get the idea that He was going to die; and consequently, when they
heard that He was actually dead, they were driven to despair, and thought
the thing was all gone by, and their hopes blown to the winds. The fact
was that He had another object in view, to which everything else was
made to yield; and the perverted state of the public mind, and the
obstinate prejudices prevailing, showed why results were not seen any
more in the conversion of sinners. The state of public opinion was such
that they finally murdered Him for what He did preach.
Many ministers who have little or no success are hiding themselves behind
the ministry of Jesus Christ, as if He were an unsuccessful preacher.
Whereas, in fact, He was eminently successful, considering the
circumstances in which He labored. This is the last place, in all the world,
where a minister who has no success should think of hiding himself.
REMARKS.
- A minister may be very learned and yet not wise. There are many
ministers possessed of great learning; they understand all the sciences,
physical, moral, and theological; they may know the dead languages, and
possess all learning, and yet not be wise in relation to the great end about
which they are chiefly employed. Facts clearly demonstrate this. “He that
winneth souls is wise.”
2. An unsuccessful minister may be pious as well as learned, and yet not
wise. It is unfair to infer that because a minister is unsuccessful, therefore
he is a hypocrite. There may be something defective in his education, or in
his mode of viewing a subject, or of exhibiting it, or such a want of
common sense, as will defeat his labors, and prevent his success in
winning souls, while he himself may be saved, “yet so as by fire.”
3. A minister may be very wise, though he is not learned. He may not
understand the dead languages, or theology in its common acceptation; and
yet he may know just what a minister of the Gospel wants most to know,
without knowing many other things. A learned minister, and a wise
minister, are different things. Facts in the history of the Church in all ages
prove this. It is very common for Churches, when looking out for a
minister, to aim at getting a very learned man. Do not understand me to
disparage learning. The more learned the better, if he is also wise in the
great matter he is employed about. If a minister knows how to win souls,
the more learning he has the better. But if he has any other kind of
learning, and not this, he will infallibly fail of achieving that which should
be the end of his ministry.
4. Want of success in a minister (other things being equal) proves
(a) That he never was called to preach, but has taken it up out of his own
head; or
(b) That he was badly educated, and was never taught the very things he
needs most to know; or
(c) If he was called to preach, and knows how to do his duty, he is too
indolent and too wicked to do it.
5. Those are the best educated ministers who win the most souls.
Ministers are sometimes looked down upon, and called very ignorant,
because they do not know the sciences and languages; although they are
very far from being ignorant of the great thing for which the ministry is
appointed. This is wrong. Learning is important, and always useful. But
after all, a minister may know how to win souls to Christ, without great
learning; and he has the best education for a minister, who can win the
most souls to Christ.
6. There is evidently a great defect in the present mode of educating
ministers. This is a SOLEMN FACT, to which the attention of the whole
Church should be distinctly called, that the great mass of young ministers
who are educated accomplish very little.
When young men come out of the seminaries, are they fit to go into a
revival? Look at a place where there has been a revival in progress, and a
minister is wanted. Let them send to a theological seminary for a minister.
Will he enter into the work, and sustain it, and carry it on? Seldom. Like
David with Saul’s armor, he comes in with such a load of theological
trumpery, that he knows not what to do. Leave him there for two weeks,
and the revival is at an end. The Churches know and feel that the greater
part of these young men do not know how to do anything that needs to be
done for a revival, and the complaint is made that the young ministers are
so far behind the Church. You may send all over the United States, to
theological seminaries, and find but few young ministers fitted to carry
forward the work. What a state of things!
There is a great defect in educating ministers. Education ought to be such,
as to prepare young men for the peculiar work to which they are destined.
But instead of this, they are educated for anything else. The grand mistake
is this: that the mind is directed too much to irrelevant matters; it is carried
over too wide a field, so that attention is diverted from the main thing and
the young men get cold in religion. When, therefore, they get through their
course, instead of being fitted for their work, they are unfitted for it.
Under a pretense of disciplining the mind, attention is in fact scattered, so
that when the young men come to their work, they are awkward, and
know not how to take hold, or how to act, to win souls. This is not
universally the case, but too often it is so.
It is common for people to talk loudly and largely about “an educated
ministry.” God forbid that I should say a word against an educated
ministry! But what do we mean by an education for the ministry? Do we
mean that they should be so educated, as to be fitted for the work? If they
are so educated, the more education the better. Let education be of the
right kind, teaching a young man the things he needs to know, and not the
very things he does not need to know. Let them be educated for the work.
Do not let education be such, that when young men come out, after
spending six, eight, or ten years in study, they are not worth half as much
as they were before they went. I have known young men come out after
what they call “a thorough course,” who could not manage a prayer
meeting, so as to make it profitable or interesting. An elder of a Church in
a neighboring city, informed me of a case in point. A young man, before he
went to the seminary, had labored as a layman with them, conducting their
prayer meetings, and been exceedingly useful among them. After he had
been to the seminary, they sent for him and desired his help; but, oh, how
changed! He was so completely transformed, that he made no impression;
the members soon began to complain that they would “die” under his
influences; and he left, because he was not prepared for the work.
It is common for those ministers who have been to the seminaries, and are
now useful, to affirm that their course of studies there did them little or no
good, and that they had to unlearn what they had there learned, before
they could effect much. I do not say this censoriously, but it is a solemn
fact, and in love I must say it.
Suppose you were going to make a man a surgeon in the navy. Instead of
sending him to the medical school to learn surgery, would you send him to
the nautical school, to learn navigation? In this way, you might qualify him
to navigate a ship, but he is no surgeon. Ministers should be educated to
know what the Bible is, and what the human mind is, and how to bring the
one to bear on the other. They should be brought into contact with mind,
and made familiar with all the aspects of society. They should have the
Bible in one hand, and the map of the human mind in the other, and know
how to use the truth for the salvation of men.
7. A want of common sense often defeats the ends of the Christian
ministry. There are many good men in the ministry, who have learning,
and talents of a certain sort, but they have no common sense to win souls.
8. We see one great defect in our theological schools. Young men are
confined to books, and shut out from intercourse with the common
people, or contact with the common mind. Hence they are not familiar
with the mode in which common people think. This accounts for the fact
that some plain men, who have been brought up to business, and are
acquainted with human nature, are ten times better qualified to win souls
than those who are educated on the present principle, and are in fact ten
times as well acquainted with the proper business of the ministry. These
are called “uneducated men.” This is a grand mistake. They are not learned
in science, but they are learned in the very things which they need to know
as ministers. They are not ignorant ministers, for they know exactly how
to reach the mind with truth. They are better furnished for their work,
than if they had all the machinery of the schools.
I wish to be understood. I do not say, that I would not have a young man
go to school. Nor would I discourage him from going over the field of
science. The more the better, if together with it he learns also the things
that the minister needs to know, in order to win souls – if he understands
his Bible, and understands human nature, and knows how to bring the
truth to bear, and how to guide and manage minds, and to lead them away
from sin and lead them to God.
9. The success of any measure designed to promote a revival of religion,
demonstrates its wisdom; with the following exceptions:
(a) A measure may be introduced for effect, to produce excitement, and be
such that when it is looked back upon afterwards, it will seem nonsensical,
and appear to have been a mere trick. In that case, it will react, and its
introduction will have done more harm than good.
(b) Measures may be introduced, and the revival be very powerful, and the
success be attributed to the measures, when in fact, it was other things
which made the revival powerful, and these very measures may have been
a hindrance. The prayers of Christians, and the preaching, and other
things, may have been so well calculated to carry on the work, that it has
succeeded in spite of these measures.
But when the blessing evidently follows the introduction of the measure
itself, the proof is unanswerable, that the measure is wise. It is profane to
say that such a measure will do more harm than good. God knows about
that. His object is, to do the greatest amount of good possible. And of
course He will not add His blessing to a measure that will do more harm
than good. He may sometimes withhold His blessing from a measure that
is calculated to do some good, because it will be at the expense of a greater
good. But he never will bless a pernicious proceeding. There is no such
thing as deceiving God in the matter. He knows whether a given measure
is, on the whole, wise or not. He may bless a course of labors
notwithstanding some unwise or injurious measures. But if He blesses the
measure itself, it is rebuking God to pronounce it unwise. He who
undertakes to do this, let him look to the matter.
10. It is evident that much fault has been found with measures which have
been pre-eminently and continually blessed of God for the promotion of
revivals. If a measure is continually or usually blessed, let the man who
thinks he is wiser than God, call it in question. TAKE CARE how you
find fault with God!
11. Christians should pray for ministers. Brethren, if you felt how much
ministers need wisdom to perform the duties of their great office with
success, and how insufficient they are of themselves, you would pray for
them a great deal more than you do; that is, if you cared anything for the
success of their labors. People often find fault with ministers, when they
do not pray for them. Brethren, this is tempting God; for you ought not to
expect any better ministers, unless you pray for them. And you ought not
to expect a blessing on the labors of your minister, or to have your families
converted by his preaching, when you do not pray for him. And so for
others, for the waste places, and the heathen: instead of praying all the
time, only that God would send out more laborers, you have need also to
pray that God would make ministers wise to win souls, and that those He
sends out may be properly educated, so that they shall be scribes well
instructed in the kingdom of God.
12. Those laymen in the Church who know how to win souls are to be
counted wise. They should not be called “ignorant laymen”; and those
Church members who do not know how to convert sinners, and who
cannot win souls, should not be called wise – as Christians. They are not
wise Christians; only “he that winneth souls is wise.” They may be
learned in politics, in all sciences, or they may be skilled in the
management of business, or other things, and they may look down on
those who win souls, as nothing but plain, simple-hearted and ignorant
men. If any of you are inclined to do this, and to undervalue those who
win souls, as being not so wise and cunning as you are, you deceive
yourselves. They may not know some things which you know; but they
know those things which a Christian is most concerned to know, and
which you do not.
It may be illustrated by the case of a minister who goes to sea. He may be
learned in science, but he knows not how to sail a ship. And he begins to
ask the sailors about this thing and that, and what this rope is for, and the
like. “Why,” say the sailors, “these are not ropes, we have only one rope
in a ship; these are the rigging; the man talks like a fool.” And so this
learned man becomes a laughing-stock, perhaps, to the sailors, because he
does not know how to sail a ship. But if he were to tell them one half of
what he knows about science, perhaps they would think him a conjurer, to
know so much. So, learned students may understand their Latin very well,
and may laugh at the humble Christian, and call him ignorant, although he
may know how to win more souls than five hundred of them.
I was once distressed and grieved at hearing a minister bearing down upon
a young preacher, who had been converted under remarkable
circumstances, and who was licensed to preach without having pursued a
regular course of study. This minister, who was never, or at least very
rarely, known to convert a soul, bore down upon the young man in a very
lordly, censorious manner, depreciating him because he had not had the
advantage of a liberal education – when, in fact, he was instrumental in
converting more souls than any five hundred ministers like the one who
criticized him.
I would say nothing to undervalue, or lead any to undervalue, a thorough
education for ministers. But I do not call that a thorough education, which
they receive in our colleges and seminaries. It does not fit them for their
work. I appeal to all experience, whether our young men in seminaries are
thoroughly educated for the purpose of winning souls. Do THEY DO IT?
Everybody knows they do not. Look at the reports of the Home
Missionary Society. If I recollect right, in 1830, the number of conversions
in connection with the labors of the missionaries of that society did not
exceed five to each missionary. I believe the number has increased since,
but is still exceedingly small to what it would have been had they been
fitted, by a right course of training, for their work. I do not say this to
reproach them, for, from my heart, I pity them; and I pity the Church for
being under the necessity of supporting ministers so trained, or of having
none at all. They are the best men the Missionary Society can obtain.
I suppose I shall be reproached for saying this. But it is too true and too
painful to be concealed. Those fathers who have the training of our young
ministers are good men, but they are ancient men, men of another age and
stamp from what is needed in these days, when the Church and world are
rising to new thought and action. Those dear fathers will not, I suppose,
see with me in this; and will perhaps think hardly of me for saying it; but
it is the cause of Christ. Some of them are getting back toward second
childhood, and ought to resign, and give place to younger men, who are not
rendered physically incapable, by age, of keeping pace with the onward
movements of the Church. And here I would say, that to my own mind it
appears evident, that unless our theological professors preach a good deal,
mingle much with the Church, and sympathize with her in all her
movements, it is morally, if not naturally, impossible, that they should
succeed in training young men to the spirit of the age. It is a shame and a
sin, that theological professors, who preach but seldom, who are
withdrawn from the active duties of the ministry, should sit in their
studies and write their Letters, advisory or dictatorial, to ministers and
Churches who are in the field, and who are in circumstances to judge what
needs to be done. The men who spend all, or at least a portion, of their
time in the active duties of the ministry, are the only men who are able to
judge of what is expedient or inexpedient, prudent or imprudent, as to
measures, from time to time. It is as dangerous and ridiculous for our
theological professors, who are withdrawn from the field of conflict, to be
allowed to dictate, in regard to the measures and movements of the
Church, as it would be for a general to sit in his bedchamber and attempt
to order a battle.
Two ministers were one day conversing about another minister, whose
labors were greatly blessed – in the conversion of some thousands of
souls. One of them said: “That man ought not to preach any more; he
should stop and go to – (a theological seminary which he named), and
proceed through a regular course of study.” He said the man had “a good
mind, and if he were thoroughly educated, he might be very useful.” The
other replied: “Do you think he would be more useful for going to that
seminary? I challenge you to show by facts that any are more useful who
have been there. No, sir, the fact is, that since this man has been in the
ministry, he has been instrumental in converting more souls than all the
young men who have come from that seminary in the time.”
Finally: I wish to ask, who among you can lay any claim to the possession
of this Divine wisdom? Who among you, laymen? Who among you,
ministers? Can any of you? Can I? Are we at work, wisely, to win souls?
Or are we trying to make ourselves believe that success is no criterion of
wisdom? It is a criterion. It is a safe criterion for every minister to try
himself by. The amount of his success, other things being equal, measures
the amount of wisdom he has exercised in the discharge of his office.
How few of you have ever had wisdom enough to convert so much as a
single sinner? Do not say: “I cannot convert sinners. How can I convert
sinners? God alone can convert sinners.” Look at the text: “He that
winneth souls is wise,” and do not think you can escape the sentence. It is
true that God converts sinners. But there is a sense, too, in which
ministers convert them. And you have something to do; something which,
if you do it wisely, will ensure the conversion of sinners in proportion to
the wisdom employed. If you never have done this, it is high time to think
about yourselves, and see whether you have wisdom enough to save even
your own souls.
Men! Women! You are bound to be wise in winning souls. Perhaps
already souls have perished, because you have not put forth the wisdom
which you might, in saving them. The city is going to hell. Yes, the world
is going to hell, and must go on, till the Church finds out what to do, to
win souls. Politicians are wise. The children of this world are wise; they
know what to do to accomplish their ends, while we are prosing about, not
knowing what to do, or where to take hold of the work, and sinners are
going to hell.
LECTURE XII
HOW TO PREACH THE GOSPEL
He that winneth souls is wise. – Proverbs. 11:30.
One of the last remarks in my last Lecture was this, that the text ascribes
conversion to men. Winning souls is converting men. I now design to show
that:
I. Several passages of Scripture ascribe conversion to men; and that:
II. This is consistent with other passages which ascribe conversion to
God.
III. I also purpose to discuss several further particulars which are deemed
important, in regard to the preaching of the Gospel, and which show
that great practical wisdom is necessary to win souls to Christ.
I. THE BIBLE SCRIBES CONVERSION TO MEN.
There are many passages which represent the conversion of sinners as the
work of men. In Daniel 12:3 it is said: “They that be wise shall shine as
the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars for ever and ever.” Here the work is ascribed to men. So also in
1 Corinthians 4:15: “Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ,
yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you
through the Gospel.” Here the apostle explicitly tells the Corinthians that
he made them Christians, with the Gospel, or truth, which he preached.
Again, in James 5:19, 20, we are taught the same thing. “Brethren, if any
of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he
which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul
from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
I might quote many other passages, equally explicit. But these are
sufficient abundantly to establish the fact, that the Bible does actually
ascribe conversion to men.
II. THE BIBLE ASCRIBES CONVERSION TO GOD.
Here let me remark that to my mind it often appears very strange that men
should ever suppose there was an in consistency here, or that they should
ever have overlooked the plain common sense of the matter. How easy it
is to see that there is a sense in which God converts them, and another
sense in which men convert them.
The Scriptures ascribe conversion to four different agencies – to men, to
God, to the truth, and to the sinner himself. The passages which ascribe it
to the truth are the largest class. That men should ever have overlooked
this distinction, and should have regarded conversion as a work performed
exclusively by God, is surprising. So it is that any difficulty should ever
have been felt on the subject, or that people should ever have professed
themselves unable to reconcile these several classes of passages.
The Bible speaks on this subject, precisely as we speak on common
subjects. There is a man who has been very ill. How natural it is for him to
say of his physician: “That man saved my life.” Does he mean to say that
the physician saved his life without reference to God? Certainly not,
unless he is an infidel. God made the physician, and He made the medicine
too. And it never can be shown but that the agency of God is just as truly
concerned in making the medicine take effect to save life, as it is in making
the truth take effect to save a soul. To affirm the contrary is downright
atheism. It is true, then, that the physician saved him; and it is also true
that God saved him.. It is equally true that the medicine saved his life, and
also that he saved his own life by taking the medicine; for the medicine
would have done no good if he had not taken it.
In the conversion of a sinner, it is true that God gives the truth efficiency
to turn the sinner to God. He is an active, voluntary, powerful agent, in
changing the mind. But the one who brings the truth to the sinner’s notice
is also an agent. We are apt to speak of ministers and other men as only
instruments in converting sinners. This is not exactly correct. Man is
something more than an instrument. Truth is the mere unconscious
instrument. But man is more: he is a voluntary, responsible agent in the
business. In a sermon, I have illustrated this idea by the case of an
individual standing on the banks of Niagara.
“Suppose yourself to be standing on the banks of the Falls of Niagara. As
you stand upon the verge of the precipice, you behold a man, lost in deep
reverie, approaching its verge, unconscious of his danger. He approaches
nearer and nearer, until he actually lifts his foot to take the final step that
shall plunge him in destruction. At this moment, you lift your warning
voice above the roar of the foaming waters, and cry out: ‘Stop!’ The voice
pierces his ear, and breaks the charm that binds him; he turns instantly
upon his heel; all pale and aghast he retires, quivering, from the verge of
death. He reels and almost swoons with horror; turns, and walks slowly to
the hotel; you follow him; the manifest agitation in his countenance calls
numbers around him; and on your approach he points to you, and says:
‘That man saved my life.’ Here he ascribes the work to you; and certainly
there is a sense in which you had saved him. But, on being further
questioned, he says: “‘Stop!” How that word rings in my ears. Oh, that
was to me the word of life!’ Here he ascribes it to the word that aroused
him, and caused him to turn.
“But on conversing still further, he says: ‘Had I not turned at that instant,
I should have been a dead man.’ Here he speaks of it (and truly) as his
own act. But you directly hear him say: ‘Oh, the mercy of God! If God
had not interposed, I should have been lost!’ Now, the only defect in this
illustration is this: In the case supposed, the only interference on the part
of God was a providential one; and the only sense in which the saving of
the man’s life is ascribed to Him, is in a providential sense. But in the
conversion of a sinner there is something more than the providence of God
employed; for here, not only does the providence of God so order it, that
the preacher cries: ‘Stop!’ but the Spirit of God urges the truth home upon
him with such tremendous power as to induce him to turn.”
Not only does the minister cry: “Stop!” but through the living voice of the
preacher, the Spirit cries: “Stop!” The preacher cries: “Turn ye, why will
ye die?” The Spirit sends the expostulation home with such power that
the sinner turns. Now, in speaking of this change, it is perfectly proper to
say, that the Spirit turned him; just as you would say of a man who had
persuaded another to change his mind on the subject of politics, that he
had converted him, and brought him over. It is also proper to say that the
truth converted him; as, in a case when the political sentiments of a man
were changed by a certain argument, we should say that argument brought
him over. So, also, with perfect propriety, may we ascribe the change to
the preacher, or to him who had presented the motives; just as he would
say of a lawyer who had prevailed in his argument with a jury: “He has
won his case; he has converted the jury.” It is also with the same
propriety ascribed to the individual himself whose heart is changed; we
should say that he has changed his mind, he has come over, he has
repented. Now it is strictly true, and true in the most absolute and highest
sense; the act is his own act, the turning is his own turning, while God by
the truth has induced him to turn; still it is strictly true that he has turned,
and has done it himself. Thus you see the sense in which it is the work of
God; and also the sense in which it is the sinner’s own work.
The Spirit of God, by the truth, influences the sinner to change, and in this
sense is the efficient Cause of the change. But the sinner actually changes,
and is therefore himself, in the most proper sense, the author of the
change. There are some, who, on reading their Bibles, fasten their eyes on
those passages that ascribe the work to the Spirit of God, and seem to
overlook those which ascribe it to man, and speak of it as the sinner’s own
act. When they have quoted Scripture to prove it is the work of God, they
seem to think they have proved that it is that in which man is passive, and
that it can in no sense be the work of man.
Some time ago a tract was written, the title of which was, “Regeneration,
the Effect of Divine Power.” The writer goes on to prove that the work is
wrought by the Spirit of God; and there he stops. Now it had been just as
true, just as philosophical, and just as scriptural, if he had said that
conversion was the work of man. It is easy to prove that it is the work of
God, in the sense in which I have explained it. The writer, therefore, tells
the truth, so far as he goes; but he has told only half the truth. For while
there is a sense in which it is the work of God, as he has shown, there is
also a sense in which it is the work of man, as we have just seen. The very
title to this tract is a stumbling block. It tells the truth, but it does not
tell the whole truth. And a tract might be written upon this proposition that
“Conversion, or regeneration, is the work of man” which would be just as
true, just as Scriptural, and just as philosophical, as the one to which I
have alluded. Thus the writer, in his zeal to recognize and honor God as
concerned in this work, by leaving out the fact that a change of heart is the
sinner’s own act, has left the sinner strongly entrenched, with his weapons
in his rebellious hands, stoutly resisting the claims of his Maker, and
waiting passively for God to make him a new heart. Thus you see the
consistency between the requirement of the text, and the declared fact that
God is the author of the new heart. God commands you to make you a
new heart, expects you to do it; and, if ever it is done, you must do it.
And let me tell you, sinner, if you do not do it you will go to hell; and to
all eternity you will feel that you deserved to be sent there for not having
done it.
III. GOSPEL PREACHING AND SOUL WINING.
I shall now advert to several important particulars growing out of this
subject, as connected with preaching the Gospel, and which show that
great practical wisdom is indispensable to win souls to Christ.
- In regard to the matter of preaching.
(a) First, all preaching should be practical. The proper end of all doctrine is
practice. Anything brought forward as doctrine, which cannot be made use
of as practical, is not preaching the Gospel. There is none of that sort of
preaching in the Bible. That is all practical. “All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16:17).
A vast deal of preaching in the present day, as well as in past ages, is
called doctrinal, as opposed to practical preaching. The very idea of
making this distinction is a device of the devil. And a more abominable
device Satan himself never devised. You sometimes hear certain men talk a
wonderful deal about the necessity of “indoctrinating the people.” By
which they mean something different from practical preaching; teaching
them certain doctrines, as abstract truths, without any particular reference
to practice. And I have known a minister in the midst of a revival, while
surrounded with anxious sinners, leave off laboring to convert souls, for
the purpose of “indoctrinating” the young converts, for fear somebody
else should indoctrinate them before him. And there the revival stops!
Either his doctrine was not true, or it was not preached in the right way.
To preach doctrines in an abstract way, and not in reference to practice, is
absurd. God always brings in doctrine to regulate practice. To bring
forward doctrinal views for any other object is not only nonsense; it is
wicked.
Some people are opposed to doctrinal preaching. If they have been used to
hear doctrines preached in a cold, abstract way, no wonder they are
opposed to it. They ought to be opposed to such preaching. But what can
a man preach, who preaches no doctrine? If he preaches no doctrine, he
preaches no Gospel. And if he does not preach it in a practical way, he
does not preach the Gospel. All preaching should be doctrinal, and all
preaching should be practical. The very design of doctrine is to regulate
practice. Any preaching that has not this tendency is not the Gospel. A
loose, exhortatory style of preaching may affect the passions, and may
produce excitement, but will never sufficiently instruct the people to
secure sound conversions. On the other hand, preaching doctrine in an
abstract manner may fill the head with notions, but will never sanctify the
heart or life.
(b) Preaching should be direct. The Gospel should be preached to men, and
not about men. The minister must address his hearers. He must preach to
them about themselves, and not leave the impression that he is preaching
to them about others. He will never do them any good, further than he
succeeds in convincing each individual that he is the person in question.
Many preachers seem very much afraid of making the impression that
they mean anybody in particular. They are preaching against certain sins
- not that these have anything to do with the sinner; they would by no
means speak as if they supposed any of their hearers were guilty of these
abominable practices. Now this is anything but preaching the Gospel.
Thus did not the prophets, nor Christ, nor the apostles. Nor do those
ministers do this, who are successful in winning souls to Christ.
Another very important thing to be regarded in preaching is, that the
minister should hunt after sinners and Christians, wherever they may have
entrenched themselves in inaction. It is not the design of preaching to make
men easy and quiet, but to make them ACT. It is not the design, in calling
in a physician, to have him give opiates, and so cover up the disease and
let it run on till it works death; but to search out the disease wherever it
may be hidden, and to remove it. So, if a professor of religion has
backslidden, and is full of doubts and fears, it is not the minister’s duty to
quiet him in his sins, and comfort him, but to hunt him out of his errors
and backslidings, and to show him just where he stands, and what it is that
makes him full of doubts and fears.
A minister ought to know the religious opinions of every sinner in his
congregation. Indeed, a minister in the country is inexcusable if he does
not. He has no excuse for not knowing the religious views of all his
congregation, and of all that may come under his influence. How otherwise
can he preach to them? How can he know how to bring forth things new
and old, and adapt truth to their case? How can he hunt them out unless he
knows where they hide themselves? He may ring changes on a few
fundamental doctrines – Repentance and Faith, and Faith and Repentance
- till the Day of Judgment, and never make any impression on many
minds. Every sinner has some hiding place, some entrenchment, where he
lingers. He is in possession of some darling LIE, with which he is quieting
himself. Let the minister find it out, and get it away, either in the pulpit or
in private, or the man will go to hell in his sins, and his blood will be found
on the minister’s skirts.
(d) Another important thing to observe is, that a minister should dwell
most on those particular points which are most needed. I will explain what
I mean.
Sometimes he may find a people who have been led to place great reliance
on their own resolutions. They think they can consult their own
convenience, and by-and-by they will repent, when they are ready,
without any concern about the Spirit of God. Let him take up these
notions, and show that they are entirely contrary to the Scriptures. Let
him show that if the Spirit of God is grieved away, by and by, when it
shall be convenient for the sinner to repent, he will have no inclination.
The minister who finds these errors prevailing, should expose them. He
should hunt them out, and understand just how they are held, and then
preach the class of truths which show the fallacy, the folly, and the danger
of these notions.
So, on the other hand, he may find a people who have such views of
Election and Sovereignty, as to think they have nothing to do but to wait
for “the moving of the waters.” Let him go right over against them, urge
upon them their ability to obey God, show them their obligation and duty,
and press them with that until he brings them to submit and be saved.
They have got behind a perverted view of these doctrines, and there is no
way to drive them out of the hiding place, but to set them right on these
points. Wherever a sinner is entrenched, unless you pour light upon him
there, you will never move him. It is of no use to press him with those
truths which he admits, however plainly they may in fact contradict his
wrong notions. He supposes them to be perfectly consistent, and does not
see the inconsistency, and therefore it will not move him, or bring him to
repentance.
I have been informed of a minister in New England, who was settled in a
congregation which had long enjoyed little else than Armenian preaching,
and the congregation themselves were chiefly Armenians. Well, this
minister, in his preaching, strongly insisted on the opposite points,
Election, Divine Sovereignty, Predestination, etc. The consequence was, as
might have been expected where this was done with ability, that there was
a powerful revival. Some time afterwards this same minister was called to
labor in another field, in this State, where the people were all on the other
side, and strongly tinctured with Antinomianism. They had got such
perverted views of Election and Divine Sovereignty, that they were
continually saying they had no power to do anything, but must wait
God’s time. Now, what does the minister do, but immediately go to
preaching the doctrine of Election. And when he was asked how he could
think of preaching the doctrine of Election so much to that people, when it
was the very thing that lulled them to a deeper slumber, he replied: “Why,
that is the very class of truths by which I had such a great revival in -“;
not considering the difference in the views of the people. You must take
things as they are; find out where sinners lie, pour in truth upon them
there, and START THEM OUT from their refuges of lies. It is of vast
importance that a minister should find out where the congregation is, and
preach accordingly.
I have been in many places in times of revival, and I have never been able
to employ precisely the same course of preaching in one as in another.
Some are entrenched behind one refuge, and some behind another. In one
place, Christians will need to be instructed; in another, sinners. In one
place, one set of truths; in another, another set. A minister must find out
where people are, and preach accordingly. I believe this is the experience
of all preachers who are called to labor from field to field.
(e) If a minister means to promote a revival, he should be very careful not
to introduce controversy. He will grieve away the Spirit of God. In this
way, probably, more revivals are put down than in any other. Look back
upon the history of the Church from the beginning, and you will see that
ministers are generally responsible for grieving away the Spirit and causing
declensions by controversy. It is the ministers who bring forward
controversial subjects for discussion, and by and by they get very zealous
on the subject, and then get the Church into a controversial spirit, and so
the Spirit of God is grieved away.
If I had time to go over the history of the Church from the days of the
apostles, I could show that all the controversies that have taken place, and
all the great declensions in religion, too, are chargeable upon ministers. I
believe the ministers of the present day are responsible for the present
state of the Church, and it will be seen to be true at the judgment. Who
does not know that ministers have been crying out “Heresy,” and “New
Measures,” and talking about the “Evils of Revivals,” until they have got
the Church all in confusion? 42 Oh, God, have mercy on ministers! They
talk about their days of fasting and prayer, but are these the men to call on
others to fast and pray? They ought to fast and pray themselves. It is time
that ministers should assemble together, and fast and pray over the evils of
controversy, for they have caused it. The Church itself would never get
into a controversial spirit, unless led into it by ministers. The body of
Church members are always averse to controversy, and would keep out of
it, only they are dragged into it by ministers. When Christians are revived
they are not inclined to meddle with controversy, either to read or hear it.
But they may be told of such and such “damnable heresies” that are afloat,
till they get their feelings enlisted in controversy, and then farewell to the
revival. If a minister, in preaching, finds it necessary to discuss particular
points about which Christians differ in opinion, let him BY ALL MEANS
avoid a controversial spirit and manner of doing it.
(f) The Gospel should be preached in those proportions, that the whole
Gospel may be brought before the minds of the people, and produce its
proper influence. If too much stress is laid on one class of truths, the
Christian character will not have its due proportions. Its symmetry will
not be perfect. If that class of truths be almost exclusively dwelt upon,
that requires great exertion of intellect, without being brought home to the
heart and conscience, it will be found that the Church will be indoctrinated
in those views, but will not be awake, and active, and efficient in the
promotion of religion. If, on the other hand, the preaching be loose,
indefinite, exhortatory, and highly impassioned, the Church will be like a
ship with too much sail for her ballast. It will be in danger of being swept
away by a tempest of feeling, when there is not sufficient knowledge to
prevent its being carried away with every wind of doctrine. If Election and
Sovereignty are too much preached, there will be Antinomianism in the
Church, and sinners will hide themselves behind the delusion that they can
do nothing. If, on the other hand, doctrines of ability and obligation be too
prominent, they will produce Arminianism, and sinners will be blustering
and self-confident.
When I entered the ministry, there had been so much said about Election
and Sovereignty, that I found it was the universal hiding place, both of
sinners and of Christians, that they could not do anything, or could not
obey the Gospel. And wherever, I went, I found it indispensable to
demolish these refuges of lies. And a revival would in no way have been
produced or carried on, but by dwelling on that class of truths, which hold
up man’s ability, and obligation, and responsibility.
It was not so in the days when President Edwards and Whitefield labored.
Then, the Churches in New England had enjoyed little else than Armenian
preaching, and were all resting in themselves and their own strength. These
bold and devoted servants of God came out and declared those particular
doctrines of grace, Divine Sovereignty and Election, and they were greatly
blessed. They did not dwell on these doctrines exclusively, but they
preached them very fully. The consequence was that because in those
circumstances revivals followed from such preaching, the ministers who
followed continued to preach these doctrines almost exclusively. And they
dwelt on them so long that the Church and the world got entrenched
behind them, waiting for God to come and do what He required them to
do; and so revivals ceased for many years.
Now, and for years past, ministers have been engaged in hunting them out
from these refuges. And here it is all-important for the ministers of this
day to bear in mind that if they dwell exclusively on Ability and
Obligation, they will get their hearers back on the old Armenian ground,
and then they will cease to promote revivals. Here are ministers who have
preached a great deal of truth, and have had great revivals, under God.
Now, let it be known and remarked, that the reason is, they have hunted
sinners out from their hiding places. But if they continue to dwell on the
same class of truths till sinners hide themselves behind such preaching,
another class of truths must be preached. And then if they do not change
their mode, another pall will hang over the Church, until another class of
ministers shall arise and hunt sinners out of those new retreats.
A right view of both classes of truths, Election and Free-agency, will do no
hurt. They are eminently calculated to convert sinners and strengthen
saints. It is a perverted view that chills the heart of the Church, and closes
the eyes of sinners in sleep. If I had time, I would remark on the manner in
which I have sometimes heard the doctrines of Divine Sovereignty,
Election, and Ability preached. They have been exhibited in irreconcilable
contradiction, the one against the other. Such exhibitions are anything but
the Gospel, and are calculated to make a sinner feel anything rather than
his responsibility to God.
By preaching truth in proper proportions, I do not mean mingling all
things together in the same sermon, in such a way that sinners will not see
their connection or consistency. A minister once asked another: “Why do
you not preach the doctrine of Election?” “Because,” said the other, “I
find sinners here are entrenched behind Inability.” The first then said he
once knew a minister who used to preach Election in the forenoon and
Repentance in the afternoon. But, bringing things together that confound
the sinner’s mind, and overwhelm him with a fog of metaphysics, is not
wise preaching. When talking of Election, the preacher is not talking of the
sinner’s duty. It has no relation to the sinner’s duty. Election belongs to
the government of God. It is a part of the exceeding richness of the grace of
God. It shows the love of God – not the duty of the sinner. And to bring
Election and Repentance together in this way is diverting the sinner’s mind
away from his duty. It has been customary, in many places, for a long
time, to bring the doctrine of Election into every sermon. Sinners have
been commanded to repent, and told that they could not repent, in the
same sermon. A great deal of ingenuity has been exercised in endeavoring
to reconcile a sinner’s “inability” with his obligation to obey God.
Election, Predestination, Free-agency, Inability, and Duty, have all been
thrown together in one promiscuous jumble. And, with regard to many
sermons, it has been too true, as has been objected, that ministers have
preached: “You can and you cannot, you shall and you shall not, you will
and you will not, and you will be lost if you do not!” Such a mixture of
truth and error, of light and darkness, has confounded the congregation,
and been the fruitful source of Universalism and every species of infidelity
and error.
(g) It is of great importance that the sinner should be made to feel his guilt,
and not left to the impression that he is unfortunate. I think this is a very
prevalent fault, particularly in books on the subject. They are calculated to
make the sinner think more of his sorrows than of his sins, and feel that
his state is rather unfortunate than criminal. Perhaps most of you have
seen a lovely little book, recently published, entitled “Todd’s Lectures to
Children.” It is exquisitely fine, and happy in some of its illustrations of
truth. But it has one very serious fault. Many of its illustrations, I may
say most of them, are not calculated to make a correct impression
respecting the guilt of sinners, or to make them feel how much they have
been to blame. This is very unfortunate. If the writer had guarded his
illustrations on this point, so as to make them impress sinners with a
sense of their guilt, I do not see how a child could have read through that
book and not have been converted. Multitudes of the books written for
children, and for adults too, within the last twenty years, have run into
this mistake to an alarming degree. They are not calculated to make the
sinner condemn himself. Until you can do this, the Gospel will never take
effect.
(h) A prime object with the preacher must be to make present obligation
felt. I have talked, I suppose, with many thousands of anxious sinners.
And I have found that they had never before felt the pressure of present
obligation. The impression is not commonly made by ministers in their
preaching that sinners are expected to repent NOW. And if ministers
suppose they make this impression, they deceive themselves. Most
commonly any other impression is made upon the minds of sinners by the
preacher than that they are expected now to submit. But what sort of a
Gospel is this? Does God authorize such an impression? Is this according
to the preaching of Jesus Christ? Does the Holy Spirit, when striving with
the sinner, make the impression upon his mind that he is not expected to
obey now? Was any such impression produced by the preaching of the
apostles? How does it happen that so many ministers now preach, so as,
in fact, to make an impression on their hearers that they are not expected
to repent now? Until the sinner’s conscience is reached on this subject,
you preach to him in vain. And until ministers learn how to preach so as
to make the right impression, the world never can be converted. Oh, to
what an alarming extent does the impression now prevail among the
impenitent, that they are not expected to repent now, but must wait
God’s time!
(I) Sinners ought to be made to feel that they have something to do, and
that is, to repent; that it is something which no other being can do for
them, neither God nor man; and something which they can do, and do
now. Religion is something to do, not something to wait for. And they
must do it now, or they are in danger of eternal death.
(j) Ministers should never rest satisfied, until they have ANNIHILATED
every excuse of sinners. The plea of “inability” is the worst of excuses. It
slanders God so, charging Him with infinite tyranny, in commanding men
to do that which they have no power to do. Make the sinner see and feel
that this is the very nature of his excuse. Make the sinner see that All
pleas in excuse for not submitting to God are acts of rebellion against Him.
Tear away the last LIE which he grasps in his hand, and make him feel that
he is absolutely condemned before God.
(k) Sinners should be made to feel that if they now grieve away the Spirit
of God, it is very probable that they will be lost forever. There is infinite
danger of this. They should be made to understand why they are
dependent on the Spirit, and that it is not because they cannot do what
God commands, but because they are unwilling. They are so unwilling that
it is just as certain they will not repent without the Holy Ghost, as if they
were now in hell, or as if they were actually unable. They are so opposed
and so unwilling, that they never will repent in the world, unless God
sends His Holy Spirit upon them.
Show them, too, that a sinner under the Gospel, who hears the truth
preached, if converted at all, is generally converted young; and if not
converted while young, he is commonly given up of God. Where the truth
is preached, sinners are either Gospel-hardened or converted. I know some
old sinners are converted, but they are rather exceptions, and by no means
common.
2. I wish to make a few remarks on the manner of preaching.
(a) It should be conversational. Preaching, to be understood, should be
colloquial in style. A minister must preach just as he would talk, if he
wishes fully to be understood. Nothing is more calculated to make a sinner
feel that religion is some mysterious thing that he cannot understand than
this formal, lofty style of speaking which is so generally employed in the
pulpit. The minister ought to do as the lawyer does when he wants to
make a jury understand him perfectly. He uses a style perfectly colloquial.
This lofty, swelling style will do no good. The Gospel will never produce
any great effects until ministers talk to their hearers, in the pulpit, as they
talk in private conversation.
(b) It must be in the language of common life. Not only should it be
colloquial in its style, but the words should be such as are in common use.
Otherwise they will not be understood. In the New Testament you will
observe that Jesus Christ invariably uses words of the most common kind.
The language of the Gospel is the plainest, simplest, and most easily
understood of any language in the world.
For a minister to neglect this principle is wicked. Some ministers use
language that is purely technical in preaching. They think to avoid the
mischief by explaining the meaning fully at the outset; but this will not
answer. It will not effect the object in making the people understand what
he means. If he should use a word that is not in common use and that
people do not understand, his explanation may be very full, but the
difficulty is that people will forget his explanations, and then his words
are so much Greek to them. Or if he uses a word in common use, but
employs it in an uncommon sense, giving his special explanations, it is no
better; for the people will soon forget his special explanations, and then
the impression actually conveyed to their minds will be according to their
common understanding of the word. And thus he will never convey the
right idea to his congregation. It is amazing how many men of thinking
minds there are in congregations, who do not understand the most common
technical expressions employed by ministers, such as regeneration,
sanctification, etc.
Use words that can be perfectly understood. Do not, for fear of appearing
unlearned, use language which the people do not understand. The apostle
says: “If I know not the meaning… he that speaketh shall be a barbarian
unto me” (1 Corinthians 14:11). And: “If the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (v. 8). In the apostle’s
days there were some preachers who were marvelously proud of
displaying their command of language, and showing off the variety of
tongues they could speak, which the common people could not
understand. The apostle rebukes this spirit sharply, and says: “I had
rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might
teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (v. 19).
I have sometimes heard ministers preach, even when there was a revival,
when I have wondered what that part of the congregation would do, who
had no dictionary. So many phrases were brought in, manifestly to adorn
the discourse, rather than to instruct the people, that I have felt as if I
wanted to tell the man: “Sit down, and do not confound the people’s
minds with your barbarian preaching, that they cannot understand.”
Preaching should be parabolical. That is, illustrations should be
constantly used, drawn from incidents, real or supposed. Jesus Christ
constantly illustrated His instructions in this way. He would either
advance a principle and then illustrate it by a parable – that is, a short
story of some event, real or imaginary – or else He would bring out the
principle in the parable. There are millions of facts that can be used to
advantage, and yet very few ministers dare to use them, for fear somebody
will reproach them. “Oh,” says somebody, “he actually tells stories!”
Tells stories! Why, that is the way Jesus Christ preached. And it is the
only way to preach. Facts, real or supposed, should be used to show the
truth. Truths not illustrated, are generally just as much calculated to
convert sinners as a mathematical demonstration. Is it always to be so?
Shall it always be a matter of reproach, when ministers follow the example
of Jesus Christ in illustrating truths by facts? Let them still do it, however
much the foolish reproach them as story-telling ministers! They have
Jesus Christ and common sense on their side.
(d) The illustrations should be drawn from common life, and the common
business of society. I once heard a minister illustrate his ideas by the
manner in which merchants transact business. Another minister who was
present made some remarks to him afterwards. He objected to this
illustration particularly, because, he said, it was too familiar, and was
“letting down the dignity of the pulpit.” He said all illustrations in
preaching should be drawn from ancient history, or from an elevated
source, that would keep up the dignity of the pulpit. Dignity indeed! Just
the language of the devil. He rejoices in it. Why, the object of an
illustration is to make people see the truth, not to bolster up pulpit
dignity.
A minister whose heart is in the work does not use an illustration in order
to make people stare, but to make them see the truth. If he brought
forward his illustrations from ancient history, it could not make the people
see; it would not illustrate anything. The novelty of the thing might
awaken their attention, but they would lose the truth itself. For if the
illustration itself be a novelty, the attention will be directed to this fact as
a matter of history, and the truth itself, which it was designed to illustrate,
will be lost sight of. The illustration should, if possible, be a matter of
common occurrence, and the more common the occurrence the more sure it
will be not to fix attention upon itself, but to serve as a medium through
which the truth is conveyed.
The Savior always illustrated His instructions by things that were taking
place among the people to whom He preached, and with which their minds
were familiar. He descended often very far below what is now supposed
to be essential to support the dignity of the pulpit. He talked about hens
and chickens, and children in marketplaces, and sheep and lambs, and
shepherds and farmers, and husbandmen and merchants. And when He
talked about kings (as in the marriage of the King’s son, and the nobleman
that went into a far country to receive a Kingdom), He made reference to
historical facts that were well known among the people at the time. The
illustration should always be drawn from things so common that the
illustration itself will not attract attention away from the subject, but that
people may see, through it, the truth illustrated.
(e) Preaching should be repetitious. If a minister wishes to preach with
effect, he must not be afraid of repeating whatever he may see is not
perfectly understood by his hearers. Here is the evil of using a written
sermon. The preacher preaches right along just as he has written it down,
and cannot observe whether he is understood or not. If he should interrupt
his reading, and attempt to catch the countenances of his audience, and to
explain where he sees they do not understand, he grows confused. If a
minister has his eyes on the people to whom he is preaching, he can
commonly tell by their looks whether they understand him. If he sees that
they do not understand any particular point, let him stop and illustrate it;
and if they do not understand one illustration, let him give another, and
make it clear to their minds before he goes on. But those who write their
sermons go right on, in a regular consecutive train, just as in an essay or a
book, failing, through want of repetition, to make the audience fully
comprehend their points.
During a conversation with one of the first advocates in America, he
expressed the view that when preachers experience difficulty in making
themselves understood, it arises from the fact that they do not repeat their
points sufficiently. Said he: “In addressing a jury, I always expect that
whatever I wish to impress upon their minds, I shall have to repeat at least
twice; and often I repeat it three or four times, and even as many, times as
there are jurymen before me. Otherwise, I do not carry their minds with
me, so that they can feel the force of what comes afterwards.” If a jury,
under oath, called to decide on the common affairs of this world, cannot
apprehend an argument, unless there is so much repetition, how is it to be
expected that men will understand the preaching of the Gospel without it?
In like manner the minister ought to turn an important thought over and
over before his audience, till even the children understand it perfectly. Do
not say that so much repetition will create disgust in cultivated minds. It
will not disgust. This is not what disgusts thinking men. They are not
weary of the efforts a minister makes to be understood. The fact is, the
more simple a minister’s illustrations are, and the more plain he makes
everything, the more men of mind are interested. I know, in fact, that men
of the first minds often get ideas they never had before, from illustrations
which were designed to bring the Gospel down to the comprehension of a
child. Such men are commonly so occupied with the affairs of this world,
that they do not think much on the subject of religion, and they therefore
need the plainest preaching, and they will like it.
(f) A minister should always feel deeply upon his subject, and then he will
suit the action to the word, and the word to the action, so as to make the
full impression which the truth is calculated to make. He should be in
solemn earnest in what he says. I heard a most judicious criticism on this
subject: “How important it is that a minister should feel what he says.
Then his actions will, of course, correspond to his words. If he undertakes
to make gestures, his arms may go like a windmill, and yet make no
impression.” It is said to require the utmost stretch of art on the stage for
the actors to make their hearers feel. The design of elocution is to teach
this skill. But if a man feels his subject fully, he will naturally do it. He
will naturally do the very thing that elocution laboriously teaches. See any
common man in the streets who is earnest in talking; see with what force
he gestures. 44 See a woman or a child in earnest – how natural! To
gesture with their hands is as natural as it is to move their tongue and lips:
it is the perfection of eloquence.
No wonder that a great deal of preaching produces so little effect. Gestures
are of more importance than is generally supposed. Mere words will never
express the full meaning of the Gospel. The manner of saying it is almost
everything. I once heard a remark made, respecting a young minister’s
preaching, which was instructive. (He was uneducated, in the common
sense of the term, but well educated to win souls.) It was said of him:
“The manner in which he comes in, and sits in the pulpit, and rises to
speak, is a sermon of itself. It shows that he has something to say that is
important and solemn.” That man’s manner of saying some things I have
known to move the feelings of a whole congregation, when the same things
said in a prosy way would have produced no effect at all.
A fact which was stated upon this subject by one of the most
distinguished professors of elocution in the United States, ought to
impress ministers. (The man was an unbeliever.) He said: “I have been
fourteen years employed in teaching elocution to ministers, and I know
they do not believe the Christian religion. Whether the Bible is true or not,
I know these ministers do not believe it. I can demonstrate that they do
not. The perfection of my art is to teach them to speak naturally on this
subject. I go to their studies, and converse with them, and they speak
eloquently. I say to them: ‘Gentlemen, if you will preach naturally, just as
you speak on any other subject in which you are interested, you do not
need to be taught. That is just what I am trying to teach you. I hear you
talk on other subjects with admirable force and eloquence. Then I see you
go into the pulpit, and you speak and act as if you do not believe what
you are saying.’ I have told them, again and again, to talk in the pulpit as
they naturally talk to me. Yet I cannot make them do it; and so I know
they do not believe the Christian religion.”
I have mentioned this to show how universal it is, that men will gesture
right, if they feel right. The only thing in the way of ministers being
natural speakers is, that they do not DEEPLY FEEL. How can they be
natural in elocution, when they do not feel?
(g) A minister should aim to convert his congregation. But, you will ask:
Does not all preaching aim at this? No. A minister always has some aim in
preaching, but most sermons were never aimed at converting sinners. And
if sinners were converted under them, the preacher himself would be
amazed. I once heard a story bearing on this point. There were two young
ministers who had entered the ministry at the same time. One of them had
great success in converting sinners; the other, none. The latter inquired of
the other, one day, what was the reason of this difference. “Why,” replied
his friend, “the reason is, that I aim at a different end from you in
preaching. My object is to convert sinners, but you aim at no such thing;
and then you put it down to the Sovereignty of God that you do not
produce the same effect, when you never aim at it. Take one of my
sermons and preach it, and see what the effect will be.” The man did so,
and preached the sermon, and it did produce effect. He was frightened
when sinners began to weep; and when one came to him after meeting to
ask what he should do, the minister apologized to him, and said: “I did not
aim to wound you, I am sorry if I have hurt your feelings!” Oh, horrible!
(h) A minister must anticipate the objections of sinners, and answer them.
What does the lawyer do, when pleading before a jury? (Oh, how
differently from human causes is the cause of Jesus Christ pleaded!) It
was remarked by a lawyer, that the cause of Jesus Christ had the fewest
able advocates of any cause in the world. And I partly believe it. Does not
a lawyer go along in his argument in a regular train, explaining anything
that is obscure, and anticipating the arguments of his antagonist? If he did
not, he would lose his case, to a certainty. But ministers often leave one
difficulty and another untouched. Sinners who hear them feel a difficulty,
and never know how to remove it, and perhaps the minister never takes
the trouble to know that such a difficulty exists. Yet he wonders why his
congregation is not converted, and why there is no revival. How can he
wonder at it, when he has never hunted up the difficulties and objections
that sinners feel, and removed them?
(I) If a minister means to preach the Gospel with effect, he must be sure
not to be monotonous. If he preaches in a monotonous way, he will preach
the people to sleep. Any monotonous sound, great or small, if continued,
disposes people to sleep. The falls of Niagara, the roaring of the ocean, or
any sound ever so great or small, has this effect naturally on the nervous
system. And a minister cannot be monotonous in preaching, if he feels
what he says.
(j) A minister should address the feelings enough to secure attention, and
then deal with the conscience, and probe to the quick. Appeals to the
feelings alone will never convert sinners. If the preacher deals too much in
these, he may get up an excitement, and have wave after wave of feeling
flow over the congregation, and people may be carried away as with a
flood, and rest in false hopes. The only way to secure sound conversions,
is to deal faithfully with the conscience. If attention flags at any time,
appeal to the feelings again, and rouse it up; but do your work with
conscience.
(k) If he can, it is desirable that a minister should learn the effect of one
sermon, before he preaches another. What would be thought of the
physician who should give medicine to his patient, and then give it again
and again, without trying to learn the effect of the first? A minister never
will be able to deal with sinners as he ought, till he can find out whether
his instruction has been received and understood, and whether the
difficulties in sinners’ minds are cleared away, and their path open to the
Savior, so that they need not go on stumbling and stumbling till their souls
are lost.
REMARKS.
- We see why so few of the leading minds in many communities are
converted.
Until the late revivals, professional men were rarely reached by preaching,
and they were almost all infidels at heart. People almost understood the
Bible to warrant the idea that they could not be converted. The reason is
obvious. The Gospel had not been commended to the conscience of such
men. Ministers had not reasoned so as to make that class of mind see the
truth of the Gospel, and feel its power; consequently such persons had
come to regard religion as something unworthy of their notice.
Of late years, however, the case is altered, and in some places there have
been more of this class of persons converted, in proportion to their
numbers, than of any other. That is because they were made to understand
the claims of the Gospel. The preacher grappled with their minds, and
showed them the reasonableness of religion. And when this is done, it is
found that this class of mind is more easily converted than any other.
They have so much better capacity to receive an argument, and are so
much more in the habit of yielding to the force of reason, that as soon as
the Gospel gets a fair hold of their minds, it breaks them right down, and
melts them down at the feet of Christ.
2. Before the Gospel takes general effect, we must have a class of
extempore preachers, for the following reasons:
(a) No set of men can stand the labor of writing sermons and doing all the
preaching which will be requisite.
(b) Written sermons are not calculated to produce the requisite effect. Such
preaching does not present the truth in right shape.
It is impossible for a man who writes his sermons to arrange his matter,
and turn and choose his thoughts, so as to produce the same effect as
when he addresses the people directly, and makes them feel that he means
them. Writing sermons had its origin in times of political difficulty. The
practice was unknown in the apostles’ days. No doubt written sermons
have done a great deal of good, but they can never give to the Gospel its
great power.
Perhaps many ministers have been so long trained in the use of notes, that
they had better not throw them away. Perhaps they would make bad work
without them. The difficulty would not be for want of mind, but from
wrong training. The bad habit is begun with the schoolboy, who is called
to “speak his piece.” Instead of being set to express his own thoughts and
feelings in his own language, and in his own natural manner, such as Nature
herself prompts, he is made to commit another person’s writing to
memory, and then he mouths it out in a stiff and formal way. And so
when he goes to college, and to the seminary, instead of being trained to
extempore speaking, he is set to write his piece, and commit it to memory.
I would pursue the opposite course from the beginning. I would give him a
subject, and let him first think, and then speak his thoughts. Perhaps he
will make mistakes. Very well, that is to be expected in a beginner. But he
will learn. Suppose he is not eloquent, at first. Very well, he can improve.
And he is in the very way to improve. This kind of training alone will raise
up a class of ministers who can convert the world.
But it is objected to extemporaneous preaching, that if ministers do not
write, they will not think. This objection will have weight with those men
whose habit has always been to write down their thoughts. But to a man
of different habit, it will have no weight at all.
The mechanical labor of writing is really a hindrance to close and rapid
thought. It is true that some extempore preachers have not been men of
thought. But so it is true that many men who write sermons are not men
of thought. A man whose habits have always been such, that he has
thought only when he has put his mind on the end of his pen, will, of
course, if he lays aside his pen, at first find it difficult to think; and if
he attempts to preach without writing, will, until his habits are thoroughly
changed, find it difficult to throw into his sermons the same amount of
thought, as if he conformed to his old habit of writing. But it should be
remembered that this is only on account of his having been trained to
write, and having always habituated himself to it. It is the training and
habit that render it so difficult for him to think without writing. Will
anybody pretend to say that lawyers are not men of thought? That their
arguments before a court and jury are not profound and well digested? And
yet every one knows that they do not write their speeches.
I have heard much of this objection to extempore preaching ever since I
entered the ministry. It was often said to me then, in answer to my views
of extempore preaching, that ministers who preached extemporaneously
would not instruct the Churches, that there would be a great deal of
sameness in their preaching, and they would soon become insipid and
repetitious for want of thought. But every year’s experience has ripened
the conviction on my mind, that the reverse of this objection is true. The
man who writes least, may, if he pleases, think most, 46 and will say what
he does think in a manner that will be better understood than if it were
written; and that, just in the proportion that he lays aside the labor of
writing, his body will be left free to exercise, and his mind to vigorous and
consecutive thought.
The great reason why it is supposed that extempore preachers more
frequently repeat the same thoughts in their preaching, is because what
they say is, in a general way, more perfectly remembered by the
congregation, than if it had been read. I have often known preachers who
could repeat their written sermons once in a few months, without the fact
being recognized by the congregation. But the manner in which extempore
sermons are generally delivered is so much more impressive, that the
thoughts cannot in general be soon repeated without being remembered.
We shall never have a set of men in our halls of legislation, in our courts of
justice, and in our pulpits, who are powerful and overwhelming speakers,
and can carry the world before them, till our system of education teaches
them to think, closely, rapidly, consecutively, and till all their habits of
speaking in the schools are extemporaneous. The very style of
communicating thought, in what is commonly called a good style of
writing, is not calculated to leave a deep impression. It is not laconic,
direct, pertinent. It is not the language of nature.
In delivering a sermon in this essay style of writing, it is impossible that
nearly all the fire of meaning, and power of gesture, and looks, and
attitude, and emphasis, should not be lost. We can never have the full
meaning of the Gospel, till we throw away our written sermons.
3. A minister’s course of study and training for his work should be
exclusively theological.
I mean just as I say. I am not now going to discuss the question whether
all education ought not to be theological. But I say education for the
ministry should be exclusively so. But you will ask: Should not a minister
understand science? I would answer: Yes; the more the better. I would that
ministers might understand all science. But it should all be in connection
with theology. Studying science is studying the works of God. And
studying theology is studying God.
Let a scholar be asked, for instance, this question: “Is there a God?” To
answer it, let him ransack the universe, let him go out into every
department of science to find the proofs of design, and in this way to learn
the existence of God. Let him ransack creation to see whether there is such
a unity of design as evinces that there is one God. In like manner, let him
inquire concerning the attributes of God, and His character. He will learn
science here, but will learn it as a part of theology. Let him search every
field of knowledge to bring forward his proofs. What was the design of
this plan? What was the end of that arrangement? See whether everything
you find in the universe is not calculated to produce happiness, unless
perverted.
Would the student’s heart get hard and cold in study, as cold and hard as
college walls, if science were pursued in this way? Every lesson brings him
right up before God, and is, in fact, communion with God, which warms
his heart, and makes him more pious, more solemn, more holy. The very
distinction between classical and theological study is a curse to the
Church, and a curse to the world. The student spends four years in college
at classical studies, with no God in them; and then three years in the
seminary, at theological studies; and what then? Poor young man! Set him
to work, and you will find that he is not educated for the ministry at all.
The Church groans under his preaching, because he does not preach with
unction, or with power. He has been spoiled in training.
4. We learn what revival preaching is. All ministers should be revival
ministers, and all preaching should be revival preaching; that is, it should
be calculated to promote holiness. People say: “It is very well to have
some men in the Church, who are revival preachers, and who can go about
and promote revivals; but then you must have others to indoctrinate the
Church.” Strange! Do they know that a revival indoctrinates the Church
faster than anything else? And a minister will never produce a revival if he
does not indoctrinate his hearers. The preaching I have described is full of
doctrine, but it is doctrine to be practiced. And that is revival preaching.
5. There are two objections sometimes brought against the kind of
preaching which I have recommended.
(a) That it is letting down the dignity of the pulpit to preach in this
colloquial, lawyer-like style. They are shocked at it. But it is only on
account of its novelty, and not for any impropriety there is in the thing
itself. I heard a remark made by a leading layman in regard to the preaching
of a certain minister. He said it was the first preaching he had ever heard,
that he understood, and the minister was the first he had heard who spoke
as if he believed his own doctrine, or meant what he said. The layman
further said that when first he heard the minister preach – as if he really
meant what he said – he came to the conclusion that such a preacher must
be crazy! But, eventually, he was made to see that it was all true, and then
he submitted to the truth, as the power of God for the salvation of his
soul.
What is the dignity of the pulpit? What an idea, to see a minister go into
the pulpit to sustain its dignity! Alas, alas! During my foreign tour, I
heard an English missionary preach exactly in that way. I believe he was a
good man, and out of the pulpit he would talk like a man who meant what
he said. But no sooner was he in the pulpit than he appeared like a perfect
automaton – swelling, mouthing, and singing, enough to put all the people
to sleep. And the difficulty seemed to be that he wanted to maintain the
dignity of the pulpit.
(b) It is objected that this preaching is theatrical. The Bishop of London
once asked Garrick, the celebrated actor, why it was that actors, in
representing a mere fiction, should move an assembly, even to tears, while
ministers, in representing the most solemn realities, could scarcely obtain a
hearing. The philosophical Garrick well replied: “It is because we
represent fiction as reality, and you represent reality as a fiction.” 47 This
is telling the whole story. Now, what is the design of the actor in a
theatrical representation? It is so to throw himself into the spirit and
meaning of the writer, as to adopt his sentiments, and make them his own:
to feel them, embody them, throw them out upon the audience as a living
reality.
Now, what is the objection to all this in preaching? The actor suits the
action to the word, and the word to the action. His looks, his hands, his
attitudes, and everything, are designed to express the full meaning of the
writer. Now, this should be the aim of the preacher. And if by “theatrical”
be meant the strongest possible representation of the sentiments
expressed, then the more theatrical the sermon is, the better. And if
ministers are too stiff, and the people too fastidious, to learn even from an
actor, or from the stage, the best method of swaying mind, of enforcing
sentiment, and diffusing the warmth of burning thought over a
congregation, then they must go on with their prosing, and reading, and
sanctimonious starch. But let them remember, that while they are thus
turning away and decrying the art of the actor, and attempting to support
the “dignity of the pulpit,” the theaters can be thronged every night. The
common sense of the people will be entertained with that manner of
speaking, and sinners will go down to hell.
6. A congregation may learn how to choose a minister. When a vacant
Church is looking out for a minister, there are two leading points on which
attention is commonly fixed:
- That he should be popular.
- That he should be learned. These are very well. But the point that
should be the first in their inquiries is: “Is he wise to win souls?” No
matter how eloquent a minister is or how learned, no matter how
pleasing and how popular is his manners, if it is a matter of fact that
sinners are not converted under his preaching, it shows that he has not
this wisdom, and your children and neighbors will go down to hell
under his preaching.
I am happy to know that many Churches will ask this question about
ministers, and if they find that a minister is destitute of this vital quality,
they will not have him. And if ministers can be found who are wise to win
souls, the Churches will have such ministers. It is in vain to contend
against it, or to pretend that they are not well educated, or not learned, or
the like. It is in vain for the schools to try to force down the throats of the
Churches a race of ministers who are learned in everything but what they
most need to know.
It is very difficult to say what needs to be said on this subject, without
being in danger of begetting a wrong spirit in the Church towards
ministers. Many professors of religion are ready to find fault with
ministers when they have no reason; insomuch, that it becomes very
difficult to say of ministers what is true, and what needs to be said,
without one’s remarks being perverted and abused by this class of
professors. I would not, for the world, say anything to injure the influence
of a minister of Christ, who is really endeavoring to do good. But, to tell
the truth will not injure the influence of those ministers who, by their lives
and preaching, give evidence to the Church that their object is to do good,
and win souls for Christ. This class of ministers will recognize the truth of
all that I have said, or wish to say. They see it all and deplore it. But if
there be ministers who are doing no good, who are feeding themselves and
not the flock, such ministers deserve no influence. If they are doing no
good, it is time for them to betake themselves to some other profession.
They are but leeches on the very vitals of the Church, sucking out its
heart’s blood. They are useless, and worse than useless. And the sooner
they are laid aside and their places filled with those who will exert
themselves for Christ, the better.
Finally. It is the duty of the Church to pray for us, ministers. Not one of
us is such as he ought to be. Like Paul, we can say: “Who is sufficient for
these things?” ( 2 Corinthians 2:16.) But who among us is like Paul? Where
will you find such ministers as Paul? They are not here. We have been
wrongly educated, all of us. Pray for the schools, and colleges, and
seminaries. And pray for young men who are preparing for the ministry.
Pray for ministers, that God would give them this wisdom to win souls.
And pray that God would bestow upon the Church the wisdom and the
means to educate a generation of ministers who will go forward and
convert the world. The Church must travail in prayer, and groan and
agonize for this. This is now the pearl of price to the Church – to have a
supply of the right sort of ministers. The coming of the millennium
depends on having a different sort of ministers, who are more thoroughly
educated for their work. And this we shall have so sure as the promise of
the Lord holds good. Such a ministry as is now in the Church will never
convert the world, but the world is to be converted, and therefore God
intends to have ministers who will do it. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest” (Luke
10:2).
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