the art of
ALMOST saying by Dr. Vance Havner are never to be entertained . . . He is always a false accuser who makes a general charge; he is a learned false witness skilled and cunning who says he will not go into the case; he will say nothing about it; he thinks it better to hold his tongue. Would God his tongue had been cut when he said that! . . . No man makes progress who deals in generalities.” Finney had a sermon on “How To Preach So As To Convert No body.” One rule was: Preach about sin in general but never mention any of the sins of your present congregation. The woman at Jacob’s Well did not get under conviction while Jesus talked about the water of life and where was the best place to worship. But when He said, “Go call thy hus band,” things began to happen. She told her townspeople, “ Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.” Jesus did not generalize; He particu larized. He said something every time. This art shows up in prayer meeting when some dear brother gets no farther than, “We have done many things which we should not have done and we have left undone many things which we should have done.” Who hasn’t? But when you hear men and women confess gossiping, covetousness, ba ck b it in g , bad temper, worldliness, evil habits, and name them unmistakably, that is revival. When God’s Spirit convicts and men confess, nothing is done half-way; we come clean with it. The Art of Almost Saying Something is very clever; it sounds smart and it will not of fend anybody. It will help the speaker to get ahead in this world but this world is not the right world to get ahead in. At the end o f the road stands God and God
something
T h e A e t o f Almost Saying Some thing is quite in vogue these days. Its past masters hold forth in our capitals and legislative halls where politicians have long since become quite adept at talk ing out of both sides of their mouths. It always shows up around Easter and Christmas when secular writers in a reli gious mood go far afield trying to write about the resurrection and the incarnation. Alas, this popular technique even gets into some pulpits. The speaker gets off to a good start and you feel that he will hit the nail on the head. But no ; just before he gets to the point, he deftly swerves to one side and makes a neat detour. He almost says it, but not quite. He never goes through and really names things. He sounds as though he might do it any minute and shal low listeners sometimes think he does but when you have checked over the performance there are “ slim pickings.” He said a lot but not enough. Erasmus must have been good at it. It was said of him: “ He could shade ‘Yes’ to ‘No’ and burnish up ‘No’ until it might al most pass for ‘Yes’. Erasmus is a Proteus, an eel. He tries to walk on eggs without breaking them. No advances on argumen tative lines until the conclusion is in sight, and then sidles off with out reaching it.” But while the people of academic culture, of speculative disengagement, and serene intellectual indifference, sided with Erasmus, the heart of Christianity beat with Luther. Because Luther did not almost say something. He said it and when he said it, it stayed said! Joseph Parker sounded a blast long ago at this art o f almost say ing it. “Definite statements are manageable but vague charges
always says something. His Book does not almost state the case. The man who says something is, of course, dogmatic and dog matism is anathema to some o f us. Strangely enough, we want dog matism elsewhere. When we get sick, we want a dogmatic doctor who knows what ails us. When we take medicine, we want the kind that has been put up by a dog matic pharmacist and not by one who ignored the formula. When we ride the train, we want a dog matic engineer, not one who throws the timetable away and goes by guess. Yet in the greatest of all fields, the ministry of the Word of God, it has been fash ionable to disobey orders from Heavenly Headquarters and sub stitute the opinions o f men. We need to be saying some thing these days about sin and judgment and salvation and godly living and the future. It is tragic the way some approach such sub jects as worldliness or the Lord- ship of Christ or the return o f our Lord. In our reaction against Dogma, we have devised “Dodg- ema” ; we dodge the real issue. Our nation suffers today for the lack o f leaders who believe some thing and say it. Political expedi ency has shut many a mouth and given us sycophants instead of statesmen. The pressure is ter rific and it is far easier to be a time-server than a God-pleaser. God give us men in the pulpit who will remember that they are not diplomats arranging a truce but prophets declaring an ultima tum! Civilization has gone to pieces on tact, diplomacy and tol erance. It is no time to almost say something. Let us hear from men with a double resolve: “ I will hear what God the Lord will speak” (Psa. 85 :8 ); “What the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak” (I Kings 22:14). BE
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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