By Rev. G. W. Truett, D. D.
Of Dallas, Texas, Considered One of America’s Greatest Baptist Preachers.
N ote . —The following address was delivered by Rev. George W. Truett, D. D., of Dallas, Texas, before a gathering of all the ministers of Los Angeles, September 1, 1914, and was taken by one of the stenographers of the staff of T he K ing ’ s B usiness and has never before been printed.— E ditor .
SgKcgb ¿gj-OTT. do not expect a set message from me this morning. I do not have one to bring. I must content myself with just talking along in a most informal way to you, my brothers, my comrades, about the great business, the Christian ministry. You all agree with me that noth ing can take the place of the Chris tian ministry. The diffusion of knowledge, the wonderful triumphs of the press, the marvelous march of civilization; neither of these things nor all of them together, can ever take the place of Christian preaching. As loner as men have hearts that feel and suffer and hope and aspire, just that long will the work of Christ’s true preachers be the most important work in the world. Nor will history ever let us forget that the triumphs of the pulpit (the true pulpit) are the supreme triumphs in all civiliza tion.
Halcyon for the Christian religion have been those days when Christ’s prophet and preacher took his proper place in the affairs and in the thought and in the leadership of men. It was so in the days of Tertullion and Augustine and Ambrose; it was so in the days of Calvin and Knox and Latimer and Luther; it was so in the days of Whitefield and. Wesley and Calvin and Jonathan Edwards; it was so in the days of Spurgeon and Beecher and Joseph Parker and Phil lips Brooks. And halcyon days for Christianity have been the days of great preachers, true preachers. The most lamentable scandal and the su preme handicap in this earth for the progress of Christianity is the ignor ant, ineffective, unworthy pulpit. It behooves all good men with all pos sible diligence and faithfulness to guard the pulpit, for out of it to an awful degree are the very issues of life.
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