242
THE K I N G ' S BUS I NE S S
but as the privilege of all saved people. And I have always found that the peace,. and the joy, and fervor of religion have depended largely upon this precious gift of assured salvation. That Christ can deliver us from sin has been and is, again, one of my lead-' ing doctrines. Along with this I have sought to make increasing insistence upon Repentance, as a duty and a privi lege. It is not a condition of salvation as faith is, but it is an essential atmos phere of faith and it increases witn believing years, till it is found, I be lieve, to be the invariable sign and token of a true sanctification. The golden doctrine of the Holy Spirit has rav’ shed my mind and heart ao the years have passed by. He re veals the Saviour to the mind and to the heart. He gives repentance. He Imparts faith, He sanctifies. He illum inates the Bible. He comforts with indescribable consolation amid all the believer’s temporal and spiritual trials. He endues with power for service. He strengthens our bodies. to do the life- work He ordains. The Doctrine of the personality and work of the Holy Spirit has been and is pervasive doc trine of all my ministry. AÍ1 this carries with it a doctrine of sin. Throughout my ministry this has been a cardinal “ note” of my teaching. The Bible teaching on sin I have sought to apprehend and to inculcate with ceaseless iteration. That sin is “ lawlessness:” that it is hereditary in all: that it is a corruption which in fects every part of our nature: that it is a universal plague of humanity: and that we can only be convicted of it by God the Holy Spirit is my unceasing doctrine. Of nothing am I more surely sure than that our doctrine of sin lies at the root of all real success or failure in preaching. If we aré wrong there we are wrong everywhere— irretrieva bly and hopelessly wrong. I am in no wise seeking to give even
Almighty Death” it is to me. My theological reading and interest have increasingly revolved around it. Ten aciously I hold, and with passionate conviction I preach, that our salva tion is worthy in that precious death. Not in explanations of the death do I bid men trust if they would he saved, but in the death itself. I have my own explanations which I readily present. X hold the sustitutionary view of the “ Death Divine.” In a manner intellectually“ transcendent, but intellectually entirely credible, Christ bore the condemnation of hu man sin. I proclaim always and everywhere, “ Jesus died instead of you." And I have always found, what I find in Central London today among all sorts and conditions of people, that whosoever receives this testimony is consciously and manifestly saved. I was trained to believe that the prime function of the pulpit is to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?” A pulpit which does not make this clear, and that week by week, is in my view missing the mark. It is the tragedy of the modern pulpit that, by this touchstone tried, it often fails. The Cross The preaching of the Cross, not as an example but as an Atonement, has been my loved employ, alas, all unworthily executed. From youth to age, I humbly thank God, this has been my supreme conception of the ministry. That men are saved through faith, personal trust in our Lord’s death, and through that alone, has been and is my crowning pulpit doctrine. As life ebbs I preach it with hastening fervor and urgency. The soteriology of the Reformers is my message of salvation today. “ The Witness of the Spirit”— the in ward Divinely imparted assurance of personal salvation, I believe and preach not as a necessity of salvation,
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online