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currence to hear a sermon which liter ally forces men and women to take sides. From all parts of the land the same reports come of cold, passionless, unconvincing preaching, and of church communities— in every denomination— with nothing whatever in their life to differentiate them from the world. And how can it be otherwise if the ministry itself is content to stand elsewhere than with Christ in His unequivocal attitude toward all that opposes itself against the knowledge of God? Wbat else is to be expected if it is content to make it self the mouthpiece of that which has no sort of affinity to His Gospel? For this is exactly what is happening. Preachers do not urge men to “ flee from the wrath to come,” because they are not themselves sure that any wrath is coming. They do not press the need of personal conversion to God, hecause they have persuaded themselves that good citizenship is a quite adequate moral goal— and easier to secure. They do not persuade men, because they do not know the terror of the Lord. They have no compelling voice, beseeching men to accept Christ, because they have themselves no authoritative convictions about Him. And, whatever else their ministry may be, nobody with any relia ble discernment can call it triumphant. Yet how many and great are the im peratives and encouragements to a soul winning ministry, with its protective in fluence upon the young, and its redemp tive power among all classes! A well- known American writer has recently said: "The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are unapproached in searching the( conscience, comforting the heart, and revealing the will of God to men. And Jesus Christ is a living power for regenerating and recovering wasted humanity. There is only one message of hope for the woman who has lost her crown, and that is Christ’s word to her. There is only one power
of the world, It offers immediate gifts, and is urgent that they he taken and enjoyed without delay. And to hearts uncaptured by a passionless Gospel its appeal is irresistible. Traced to its source, very much of the unashamed worldliness of the present day is the direct consequence of feebleness in the pulpit. For under passionate preach ing of CHRIST, which sets a direct and unavoidable issue before every hearer, it would be infinitely harder for young people to shake free from His claims than it is now when nothing deters them. To the conscience of many of them it is no offence whatever to spend life in a God-forgetting frivolity. They are altogether unaware of having turned from Christ, and are untroubled by any regret. For- the plain fact is that many of them have never been brought face to face with the vital choice. They have, on the whole, heard preaching enough, but it has not been of the sort which summons conscience as an ally and makes an ineffaceable impression upon memory. They have not been captured by the ideals of the Gospel because the preaching they have heard has not been urgent, insistent, passionate. We talk of people “ sitting under” preaching. What a comment on the preacher! Where he is on fire with love to Christ and souls, where h« preaches . . . as though he ne’er would preach again, And as a dying man to dying men, his hearers will not sit. They will bow down before the Saviour, and rise to run the way of His commandments with hearts aflame. Over such the world has no power. II. There are comparatively few pulpits today from which is preached a Gospel alive with the urgent necessity of im mediate response to its invitations and claims. It is an increasingly rare oc
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