CHAPTER VIII “PREACH THE WORD” BV THE LATE HOWARD CROSBY
One of the latest injunctions of the aged Paul, just before his martyrdom, was that to Timothy, which constitutes the text of my address, “Preach the Word.” Thirty years of Christian experience, fifteen years of apostolic survey, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, all spoke in those words. I t was a command from heaven itself, not to Timothy only, but to all who fill the office of evangelists or preachers in the New Testament Church. The order, thus succinctly given, is a condensation of all that Paul had said to Timothy or to the Church on the subject of preaching. I I The sound or healthy doctrine on which he lays so much stress, and the avoidance of fables and the world’s wisdom, are both included in this curt command. There has been a tendency from the very beginning to conform the doctrine of Christ to the philosophy of man, to fuse the two together, and to show that all religions have the same Divine element at their roots. This was seen in gnosticism, in the Alex- andrian school of Clement and Origen, and in a score of heresies that sprang up within the later Church. The distinctive character of Christianity has displeased the philosophic mind, and men have sought to explain away many of its features from the standpoint of the human con- sciousness and by an appeal to the teachings of nature. These efforts have certain marks in .common. They diminish the heinousness of sin, they exaggerate the powers of man, and they suggest a uniformity of destiny. Sin is a defect, perhaps a disease. The defect can be supplied, the disease can be cured by human applications, the Divine help being valuable as encouragement to the human effort. High civilization and I 100
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker