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we not very sure of our message? What have men found that can out do Calvary? Philosophy only cries out with Socrates, "Plato, Plato, I know God will forgive sin, but I can’t see how,” and what else has philosophy to say? Can you find any other who can do what Jesus Christ does to hu man character? Can you find any other force in the world that has the life-changing power of the gospel? Can you find any one else in all history who can so fully answer all the ques tions of the human soul? Christ is the only sufficiency. The pulpit is not afraid of its mes sage. It reiterates the words at the grave of John Knox: “Here lies one who neither feared nor flattered any flesh.” We do not need to change our message to flatter the flesh, or adjust our convictions to please men at the attack of some scientists or philoso phers. It Is not necessary that we run with our truths and trade them in for something at the 5-and-10-cent coun ter of the newest intellectual fads, thus becoming the pathetic victims of mod ernity. The pulpit does not traffic in tin whistles and easily tooted fifes. It deals in trumpets! We have confi dence in our message, and not one jot or tittle of His Word shall ever pass away. Then, too, we must have confidence In the kingdom. We read: “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John.” That is, when they saw their confidence in their cause, they knew that they had been with Jesus. Jesus Christ, too, had confidently stood, His hands bound, helpless, seemingly, be fore Caesar, with Rome against Him, with the dictators in the saddle, and His disciples gone. In an hour when it would not seem that He had the ghost of a chance, He said, “My king dom”! It was kingly confidence in Hi? cause. Peter and John had borrowed that confident voice, and men were beginning to listen. And they will listen again if we are confident. To day, when men have lost faith in about everything else, ours is a con fident message. Jesus Christ will win. We have His word for it. When we serve Him, we serve not only Christus Consolator, our Consoler in times of shadow and fail ure and trial; we serve also Christus Consummator, the Finisher who brings to consummation what He has begun. As ministers and as Christians we are not acting as nursemaids to keep breath in a doddering old faith that is breathing its last. We are crusaders trying to keep pace with tne long strides of a confident faith! As we choose our spiritual notebook paper on which to etch our sermons, let us be sure that every sermon sheet is water marked with the words, “Jesus will [Continued on Page 250]
in a religious periodical that vilified him. It was an unjust article, and quite uncalled for. So he did what a lot of us would be tempted to do. He sat down and wrote an answer, love- lessly logical and fearfully frank. Then he took the article, which was his vin dication, and handed it to a little group of friends with whom he often met, asking them what they thought of it. They returned it to him after careful perusal, • and he found three simple words written over the top of the articlfe: “Not sufficiently redemp tive.” There was nothing of the cross in the article, nothing of “Father, for give them,” nothing of the terrible meekness of Jesus Christ! It was full of retaliation, vindictiveness, and What have men found that can out-do Calvary? Philosophy only cries out with Socrates, “Plato, Plato, I know God will f o r g i v e sin, but I can’t see how,” and what else has philos ophy to say? Can you find any other who can do what Jesus Christ does to human character? Can you find any other force in the w o r l d that has the life' changing power of the gospel? Can you find any one else in all history who can so fully an swer all the questions of the human soul? Christ is the only sufficiency.— LOU IS H. EVANS. fighting back. He knew when he read it again that with -that article he would win his argument—but he would lose his man.. On the cross, Jesus, in a sense, lost His argument, but He won His man. One of the greatest necessities of Chrisfian service today is that you and I die to self. Self-effacement, for giveness, self-crucifixion—do I .know what these are? We repeat then—-■ Preach that which ye know. The pul pit must be the Voice of Experience. The Voice of Confidence Finally, let it be the voice of confi-* dence. In Acts 4:13 we have these words: “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John . . . they took knowl edge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” When they saw the boldness." That always impressed people in the first century—the boldness of the mes sage of these men. These men did not join the mental meandering of those who were zig-zagging on roads of un certainty. “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet”—like a bugle. Are you and I not able to challenge the challenger^ of Christianity? Are
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did «ot know how to find Christ or how to accept Him! I think sometimes we need clinics for human souls. We ministers preach sometimes to large congregations, and we become “ranch ers” instead of “shepherds,” and lose the personal simplicity. People do not act because often they do not know what to do. I went home from that college ex perience to re-study ' my preaching. Preaching will not be very efficacious if it does not call to definite action •and definite decision. That is a duty of the church service—to make things clear, to blow a definite bugle note. There be so many voices in this world, so much noise, so much inar ticulate clamor; and if the pulpit trumpet sound indistinctly, who will march into the fray? No leader will ever give his life to or march after any cause that is not made distinct. It is up to the ministry to blow a clear note on the trumpet of the message. The Voice of Experience Again, it must be the voice of experi ence. George Fox said, “Be what ye speak,” and of Henry Drummond it was said, “He was more at home with Jesus Christ than with any other man.” The artistry of the Christian ministry is not merely the ability to tell a story, but to have a story to tell. Bunyan said, “I preached what I did feel— what I smartingly did feel,” and none of us should preach what we do not “smartingly feel.” The degree to which we can convince others of the doctrine we preach will be determined by the degree to which we can live out that truth in our own lives. As Christian workers we are very likely to miss the social discipline which is afforded other men in their calling. There are very few people who have either the desire or the courage to tell us what they think of us. On very few occasions will Christian work- erte exchange their criticisms. A certain evangelist said that he started out kind, humble, teachable and easy to work with, but years later he discov ered that he had become bumptious, arrogant, hard to get along with, and had lost all capacity for team work; and he came to the conclusion that the truth was that being on the road a great deal, he had lacked the social discipline of friends, who, in an inti-, mate circle, might have told him what was happening to his soul. Sometimes we miss by a mile living out what we preach, and not always are we con scious of the fact. “I am crucified with Christ”! Are we? I sometimes wonder whether I am dead to myself. Do I live that out be fore my people? A certain missionary read an article
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