June, 1940
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S H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
The Preacher s Study By HERBERT LOCKYER Chicago, Illinois , [A ll rights reserved *"]
E VERY minister of the gospel should realize the necessity for having some spot he can call his because of all that transpires when he is alone with God and his books. No matter how small a man’s charge, or how restricted his home accommodation, it is imperative for him to reserve a room where, in solitude, he can traffic in holy things. Lord Bowen, a very distinguished English judge, in an illuminating state ment concerning the powers and quali ties required for success at the bar, used these significant words, “ Cases are won in chambers”—a statement meaning that, so far as the barrister is concerned, his critical arena is not the public court, but his own private room.. It is so with the preacher. His “cases are won in chambers.” Have you a chamber wherein your cases are won by the victorious strength and sway of your prayerful, careful considera tions ? “Men are not deeply influenced by extemporized thought,” says J. H. Jow- ett. “They are not carried along by a current of fluency which is ignorant of where it is going. Mere talkativeness will not put people into bonds. Happy- go-lucky sermons will lay no necessity upon the reason, nor put any strong restraint upon the heart. Preaching that costs nothing accomplishes nothing.
tion, secular and theological; have little to spend on necessary books, have one of the humblest spheres as a preacher; yet he may function as one of the might iest pulpiteers the world has known. “The true preacher prays and meditates on the Scriptures until he has a vision,” says John McNeill. Since his study is a sanctuary, the preacher will take care that it does not induce day-dreams. He will not allow a succession of thoughts to pass dreamily through his mind. The hours must not slip by in mere reverie. Such dreaming is, as W. Jones Davies expresses it, “ encouraged by a too comfortable envir onment—the soft couch, the pillowed chair, the soothing pipe—which com bine to produce a luring, lulling effect most inimical to real study.” If the preacher wants to get the ut most out of his work, he will scorn the soft couch and pillowed chair, and discard the “soothing” pipe. Speaking of the pipe brings us to the preacher’s use of tobacco. One is conscious of the fact that so many good and saintly men smoke, that it is impertinence to drag such a habit into a treatise dealing with homiletics. While no one can dog matize about the smoking habit, because the use or nonuse of tobacco is a matter of conviction, yet we feel that the smok ing preacher has a “weight” to lay aside. Somehow I cannot bring myself to call a study a sanctuary if it is reek-
The preacher, then, must have a study, and he must have his set times for winning his cases therein. No man has such an opportunity, nor is any one so sorely tempted to dawdle around, as the average minister. He does not have to punch a time clock; his pay check is not determined by the number of hours per day that are credited to his account in a book. Because his time is his own, he must drill himself to pray and prepare himself for his work. The more time the study can have, the better sermons the people can have. The time-honored advice that “for five days in the week, the preacher should spend his forenoon in the study” has not been improved upon. As early as possible, he should be in his workshop ready for work. There are no intellec tual esculators on which a man may ride to ministerial success. The ascent is by dint of constant study; the rise is step by step. Daily, methodically, the preacher must practice what James Black calls, in his chapter, The Smith at His Forge, “the gospel of the treadmill.” In the study, he must do grim work among his books. With this preamble in mind, let us approach the twofold character of the preacher’s study, whether it be at home, as with British preachers, or at the church, as with American preachers. The Study Is a Sanctuary Entering his study as the day com mences, the preacher will spend the opening hour in devotional exercises. With an unmarked Bible, he will allow God to speak to his own soul; and then, on bended knee, will come that heart-to-heart talk with the Lord con cerning his own needs. Prayer and wor ship should ever be the atmosphere sur rounding the preacher as he studies. The study should be to him a holy and delicate territory. Have we realized to the full that our power with men depends, not upon our ability to preach, but upon our power with God and from God? One may lack personality, so-called; have severe limitations in respect to educa Third in a Series on wThe Art and Craft of Preaching ”
own, which is very dear to ^his heart
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