September, 1933
298
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
PREACHING (2
MODERN { W < M
'woAunlilesin i L
B y JOSEPH CARLETON HOLBROOK* Philadelphia, Pa.
It is assumed that the minister has taken full advantage of these first two opportunities. What then lies ahead ? The next two opportunities arise out of the first two. T he M essage to t h e I n d iv idu al The third opportunity consists in the message to the individual. It is the opportunity to save souls. When the Word is preached in the manner the
h e world is in lamentable need today. In the life o f the individual, there is to be found a deep and abiding need. The Christian minister has the answer to the needs o f the world and the individual. In this fact there rests an opportunity o f vast proportions. It is a preaching opportunity. But what is there to preach that will fill the need ? How is this message to be preached? As the answer to these questions is presented, there will be found the opportunities connected with preaching in the modern world. P r ea ch in g t h e W ord The first opportunity offered is for the minister to preach the Word. But, you say, that is nothing new. The reply is that it is something new to thousands of churches in these United States and throughout the world. There is such an acute longing these days for an answer that is authoritative for the individual and the world. The wis dom of man has been unable to provide answers that bring perfect peace and abiding joy to the heart. Men and women have tired o f man’s wisdom. They have turned to the Word which God has given to mankind, and they seek out the man who can present that Word. The man is found, and his first opportunity is before him, namely, to preach the Word. P r ea ch in g in G od ’ s W a y The second opportunity for preaching in the modern world is to preach in the manner God lays down. God knows best about this matter. The world is in a very skeptical mood today. The old adage, “ W e are willing to try anything once,” is not so popular as it was a few years
Holy Spirit demands, then there is an opportunity to save souls. Our Lord sought out the individual. His apostles began their work with individuals. The church of Jesus Christ has moved along through all these centuries upon the same basis, and according to the New Testament, the church will continue to call out the individual through the preaching o f the gospel until the consummation o f the age. The opportunity o f the Christian, the business o f the Christian, is to get the Word out—and the Holy Spirit will apply it to the hearts o f the hearers. Just how great an opportunity is this to proclaim the “ good news” in such a way that individuals are brought from darkness into the light ? Let ministers and all Christians experience the time when men and women are turned from Satan to God be cause the Holy Spirit has used some word o f theirs which has been given from the Scriptures, and they will never again want greater opportunities to serve their fellow men. The hour when men and women come into the knowledge that the riches in Christ Jesus have been applied by God to their lives is the hour when life truly begins for them. All the benefits o f Jesus Christ, as the covenant head of saved humanity, accrue to them who have so recently ac cepted Him as their own personal Saviour from sin and their Lord forever and ever through the eternal ages. What
a salvation this is for the individual! What a message for the individ ual need! Preaching op portunities ? Show me greater. These oppor tunities are grasped in the fullest and keenest manner by the minister who has been trained in the verities of the Scrip ture. The roots o f such a man are imbedded in soil that is kept alive by the perennial springs o f God. And the fruit that blos soms forth from such roots will be the sweetest in all the world. T h e M essage to th e W orld Lastly, th e re is the preaching opportunity o f fered in the message to
ago. The world is weary o f experimenting. The minister comes a lon g with his message, and there he stands before th is sadden ed , sin- cursed world. He has th is o p p o r tu n ity to speak, and it may be that certain members o f his audience will never hear him again. How close that minister ought to be to God before he dare speak! How thoroughly trained he should be in the W o rd ! The only way he ought to preach is the way the Holy Spirit has prescribed. He should be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4 :8 ). *President (last year) of the Student Body, Westminster Theological Seminary, Phila delphia, Pa.
Startling Conditions At a meeting in Ontario, the chairman, a Bach elor of Arts, made the statement that twenty-five years ago, when he entered university, 95% of his class were nominal Christians; at the end of his course, those graduating were 90% avowed atheists. This was twenty-five years ago, and much seed-sow ing has been done since then. According to the statement of a former official of the American Asso ciation for the Advancement of Atheism, $2,200,000 reach the coffers of the association annually. Athe ist Sunday-schools are on the increase. There are more than 6,900,000 agents of mili- . 11 , tant atheism in the world today. This * ^ is the world that requires the Word C and young men willing to preach it.
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