T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S ¿1411111 iilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllll^ 1 Pulpit Pointers f ? llllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!llllllllllllllllllllllllllllll> ~ And It Still Works Years ago a famous preacher, in an address at the Baptist anniversaries in London, explained his phenomenal suc cess in the following words: I have been forty-two years in the Christian pulpit. I have never faltered in my allegiance to the highest vocation known among men. I have lived in it, and 1 hope to die in it. If I left the cross of Christ as I have endeavored roughly to explain it in general outline tonight, I might be able to preach about Christ, but I would no longer be able to preach Christ himself. The people will answer to such preaching, while all other attempts will dwindle away. Dur ing these forty-two years I have never preached about shipwrecks, murders, collisions, earthquakes, volcanic erup tions and Sunday demonstrations in support of diverse features and phases of imprudence and nonsense. I have tried to confine myself to the four cor ners of the Bible, and it has been ho confinement. It has been the liberty of the horizon, the liberty of the heavens. Tame Preachers Dr. Johnson asks, “ Are we not grow ing too quiet, too tame, too subdued? Are we not sacrificing to mere literary primness and prettiness and to a mis taken self-restraint? Our preaching,” he says, “ is too dry-eyed; there is no red blood visible under the skin. The commonplace is not vitalized; the thin wire of words is charged with no cur rent that quickens and thrills.” Men are often apparently eager for some theoretical truth but oblivious of the real purpose for which the truth is presented.— Charles L. Goodell. Good Manners Dr. John A. Broadus told of a young preacher who failed to receive a call to
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a prominent pastorate, because, on his “ trial” visit, he fumbled in his table manners, perpetrating the awful error of using his knife when he should have used his fork. Elsewhere, we have ex pressed ourselves against the serious lack in a program of education that gives more attention to social form than to spiritual culture. On the other hand, there are young people, and es pecially young preachers, who are much in need of learning what correct social usage is. Ohè of the most tiresome1 preachers we ever knew, was a certain brother who took a delight in breaking the social conventions and posed as per secuted when he had to suffer for it.. It is 'worth while to learn the difference between the u^e of the fork and the knife, and, as to that, the uses of half a dozen different forks, if some hospi table Martha is fastidious enough to require them.ig-Western Recorder. Sermon Titles An article in the Christian Herald says: “ Confess, you ministers. Did you not jot down the title that cost you the least mental unrest? You know you did not cudgel your brains to the point of creative activity. In the long run, the strength of the ministry liés in the strength of the pulpit; the strength of the pulpit lies in the fresh, stirring ser mon, the one the minister has sweat blood to produce. Such a sermon creates its own live title. A dead ser mon cannot inspire an appealing title.” Cold Sermons What words arë these from the hot heart of an English teacher* of preach ers! “ Shall we repeat an old sermon? Yes, if you can recover the. heat in which it was first made, but if your soul is no longer kindled by it, if the fire is gone out of it, and it is now but a poor dead cinder, then let it be put straightway in the place of cinders. People do not care whether ybûr ’ ser mon is old or new; the only question is, 'Is it alive?’ Alas for the minister who
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