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God.” The salvation of mankind has never been discov ered by thinkers and philosophers. “Whatever one’s notion concerning the diviné inspira tion of the Bible may be, it remains true that all we hold of religious conviction that is worth holding is derived from i t ; and if we today were to be deprived of the Bible, and our knowledge of its contents be forgotten, scholar ship would be absolutely impotent to restore and satisfy the hunger of our souls.” Scholarship had nothing to add to Paul’s message. The gospel that is the power of God unto salvation is a revela tion. Concerning the gospel which he preached, Paul de clares that it is not after men, for, he says, “I neither received it of man; neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The church will not be saved
uproar. Books on philosophy, written by the great think ers of the day, were outgrown and obsolete in the light of the great truth that Paul preached. When Paul preached, there was either a riot, a revolu tion, or a revival. The trouble with .modern preaching is that there is a lack of passion, a lack of yearning for thé souls of men. Hear the words of Christ, fastened with a nail to His cross: “If any man will come after me, let him deny him self and take up his cross and follow me.” Can any of us dare to represent Christ to men, if we know nothing of His passion? The only thing that will drive out professionalism, place the pulpit where it be longs, and bring the church back to its place of power in
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the world is for the preacher to get a new vision of Jesus Christ, to come into fellowship with Him and His suffering. After the man comes the message ! The sermon, it has been well said, is “an exhalation, a spiritual vapor emerging from the ocean depths of a preacher’s soul, the life-blood of a Christian spirit, a by-product of his life and experience, fruit on the tree of his life.” A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Hence, the important thing in a preacher and in preaching is the man. The man is the sermon, and t h e greatest need of the church at this hour is not for more men to enter the ministry, but more man in the ministry ! My friends, do not enter the ministry and take a pulpit if there is anything else you can possibly do ; unless you feel with in you the voice crying, “Woe ! Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” The world needs the gospel as it has never before
by architecture. Gothic architec ture is beautiful and inspiring and has its place, but architecture will not save the church. There is a striking illustration of the pass ing power of architecture to be found in the little town of Phar- magousta, on the Isle of Cyprus. There stand two beautiful stone Gothic churches, with glorious stained glass windows. One is today used by the Standard Oil Company as a storehouse for oil tins; and the other is a Moham medan mosque! What Rome needed was a her ald of the gospel; one commis sioned and authenticated by God. What the world today needs is preachers—preachers with a mes sage; preachers who know God; preachers who consider the gos pel a trust, and who will dis charge that trust upon the 'prin ciple of pleasing God, not man. Paul proposed to discharge
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Preach the Word ive th e bible to the pebple, un adulterated, pure, unaltered, un explained, uncheapened, and then see it work its who lesome work through the whole nature. I t is \very difficult' indeed for a man or for a \ boy who .knows the Scripture ever to kj get away from it. It follows him like the memory of his mother. I t haunts him like an old song. It reminds him like the word of an old and revered teacher. I t forms a part of the warp and woof of his life. —W oodrow W ilson .
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his debt to the Greek and to the Barbarian by pouring his life into his preaching. “I am a debtor . . . so, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach.” W it h P aul , P reaching was a P assion In this same letter to the Romans, he says, literally: “I caught myself wishing, praying, that I were ac cursed from Christ for my kinsmen according to the flesh.” What a phrase! “I caught myself wishing . . . ” He discovered his ruling passion. In the soul of the preacher a fire was kindled. He was filled with Christ, eaten up of Christ, burning with Christ. Hence, when Paul preached, he offered himself, spirit, soul, and body. The finest tribute ever paid him was.the accusation brought against him and Silas by the citizens of. Thessa- lonica, who said: “These that have turned the world up side down are come hither also.” Paul’s preaching in Ephesus was so full of fire and power that his converts gathered ten thousand dollars’ worth of pagan books that they had been reading, piled them high, and set fire to them, stirring the city with the
needed it, and the only gospel that will save is the old gospel. It must be preached as Paul preached it. Only a living soul with the living experience of the living Christ can preach a living gospel to souls dead in trespasses and sins. Let me repeat with all of the emphasis and power God gives me, and I would that I could write it in letters of light : I t is the man that makes the sermon; the sermon is the man. The first commencement sermon ever delivered to prospective preachers was that spoken by Christ to His disciples and recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew. In that message Jesus Christ puts all of the emphasis upon what a man is, upon being, not having. Character, for the preacher, is supreme. The difference in preachers in the pulpit is not a difference in eloquence, rhetoric, ideas, or training, but in the men themselves. Therefore, young men, guard the heart, for out of it are the issues of life. See that your soul is growing daily in a living experience with the living Christ. The obtaining of a sheepskin or the laying on of the
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