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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
April, 1940
King, speaking the King’s own Word spoken to me by the King Himself, my heart burning within me the while He talked with me by the way, my own soul growing strong in the incoming strength of living truth, warm from the lips of God”—this is the standard for God’s servant in the pulpit. Stand we here—each for himself? Or have we lost our warrant? Major Whittle told D. M. McIntyre once of two distinguished American preachers whom he named, who sepa rately consulted D. L. Moody on a point that troubled them. It was the same point for each. Their popularity .was unabated, great audiènces filled their churches, but sinners were not being converted to God. They said to Mr. Moody: '“Why is it? ” He said: “Because you don’t honor the Word of God in your preaching.” It was Major Whittle’s opinion, that Mr. Moody had revealed to the inquir ers the true cause of their spiritual weakness. Happily for the congregations affected, the brotherly rebuke was re ceived in all kindness. Such, then, is the mission of a ser mon. It must make for the comfort of thè troubled, must arouse the lost to a sense of their need, must gather the hearers round the throne of the as cended Lord, and must display before their awakened conscience the realities of the eternal world. When Thomas Boston heard Gabriel Temple preach, he said: “Methought. I saw heaven opened and the great God seated on His throne.” May such preaching ever be ours! It will be, if we preach the preaching God bids us. Go . . . preach the gospel. Mission Field national in its scope and responsibility. Thirteen federal camps have been established to provide an existing-place for thousands of these people. It is the hope of the Bible Institute of Los An geles to man each of. the thirteen camps for the summer months with a student pastor. Manifestly, no funds will be available from the members of the fed eral camps, for the people in them are destitute. The project must be financed by Christians who are interested in the eternal welfare of all men. Last summer, funds were available to send two groups of Biola students to minister, through song and testimony, to these needy people. The plan this year is to send out camp pastors who will be able to do a more permanent type of work than that which heretofore has been accomplished. Your gifts, large or small, will assist in carrying on this great work. . - Address all communications to: The Migrant Mission Fund, Bible Institute of Los Angeles, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles, Calif.
“No man in his time spake with such evidence and power of the Spirit; no man had so many seals of conversion. Yea, many of his hearers thought that no man since the apostles spoke with such power.” The Word in the hands of a faithful preacher should serve as does a scalpel in the hand of a skilled surgeon. One cannot help recalling the old story of the physician lecturing upon a new surgical operation. “How many times have you performed the operation?” asked the doctors. “ Sixty-five,” was the answer. “How many of youV patients recov ered?” “They all died, but the operation is most brilliant.” As we confront men to preach, may we ever be convinced that it is life or death with some souls, and that they will take their fate at our hands. Some sermons, alas, are brilliant operations. The sadness is that after them no sin- sick souls recover. The Essential for Powerful Preaching Decisions, of course, can never be se cured, no matter how cultured and clever the sermon, if the preacher of "that sermon does not believe in the authoritative Word of God. Doubt as to the message he handles will paralyze his power. Robert Bruce of Edinburgh was accustomed to say: “I have ever an eye to .my warrant.” Have we ? Do we believe that the Bible is the infal lible warrant of the King? As spokes men of the skies, do we present the truths of the Bible as being inerrant declarations? “An ambassador of the A California Four hundred thousand people in the state of California are without any ade quate presentation of the gospel. This is the tremendous challenge which con fronts the Christians of the Pacific Coast and the entire nation. Four hun dred thousand people—a number ex ceeding that of the entire population of Seattle, Washington—have no compre hensive, systematic, or sufficient gospel work being carried on among them. This company constitutes the major part of the great migrant influx which has come into the state of California during the past few years. Almost every state in the Union is represented among these migrants. They were re spected citizens of other communities, but economic circumstances have over whelmed them. Because they have lost all their material possessions, they have •come West with the hope of rehabilitat ing themselves. The United States Government recog nizes the economic problem as being a national one. The spiritual problem likewise must be recognized as being
neath a burden. Joseph Parker re peated again and again: ‘‘Preach to broken hearts.” And here is the testi mony of Ian Maclaren, whose Cure of Souls is a homiletical treatise of rare value: “ The chief end of preaching is comfort. Never can I forget what a distinguished scholar, who used to sit in my church, once said to me: ‘Your best work in the pulpit has been to put heart into men for the coming week.’ ” Then there is this, found in the midst of a bleeding page from Dr. Dale: “People want to be comforted . . . They need consolation.” J. H. Jowett, who has given us in The Preacher one of the most heart searching books on homiletics, refers to “The Ministry of the Bleeding Heart.” We cannot bless unless we bleed, for unless our hearts have experienced the consolation of Christ, we cannot hope to comfort others. The preacher must carry with him those balms, cordials, caustics to meet the clamant needs of men—healing medicines from which he himself has benefited. Yes, and souls instinctively respond to the voice of ex perience. James Stalker says, in his fine Imago Christi: “Men know they need a message from the other world, and they instinctively recognize the authen tic voice when they hear it.” But more frequently the preacher needs to be a baker rather than a physician—it is food that needs dis pensing more than medicine, for while some of the hearers need the healing balm of the gospel, the majority of them require a table spread with the living bread. May increasing power be ours to satisfy the needs of all who face us in God’s house! May grace be ours to send people away feeling that their lives have been greatly enriched through contact with the preached Word! Hear the suggestive phrase Rob ert Louis Stevenson has in one of his letters: “I’ve been to church and I am not depressed.” Further, as another phase of our study will reveal, a sermon must pro duce decisions. Augustine says that the aim of a sermon is to bend the will to action. The offioe of a sermon, accord ing to George Herbert, is to “inform and inflame.” Henry Ward Beecher’s suggestive remark is: “A sermon is a weapon of war.” It is meant to do execution, and the qualities about which we ought to be most concerned are precisely those that belong to a striking instrument. The wreathing .of gold about the hilt may be dispensed with, but the temper of the blade and the keenness of the edge are all-important. Brother, is your sword blunt? After you preach, is there a. veritable battle field before you upon which you can count the slain of the Lord? John Liv ingstone’s testimony of Robert Bruce of Edinburgh was:
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