International Theological Library THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER BY ALFRED ERNEST GARVIE M.A.(Oxon.), D.D.(GIas.) PRINCIPAL OF NEW COLLEGE, LONDON NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1921 J%« Jlights of TnmslaZtfm. nmd of B^prodvetitm cure B^Rserve/t TO THE SACRED MEMORY AND BLESSED PRESENCE OP A WIFE BELOVED PREFACE. Aggrieved artists have said that art critics are artists who have themselves failed. Preachers may cherish a similar suspicion when there comes to them a book on preaching from a theological college, as it is commonly assumed that, whatever may be known and taught within its walls, the science and art of preaching is not. Thirty-five years ago the call came to the writer to abandon the work on which he was then engaged to give himself to the preaching of the Gospel. The sense of that call has never failed ; and although God's Providence has led him to his present work as a teacher of preachers, it is the same holy task in which he knows himself engaged. Preaching, as much as when he was in the pastorate, is still the work which is his life's aim and joy. The writer has found enough acceptance and appreciation in his manifold labours throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain to encourage him in the hope that he may be able to expound the doctrine as one who has not altogether failed in the practice. The favourable reception accorded to his previous book, A Guide to Preachers, which was intended for lay preachers, but which has been found helpful by ministers also, further emboldens him to essay the perilous task. This he can at least claim, that none could be more interested in, and devoted to, the work of preaching than he knows himself to be. It is not improbable that some who have a genius for preaching might be less successful in dealing with the science and art than others who, lacking that supreme gift, viii rKKFACK b;vvo ijivfii num> atiotit.ion to (ho Ihoory and luothod. Tim Nvritor trusts (hat his vohiiuo will at lo;>st show that ho has not s^vircd hia lahonrs tH> «lia(>h;irj»o faithfully tho task undortakon. In dooiding on tho ])lan of tho hook, tho writor first aakod hinisolf the question, For whoiu should ho write, for the scholar deliijhting in the minutiae of tho history and tho literalure of the suhjeot, or for the minister desiring to he helped li> make the host of his eallinu; as a preaeher ? While some of liis interests drew him to the first, tho dominating purpose of his life has cover by preachers, who might be alarmed by any display of learning. It is this ptirpose which explains the treatment in the first division of the history of preaching, and the adoption of the thiixi division. Instead of attempting an exhaustive aecouut of the life and work of the great preachers, such as histories of preaching otVer, ho has thought it more in accord with his ]nnpose to throw into prominence the ^ difterent ty^xjs of preaching in t.he past, in order to show the large place filled, and the great part played, by preach- ing in the l>ogress of the Kingdom of God, for he believes with Paul that it bjis ever been " God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe," ^ and to accomplish His purjwse in tlie world. The fact that the Afastei^ in other religions were all ' 1 Oo 1". / i I,} n ii tt preacbmrt, tSb/nit \ifi'^ iridl>:ij<-jiiifi,hhi to mfjral and religioua life prea/jhiftg ml Tbijj hhi\/mf^\ HurvHy will, it i* Loped, give every Qhriaibin preaclier a higher fiease of the dignity, ble«&edrj.e*j«, and idHprmnHfAlity . a« he endeavours to deal with. He de8ire« to haod over to otherK ftome of the results of his own ezperieikce. In trttining men for preaching, Ixe has further dijacovea-ed how needful jiist such simple, pr^MCtical oounftela are, especially for men at the l>€^iJiing ol their ministry. TTae present situation for the Christian pulpit presents »o many [perplexities and difficulties, that an attempt to face it frankly and fully niay prove helpful to many. A« the preachier may invoke God's blessing in his preaching of the ''Gospel, with a like confidence wotild the writer ask for God's blessing on his endeavour to help and encourage preachers to preach l^etter. The illustrations of the history in quotations from sermons are purposely taken frorji popular collectioiis, as likely to he more accessible to those for whom the book is written than if taken from volume?-: difficult to obtain ; and for permission to make these extracts the writer is much indebted to the editoru and publishers : The Intematiorxal Univeriiity Society : (J'tf/yriud M?« of EUjfl'OAWA. Funk & Wagnalls Ooini/smy: TU Wc/rlda Great Messrs. Cassell & <'>j. : 77(>j W/ranj of Eru/lvih lyUera^ t'o/re (" Illustrations of English iiellgion ";. lAfsnerH Sands & Go. : (??•««< French tSerrruz-ra. In dealifig with tlie hisU^ry of preaching, the writer gratefully a/;knowledges his great indebte^lness Uj the works X PREFACE of Hering, Dargan, Van Oosterzee, and Ker. Without their assistance the book could not have been written, and to their works he would refer all who desire to become familiar with the records of preachers in greater detail than the scope and purpose of the present volume allowed. His own independent contribution to Homiletic^ he has ventured to offer in the second and third divisions. If in any degree he can communicate to preachers his own enthusiasm for his calling, he will thankfully acknowledge that he has not laboured in vain. The volume was nearly completed when the great world-war came to shake so many things that can be shaken only that the things which cannot be shaken may remain, and its publication has been delayed on that account. It has not been found necessary to alter much that had been written, as the Gospel to be preached remains ; and little had been written about the purpose and the method of preaching that Gospel which appeared to need revision in the light of the new day dawning upon the world with the conclusion of peace. The necessity and the urgency of the preacher's task has been only emphasised by the tragedy of human sin and suffering which is now drawing to a close ; and no discovery has been made in human thought and life which need alter the conviction that the Gospel is the power and the wisdom of God unto the salvation of all that believe, and that accordingly there is no worthier calling for any man than to be a Christian preacher. ALFRED E. GARVIE. TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PAOB I. The Importakce of Preaching .... 1 1. Tlie place of preaching in the Church of Christ . 1 2. The modem challenge of this place . . .2 3. Preaching as essential and necessary as worship . 4 4. „ „ „ „ „ „ work . . 6 5. The dependence of worship and work on preaching . 7 II. The Definition of Preaching .... 8 1. " Divine truth through human personality for eternal life" 8 2. The truth to be preached .... 9 3. Preaching of narrower scope . . , .10 4. The personality preaching . . . .11 5. The object of preaching, faith, duty, hope . . 12 III. The Characteristics of Christian Preaching. . 14 1. The Christian preacher as a messenger . . .14 2. The interpretation of the message for each age . , 15 3. The message evangelical . . . , .16 4. „ „ experimental . . • .17 5. „ „ ethical . , , , .19 6. „ „ universal . • , , .20 PART I. THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. INTRODUCTORY. 1. The study of the subject through its history . . * 22 2. The two methods of treating the subject , . 23 3. Subjects omitted . . . , .23 xu TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Jesus Christ the Lord. PASK I, Jesus as Teacher . . . . , ,25 1. The place of Jesus in Christianity . . .25 2. The importance of the teaching of Jesus . . 25 3. The literary sources : Synoptic and Johannine . 27 4. The manner of Jesus' teaching . . . ,28 II. The Characteristics of His Teaching . , ,28 1. Its authoritativeness . . . , .29 2. Its novelty — (1) Originality, (2) continuity . . 30 3. Its graciousness — (1) Grace as the content ; (2) but con- joined with severity . . . . .31 4. Its attractiveness — (1) In manner and method ; (2) charm allied with power . . . .32 5. Reasons for its attractiveness — (1) Occasional but not ephemeral ; (2) " popular intelligibility and impres- sive pregnancy " . . . , .34 III. The Intellectual Ability op the Teaching . . 35 1. Pithy, pointed, clear, and forceful sayings . . 36 2. Truth presented in a tale or picture . . .37 3. The two kinds of parables . . . ,38 4. The analogy of the visible and its expression . . 40 5. The use of concrete instances — (1) The maximum demand; (2) the varying applications of the prin- ciple ; (3) avoidance of casuistry. Conclusion — His continued teaching . , . , ,40 CHAPTER IL Apostles, Prophets, Teachers. I. The Ministry of the Apostolic Church 1. The call and work of the Twelve and the Seventy 2. The equipment of the Twelve and the Seventy 3. The significance of the passages about the Church 4. The promises of the farewell discourse 5. The larger company of the disciples 6. The meaning of the term apostle 7. The gift of prophecy 8. The manifold charismata II. The Preaching of the Apostolic Age 1. The times and places of preaching 2. The contents of Peter's preaching 3. „ M „ Stephen's preaching 44 44 45 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 61 63 54 TABLE OF CONTENTS xm PASS 4. The contents of Paul's preaching . , .54 5. The indications given in the Epistles — (1) Paul's j (2) the Homilies , . , , . .57 CHAPTER III. Apologists and Fathers. L The Gentile Environment op the Christian Church 59 1. A world familiar with preaching . . .69 2. The current methods of preaching . . .61 3. The influence of these methods on the Church — (1) Gradual limitation of preaching to an official class ; (2) the resemblances between preachers and sophists 63 [1. Preaching in the Second and Third Century . 65 1. Preaching as a part of public worship . . .65 2. The oldest Christian homily outside of New Testa- ment . . . . . , .66 3. Hippolytus' sermon, In Sanctam Theophaniam . . 68 4. Justin Martyr as a preacher . . . ,69 5. The preaching of Tertullian and Cyprian . , 70 6. The Homilies of Origen . . . . .71 III. Preaching in the Fourth Century in the East . 72 1. The general character of the preaching — (1) The peril of seeking popularity ; (2) the safeguard against the peril in the close connection with Scripture ; (3) the more definite form of sermons ; (4) the influences of theological controversy . . . .72 2. Basil the Great of Csesarea — (1) His merits as a preacher; (2) example of his preaching . . . .75 3. Gregory Nazianzen — (1) The secret of his success ; (2) his eulogy of Basil . . . . .76 4. Gregory of Nyssa — (1) His inferiority as preacher ; (2) example of his preaching . . , .78 5. John Chrysostom — (1) His supreme merits; (2) his homilies and sermons ; (3) example of his preaching . 79 rV". Preaching in the Fourth and the Fifth Century in the West . . . . , .82 1, Ambrose — (1) His personality ; (2) Augustine's testi- mony . . . . . . .82 2. Augustine— (1) His historical importance; (2) his qualities as a preacher ; (3) his sermons ; (4) his rhetorical art ; (5) his Doctrina Christiana ; (6) example of his preaching . . . .83 XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE V. Pekaohing of following Centories , . .87 1. General characteristics . , , . .87 2. Preachers in the West . . , , .88 3. The forms of the sermons . ' . . .89 CHAPTER IV. Priest, Monk, and Frla.r : Soholastio and Mystic. I. Missionary and Vernacular Preaching . . 90 1. Missionaries in Scotland — (1) St. Rule, St. Ninian, St. Palladius, St. Patrick, St. Columba ; (2) Instruc- tiones Sancti Columbani . . . .90 2. Missionaries to Germany, France, England — (1) Sermons of St. Boniface, Eligius ; (2) Augustine's mission to Anglo-Saxons ; (3) address by Lebuin . 91 3. Preaching within the monasteries — (1) Collations ; (2) sermons of the Venerable Bede . . .96 4. Appointment of parochial clergy — (1) Need of reform ; (2) Charlemagne as reformer ; (3) Homi liarium ; (4) the hold of tradition and the growth of superstition . . . . . .96 6. The unoriginal and parasitic character of preaching . 98 II. The Improvement in Preaching from 1200 onwards 1. The conditions of the improvement 2. Bernard of Clairvaux — (1) His general characteristics (2) the contents of his sermons ; (3) the form of hia sermons ; (4) example of his preaching 3. The Anglo-Saxon homilies 4. The preaching of the monks of St. Victor III. The Preaching of the Friars , 1. The rise of the friars 2. St. Francis of Assist 3. The Waldenses . 4. St. Dominic 5. Antony of Padua 6. Berthold of Regensburg 7. Works on preaching 8. Thomas Aquinas 9. Blending of mysticism and scholasticism : Bonaven tura 10. Speculative mystics— (1) Meister Eckhart; (2) John Tauler ; (3) Henry Suso 99 99 100 103 105 105 105 107 108 108 110 111 112 113 114 114 TABLE OF CONTENTS xv PAOX IV. The Beginnings of Revolt .... 116 1. John Wyclif— (1) Schoolman, politician, preacher, reformer ; (2) translation of the Bible, and employ- ment of preachers; (3) his sermons; (4) example of his preaching . . . . .116 2. John Huss . . ... • .120 3. Savonarola — (1) Home's description of the man ; (2) George Eliot's description of his preaching . .121 4. John Gerson ...... 123 5. General characteristics — (1) Attention to homiletics ; (2) four kinds of preaching .... 124 CHAPTER V. Reformers and Dogmatists. I. The Revival op Preaching at the Reformation . 127 1. Martin Luther — (1) His preaching ; (2) his exposition of the Holy Scriptures and declaration of the gospel ; (3) his views on preaching ; (4) example of his preaching ...... 127 2. Protestant preaching under Luther's influence . . 131 3. Some notable preachers in Lutheranism . . 132 4. Ulrich Zwingli 133 5. John Calvin— (1) Theologian; (2) expositor; (3) preacher ; (4) Home's estimate . . .133 6. John Knox— (1) The effect of his preaching ; (2) ex- ample of his preaching ; (3) the more attractive aspect 136 7. Hugh Latimer — (1) His career ; (2) example of his preaching ...... 139 8. Homiletics — (1) Erasmus' Ecclesiastes ; (2) Melanch- thon and Hyperius . . . . .141 II. The Decline op Preaching in Protestantism . .143 1. The rapidity of the decline .... 143 2. The characteristics of the period . . . 143 3. The preaching of Lutheran mysticism . • .145 CHAPTER VL The Anglican and the Puritan, the Churchman AND the Nonconformist, the Evangelical and the Moderate. L The Anglican Pulpit ..... 147 1. The Reformation in the Church of England . . 147 \ 2. Grindal's plea for freedom in preaching , . 148 XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS VAOB 148 3. Richard Hooker as typical Anglican . , 4. Other preachers — (1) Bishop Andrewes, John Donne, Joseph Hall, Jeremy Taylor ; (2) an example . 160 II, The Puritan and Nonconformist Pulpit . , 152 1. The manner of preaching .... 162 2. Some Puritan preachers at Cambridge . . , 163 3. Henry Smith . . . , . .155 4. Thomas Adams . , . , , .156 5. Dr. Thomas Goodwin. ..... 157 6. John Bunyan ...... 158 7. Richard Baxter ...... 159 8. George Fox . . . . . .160 III. Later Preachers of Church and Nonconformity . 161 1. John Tillotson . . , . . .161 2. Robert South . . . . . ,162 3. The Deistic Controversy . , . .163 4. Bishop Butler . . . . . .164 5. Isaac Watts and Philip Doddridge . . .166 IV. Evangelicals and Moderates in Scotland . . 167 1. The Marroxo of Modern Divinity and the " Marrow men " — (1) The book itself ; (2) Thomas Boston, Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine ; (3) Boston's The Fourfold State of Man; {4) Soliloquy on the Art of Man-fishing . . 167 2. The Moderates — (1) Alexander Carlyle ; (2) Hugh Blair . . . . . . .169 CHAPTER VIL Orators and Courtiers. I. The Reformed Pulpit in France . , .171 1. Characteristics of the Reformed pulpit . . . 171 2. Some Reformed preachers . . . .172 3. Jacques Saurin . . . . . .173 II. The Roman Catholic Pulpit in France . . 174 1. Characteristics of the Roman Catholic pulpit . .174 2. Individual differences of the preachers . . .175 3. Jacques Benigne Bossuet — (1) Factors in his develop- ment ; (2) example of his preaching . . .176 4. Louis de Bourdaloue — (1) His excellences ; (2) example of his preaching ..... 177 5. Jean Baptiste Massillon — (1) His career ; (2) his counsels to the young king ; (3) hie counsels to his clergy ; (4) example of his preaching . . 179 TABLE OF CONTENTS xvu 183 185 is: 187 192 194 6. Frangois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon-(l) His preaching ; (2) his Dialogues and Letter 7. Reaction on the Reformed pulpit CHAPTER VIII. Pietists, Rationalists and Mediators. L The Pietists . . • • .' , . \ 1. Philipp Jacob Spener-(l) His historical importance , (2) his development and career; (3) his Fia Desideria; (4) his relation to Luther ; (5) his dependence on and zeal for the Bible ; (6) his form of preaching ; (7) an outline of a sermon . _ . 2 August Hermann Francke-(l) His characteristics; (2) the influence of his preaching ; (3) sketch of sermon. .•••** 3 Reasons for the failure of pietism . • • 4 Johann Albrecht Bengel-(l) Character of his preach- ing ; (2) his influence : Oetinger, Hahn, Stemhofer. 195 6 Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorft" . • 196 6 Pietism in Elberfeld and Barmen-(l) Gerhard Ter- steegen; (2) Jung Stilling, Lavater, Hamann, Claudius ...••• 198 II. The Rationalists . . • • 't -. ' 1. The transition from pietism to rationalism : Johann Lorenz Mosheim . . • • • 2. The German enlightenment— (1) Thomasius ; (2) Wolflf . . . • 3. The degradation of the pulpit . . • • 4. Some notable preachers— (1) Johann Joachim Spald- ing ; (2) George Joachim ZoUikofer ; (3) Franz Volkmar Reinhard ; (4) Joh. Caspar Hafeli . 202 III. The Mediators . . • • * , . * 1. Johann Gotf ried Herder— (1) His ideal of preaching ; (2) his sermons ; (3) a characteristic passage . . 204 2. Friedrich Daniel Schleiermacher— (1) His position, religious and theological ; (2) his combination of pietism and rationalism; (3) his conception of preaching ; (4) his own preaching . . .207 3. Schools of preachers— (1) The Mediating School : Karl Immanuel Nitzsch and Friederich August Tholuck ; (2) Pietists: Ludwig Hofacker and Claus Harms; (3) Biblical preachers: Rudolf Stier and Friede- rich Wilhelm Krummacher .... 209 200 201 xviu TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER IX. Evangelists and Missionaries. rAOB L The Evangelical Revival in England . , ,211 1. Its historical importance .... 211 2. John Wesley — (1) His religious development ; (2) his distinctive theology ; (3) the peril and the power of this type of theology . . . .212 3. George Whitefield— (1) His religious development ; (2) the effect of his first sermon .... 214 4. The joint labours of Wesley and Whitefield — (1) Wesley's defence of open-air preaching; (2) the extent and effects of their movement . . 215 6. John Wesley's preaching . . » . 216 6. George Whitefield's preaching .... 217 7. An example of Wesley's preaching . . . 217 8. „ „ „ Whitefield's preaching . . . 219 9. The organisation of lay preaching — (1) The need of this ministry ; (2) Wesley's defence ; (3) notable lay preachers ...... 220 II. The Extension of the Movement . . . 221 1. Its influence among Churchmen and Dissenters in England . . . . . .221 2. The New England revival : Jonathan Edwards . 222 3. The influence in Scotland — (1) John Maclaurin ; (2) John Erskine ; (3) the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland : Dr. Andrew Thomson . . 223 4. Dr. Thomas Chalmers— (1) His religious awakening; (2) his preaching ; (3) an example . . . 224 6. Robert Murray M'Cheyne and Edward Irving. . 227 6. Scottish Independency ..... 227 7. The Evangelical Union . , . . .228 8. Dwight L. Moody . . . . .229 III. Modern Foreign Missions. .... 230 1. The first-fruits of the Evangelical Revival— (1) Previous missionary effort; (2) William Carey and the Baptist Missionary Society ; (3) the Serampore Mission . . . . .230 2. TheLondonMissionarySociety—(l) Its formation; (2) the mission to the South Seas: John Williams . 232 3. The Church Missionary Society : Henry Martyn . 233 4. The Church of Scotland Missions : Alexander Dufif . 234 6. The American Board of Foreign Missions : Adoniram Judson . . . . . .234 TABLE OF CONTENTS xix 6. The opening of China — (1) Eobert Morrison ; (2) James Legge ; (3) Griffith John and Timothy Richard ; (4) James Gilmour ..... 236 7. The spread of the gospel in the South Seas — (1) Bishop Patteson ; (2) J. G. Paton ; (3) James Chalmers, "Tamate" . . . . . .237 8. Light in "Darkest Africa"— (1) Alexander Mackay of 238 Uganda ; (2) Robert Moffatt ; (3) David Livingstone 9. The value of the record of missions to the Christian Preacher ...... 240 CHAPTER X- The Repairers of the Breach. 1. The difficulty of a comprehensive title . , . 241 2. The breach between church and world . . . 241 3. The conservative, progressive, mediating tendencies . 241 The Conservative Tendency .... 242 1. John Henry Newman — (1) The Tractarian movement ; (2) Newman's personality ; (3) his preaching ; (4) example of his preaching .... 242 2. Henry Parry Liddon — (1) His career and character; (2) example of his preaching .... 245 3. Charles Had don Spurgeon — (1) His characteristics; (2) reason of his success ; (3) example of his preach- ing . . . . . . .247 4. Thomas Guthrie, John Ker, John Cairns . . 250 The Progressive Tendency .... 251 1. Frederick William Robertson — (1) His career and character ; (2) his sermons ; (3) example of his preaching . . . . . .251 2. Henry Ward Beecher — (1) His view of preaching; (2) his characteristics ; (3) example of his preaching . 253 3. Joseph Parker — (1) His characteristics; (2) example of his preaching ..... 255 4. James Marti neau ..... 257 5. William and John Pulsford .... 257 6. John Caird — (1) His oratory ; (2) example of his preaching ...... 258 7. Edward Caird and Thomas Hill Green . , . 260 The Mediating Tendency ..... 260 1. Phillips Brooks— (1) His characteristics; (2) conclu- sion of his book on preaching , , . 260 2. William Connor Magee and Frederic William Farrar . 262 XX TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGB 3. Alexander Maclaren — (1) Testimonies to his greatness ; (2) causes of his success ; (3) his methods of prepara- tion ; (4) sayings on the preacher's calling . . 263 4. Robert William Dale — (1) His doctrinal preaching ; (2) his style ...... 265 5. Andrew Martin Fairbairn .... 267 6. Hugh Price Hughes 268 7. Charles Silvester Home — (1) His career; (2) "The Romance of Modern Preaching " . . . 269 8. The appeal of the dead to the living preachers. . 270 PART II. THE CREDENTIALS, QUALIFICATIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE PREACHER. Introductory — The History of Preaching and THE Preacher To-day. CHAPTER I. The Preacher as Apostle, Prophet, and Scribe. I. The Preacher as Apostle .... 273 1. The personal experience of Christ . . . 273 2. The personal vocation by Christ — (1) The inward call ; (2) the outward confirmation . , . 275 3. The authority of the preacher as apostle, and its obligation ...... 276 4. The maintenance of the historical continuity of the Church 278 II. The Preacher as Prophet .... 278 1. The spiritual equipment of the preacher as Christian . 278 2. The spiritual equipment of the preacher as prophet . 279 3. The duty of true and the danger of false prophecy . 280 4. The difference between the ancient and the modern prophet ..»•.. 281 III. The Preacher as Scribe ..... 282 1 . The dependence of the preacher on the Holy Scriptures . 282 2. The problem of the results of modern scholarship for the preacher — (1) The duty of candour and courage in dealing with the Bible ; (2) the duty of consider- ateness in dealing with the Bible ; (3) the principles to be followed in dealing with the Bible . . 283 3. The results of modern scholarship in relation to the Christian Gospel — (1) The results of secondary and TABLE OF CONTENTS XXI PAQE 286 296 296 of primary importance distinguished ; (2) the results not really adverse to the trustworthiness of the Gospel ; (3) the results in the light of the self- witness of the Gospel ; (4) the results as advantageous to the preacher ..•••• 4. The obligation on the preacher to study according to the best methods— (1) The right method of study— the historical ; (2) the profitableness of the right method ^^^ 5. The value of expository preaching , . • 291 CHAPTER II. The Preacher as Scholar, Sage, Seer, Saint. I. The Preacher as Scholar . • • .293 1. The relation of the scribe to the scholar . .293 2. The scholarship necessary for the preacher- (1) Physical science ; (2) general history ; (3) philosophy ; (4) study of religions . . . • • 294 II. The Preacher as Sage . . . • • 1. The exercise of prudence and wisdom in intellectual questions . . • • • • 2. The exercise of prudence and wisdom in moral questions —(1) The dependence of morality on religion in Christianity ; (2) the double challenge to be met by the Christian moralist ; (3) the application of Chris- tian ethics in modern society ; (4) the necessary qualifications of the Christian preacher . . 298 3. The exercise of prudence and wisdom in religious questions— (1) The challenge of Christian theology by science, criticism and philosophy ; (2) the need of spiritual discernment as well as knowledge . . 302 [II. The Preacher as Seer ..... 304 1. The need of the certainty of the reality of God . 304 2. The mistake of mysticism regarding the knowledge of God 3. The methods of the culture of the devout life IV. The Preacher as Saint . 1. The common call to sainthood . 2. The obligation of sainthood in the preacher 3. The sins which specially beset the preacher— (1) The desire for popularity ; (2) the assertion of self ; (3) the greed for gain ; (4) inconsistency of life ; and an artificial manner in and out of pulpit . .311 4. The preacher's place among his fellow-men . . 314 306 308 309 309 310 xxu TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER III. The Pebacher as Priest, Teacher, Pastoe and Evangelist. PASI I. The Preacher as Priest ..... 317 1. Preaching as well as conduct of worship a priestly act . 317 2. The sermon as an act of worship in praise or prayer . 317 3. The correction of the preacher's excessive subjectivity 318 4. The conduct of worship by the preacher . . 319 5. The argument for and against a liturgy . . 320 6. The effect on the hearers of the view of the sermon as an act of worship ..... 322 7. The practical consequences of this conception as regards the intention of the preacher, and the im- pression on the hearers .... 323 II. The Preacher as Teacher .... 324 1. Reasons for the revolt against doctrinal preaching, and its dangers ...... 324 2. The need of a knowledge of the principles and methods of teaching ...... 326 3. The preacher's function as a teacher of teachers . 327 4. The importance of teaching in the pulpit . . 328 5. The need of method in choice of themes and texts . 329 III. The Preacher as Pastor ..... 329 1. The demand on the preacher of the varied needs of the congregation ...... 329 2. The value of pastoral experience and service to the preacher ...... 331 3. The appeal of the pulpit to men as regards business interests and social problems, and its danger . 332 4. The value of the science of psychology for the cure of souls ....... 335 IV. The Preacher as Evangelist .... 336 1. The duty of the preacher as an evangelist . . 336 2. The danger of extreme views and false assumptions . 337 3. The lessons taught by psychology — (1) The variety of religious experience ; (2) the influence of the natural on the spiritual development ; (3) the unsoundness of common evangelistic methods . . . 338 4. The value of a series of meetings conducted by a minister ...... 339 6. The danger of any stereotyped evangelistic method . 340 6. The duty of " home" evangelisation by the preacher . 341 7. The preaching of the missionary abroad . . . 342 TABLE OF CONTENTS xxm PART III. THE PREPARATION AND THE PRODUCTION OF THE SERMON. INTRODUCTORY. PAOB 1. The narrower and the wider sense of preparation . 344 2. The dominant interest of the sermon — (1) Not self- expression ; (2) not scripture exposition ; (3) not private concerns of the hearers . . . 345 3. Ciod's message to men ..... 347 4. The preferable form of the sermon — (1) Not the homily, but the sermon ; (2) opposition of topical and expository preaching not absolute ; (3) reasons for preferring the topical sermon : (a) material, (6) formal ; (4) the expository method of the topical sermon . 348 5. The relation of homiletics and rhetoric . .351 6. The freedom of the preacher and his need of guidance 353 CHAPTER I. The Charactee op the Sermon. 1. Variety of form of the Christian minister's public work — (1) Delivering a lecture; (2) teaching Bible class or Sunday school ; (3) offering a few remarks ; (4) giving an address ; (5) making a speech . . 355 2. Edifying and evangelising preaching— (1) Confirmation by confession of the truth ; (2) evangelisation neces- sary in every Church ; (3) combining edification and evangelisation ..... 357 3. Adaptation of sermon to differences of age and circum- stance— (1) Sermons to boys and girls ; (2) sermons to young men and young women ; (3) sermons to the middle-aged ; (4) sermons to the aged, sick, bereaved, etc. ...... 360 4. Determination of the definite object of the sermon — (1) The aesthetic and practical demand for unity; (2) didactic, devotional, and practical sermons . 363 5. Consideration of the interests of the hearers — (1) Acci- dental, formal, and artificial interests ; (2) more permanent and universal interests : (a) nature, {b) history, (c) man, {d) Christ alone supreme ; (3) the three interests of the Gospel, dogmatic, ethical and personal : (a) difference of hearers' and preacher's interest, {h) method of presenting the truth . . 365 XXIV TABLE OF CONTENTS PAQS 6. The influence of the occasion on the purpose of the sermon — (1) Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide; (2) Peace and Christian unity ; (3) the Christian year ; (4) natural seasons ; (5) Temperance Sunday ; (6) Missionary Sunday ; (7) Civic Sunday ; (8) Sunday- scliool anniversary ; (9) students' day ; (10) anni- versary service; (11) all occasions subordinate to main end of preaching Christ ; (12) baptism, etc. . 370 CHAPTER II. The Choice of Subjects and Texts. 1. The use of the text in the sermon — (1) Objections to ; (2) reasons for ; (3) dealing with difficulties of the practice ...... 378 2. The rules for the proper use of the text — (1) Finding the Word of God in the Scriptures ; (2) not impos- ing the Word of God dogmatically ; (3) not using wrong readings or false renderings ; (4) adhering to the correct historical exegesis . . . 379 3. The ways of finding the text — (1) Inspiration, provi- dence, accident ; (2) systematic study of the Scrip- tures ; (3) method in choice of texts , . . 382 4. The choice of the subject for a sermon — (1) The associa- tion of a text with a subject : (a) inference from general to particular or particular to general, (b) reasoning from analogy, (c) difference of importance of idea in text and subject, {d) suggestion of a subject in a text, (e) selection of one subject out of a number in a text, (/) the text as the starting-point of the subject ; (2) method in the choice of subjects . 385 5. The necessary scope of the text — (1) Not to be deter- mined by chapter and verse divisions ; (2) but by the unity of the subject ; (3) a unity not to be divided, nor unities combined . . . 390 6. The Bible of the closet, the classroom and the pulpit . 391 CHAPTER III. The Contents of the Sermon. 1. The order of treatment of contents and arrangement . 393 2. Facts, ideas or ideals, definitions and judgments— (1) Exposition of facts — description and narration ; (2) exposition of ideas and ideals ; (3) the requireinenta TABLE OF CONTENTS xxv of a definition ; (4) the use of instances ; (5) the move- ment of thought in judgments . . . 394 3. Reasons and reasoning — (1) Giving reasons; (2) the kinds of reasons to be given ; (3) following a line of reasoning ; (4) the forms of reasoning : (a) deductive reasoning, (b) analogical reasoning, (c) a fortiori reasoning, (d) inductive reasoning, («) argumentum ad hominem and redudio ad absurdum, (/) thesis, antithesis, synthesis ..... 398 4. The appeal to motives — (1) The human affections ; (2) admiration for greatness, wisdom, goodness ; (3) reverence for truth and holiness ; (4) the desire for happiness ; (5) the taste for beauty ; (6) the feeling of honour ; (7) the dread of ridicule ; (8) the sense of humour ; (9) the social feeling . . . 410 5. The personality of the preacher — (1) Unction ; (2) authority . . . . . .417 6. The gathering of the material — (1) The "envelope" method; (2) the "note-book" method; (3) the * meditation " method . . , 418 CHAPTER IV. The Arrangement of the Sermon. 1. The need of arrangement in a sermon . . . 421 2. The value of divisions in a sermon — (1) to the preacher ; (2) to the hearers .... 422 3. The unity-in-variety of the sermon . . . 425 4. The announcement of the text at the beginning of the sermon ...... 425 5. The general need for an introduction — (1) The " occasional " introduction ; (2) the " expository " introduction ...... 426 6. The statement of the subject of the sermon — (1) The statement as a theme or a thesis ; (2) the limitations of the thesis; (3) the "wide" and the "narrow" theme ; (4) the theses the Scriptures supply . . 429 7. The discovery of the divisions of the sermon — (1) Division as the " natural development " of the text ; (2) the use of the categories of thought ; (3) the logi- cal rules to be observed ; (4) the treatment of the parts of a sermon ..... 432 8. The arrangement from the oratorical standpoint as well as the logical — (1) The need of " continuous * XXVI TABLE OF C0NTP:NTS movement; (2) the need of "progressive" move- ment ; (3) the importance of transitions . . 436 9. The conclusion, or the peroration — (1) A conclusion not always necessary ; (2) special application to different hearers ; (3) the conclusion as focus of argument or appeal ; (4) the conclusion as continued contact with hearers ; (5) the conclusion as summit of the ascent of the sermon ; (6) the fitting close in prayer or praise . . • , . 440 CHAPTER V. The Composition of the Seemon. 1. The need of writing for the preacher . , , 443 2. The sermon as literature .... 443 3. The place of beauty in the sermon . , . 444 4. The sermon as a speech and not an essay . . 445 6. The simplicity of language .... 446 6. The danger of vulgar language, Journalese and Jargon 447 7. The forming of a good style — (1) Not by imitation, but assimilation ; (2) from poetry and the English Bible . . . . . . .448 8. The qualities of purity and lucidity— (1) Purity ; (2) lucidity or perspicuity ; (3) order . . . 450 9. Interest in expression as well as ideas . . . 453 10. The quality of beauty (or grace) — (1) Unity -in-variety ; (2) concrete language : (3) danger of the ornamental 454 11. The quality of strength ..... 456 12. Colour and movement in style — (1) Colour ; (2) move- ment ; (3) variety and elegance . . . 458 13. The two paradoxes of style .... 460 CHAPTER VI. The Deliveky of the Sermon. 1. Different methods of delivery— (1) Memorising ; (2) reading ; (3) extempwc speech, with (a) fully written MS, {h) notes, (c) outline ; (4) the advantage of the spoken over the read sermon .... 462 2. The conditions of facility in free speech — (1) Fulness of knowledge ; (2) clearness of thought ; (3) orderly arrangeuieut ; (4) abundant and varied vocabulary ; (5) previous meditation and emotion . 465 3. The demands upon the voice .... 469 TABLE OF CONTENTS xxvii PAOE 4. The training of the voice — (1) Voice-production; (2) enunciation or articulation ; (3) accent ; (4) native accent ; (5) pronunciation ; (6) projection ; (7) ex- pression : (a) soul and speech, (b) means of expression, (c) the use of the voice . . . 470 5. The use of gesture ..... 476 6. The earthly vessel worthy of the heavenly treasure . 477 ABBREVIATIONS. As very frequent reference will be made to certain works, the ) I lowing abbreviations will be used : Crowned Masterpieces of Eloquence . , , CME Hie TForld's Great Sermoiis Library of English Literature : Religion Ker's History of Preaching Dargan's History of Preaching . . Bering's Lehrbuch der Homiletik . Van Uosterzee's Practical Theology . WGS LELR KHP DHP HLH OPT THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER. INTRODUCTION. 1. Wheee Christ is, there is His Church, for His own promise is that " where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." ^ To this Church, in virtue of His authority and in reliance on His presence, He entrusted a mission to the world. " All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." ^ Paul, the chief of the apostles, did not misunderstand his commission when he subordinated the symbolic ordinance to the evangelical proclamation and boldly declared, " Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." ^ At the Eeformation the Protestant Churches, in opposition to the Eoman Catholic, carefully defined the nature and the functions of the Church. John Knox in the Scots Confession in 1560 declares, " The notes of the true Kirk of God, we believe, confess, and avow to be — First, the true preaching of the Word of God, in the which God has revealed "^mself to us. Secondly, the right administration of the ^ Mt 18«>. ' Mt 28'*'^. Even if tlie commission is not the very words of Jesus it presses the Church's sense of its calling. » 1 Co 1" 2 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Sacraments, which must be annexed to the word and promise of God, to seal and confirm the same in our hearts. Lastly, ecclesiastical discipline uprightly ministered as God's Word prescribed, whereby vice is repressed and virtue nourished." In the Augsburg Confession in 1530, Luther and the Saxon Keformers defined the Church to be "the congregation of saints (or general assembly of the faithful) wherein the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered." Article XIX. in the Thirty-nine Ai'ticles of the Church of England runs thus : " The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's appointment in aU those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." Coming nearer our own time, Ritschl's account of the Church is " that it is recognised as the community of saints by the proclamation of the Gospel, and the administration of the Sacraments in accordance with their institution, as these are the channels of the dis- tinctively sanctifying activity of God."^ In all these statements the preaching of the Gospel is not only put first in order, but also in importance ; for the Sacraments are significant and valuable only as the symbols and the channels of the truth and grace offered in the Gospel. The discipline of which Knox speaks, is also dependent on, expressed in, and enforced by the preaching of the Word of God. 2. This appreciation of preaching as the first duty of the Chui'ch of Christ is widely challenged to-day. On the one hand the worship is exalted over the sermon, and on the other practice is said to be more important than doctrine. In this connection the text, " the Elingdom of God is not in word, but in power," ^ is sometimes quoted, as if for Paul the preaching of Christ crucified were not the power and wisdom of God.* If a sermon is merely a literary essay or an elocutionary display, in which grace or » Game's Tlie RUschlian Theology, 2nd ed., pp. 422-42* 2 1 Co i^". » 1 Co 1«. INTKODUCTION 3 finish of style or charm and force of delivery is the primary consideration, in which the verbal mode is more important than the spiritual matter, then preaching must yield first place to worship or to work. If the preacher is not consciously or voluntarily God's ambassador, if he is not freely giving unto men what he is freely receiving from God by the enlightenment of His Spirit, if he cannot claim humbly and yet confidently to stand in the succes- sion of the prophets and the apostles ; but if he has taken his office unto himself for hire, if he is merely delivering his own opinions and sentiments, then the pulpit is one of those shows and shams of which the Church cannot rid itself too soon, and which it tolerates only at the peril of the souls entrusted to its care. With such shepherds, what Milton says about the clergy of his own day must prove true in any age : "The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed. But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw. Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread : Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing sed."^ However far short the Christian ministry may often have fallen in this holy calling, yet the note of the true Church remains the preaching of the Word of God. As the history to be unfolded in the following pages will clearly and fully show, the periods of decadence have been marked by the loss of the power of the pulpit ; and the eras of revival and reform have been heralded by a renewal of the preacher's influence. The preaching of the Word of God does not mean merely that the text is taken from the Bible, that the phraseology is scriptural, that the doctrine is orthodox according to the generally received standards, and the sentiments pious according to the conventional pattern ; but it means nothing less and else than this — that the preacher is an inspired man because he is experiencing the presence and power of God's Spirit in his reason, conscience, affections, and purposes, that his own " life is hid with 1 Lycidas, U. 125-129. 4 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Christ in God," ^ that he is in all meekness and lowliness, because of his unworthiness, yet with all boldness and trustfulness, because of God's call and endowment, fulfilling a Divine mission in delivering a Divine message. 3. If this be the ideal of Christian preaching, then it is as essential and necessary even as worship : for God's approach to man in grace through His Gospel must come before man's appeal to God in faith through prayer and praise. " We can speak of an intercourse with God only when we are sure of this, that God speaks to us intelligibly, but also understands our speech and has regard to it in His operations on us."^ God's revelation must precede and evoke our religion. It is at least as important that we should know God's will as that we should make our wishes known to God. God is worshipped in the humble and obedient acceptance of His preached Word as in the offering of prayer and praise. Preaching is decried and worship magnified for this among other reasons, that intellectual difficulties have so obscured the glory of the Divine revelation in Jesus Christ, that the preaching of the Gospel is not felt to be the Word of God. But in such a case the question is justified : how long can worship be sustained sincerely and fervently without some assurance of God's grace ? Where devotion is divorced from truth, it is to be observed that the external aids — "the dim, religious light " of the pictured window, the symbolism of the sculptured stone or the carved wood, the suggestion of human costume, picture, and gesture, the stimulus of music and song — become and must become more prominent. Can it be doubted that the appeal to the conscience, reason, and affections through the declaration of the truth and grace of God will be more effectual in inspiring true devotion than the excitement of devout feelings through fair sights and sweet sounds ? It would be beyond the province of this volume to discuss the true nature and the proper methods of Christian worship ; but the writer feels justified in vindicating the claim of preaching to the fore- ' Col 3^. * Herrmaun, Vtrkfhr des Christen mit Oott, p. 44. INTRODUCTION 5 most place in the Christian Church, in insisting that worship cannot supplant preaching, which is, rightly under- stood, itself worship, without danger and loss to Christian life. It is noteworthy that the Churches which have exalted preaching have generally been indifferent to ritual ; and that where ritual has been elaborated, preaching has declined.^ Without straying out of bounds to discuss the larger question ^ thus suggested, the writer may venture to express his own personal preference in Browning's confession : " I then in ignorance and weakness. Taking God's help, have attained to think My heart does best to receive in meekness That mode of worship, as most to his mind, Where earthly aids being cast behind. His All in All appears serene "With the thinnest human veil between."' 4, This age is more practical than devout ; and it is for the sake of action rather than emotion that doctrine is neglected. The mistake is just as great. We cannot do rightly unless we know truly. God's will must be under- ^ Attention may be called to the most significant and valuable Iie2)ort of the Archbishops' First Committee of Inquiry on The Teaching Office of the Church. The candid and courageous confession of failure should not be taken up as a reproach by the other churches against the Church of England solely, as much that is thus said is mutatis mutandis true of all the churches ; but although express mention is not made of the attention to ritual as one of the causes of this failure, the writer is persuaded that it is one of the factors in the problem generally to be taken into account. The other churches have much reason for heart-searching as regards the effectiveness of their preaching, despite their greater interest in it, in the abundant evidence which has been gathered among the soldiers at the front and in the camps of the prevalent ignorance of, and indifference to the Gospel of the vast majority of the manhood of the nation. The volume, giving the results of a searching inquiry, entitled The Army and Religion, is a solemn summons to all the churches to self-scrutiny in regard to all their methods of work, and especially the spirit in which that work is being done. The content and the character of the preaching especially calls for examination, and in this examination it is hoped that this volume, although not written with this specific object in view, may be of some worth and use. * See the subsequent chapter on the Preacher as Priest. ' Christma.1 ".ve, xxii. 11. 64-70. 6 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Btood to be done. Pious efforts and charitable schemes there may be without the guidance and control of the wisdom of God ; but genuinely Christian work there cannot be without the instruction and direction which the preach- ing of the Word of God alone can give. To the Church are committed " the keys of the kingdom of heaven " ; ^ but the Church's foundation is the confession of Jesus the Christ. It is not by an instinct or impulse that the prac- tical man can tell the methods and the organs by which the kingdom of God can be most speedily and surely brought on earth. As the Hebrew people of old before entering on any enterprise for God sought His counsel, so the Church of Christ in these days more than ever needs in all its efforts to inquire what He would have it do.^ The sense of our need of guidance as regards personal duty in social relations is very widely spread ; and if the Church fails to lead along the new paths of service, it will lose its influence and fail in its vocation. It is only the faith which is nourished by the grace of God presented in the Gospel which can have the confidence and the courage to enter on the heroic and strenuous labours by which alone the cause of Christ in the world can be advanced. It is only the love of Christ presented in the Cross which can constrain the loyalty and obedience which the service in the world demands. It is only the wisdom which a study of this revelation inspires which can afford the insight and the foresight to apply wisely and rightly the Church's resources to the necessities of modern society. What should we think of a commander who set out on a cam- paign without any knowledge of the forces at his command, the nature of the country to be subdued, the purpose of the conflict, or the method of its prosecution ? Yet not more foolish would his conduct be than is the action of those advisers of the Church who bid it work and not talk, when the talk is counsel, motive, and encouragement in 1 Mt 16". * The war lias brought home to many consciences as never before the need of applying Christian principles to all human relations. INTRODUCTION 7 the work. If the Scriptures warn those who are hearers and not doers,^ they have no beatitude for the man who wants to be a doer of God's Work but is unwilling to be a hearer of God's Word, in which His Will is made known. 5. No good reason can be shown for subordinating the preaching of the Gospel either to worship or to work ; but it can be conclusively proved that the devout emotions and the practical activities of the Church must be stimu- lated and sustained, guided and guarded by the faithful and sincere proclamation of Christian truth. These three elements in the Church's mission — witness, worship, work — must be kept in their proper relation and due proportion. Doctrine which does not inspire devotion is not the living truth of God, for God's approach to man will evoke man's appeal to God. Preaching which is not followed by practice is not God's command to the soul, for that will constrain obedi- ence. But, on the other hand, devotion which is not the soul's response to God's revelation will prove an aspiration which finds no satisfaction. Practice which is not informed and directed by the known and acknowledged will of God, will express only human prudence and policy, and not Divine wisdom and righteousness. So, too, the devotion which goes not hand in hand with practice will be hollow, and the practice which is not linked to devotion will be hard. The entire human personality must be addressed and exer- cised by the Church in its varied functions ; but from this law of the soul's life there is no escape, that it is through the enlightening of the mind that the quickening of the heart and the energising of the will must come. Man's worship of and work for God must wait on God's witness in the Gospel of His gi'ace through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the fulfilment of its mission, what is of primary importance for the Church is its message, the truth which it receives from God and communicates to man. While "every Scripture mspired of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness," 2 while "the faith was once for all delivered 1 Mt T-^-^, Jas 122-25. s 2 Ti Z^K 8 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER unto the saints," ^ while "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, yea, and for ever,"^ the apprehension and application of the revelation, as imperfect and partial, must be progressive ; and so the Church must serve each gen- eration by adapting its message to each age. II. 1. Before passing to the Message of the Church we must look a little more closely at what we mean by preoAihing, which we have tried to show is the Church's first charge The writer knows no definition with which he finds himself in closer agreement than that of the great preacher and writer on preaching, the late Bishop Phillips Brooks. Not only the definition, but the justification of that defini- tion must be quoted in full : " Preaching is the^ommunica- tion of truth by man to men. It has in it two essential elements^ truth and personality. Neither of these can it spare and still be preaching. The truest truth, the most authoritative statement of God's will communicated in any other way than through the personality of brother man to men is not preached truth. Suppose it is written on the sky, suppose it is embodied in a book which has been so long held in reverence as the direct utterance of God that the vivid personality of the men who wrote its pages has well-nigh faded out of it ; in neither of these cases is there any preaching. And on the other hand, if men speak to other men that which they do not claim for truth, if they use their powers of persuasion or of entertainment to make other men listen to their speculations, or do their will, or applaud their cleverness, that is not preaching either. The first lacks personality. The second lacks truth. And preaching is the bringing of truth through personality. It must have both elements. It is in the different pro- portions in which the two are mingled that the difierence between two great classes of sermons and preaching lies. It is in the defect of one or the other element that every iJude^. 2 He 138. INTRODUCTION 9 sermon and preacher falls short of the perfect standard. It is in the absence of one or the other element that a discourse ceases to be a sermon, and a man ceases to be a preacher altogether." ^ This definition, excellent as it is, la<;k8 one thing. It does not state the end of preaching. If one may borrow Aristotle's distinctions, it gives the formal and the efficient, but not the final cause. It may be completed thus — " truth through personality for faith, duty, and hope," or perhaps the words " eternal life " might be used to cover the three terms. To make the definition more precise we may thus expand it, " divine truth through human personality for eternal life." Each of the three terms in the definition demands closer scrutiny. 2. What do we mean by truth ? It is obvious that when we regard it as the content of preaching we give it a narrower extension and a fuller intention than the term often bears. In history truth is fact ; in science truth is cause, law, order; in philosophy it is the interpretation of the Universe which to the thinker makes it appear an intelligible unity, with meaning, worth, and aim throughout. In morality truth is the ideal which as the categorical imperative claims recognition and realisation. In religion man has a twofold interest, he is concerned about ultimate reality and final destiny. This twofold object is expressed * Lectures on Preaching, pp. 5-6, Compare Hooker's Laws of Ecclesias- tical Polity, Books v. xviii. " Because, therefore, want of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity amongst men, as contrariwise the very ground of all our happiness, and the seed of whatsoever perfect virtue groweth from us, is a right opinion touching things divine ; this kind of knowledge we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth unto His people, and our duty of receiving this at His merciful hands for the first of those religious offices wherewith we publicly honour Him on earth. For the instruction, therefore, of all sorts of men to eternal life, it is necessary that the saored and saving truth of God be openly published unto them. Which open publication of heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed Preaching. For otherwise there is not anything publicly notified but we may in that respect, rightly and properly, say it is preached. So that when the school of God doth use it as a word of art, we are accordingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as that school is accus- tomed to publish." ft is to be observed that in the second sentence in the words, "the instruction of all sorts of men to eternal life," Hooker notes what Phillips Brooks omits, the end of preaching. 10 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER in the definition of faith in the words, " Faith is the giving substance to things hoped for, the test of things not seen." ^ Eeligion deals with the invisible as giving meaning to the visible, and with the future as offering an aim to the present. The savage even believes in gods and ghosts. Although morality and religion may be distinguished, yet they cannot be separated ; even at a low stage of social development the tribal custom is under the guardianship of the tribal deity. At certain periods of degeneration ritual and righteousness may be divorced ; but the higher the development the closer the alliance, nay, the more com- plete the identity of goodness and godliness. The unity of religion and morality is affirmed by the prophet in the words — " He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? " ^ Kitual cannot take the place of righteousness. " I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."^ In the Christian religion, holiness of life is the fruit of fellowship with God ; morality and religion can be only abstractly distinguished ; concretely they are inseparable. Kant's three postulates of the practical reason (God, freedom, immortality) are the reality, the knowledge of which is the truth disclosed in preaching. 3, While this is the range of truth ideally, it must be recognised that actually preaching may have a much narrower scope. Although preaching is most at home in the realm of religion, yet there may be a declaration of moral principle to secure moral obedience, which cannot be denied the name. The Positivist may preach Humanity as the object of worship and service ; the Buddhist may preach a plan of salvation by man's own effort, without divine assistance ; the Ethicist to-day may preach morality without any theological sanctions ; and we must acknow- ledge them all as preachers. Nevertheless, preaching is generally concerned with God and immortality, as well as freedom and duty. Philosophy is also concerned about ^ B» IV ILY. marg. » Mic 6^. » Hos G*. INTRODUCTION 11 ultimate reality and final destiny ; but its interest is specu- lative and not praoticaL When philosophy, as in Stoicism, prescribes a moral end, or, as in Neo-Platonism, offers a religious good, it can be preached. Where the communica- tion of knowledge, whether in history, science, or philosophy, is, however, the sole object of speech, we have not got preaching in the proper sense. A lecture is given, and not a sermon delivered. A speech on a political platform may appear to approach a sermon more closely than a lecture does in having a practical purpose ; for the opinion or the action commended may be represented as desirable, ex- pedient, wise, and good, but the speaker does not claim to be dealing with truth about ultimate reality, absolute ideal, or final destiny : and so, whatever his manner may be, he is not preaching, in the proper sense of the word. 4. The channel through which the truth is conveyed is 'personality. The whole man must preach in a twofold sense. Not only must the proclamation of the truth exer- cise the whole personality, as mind, heart, and will ; but the truth itself must possess and command all the thoughts, feelings, and wishes. Without the one there cannot be full effectiveness, without the other there cannot be thorough sincerity. When both are conjoined we have the highest type of preaching, where the lips confess con- vincingly what the heart believes absolutely. When the whole manhood of the preacher is consecrated unto God, it is his duty to bring that whole man to bear upon the hearers of the Word. The story of Elisha's recovery to life of the son of the Shunammite suggests what the preacher's method should be. " And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands ; and he stretched himself upon him ; and the flesh of the child waxed warm." ^ There may be, and ought to be, a modest reserve regarding personal experience and character ; there may be a dignified restraint in tone and gesture; and yet the entire perconality may » 2 K 4»*. 12 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER be in its fullest exercise, so as to transfer as com- pletely as possible from speaker to hearer the whole content of the message, emotional and volitional as well as intellectual. The failure of a great deal of preaching to be fully effective is due to its being too intellectualist. The preacher is conveying only ideas and ideals from his own to another's reason and conscience, but he is not communi- cating the passion or enthusiasm he may himself feel. If the truth does not stimulate his own convictions, he must not pretend feelings, for then his preaching is rhetoric, which is " sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal," ^ and not the eloquence which passes from heart to heart. It is probable, however, that many preachers fail to express the feelings they experience. Without weak sentimentalism and violent emotionalism, effective preaching does demand that there shall be warmth as well as light. That truth, known and owned as truth, does not move the heart as might be expected, is probably due to lack of imagination, or, as the word might suggest unreality, vision, the faculty of realising the spiritual, the ideal, the divine, the inward sense of the supersensible. Truth is often apprehended in the abstractions of the intellect, instead of being presented as concrete reality for the spiritual discernment. This is the difference between the scholar or the sage and the seer who sees Him who is invisible.^ And the preacher must be, to grow to his full stature, seer as well as scholar and sage. Volition must not be excluded from preaching. The sermon must be a deed as well as a word. The preacher must will with the full force of his soul the salvation, in the full New Testament sense, of the hearers. The human will must at its utmost stretch commit itself in prayer to the divine will that God may work the good pleasure of His will. 5. Preaching is not merely a communication of know- ledge. As it exercises the whole personality of the preacher, so it is addressed to the whole personality of the hearer as a moral and religious subject. As the truth with which ^1 Co 131. «Hell» INTRODUCTION 13 it deals concerns God, freedom, and immortality, so its aim is to evoke faith, stimulate to duty, and sustain hope. There must be an enlightening of the mind, a quickening of the heart, and a strengthening of the will in goodness and godliness. It is not necessary that any sermon should produce this total effect. A preacher may sometimes aim at instruction ; at another, work for decision : even to bring God's peace to the soul in emotional distress may be his purpose. But, whatever may be the immediate result, the ultimate intention must always be to bring the whole per- sonality more fully under the influence of the truth. It is sometimes said that every sermon should be practical, in the narrow sense that it should give the hearer something to do. But a sermon does not fail if it teaches the distressed spirit to " rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him," ^ if it induces the too self-sufficient to " be still, and know that God is God," ^ if it persuades the man who wants to rush the kingdom of God that " he that believeth shall not make haste." ^ A deeper confidence in God, a fuller committal to Him, even if no task is assigned, is a worthy object of the preacher's endeavour. While one may agree with Canon Simpson that " preaching is something more than the art of oratory applied to religious themes," yet he does limit its appeal too narrowly when he declares that this " is made neither to the intellect, nor to the emotions, nor to the aesthetic sense, but to what, however we may account for its exist- ence, we are accustomed to call the conscience. The power of its appeal to conscience may at once be set down as the supreme and ultimate test of preaching, for it is this which differentiates the pulpit." * If by conscience be meant the moral sense, or the practical reason of Kant, the writer may be charged, although this is far from his intention, with repeating Kant's mistake in regarding religion as the apprehension of our moral duties as divine commands. The pulpit does not merely summon to duty ; it may awaken » Ps 37^. 2 ps 4610 • Is 28". * Preachers and Teachers, pp. 2, 3. 14 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER faith by the assurance of grace. If, as Luther taught, sin is even more distrust of God than disobedience to Him, the appeal of the pulpit may be addressed to the religious disposition, and its end is not missed if a more thankful and trustful mood is inspired. A sermon which so sets forth God and His grace that all the hearers are awed with adoration and gratitude, is not vainly delivered. Worship may be, as well as work, the proper design of preaching. It is the whole moral and religious personality which preaching must strive to reach. III. 1. So far we have been dealing with the definition of preaching generally ; we must now attempt to describe the characteristics of Christian preaching. To the Christian Church is committed not only the task of preaching, but also the message to be thus delivered. The Christian preacher does not discover or invent the truth he imparts to others. Christian preaching is not merely one of the functions of a human religion, it is the continuation of the divine revelation, culminating in Christ, of which the Holy Scriptures are the record and interpretation. It is not a mere formality, although some preachers may so regard it, and chafe at being subject to the custom, that the text of a sermon is taken from the Bible, for it is the con- fession that the preacher is perpetuating and diffusing a gift which God has bestowed. The common assumption in the Christian Church is that preaching will not be the power and the wisdom of God unto the salvation of sinners and the perfecting of saints unless the preacher is himself convinced, and can convince his hearers, that he has a message from God to deliver, that his words are not of his own invention and imagination, but are by the inspiration of the Almighty, who hath given him the understanding clearly to discern and rightly to divide the Word of Life. He must be devout so as to maintain that communion with God by which alone the vision of God can be won. He INTRODUCTION 15 must be scholarly, not that he may make a parade of his learning, or that he may use it to impose his own authority on others, but that he may know how to gain all that the Scriptures are fitted to give the diligent and sincere student. The Christian preacher is not an explorer or adventurer, but a messenger. 2. This message, however, is not a stereotyped for- mula— it is a Gospel to be interpreted for the thought and applied to the need of every age. Men are so bound to one another by common needs and dangers, doubts and fears, wishes and aims, are so subject to the same mental, moral, and spiritual conditions that for the men of every age there is a common interpretation and application which has meaning and worth for all. In every age there are general tendencies as there are general necessities. There are individual men, however, who, as it were, incarnate the spirit of the age, and who are thus specially fitted to receive a message from God which has more than indi- vidual significance and value, and which, therefore, it will be for the advantage of others to receive from them. Every Christian preacher's aim must be to fulfil this demand to be the channel between the permanent and universal truth and the local and temporary thought. As the history of Christian preaching with which we shall be in the first part of this volume specially concerned will abundantly illustrate, while individual preachers have their own peculiarities, yet the preaching of each age has its common characteristics.^ * How necessary it is that the preaching of each age should be adapted to its needs is the theme of the lat<«t series of the Yale Lectures on Preach- ing, entitled In a Day of Social Rebuilding, by Henry Sloane Coflin, in which he faces the demands of the Christian ministry, with constant and immediate reference to the situation which has arisen throogh the war, and its manifold results, mental, moral, and spiritual, as well as material. He confronts that situation undaunted, as every Christian preacher should. "Wherever in diplomacy, iu industry, in family life, in the personal dealings of man with man, the spirit of Jesus has been dominant, there is no sign of damage. We can challenge the world to show us the instance where love like Christ's has been employed in social construction and has £aOed. True the instances are pathetically rare, but they are none the less 16 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 3. We may now address ourselves to the question how the message, permanent and universal, entrusted to the Church, may by the Christian preacher be adapted to-day. It is with the Gospel of the grace of God that the Church is charged, and it belongs, therefore, to the permanent and universal essence of the Christian message to be evangelical. The conditions of the age generally, and especially the results of the war, make a demand for, and can offer a special encouragement to, evangelical preaching. The easy and vain optimism of the earlier part of last century is becoming less common, and the note of pessimism is more often touched than it was. In spite of all mental advance and material progress, the social problem is more menacing, international relations are more perilous, the moral impera- tive is less commanding, the soul's aspirations fail of their satisfaction. Disappointment and discontent, not to say disgust and despair, are more common ; and the world now needs a message of comfort and courage, help and hope. That message the Christian Gospel offers. We must not use the term evangelical as the badge of any sect or the shibboleth of any school. Wfiat have been regarded as the distinctively evangelical doctrines cause intellectual dif- ficulty to many minds ; and this is not the place to discuss them. Nevertheless it should be easier to-day to believe in salvation by sacrifice. AH the writer insists on here is that the Christian preacher should be a bearer of good news of God's saving grace in Christ, bringing men assur- ance of divine comfort, succour, power, and promise. The Christian Gospel does offer answers to the questions the mind asks ; but the speculative tendency, which is concerned mainly about the solution of intellectual problems, must be a subordinate element in preaching. The practical ten- dency which thinks of Christianity as affording a supreme significant. The Church's failure is not due to lack of means with which to build an enduring world-order, but to their non-employmeut. The disaster that has ensued upon the use of other means gives us the chance to come forward and ask to be accorded a fair trial, and to back up our plea with a reasonable number of cases where the Spirit of Christ has been applied Bocia.lly and has splendidly succeeded " (pp. 17-18). INTRODUCTION 17 moral principle in the law of love, and a supreme moral example in the character of its Founder, belongs neces- sarily, as we shall immediately show, to the Gospel ; but when detached from, or even opposed to the evangelical, it fails adequately to realise that the sufficient moral motive for the fulfilment of the law and the following of the example is found only in the constraint of the love of Christ and His Cross. The mystical tendency which finds the highest good that Christianity ofiers in communion with God, in devout meditation and emotion, represents an essential element in the Christian life ; yet when it ignores, as it sometimes does, that it is only through the forgive- ness offered in the Gospel that the sinful soul can enjoy fellowship with God, and that distinctively Christian com- munion with God is with the Father through the Son in the Spirit, then it does not represent the complete Christian message. Evangelical preaching may and should recognise and harmonise all these tendencies, but can never allow to fall into the background the fact of redemption in Jesus Christ. It is after God as Comforter, Helper, Saviour that the religions of the world are seeking ; and Christian- ity claims to be the universal religion, because in its Gospel it offers the divine answer to the human cry.^ 4. The Christian Gospel offers, not a doctrine to be believed, but an experience to be shared. The faith that saves is not an intellectual assent to a plan of salvation, or a theory of atonement, but a personal confidence in, dependence on, submission to God in Christ, which produces an inward change of thought, feeling, will. The human personality becomes "a new creation." ^ This does not involve only one type of Christian life ; but, however manifold the types, common to them all is the work of God within each man. There may be a secondary Christianity of acceptance of doctrines, observance of rites, conformity to customs in the Christian community ; but the primary ^ The writer has dealt more fully with this subject in his work, The Evangelical Type of Christianity. 1 2 Co f.". Gal 6^^ 18 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Christianity is always a personal experience of God's grace in Christ. Accordingly, Christian preaching must express and appeal to experience ; if it is evangelical, it will also be experimental. In this emphasis on experience the Christian pulpit to-day will be in accord with, and not in antagonism to, the spirit of the age. Modern science is experimental in its method ; history wants to get at the facts, outward or inward; philosophy aims at interpreting experience. The attention being given to religious psychology shows the importance attached to the effect of belief in life. Christian Apologetics is less and less appealing to the authority of the Bible or the Church, and relying more and more on the testimony of experience. In the present intellectual situation, we may confidently affirm that there is no preaching which will meet the needs of men as that which is born of, and begets, experience. The Christian preacher must have tested the value of his message in his own life, so that he can with full confidence subject it to its being tested in like manner by those who hear him. Is not this personal certainty, and so urgency, wanting in a good deal of preaching ? How can a man fully persuade others who is not himself fully persuaded ? How can he expect to convince others of the supreme importance to them of a message the value of which he has not in his own soul realised, and the authority of which does not dominate his whole personality ? Will not the range of a preacher's influence be measured by the depth of his experience ? For mighty preaching the Christian life of some men has been too easy. Born and bred, taught and trained, in a Christian home, they have gently and slowly grown in the knowledge of the grace of Christ, and have endured no terrible moral conflicts, nor passed through any severe spiritual crises ; consequently there is a wide range of the Christian salvation beyond their own experience. Only by greater intensity in their Christian living, and wider sympathy with other lives more sternly tested, can they transcend this disadvantageous limitation. For surely only he who has himself realised that the only help and INTRODUCTION 19 hope of men perishing is in the Cross of Christ, can preach with such force and fervour as to arouse others to their danger and their need, and to call forth their faith in Him who " is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." 1 5. The new creation of the human personality by the grace of Christ involves a holy character as well as a blessed experience. The Christian message is ethical because evangelical and experimental. We may be grateful to God that this age does not want a Gospel which in the slightest degree encourages men to " continue in sin, that grace may abound " ; ^ and that it will show respect to a Gospel which can prove a greater power working for righteousness than any other form of religious teaching. The Moderates of a previous century in Scotland were blamed for preaching morality. That need not have been any reproach to them. And if the Evangelicals in any degree neglected to preach morality, theirs was the shame. What one could find fault with in the Moderates was that the morality they preached was not large and lofty enough. Had it been, they would have been compelled to preach, as well as morality, the only adequate motive and sufficient power for holy living, the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The only salvation for man that is worth preaching is a deliverance from the bondage of evil, and an endowment of freedom to do right and be good. It is not in the thoughts or feelings, but in the actions, that the religious life shows most decisively its sickness or health, its weak- ness or strength. If the older evangelicalism was some- times not so distinctly and intensely ethical as the very nature of the Christian salvation should have made it, the newer evangelicalism is not likely to repeat the mistake, for all the tendencies and necessities of the age challenge it to be passionately and consistently ethical. It is a stunted, a mutilated Gospel which does not demand and stimulate a morality larger and loftier than any that the mere moralist has ever conceived. Calvary's ideal is greater and grander ^ He 72». 3 Ro 61. 20 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER than Sinai's law could be. This inward impulse meets an outward demand. Modern society needs moral guidance, enforced by a religious sanction, or, rather, inspired by a religious motive. Is not Comte's grotesque and yet pathetic attempt to make a new religion, the Eeligion of Humanity, a proof of the insufficiency of morality without religion ? In the Eomanes Lecture, Huxley con- fessed that the cosmical process, as interpreted by science, does not yield the regulative principles for man's ethical progress. In all European societies for more than a century, and for a generation at least in China, Japan, India, moral development has not been keeping step with mental and material, and hence the social problem is likely to become ever more acute. Economic knowledge and political prudence are needed, as well as moral judgment and religious motive. With the former conditions the Christian preacher is not directly concerned ; but the latter are his pressing charge. If this problem, great as it is, cannot be solved by the consistent and courageous application of Christian principles, the Christian Church must abandon its claim for its Christ as " the power and wisdom of God unto salvation." This modern challenge of the authority and sufficiency of His message must be accepted by the Christian preacher. 6. The world situation to-day calls for the realisation of the Christian ideal, not only within each nation in the solution of its social problem, but, if this attempt is to have any chance of success, in the relation of nations to one another. Christianity offers a universal morality, from the claims and duties of which no race, nation, or tribe can be excluded ; for all these divisions of men, as limitations of the range of obligation, have been abolished in the one humanity, loved of the Father, redeemed by the grace of the Son, and inhabited by the Spirit of God. If the proposed League of Nations is not to remain a mechanism with no driving power, the Christian Church must preach a new internationalism as the application in politics of the Chris- tian universalism. To the Christian preacher is given a INTRODUCTION 21 wider range of influence, if he has only the wisdom and courage to use to the full the opportunity that is offered by the age still under the shadow of the world-war, and eager to escape into the light of a world-peace. The angel song must ring from all Christian pulpits : " Peace on earth to men of good will." This indeed to-day will be " good tidings of great joy to all peoples." ^ PART I. THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. INTRODUCTORY. 1 . The best approach to any subject is by its history ; if it be a science, we must learn all we can about previous discoveries ; if an art, about previous methods. The Chris- tian preacher will be better equipped for his task to-day, if he has some knowledge of how men have preached in former days. He will also be inspired by the value of the vocation he has accepted in discovering how prominent a place has been filled, and how important a part has been played in human history for the furtherance of men's pro- gress in morals and piety by the preacher. While in preaching even, as in human activities of less moment, there are fashions of the hour which it would be folly to reproduce when they have fallen out of date, yet there are abiding aims and rules of preaching, which must be taken account of in each age, and which can be learned by the study of the preaching of the past. Admiration of the great and the good, even without imitation, makes a man wiser and better ; and the Christian preacher will enrich his own manhood by intimacy with those in whose worthy succession he stands. While all antiquated methods, " good customs which corrupt the world," must be laid aside, and the preacher to-day must adapt himself to his age, he will be least in bondage to the past, who is least ignorant of it, and he will be most master of the present whose know- ledge is least confined to it. Accordingly of the science 22 INTRODUCTORY 23 and art of homiletics the history of preaching is an essen- tial division,^ 2. But the subject may be treated in two ways. The history of preaching may become little more than a series of biographies of preachers ; and the reader may be over- whelmed by a multitude of dates, facts, and names. This is not the method which will be here pursued. The bio- graphical interest will be subordinated to the typical. It is with preaching that we are concerned — the functions it has fulfilled, the phases through which it has passed, the forms which it has assumed, the purposes it has set before itself, and the methods it has adopted. Preachers will be dealt with, not according to their individual importance, but according to their relative significance in these respects, although often these points of view may coincide. In the titles of the chapters no exhaustive account of the character of the preaching of any period will be attempted, but rather the throwing into prominence of the distinctive type. When the first of the methods of treatment is adopted, it is often difficult to see the wood for the trees; in the second method, the reader may sometimes miss the sight of a favourite tree in all its stately proportions, but it is hoped he will carry away a wider view of the abundance, variety, and value of the timber in the forest as a whole. 3. Had limits of space permitted, the writer would have included a chapter on Hebrew prophecy, and another on preaching in other religions. He must, however, con- tent himself with calling attention to the altogether unique importance of the Hebrew prophet, in his preaching, as an agent of divine revelation. The subject has been dealt with by a master-hand in the article on " Prophecy and Prophets " of the late Dr. A. B. Davidson, in Hastings' Bible Dictionary, iv. pp. 106—127. The founders of Confucianism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam all accomplished their task as teachers and preachers, varied as were the forms of their instruction. In this connection, mention should be made of Socrates, who, though he founded * See Dale's Nine Lectures on Preaching, pp. 93-94. 24 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER no religion, did initiate a movement of human thought of profound significance for morals and religion. His twofold method of feigning his own ignorance and leading others to discover theirs, on the one hand, and, on the other, of eliciting by his questions the thoughts of others so as to disclose the truth, is one deserving careful study by the Christian preacher. The history of Christian preaching must begin with Him who is both the model and the message, Jesus Christ the Lord, CHAPTER I. JESUS CHRIST THE LORD. I. 1. In no other religion is the position of the founder comparable with that of Jesus in Christianity. Confucius was the editor of the ancient classics, and the interpreter of the ancestral wisdom of his people. Gautama the Buddha had discovered the secret of salvation for himself, and he imparted it to others ; but he did not offer himself as Saviour, as each man must follow the path of deliver- ance for himself. Mohammed was the prophet of Allah, in whose name and by whose authority he taught and ruled ; but he claimed no more intimate relation to God. But Jesus is Himself the object of the Christian faith as the Divine Saviour and Lord. He not only reveals God's Fatherhood, but is Himself the Son alone knowing God, and known of God, as no other man can be ; and so uniquely qualified by His nature for His function.^ He does not discover and then impart to others a secret of salvation, a salvation resulting from man's own efibrt ; but in His death and rising again He realises on behalf of man a salvation which men receive and possess by faith in Him. He does not present a law, a standard, an ideal above and beyond His own character, but in His own character. Here founder and religion are one as nowhere else. 2. In the Apostolic Witness, especially that of Paul, the significance and value for the Christian faith of Christ Himself is concentrated in the Cross and Resurrection.^ iMtll25-w »lCol5»-». 85 26 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER If not ignorant of, or indifferent to, the earthly ministry of healing and teaching, the apostles in their writings do not give to it any prominence. Nevertheless, we must not dismiss the teaching of Jesus, with which we are here specially concerned, as an unimportant factor in the found- ing of the Christian Church. For, firstly, the existence of the Gospels shows that the apostolic speeches and letters do not give us a complete representation of the thought and life of the first community of beUevers, of all that was of interest to it, and of influence in it. The words of Jesus were cherished, prized, preserved, and diffused first in speech, then in writing. Probably there was a primitive piety which, as the Epistle of James shows, was more at home in these reports of Jesus than in the doctrines of the apostles.^ Secondly, had the teaching of Jesus not gathered a company of disciples, there had been no united witness to His resurrection, and no common teaching of the meaning and worth of His death. The earthly Teacher had pre- pared for the heavenly Lord. Thirdly, the facts of the Crucifixion and of the Kesurrection would be meaningless apart from the person of Jesus Himself, which has first to be apprehended in its historical reality before it can be conceived in its doctrinal significance. Could we properly construe the meaning of the Atonement in the Cross were we ignorant of the revelation of the Fatherhood of God Jesus had given, or the realisation of perfect manhood as divine sonship He had won ? Fourthly, that teaching itself about God, man, sin, forgiveness, duty, immortality could seem secondary in importance and influence to His Cross and Kesurrection only to one whom a theological obsession had made insensitive to moral and religious values. But to contrast and oppose the one to the other is to rend the inner garment woven of one piece through- out. Fifthly, it can be confidently said that to-day the teaching of Jesus still holds with an irresistible influence many for whom the apostolic teaching has lost much of its 1 James has more echoes of the Sermon on the Mount than any other apostolic writing. JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 27 authority. We may regret it as much as we will, but the fact remains as a reason why we should try to apprehend as accurately and appreciate as adequately as we can, Jesus as Teacher. 3, In dealing with the teaching of Jesus, we are confronted with a difficulty at the very outset. Just as we have in Xenophon's Memorabilia and in Plato's Dialogues complementary representations of the teaching of Socrates, so in the Synoptic and Johannine reports of the ministry of Jesus. Although each of the Synoptic Gospels has its own distinctive features, yet so much of the material is drawn from common sources, and the standpoints are so similar, that we are warranted, in a general treatment of the character of Jesus' teaching, in regarding the Synoptic representation as one in contrast with the Johannine. In a detailed study of the content of the teaching, we should need to take account of the editorial peculiarities of Matthew and Luke in dealing with their common sources ; but for the present purpose this is quite unnecessary. It is generally agreed among scholars that the Fourth Gospel is of later date than any of the Synoptics, and that, even if the authorship of an eye-witness be admitted, the original reminiscences have been to so great an extent affected by his subsequent reflections that it is a very difficult and delicate task to discover in these reports the teaching of Jesus just as He gave it.* We cannot, therefore, follow the lead of the Fourth Gospel as we can take the guidance of the Synoptics as regards the manner and the method of the teaching of Jesus. While we need not ignore nor refuse what the Fourth Gospel offers to us, yet, when we are seek- ing to determine with such accuracy and adequacy as is possible to us with the data at our disposal the character- istics of Jesus as Teacher, the Synoptics alone can give us our guiding principles, while the Fourth Gospel may offer supplementary and confirmatory illustration of these prin- ciples. This critical excursion has been as brief as possible. ^ Th« writer has attempted this in The Expositor, 8th Series, vii. and riii. 28 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 4. Even although the present volume is on preaching, it is advisable to treat in this chapter Jesus as Teacher, as the greater part of His teaching cannot be properly described as preaching, and yet is full of instruction for the Christian preacher. It was seldom that He delivered a formal sermon. While probably in the Sermon on the Mount there is one discourse as the nucleus round which the evangelist, in accordance with his usual practice, has collected matter belonging to many different occasions, chaps. 5 and 6 may be taken, with some additions, as reporting that discourse, of which the parable in 7^*'^^ was probably the closing warning. We have here more evidence of systematic treatment of a subject than anywhere else in the Gospels ; the series of contrasts between the old law and the new, followed by the series of criticisms of Pharisaic piety, is not at all characteristic of Jesus' usual method. Much of His teaching was given in wayside or table-talk, in answer to questions, or in connection with His miracles. It consisted of single sayings, instances, illustrations, parables, rather than any sustained argument. Emphasis was gained by repetition of the same thought under different figures ; complementary aspects of truth were presented by means of twin parables. Spontaneity, and not formality, is the distinctive feature ; and one may ask if Christian preaching might not have gained much by being less rhetorical and more natural speech. II. In attempting to describe the characteristics of the teaching of Jesus, it would be easy to fill many pages with the tributes which have been freely offered to the supreme excellence of Jesus as Teacher. But when we have said, not that He is above all other teachers, for that would imply a possibility of comparison, but that there is none like Him, so that comparison seems irrelevant, not to say impertinent, need we multiply our words to gild the unalloyed gold of our gratitude, reverence, and devotion ? JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 29 Is He not too great for our praise ? Instead of praising Him who is beyond all praise, let us rather as simply, clearly, and fully as we can describe His distinctive features as a Teacher. While the evangelists, as a rule, present the ministry of Jesus to us without explanation or commendation, leaving their record to make its own impression, yet there are in the Gospels sayings about the teaching which are of incalculable value in enabling us to understand its manner and its method. We are sometimes allowed to become bystanders, and to witness directly the impression the teaching made on those who first of all heard the words of the eternal life. 1. Jesus' discourse in the synagogue of Capernaum on the first Sabbath of His ministry, as recorded by the Synoptists, astonished His hearers ; " for He taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes." * Bruce thus explains the statement : " It is an ethical, not an artistic or aesthetical, contrast that is intended. The scribes spake by authority, resting all they said on tradition of what had been said before. Jesus spake with authority, out of His own soul, with direct intuition of truth ; and, therefore, to the answering soul of His hearers. The people could not quite explain the difference, but that was what they obscurely felt." 2 The authority of Jesus was grounded in His personality ; His moral discernment was due to His perfect moral character, and His spiritual vision to His unbroken com- munion with God. He Himself discloses the secret in the confession regarding Himself, which is unique in the Synoptic Gospels.^ As the Son alone knowing and known of the Father, He alone can reveal Him unto men ; and He graciously offers that revelation in His teaching and His companionship, in lowliness and meekness of heart, as the secret of rest to all to whom the moral task and the religious trust present an unsolved problem. The perfect goodness and godliness for which men aspire is reality in ^ Mk 1^. 2 Expositor's Greek Testament, i. p. 136. 3Mtll2T-i». 30 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER His character and the consciousness. His word had abso- lute authority alike in criticism of the Old Testament or censure of the scribes and Pharisees as in bringing penitent and believing souls to God, because it expressed moral and spiritual reality as ultimate as God Himself, to whom He was related in constant dependence, and absolute submission as well as immediate contact and intimate com- munion. God spake and wrought in Him, for He said and did only what, and as God taught Him, and gave to Him. It was the authority of humility, and not vanity. 2. The crowds which heard Jesus were no less im- pressed by the novelty of the doctrine than the authority of the teacher. They testified that it was " a new teaching." ^ (1) By gathering together similar sayings from various sources, some scholars have attempted to challenge the originality of Jesus. Indeed, the fashion of the hour is to make Him as completely as possible only an echo of His own age and surroundings. But even were the resem- blances between what Jesus and other teachers have said more numerous and exact, we need not reverse the judg- ment of His first hearers. Had He never said anything which some one had said before, where would have been the points of contact with the human reason or conscience on which educationalists insist to-day as a primary condition of intelligibility ? Had no gleams of the light from God which shone so steadily in Him broken through man's darkness, in the teaching of others, how could we have maintained our belief that God has had His witness in all lands and ages ? If, instead of comparing detached utter- ances of Jesus with sayings of others, we take His teaching as a whole — and it should be always so taken, since a moral and spiritual unity pervades it — it can be confidently maintained that there is no other body of thought, Jewish or pagan, which can come into comparison with it. Its novelty must be judged relatively to the thought and life around the teacher, the contemporary Judaism, for by that alone could Jesus Himself be directly influenced. Would 1 Mk V". JESUS CHRIST THE LORD . 31 He have provoked such misunderstanding, distrust, anger, and hate in so many of His hearers had He been simply- repeating the familiar ideas ? His conception of God as Father, His conjoining of absolute love to God and equal love to self and neighbour as the highest commandment fulfilling the whole law, the inwardness of the moral and religious life on which He insisted, the universality of God's goodness and consequently of man's duty He enjoined, the assurance of forgiveness of sin He offered, the faith in God's grace He required of man — all these are instances of the originality of His teaching. (2) But this novelty was not innovation. There was continuity between His revelation of God and that contained in the Old Testament ; He nourished His own life in God on these sacred Scriptures. He did not destroy, but fulfilled the law and the prophets ; but this fulfilment was not repetition, but completion.^ The contrasts in the Sermon on the Mount show how far the life to which He called men transcended the law ; and His own life and work, how far He Himself transcended the prophecy which He thus fulfilled. 3. Luke, in carrying out the plan of his Gospel, begins the record of the public ministry with an account of the visit to the synagogue of Nazareth, which the other Synoptists place at a later date. The impression made by the discourse he describes in the words, " And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which pro- ceeded out of His mouth." ^ Bruce's comment here again deserves quotation : " Most take %a/3t? here not in the Pauline sense, but as denoting attractiveness in speech, ... In view of the text on which Jesus preached, and the fact that the Nazareth incident occupies the place of a frontispiece in the Gospel, the re- ligious Pauline sense of ^apt? is probably the right one,= words about the grace of God whereby the prophetic oracle read was fulfilled. . . . Words of grace about grace ; such was Christ's speech, then and always — that is Luke's idea." ^ » Mt 5"-*. ' 422. » Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. i. p. 490. 32 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER (1) The Fatherhood of God, the infinite worth of the human soul, God's sorrow in the loss and joy in the recovery of the sinner, the forgiveness of sin, the peace of God, the salvation from the power and love of sin, the assurance of a blessed and glorious immortality — all that is included in the grace Jesus taught so graciously. Reserving for further comment what is suggested about the manner of the teach- ing, we may fitly emphasise that grace, in as full a sense as Paul ever used the term, was ever the matter of the teaching of Jesus, and His own attitude to sinners con- firmed His teaching. His tenderness, gentleness, kindness, and forbearance made Him the living commentary of what grace is, suffers, and does. But this grace was not amiability or good-nature merely ; it was not tolerance for, or indifference to, sin, but compassion and solicitude for sinners, which went as far as the giving of Himself as a ransom for many. His Cross is the soul of all His teach- ing of grace. (2) With His grace there was conjoined severity, a combination suggested by the varying estimates of Him as Jeremiah or Elijah. His condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees was scathing ; and their offence was not only their hypocrisy, but still more the difficulty they put in the way of those who were looking to them for guidance in goodness and godliness. His severity to these teachers and leaders was the obverse of His solicitude for the common people. He did not join in the common cry against the fallen and outcast, but His judgment fell on those whom the world as well as their own conscience approved. The earthly ministry even gives meaning to so paradoxical a phrase as " the wrath of the Lamb." 4. The teaching of Jesus., because of the grace of its matter, was attractive to the multitudes. This the Gospels abundantly prove, even if Mark's comment, " the common people heard him gladly," ^ taken in its context does not refer directly to this common feature, but only to His skill in controversy, as Bruce maintains. '12". JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 33 " The masses enjoyed Christ's victory over the classes, who one after the other measured their wits against His. The remark is true to the life. The people gladly hear one who speaks felicitously, refutes easily, and escapes dexter- ously from the hands of designing men." ^ (1) While this suggestion partly accounts for the popu- larity of Jesus, yet that was mainly due to the good news of gi'ace He brought to those whom the authorised teachers treated with contempt, and on whom they sought to lay burdens grievous to be borne, to the gracious manner in which He ever bore Himself towards them, as well as to the wisdom and the skill of His method of teaching. (2) While Jesus in the parable of the Sower gave an estimate of His own ministry, in which He recognised the only partial results of His efforts, yet His teaching was effective as well as attractive. He had not only charm, but what is sometimes lacking along with charm, power. Even if in Lk 4^^ we must render " His word was with authority" (E.V.), "not power" (A.V.), yet v}^ tells us that "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. . . . And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all." " This power," says Dr. Stalker, " was the result of that unction of the Holy One, without which even the most solemn truths fall on the ear without effect. He was filled with the Spirit without measure. Therefore the truth possessed Him, It burned and swelled in His own bosom, and He spoke it forth from heart to heart. He had the Spirit not only in such degree as to fill Himself, but so as to be able to impart it to others. It overflowed with His words and seized the souls of His hearers, filling with enthusiasm the mind and the heart." ^ If we consider the contrast between His truth and grace and the moral and religious life of His age and surround- ings, we must recognise how great must have been both the charm and the power of the Teacher who could draw so many to Himself and lift them so far above themselves. ^ Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. i. p. 426. ' The Life of Jesus Christ, pp. 67, 68. 34 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 5. Having iDdicated the fact of the attractiveness of the teaching of Jesus, we may now look more closely at the reason for it in the method of His teaching. (1) It was occasional, called forth by and adapted to the questions, needs, or dangers of the moment, the interests and capacities of His hearers ; and yet it was not ephemeral, for it was eternal truth and grace which met the temporal occasion. The teaching was for the most part appropriate, but always elevated and never trivial conversation, leading men out of the common life of the world into the presence of God Himself. (2) The two excellences of this method have been stated by Wendt in words worth quoting : " By this method of meeting the want of the occasion, Jesus has been able to impart two weighty qualities to His utterances and His instruction — viz.. popular intelligibility and impressive pregnancy. The importance lies in the union of these two qualities. A mode of teaching which aims at popular intelligibility is exposed to the risk of degenerating into platitude and triviality ; and one which aims at preg- nant brevity easily becomes stilted and obscure. But Jesus perfectly combined the two qualities, and by this very means attained a peculiar and classic beauty of style. All the characteristic qualities and methods observable in His style can be classed under the head of means for obtaining those two special excellences." ^ Holding over the discussion in detail of the method of Jesus, we may here lay emphasis on the fact that Jesus so taught that He could be readily apprehended by the multi- tude, but could not be fully comprehended even by the disciples. So apparently simple. His teaching was really profound. Men received from Him as much as at the time they could accept, but in such a form that, with the development of their capacity for, there would be increase of their possession of the truth He taught. There was not only open speech, but also reserve and suggestiveness of utterance. The parable of the Sower not only shows that there must be prepared soil as well as selected seed ; but suggests, contrary to the natural analogy, which must * The Teaching of Jesus, vol. i. p. 109. JESTTS CHRIST THE LORD 35 always fall short of the spiritual reality, that the lodgment of the selected seed is a condition of the prepared soil. The truth imperfectly apprehended prepares for its own perfect comprehension. We may legitimately press the natural analogy in Wendt's term pregnancy, The multitude could not receive the entire truth taught in the parables, even as the disciples, when the parable was explained to them, could. " Therefore speak I to them in parables : because seeing they see not ; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." ^ The parable did teach them some- thing, if not all ; it might even awaken a deeper interest, which would at last result, for some at least, in a fuller intelligence. This interest and intelligence Jesus took for granted in His disciples, favoured with His closer com- panionship. " Blessed are your eyes, for they see ; and your ears, for they hear." ^ Yet, even the disciples often failed to understand ; and with them also Jesus had to exercise a reserve. He did not declare His Messiahship till they were able to discover it by God's enlightening on His teaching and life ; He did not speak openly about His passion till after His Messiahship had been confessed, and even then the disciples were not prepared for the dis- closure.^ Only after the Resurrection were some of His sayings understood. In considering Him as a Teacher we must remember His withholding as well as imparting. The scholar limits the teacher, and so defines the method. Does not this consideration suggest the possibility that Jesus in His earthly life was never able to complete His revelation, because not only the multitude, but even the disciples, were not able to receive it ? Hence His teaching is continued and completed in the enlightening of the Spirit of truth. III. We are so impressed by the moral value and the religious significance of the teaching of Jesus that we are apt to ignore its intellectual ability. This was especially 36 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER shown in His skill in controversy. We have already com- mented on the saying, " The common people heard Him gladly." A similar impression of knowledge and skill was made in the synagogue in Nazareth : " Many hearing Him were astonished, saying, ' Whence hath this man these things ? ' and, ' What is the wisdom that is given unto this man ? '" ^ Jesus could use the Scriptures even better than the scribes could. While spiritual vision and moral discernment were the primary qualifications of Jesus as a Teacher, yet He would not have produced so great an impression as He did had not these excellences been con- joined with a capable mind, quickness and sureness of thought, readiness and resource in speech as well. This gave Him success in controversy ; " No man after that durst ask Him any question." ^ And it was important that He should so triumph over His opponents. Yet this is not the side of His ministry on which we love to linger, but rather on the words in which truth and grace were expressed to draw and win men to Himself. 1. The teaching of Jesus was generally given in pithy, pointed, clear, and forceful sayings. It was with Him multum in parvo. Of these sayings Dr. Stalker has fittingly said : " They are simple, felicitous, and easily remembered ; yet every one of them is packed full of thought, and the longer you brood over it the more do you see in it. It is like a pool so clear and sunny that it seems quite shallow, till, thrusting in your stick to touch the pebbles so clearly visible at the bottom, you discover that its depth far exceeds what you are trying to measure it with." ^ Many of the sayings have the characteristics of popular proverbs, easily remembered, and always suggesting more than they express. Antithesis, epigram, paradox abound. Only a few out of a multitude of illustrations may be given : " Many that are first shall be last ; and the last first." * " For every one *>hat exalteth himself shall be ^ Mk 6^. 2 12M. » Imago Christi, p. 253. * Mk 10»». JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 37 humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." ^ " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." ^ " The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." * " Whosoever would save his life shall lose it ; and who- soever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's shall save it." * 2. In many of these brief sayings the truth is presented in a picture ; there are abundant metapliors, in which there is no formal comparison, but an analogy of the natural and the spiritual is assumed, and a figure from the realm of nature suggests a truth of the realm of spirit. We may recall, without quoting the sayings, how Jesus uses such figurative forms of expression as leaven, cup, baptism, ransom, trumpet, sheep's clothing, lost sheep, yoke, good treasure, flock, fire. Each word should, to those familiar with the Gospels, at once summon to remembrance the whole saying. Sometimes the comparison is not merely suggested in a word, but the metaphor is allegorically expaTided. Instances are the sayings about the narrow gate, the plenteous harvest, the mote and the beam, the hand to the plough, the fruits, the blind leaders. This expanded metaphor is specially marked in the Fourth Gospel. Let us remind ourselves of the use made of the ideas of light, darkness, meat, bread, water, hunger, thirst, way, etc. " It is only to be remarked," says Wendt, " that, on the one hand, the figurative phraseology used in the Johannine discourses is less varied than that met with in the synoptical discourses ; and that, on the other hand, the figures used are pretty often expanded in an allegorising way." ^ Often the comparison is formally stated ; there are similes as well as metaphors. We may mention a few : " as a little *child," " as sheep among wolves," " wise as serpents," " harmless as doves," " as a hen gathereth her brood," " as children in the market-place," " as a householder who brings iLkl4". 2Mk2". »227. *s^. • The Teaching of Jesus, vol. i. pp. 146-147. 38 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER out of his treasure things new and old," " as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats." There are eases, however, in which the comparison is more than an illustra- tion ; it is a proof, an argument. A particular precept may be enforced by being brought under " a more general and otherwise valid rule." When this rule is presented in an independent narrative, we get a parable. 3. The parables of Jesus claim rather fuller notice. Wendt distinguishes two kinds of parables. " The first class refers," he says, " to some natural event, or some fact of human intercourse or conduct, not as a separate concrete case, but as giving a rule in frequently recurring cases." ^ One or two examples will suffice to show just what is meant. " The whole have no need of the physician, but the sick." 2 " No man seweth a piece of a new cloth on an old garment," etc.^ " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? " * Some scholars would call these parabolic sayings, and reserve the distinctive term parable for the second kind, which, according to Wendt, " has its distinctive mark in this, that it refers, not to some frequently recurring general fact, but to a single event which has occurred in quite definite circumstances." In these parables the narrative as a whole is the work of the imagination, although the particulars are actual, or at least probable, in common life. Jesus tells what men do, or at least might do, in reality. In the Fourth Gospel there are no parables of this kind at all. There is a great difference between the present and the previous mode of interpreting the parables. "In regard to all the parables of Jesus," says Wendt, " the principle holds good that they are not to be regarded as allegories in which, by way of illustration, an event is figuratively described, and in which, therefore, an ingenious meaning can be drawn out of every detail."^ > Oy*. o7., p. 117. 2Mk'2". »2". «Mt 7'". 'P. r^O-1'21, JESUS CHKIST THE LORD 39 It is in one particular, and, as a rule, in one particular only, that the analogy between the natural and the spiritual, the earthly and the heavenly, holds, and the attempt to press an analogy into all the details is to reduce the whole to absurdity. In the parable of the Ten Vii-gins,^ the point of comparison is the uncertainty of the coming of the bridegroom, and of Christ. Beyond that our interpretation need not go. There are parables in which the analogy does extend further. As the relation between father and son is the most fitting and worthy emblem of the relation of God and man, the details of the parable of the Prodigal ^ are invested with their own significance, of which it would be only pedantry to forbid the interpreter making the most. In some cases the pressing of the analogy further than the one point of comparison would lead us from truth to error. When the argument is a minori ad majus, or a pejori ad melius, we must be careful not to ascribe to God defects which attach to man. God is not an unjust judge,^ even although importunity in prayer is commended ; it is not from unwillingness He makes men wait. In general, we must remember that the kingdom of grace does and must transcend the kingdom of nature, and that conse- quently the analogy suggests, but cannot exhaust the truth. Accordingly, it is but seldom that the parable can present more than one aspect of the truth ; and for this reason Jesus often used twin parables which are com- plementary. The parables of the New Patch on the Old Garment, and of the New Wine in the Old Wine-skins, are necessary to show that both the old and the new order suffer from a forced alliance.* While the parable of the Mustard Seed presents the rapid expansion, the parable of the Leaven suggests the pervasive influence of the kingdom of God.^ Although the Fourth Gospel gives the parable in partially allegorised form, yet the figures of Christ as the door and the shepherd are, in the same way, companion illustrations.^ While laying stress on the point of com- * Mk 2*1-22, • Mt 1331-^. « Jn 10i-». 40 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER parison in the parables, we must not dismiss all the other details as insignificant. They may not only be necessary to give completeness and interest to the story, but also be intended to throw into greater prominence what is the main feature of the parable, and so convey the lesson taught more emphatically. In revering the moral insight and spiritual discernment of Jesus, we cannot in His parables but admire His aesthetic sense and His artistic skill. 4. We should misunderstand the mind of Jesus, however, if we thought of His figurative language as only a rhetorical device. The analogy of the visible and the invisible, the natural and the spiritual, the human and the divine, had a meaning and worth for Himself. He was at home in both worlds, saw clearly and felt keenly in both ; and it was by a spontaneous impulse, an inevitable necessity of His own nature, that He presented the truth of the one world in symbols from the other. The wide range of the illustrations shows the keenness of His observation and the breadth of His sympathy. Nothing in nature or man was unnoticed by Him, or alien to Him. " The Jewish life of Galilee," says Dr. Stalker, " in the days of Christ is thus lifted up out of the surrounding dark- ness into everlasting visibility ; and, as on the screen of a magic lantern, we see, in scene after scene, the landscapes of the country, the domestic life of the people, and the larger life of the cities in all their details." ^ But He saw all in the light of God, felt all in the love of God, and so all had for Him a deeper meaning and a higher worth. He brought out of His treasm-e things new and old ; ^ the familiar fact, simple, even homely, but never vulgar or commonplace, made plain the original truth. The thinker was also the poet, and could not but be ; for does not the imagination realise as the intellect cannot define the profoundest truth about God and man ? 5. Closely akin to Jesus' use of comparison is His practice of presenting truth and duty not in abstract terms, > Imago Christi, p. 254. ^ Mt 13'2. JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 41 but in concrete instances. He states a general principle by giving a particular instance of its application. The contrast between the old law and the new life, to which He calls men, is in the Sermon on the Mount presented in a series of individual examples. He teaches humanity by the story of the Good Samaritan ; ^ humility, by describ- ing the prayer of the Pharisee and the publican ; ^ gener- osity, by calling attention to the gift of the widow,^ etc. (1) In illustrating a principle, Jesus does not take the instances in which the minimum, but in which the maxi- mum demand is made. Always return good for evil, He enjoins, even if it means turning the other cheek to the smiter, or giving up your cloak as well as your tunic, or going two miles instead of one.* Seek forgiveness of any wrong you have done a brother, even if you must interrupt your sacrifice to do it.^ The severity of the demand en- hanced the authority of the principle. (2) But we must be careful to recognise that the same principle may demand varied application ; and the concrete instances Jesus gives are not intended to be absolute rules, to be kept whether the situation demands such an applica- tion of the principle or not. What they do teach is the absoluteness of the demand ; what is the utmost each case demands, conscience must always decide. As Wendt insists, Jesus always aimed at the greatest clearness in the briefest compass. Accordingly, He always gives the extreme instance of the application of any principle in which its import is most vividly presented. " In dealing with the special cases selected for examples," says Wendt, " Jesus avoids all considerations and circum- stances which, though neither nullifying nor limiting the general precept to be taught, would in any degree obscure it. In regard to many of His declarations and precepts, which strike us at first as hard and strange sayings, we find a satisfactory explanation in this method of dealing with 1 Lk lO^'-ST. 2 189-U^ 8 211-4^ * Mt 539-41. e Vv.23. 24, 42 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER examples. Otherwise we are speedily tempted to regard them as overstrained and unpractical, or to smooth away their edge on the ground of their being figurative." ^ (3) This peculiarity is more than a means of effect- iveness in teaching ; it distinguishes morality from what casuistry has often become. Casuistry is very often so busy in discovering all the possible exceptions to, and all the legitimate qualifications of a general principle, that it makes the principle of none effect. This was just the accusation Jesus brought against the scribes ; and His teaching was purposely directed against their casuistry .^ Jesus was a moralist ; He presented the moral ideal in its widest range, deepest reach, and highest claim, as in His teaching on divorce.^ For Him, ever obedient to the Heavenly Vision, exceptions and qualifications would be meaningless and worthless ; the absoluteness of His teach- ing expresses the perfection of His moral character and the certainty of His religious consciousness. Conclusion. — While gratefully and reverently recognis- ing the significance and the value of the teaching of Jesus, not only for His earthly ministry and as a preparation for His heavenly reign as Saviour, but also for the thought and life of mankind in all ages, while carefully and appreciatively studying His method not as an example to be slavishly imitated, but as an ideal to be freely real- ised, we must in closing, however, remind ourselves that His voice as the Christian preacher is not silent ; but that He lives in, and so speaks through, the many witnesses of all the Christian generations who have declared His Gospel by His Spirit. However varied the forms of preaching in the Christian Church may have been, it has proved the power and wisdom of God unto salvation, as He has not only been the object, but even the subject of the preaching. Christ is preached, only as Christ by the enlightening, quickening, and renewing of the preacher by His Spirit Himself preaches. Accordingly, this chapter presents only a fragment of Christ the preacher : the volume itself cannot 1 Op. cit., p. 131. a Mt 23>»-2«. » 198-». JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 43 hope or attempt to exhaust the vast, wondrous, and glorious theme.^ ^ Besides Wendt's and Stalker's books already referred to, and the books of New Testament theology, there may be commended for further study, Sanday's Outlines of the Life of Christ, chap. iv. (see § 97 for other books) ; Selbie's Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ, chap. v. ; Robertson's Our Lord's Teachings, chaps, i, and ii. ; Seeley's Ecce Homo ; the writer ventures to add his own Studies in the Inner Life of Jesus, chap. x. CHAPTER II. APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS. I. 1. When Jesus called His first disciples, according to the Synoptic tradition, His command was with promise, " Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." ^ It was to be their task to catch men for the kingdom of God. For their calling they were trained by His com- panionship, in following Him, learning of Him, and sharing His yoke.2 Of the disciples He, according to Luke, chose " twelve whom also He named apostles." ^ " Moved with compassion for the multitudes, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd," He sent forth the few labourers He had so trained into the plenteous harvest,* giving them "authority over un- clean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases and all manner of sickness," and charging them to preach, " saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." ^ The instructions He gave them respecting the method of their work were adapted to time and place, and need not be regarded as universal and permanent principles of the Christian ministry. According to Luke, Jesus at a later stage of His ministry " appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself was about to come."* Similar instructions were given to the larger as to the smaller company of preachers. On both occasions the apostles were but heralds, preparing the way before Him. 1 Mk 1''. 2 Mt 11=8-30. 8 Lk 613. * Mt 9="-='=*. • 101- ->. 44 « Lk IQi. APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 45 There is no record of the effect of the preaching, but the Seventy rejoiced at the success of their exorcisms, and had to be warned against their self-satisfaction.^ 2. In accordance with his method of arranging the sayings of Jesus in discourses having a unity of subjects, Matthew conjoins to the counsels given the disciples on their first mission, warnings about persecution, uttered at a later stage of the ministry, and relating to the circum- stances of the Church after His departure. In one of these sayings the equipment for their work, which, how- ever, is much more fully dealt with in the Johannine discourses, is mentioned. " When they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak ; for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you."^ When Peter, speaking for the dis- ciples, confessed Jesus' Messiahship, he was pronounced blessed, because " flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him, but the Father which is in heaven." ^ The divine illumination promised is declared to be possessed. 3. Without entering into the question whether the two passages about the iKKkijaia^ are genuine sayings of Jesus, or express the consciousness of the early Christian Church, although the writer inclines to the former opinion, we may regard them as throwing some light on the apostolic func- tions. As the confession of the Messiahship (or the first confessor of the Messiah) is the foundation on which rests the Christian community, so the declaration of the Messiah- ship is the primary content of the apostolic preaching. To the apostles also is entrusted the stewardship of the king- dom of heaven,^ the exercise of its authority in human afifairs by the declaration of the obligations it may impose, or the liberties it may allow.* This function of declaring God's will is to find individual application in the discipline ^ Lk lO"-^". 2 iy£t 1019. w 3 ign 4 1618. is 18U-20 ' This is the more probable interpretation (Weiss) than that given by Bruce {The Expositor's Cheek Testament, vol. i. p. 225), i.e. that Peter would be the door-keeper, admitting to or excluding from the kingdom. * The Christian ideal was a liberation from legal and ritual bondage. 46 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER of the community, the exclusion of any member refusing to be reconciled to another. Not only is the Father's answer assured for united prayer, but also Christ's own presence in any gathering of His disciples in His name. Although the same question arises as regards the great missionary com- mission.^ we need not hesitate about using that passage for our present purpose. A world-wide mission is entrusted to the disciples. All nations are to be won for discipleship, and the new relation is to be confessed in, and signified by, baptism into the threefold name.^ So universal a task, with all difficulties it involves, is justified by the supreme authority of Christ, and its discharge is encouraged by the assurance of His constant presence. 4. When we turn from the Synoptic tradition to the Johannine, especially the farewell talk of Jesus with His disciples, these assurances of His constant presence and supreme authority, and of their equipment for their work by the Spirit, are emphasised and developed. After His departure another Paraclete (Advocate, Helper, Companion) is promised to them in the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, who will continue the revelation of Christ, both by recalling His teachings and by guiding them to an understanding of truths which they cannot now receive from His lips ; but the Spirit's revelation will not supplant, but only make explicit what is already implied in the revelation of the Son. The Spirit shall bear witness of Christ to the disciples, that they may become His witnesses to the world, doubly qualified by their knowledge of the entire course of His earthly ministry and by the enlightening of the Spirit.^ When Jesus appeared in the Upper Eoom after He had risen, the Fourth Gospel represents Him as convey- ing the Holy Spirit to the disciples by breathing upon them, and so giving them, in virtue of their possession of the Spirit, the authority to grant or withhold the forgive- ness of sin.* As regards the function, expressed in the 1 Mt 2818-2''. 2 Tlie apostolic practice was baptism into Christ's name. » Jn 14*- "• ^^ 1612-1* 152G. 27, 4 2022- 28. APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 47 words, " Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them ; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," it is similar to that assigned in the Synoptic tradition,^ and the three passages must be taken together as mutually illuminative. The proclamation of the laws of the king- dom of God, the decision of the membership of the Christian community, the granting or the withholding of the assur- ance of pardon, are all modes in which, through His chosen channels, the Spirit of God continues and applies in the Church the revelation of Christ. It need hardly be said that we are here concerned not with official privileges, but personal qualifications. 5. While the Synoptic tradition throws into prominence the choice of twelve constant companions of Jesus, who were with Him in His Galilaean ministry and in His last days in Jerusalem, it would be a mistake to ignore the larger company of disciples, one of whom, in the writer's judgment, was the Fourth Evangelist,^ who, as having a knowledge of the ministry of Jesus, were also fit to be His witnesses, and who could serve as His apostles or mes- sengers. The choice of Matthias by lot to take the place of Judas ^ had, as far as we can judge, no significance for the subsequent history of the Church, and, with the excep- tion of Peter, John, and James, the Twelve fall into the background, and others come to the front in the witness of the Gospel and the work of the kingdom. It is significant that, when Paul refers to the ministries in the Christian Church, he includes the apostleship among the charisms {■xapia-^iara), the gifts of the Spirit. " And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles (RV. marg. Gr. powers), then gifts of healings, helps, governments (E.V. marg., wise counsels), divers kinds of tongues." * This is no exhaustive enumeration, for elsewhere he adds " evangelists and pastors."^ What Paul was concerned about was not official status, but spiritual endowment ; and the New ^ Mt 1619 igw 2 See articles in The Expositor, 1914-1915. 3 Ac 1=«. * 1 Co 12=8. 5 Eph 4". 48 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Testament as a whole does not warrant us in thinking of any rigid ecclesiastical organisation, but only of a religious community, the members of which were variously endowed, and so fitted for different functions. Keeping this general consideration before us, we may now look more closely at these different functions. 6, The term apostle is first used of the disciples when sent out on their mission ^ " to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and is dearly used in the common sense of messenger. As we have already seen, before the Ascension Jesus declared the scope of this mission to be world-wide,^ and their task to be witness.^ The qualification for witness was that they had been with Him from the beginning, and had witnessed the Kesurrection. The qualification is stated clearly and fully by Peter, in Ac l^^- 22^ in dealing with the appointment of an apostle to take the place of Judas. While probably the knowledge of the earthly ministry was not insisted on in an apostle, the ability to witness to the Eesurrection was. For Paul, in claiminsr apostleship, does not claim any such personal companion- ship with Jesus/ but does claim to have seen Jesus as Kisen.^ James, the Lord's brother,^ was not a disciple during the earthly ministry,^ but he saw the Risen Lord ^ and believed. f ] " This mark of apostleship " (i.e. witness-bearing), says Hort, " is evidently founded on direct personal disciple- ship, and as evidently it is incommunicable. Its whole meaning rested on immediate and unique experience ; as St. John says, ' that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled,' (1 John i. 1). Without a true perceptive faith, such a faith as shewed itself in St. Peter, all this acquaintance through the bodily senses was in vain. But the truest faith of ^ Mt 102, Lk 6^3. The words "whom also He named apostles " in Mk 3^^ are of doubtful authenticity. 8 j^it 28'8 -o. 3 L]^ 24^8 . cf. Jn 15^. * 2 Co 5^^ makes no such claims. ^ 1 Co 9' ; cf. 15'. » Gal 1". "^ Jn 73-». s j Co 15^ APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 49 one who was a disciple only in the second degree, however precious in itself, could never qualify him for bearing the apostolic character." ^ Since the inward revelation through the Spirit was consequent on, and subordinate to the outward revelation by the Son,^ and Pentecost followed the Crucifixion and the Kesurrection, we can understand how and why, even in a Spirit-filled community, the place of pre-eminence belonged to those who had seen and heard the Lord Himself, in His earthly life and in His appearance after His resurrection ; for surely their immediate contact and intimate communion with Him, when His truth and grace were received in faith, was the condition of the fulness of the Spirit's enlightening, renewing, and strengthening power, which enabled them not only to witness, but also to guide and guard the Christian community in the Way appointed and approved by the Lord Himself. 7. Prophecy was one of the gifts of the Spirit in the Christian Church, subordinate, however, to the apostolic function ; ^ esteemed more profitable than the gift of tongues,* yet pronounced transitory, and inferior to faith, hope, love.^ The work of the prophets, as of the other ministers, is defined as " for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Chr:* 1"® The prophetic movement in Israel as a religious revival in its earlier phases corresponded to the " sacred enthusiasm " which took possession of the Christian Church after Pentecost.'^ Its abnormal psychical accom- paniments had a counterpart in some of the charisms, such as 1 The Christian Ecdesia, p. 39. « Jn 16'2- ". »1 Co 1228. M45, 6138.H « Eph 4'2 ; cf. Ac 133. See Ac \V^ 21" IS^- 2 153 219^ 1 jn 4», Rev 2«>. ' " Pneuma hagien (without the article) denotes the sacred enthusiasm which marked certain elect souls before Christ's coming, such as Zacharias, Elizabeth, and their son John ; and after Pentecost, Christians generally, though also in various special degrees. On the other hand, where the aiticle is present, a further reference is usually intended, and it means ' the Holy Spirit,' or God as personally indwelling (immanent) and working in man " {The Century Bible : Acts, p. 386). 50 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER speaking with tongues.^ The revelation of God came both to apostles and prophets in the Spirit,^ but not necessarily in a trance.^ As the Spirit works in prophecy, the prophet is spiritual ; but the Spirit is under the prophet's control,* so that his speech should be according to the proportion of faith,^ and, therefore, the neglect of self-control in exercising the gift is censured.^ 8. Both apostleship and prophecy were conceived as -X^apLo-fiaTa, gifts of God, not conferring an office, but rather imposing a function. " Much profitless labour," says Hort, " has been spent on trying to force the various terms used into meaning so many definite ecclesiastical offices. Not only is the feat impossible, but the attempt carries us away from St. Paul's purpose, which is to show how the different functions are those which God has assigned to the different members of a single body. In both lists apostles and prophets come first, two forms of altogether exceptional function, tiiose who were able to bear witness of Jesus and the Kesurrection by the evidence of their own sight — the Twelve and St. Paul — and those whose monitions or outpourings were regarded as specially inspired by the Holy Spirit. Each of these held one kind of function, and next to these in 1 Cor. come all who in any capacity were * teachers ' (BiSda-KoXoi) without any of the extraordinary gifts bestowed on apostles and prophets. In Ephesians this function is given in a less simple form. First there are ' evangelists,' doubtless men like Titus and Timothy (2 Tim. iv. 5) and Tychicus and Epaphras, disciples of St. Paul who went about from place to place preaching the Gospel in multiplication and continuation of his labours without possessing the peculiar title of apostleship. Probably enough in St. Paul's long imprisonment this kind of work had much increased. Then come ' pastors and teachers,' men who taught within their own community and whose work was therefore as that of shepherds taking care for a flock." 7 ^ Ac 2*. The tongues are not foreign languages, but ecstatic utterances, often unintelligible as prophecy was not. See 1 Co 14'"^". 2 Epb 3», Rev li". » AclO"' 22". * 1 Co 12i« 14^7 v.*". 6 Ro 12''. « 1 Co 14«*-si. ' The Christian Ecdesia, pp. 157-158. APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 51 We may recall in this connection Paul's solemn warn- ing to the elders of Ephesus.^ The elders also are the servants of the Spirit, if less richly endowed than apostles and prophets. While the elders or bishops and deacons were the local settled ministry, the apostles, prophets, and evangelists were the universal travelling ministry ; and after the Apostolic Age, as the former gained authority, the latter lost influence. Impostors seem to have assumed the functions of apostles and prophets, as the warnings in the DidacTie, or The Teaching of the Apostles, show.^ II. 1. The times and places of apostolic preaching may be very briefly referred to. " As the Christian Church," says Schaff, " rests histori- cally on the Jewish Church, so Christian worship and the congregational organisation rest on that of the synagogue, and cannot be well understood without it." * Both Christ Himself and the apostles, wherever and whenever practicable, used the synagogue as the scene of their labours. Even Paul, on his mission to the Gentiles, first visited the Jewish synagogue, and there preached until prevented by Jewish opposition. In the synagogue " the chief parts of the service were, according to the Mishna, the recitation of the Sluma (a confession of faith), prayer^ the reading of the Thorah, the reading of the prophets, the blessing of the priest. To these were added the translation of the portions of Scripture read, which is assumed in the Mishna, and the explanation of what had been read by an edifying discourse, which in Philo figures as the chief matter in the whole service."* It is only with the place of preaching in the synagogue that we are concerned. ^ Ac 20^'. * See chaps, xi., xii. * Apostolic Christianity, p. 456. * Schiirer's The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Dir. ii. vol. ii. p. 76. 52 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER "The reading of the Scripture," says Schiirer, "was followed by an edifying lecture or sermon (n^'i'n), by which the portion which had been read was explained and applied. That such explanations were the general practice is evident from the SiBda-Kecv ev rah avvay(oyal<;,^ so frequently men- tioned in the New Testament from Luke iv, 20 sqq., and from the express testimony of Philo. The preacher Qfy\) used to sit (Luke iv. 20 : iKdOiaev) on an elevated place. Nor was such preaching confined to appointed persons, but, as appears especially from Philo, open to any competent member of the congregation." ^ The preaching, neither of Jesus nor of the apostles, was confined to the synagogue. He preached in the fields, roads, and streets of Galilee, and also in the temple at Jerusalem ; and so did they. When compelled to with- draw from the synagogue at Corinth, Paul exercised his ministry in a private house, that of Titus Justus, adjoining the synagogue.^ At Ephesus for two years he reasoned daily in the school of Tyrannus.* Thus the Gospel was transplanted from Jewish to Gentile soil, and the Christian preacher ceased to be a Jewish scribe and became a Gentile rhetor or sophist.^ 1 Mt 4« Mk 121 62, Lk \^ 6« 13»», Jn 6^9 IS^o. 2 Op. cit., p. 82. See Lk 4"-2o, Jn 6^, Ac 68-'<> 92° l-3« » Ac 187. * 199- 10. Dr. Bartlet's comment may be quoted: "i.e. a lecture-room such as rhetors or sophists (popularizers of philosophy) used for their orations or ' displays.' This particular ' school ' bore the name of Tyrannus, perhaps from the rhetor who originally gave prestige to the spot. To the general public Paul's ' reasoning ' on the claims of the gospel would now seem, more than ever, that of a specially piquant travelling sophist of religious sympathies" {The Century Bible: Acts, pp. 314-315). ^ This is a topic to which we shall return in the next chapter ; but atten- tion may here be called to two articles by Dr. Maurice Jones on " The Style of St. Paul's Preaching" {The Expositor, 8th Series, vol. xiv. p. 242 ff.), in which he seeks to show the influence in Paul's method of preaching of the Cynic-Stoic Diatribe. He recognises, however, that the strong person- ality of the apostle asserted itself. " If St. Paul wears the mantle of the Greek preacher he wears it very loosely, putting it on and otf at will." How Paul thought of himself as a Christian preacher Dr. Robert Law has sought to set forth in an article on "St. Paul on Preaching" {The Conntructive Quarterly, vol. v. p. 552 6".), with special reference to the passages in 1 Corinthians. APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 53 2. From the times and places we turn to the contents of apostolic preaching. We cannot claim the discourses in Acts as verbatim reports ; but we must not dismiss them as free compositions of the author ; for a careful study of them shows their appropriateness to the occasion, the pur- pose, the speaker^3nd_the_stageof theological development whTch had""been reached. Peter's speech at Pentecost ^ is deserving of very close_stud^ ;_a8_itJs_tEelifst statement of thejipostolic^^ffiessagerit is the first endeavour made in~tBe Christian Church to understand, and to make understood, the meaning of the Person of Christ, and especially of His death. We have in this speech five elements of the early Christian preaching — (1) testimony to fact, especially the Crucifixion and Resurrection ; (2) interpretation of fact, in which throughout the book of Acts we can trace a develop- ment ; (3) argument from prophecy, the most potent kind of reasoning for a Jewish audience, in which, however, Jewish modes of interpretation were employed, which our modern scholarship can no longer regard as valid ; (4) appeal to conscience, to bring home to the Jewish nation the crime of Christ's death in order to awaken penitence ; and (5) assurance of forgiveness and salvation through faith in Christ. Of_the_Sficond address of Peter, in explanation of the first miracle,^-)the peculiar features are — (1) the milder tone adopted towards the Jewish people (v.^'^) ; (2) the advance in theology, as the death is now connected with the necessity of the fulfilment of prophecy (v.^^) ; (3) the reference to the Second Advent, a subject which had not been mentioned in the previous address {vP). In the defence of the apostolic preaching before the Jewish Sanhedrin, the characteristic feature noted is holdness? Against all threats the imperative duty of obey- ing God rather than man, of testifying what they had seen ^ Ac 2"-*". 2 3U-26_ ' Ac 4^^. irapp7) 1 Co 121. 59 60 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER vate a good conscience, to act as if conscious that God sees all ; virtue is its own reward, and is attainable by all ; sin is its own punishment. They insisted on man's inherent dig- nity and his ability to save himself by his will. They knew no original sin. Life should be a contemplation of death, so that men may die without fear. This preaching was not confined to the upper circles. One is more impressed by the enormous amount of popular preaching. . . . Preachers, like emperors, courted popularity with the masses. . . . The street preaching was started by the Cynics, who were exposed to as much ridicule as any street preachers have ever been." We need not reproduce the names mentioned by this writer ; and may pass to his last sentences on this topic : " These, and such apostles, aimed at a moral and religi- ous revival ; they believed reformation of character possible, and within the reach of all. They gave clear expression to certain great truths. Who can say how many conver- sions they produced, or who can measure their influence for righteousness ? They claimed to be ambassadors of God, and they executed their mission as well as they could. But their truth was too abstract: they misplaced the seat of authority ; they failed to realize the true nature and extent of human sin. Nevertheless they were voices crying in the wilderness of Paganism, preparing the way of the Lord."i ^ The Environment of Early Christianity, pp. 74-78. An extract may here be added, dealing with the same subject, from Chantepie de la Saussaye: Religionsgeschichte, 2 Band, Dritte Aufliige, p. 505: "The philosophers in this period exercised the deepest influence as preachers to the people. Actually only the cynics come into consideration in this respect. Not only by their speeches, which one has often compared with the sermons of the Capuchins, but also by their whole life, were these 'mendicant monks of antiquity' the teachers and trainers of their con- temporaries. In this period cynicism attained a far greater significance than it had ever possessed in ancient Greece. The cynic was a man who, without property or family, free in life as in death, warned and exhorted all men in free-spirited speech, a herald and messenger of the goJs, a brother of all men, whose soul-weal he bore upon his heart. Thus Epictetus (Arrian, Diatrib, iii. 22) described him in ideal light as an overseer of other men (the rest of mankind), who, following a divine vocation, shewed all by speech and example the way of salvation. History offers several instances of the great influence of the cynics. Thus in the first century in Rome one of the best known personalities was the cynic Demetrius, who refused with scorn APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 61 2. This popular preaching of practical philosophy not only produced an interest in the discussion of questions of religion and morals, and so secured for the Christian preachers an audience ever ready to listen to the solution of these problems they could offer ; but also the methods of composition and delivery did pass over into the Christian Church, and so determined the forms of Christian preach- ing. In ancient Greece young men were prepared for taking their part in public life by a course of instruction in rhetoric, the art of effective speech, of so presenting a political course or a legal case as to persuade and convince. The teacher of rhetoric illustrated the rules he gave by " model compositions of his own, in the first instance exer- cises in the pleading of actual causes, and accusations or defences of real persons," but afterwards they lost connec- tion with the law-courts and became literary exercises (/xeXerat), arguments about topics or persons, sometimes fictitious, and sometimes taken from real history. Rhetoric thus became sophistic, when it lost touch with real life, and became an intellectual indulgence. It was again rescued from vain artificiality by an alliance with philosophy. " It threw off altogether," says Hatch, " the fiction of a law-court or an assembly, and discussed in continuous speech the larger themes of morality or theology. Its utterances were not ' exercises,' but ' discourses ' (StaXe^et?). It preached sermons. It created not only a new literature but also a large sums of money which Caligula offered to him, with whom Thrasea conversed in his last hour, who last of all opposed Vespasian ; but he did not want to kill the ' barking dog.' Contempt of the emperors almost be- longed to the office of the cynic ; thus one of them even ventured publicly to scold Titus on account of Berenice. There were, however, besides good also some bad cynics, who, shameless and vain, selfish and dishonest, wore as a disguise the outer tokens of the cynic, long beard and staff, in order to swindle people and to enrich themselves. A specially hostile light falls on these popular preachers in Lucian, who makes an exception only for the Athenian Demouax. Most violently Lucian pursues Peregrinus Proteus whose whole life he describes as a series of scandals, and whose suicide by fire in Olympia he mocks. ... In any case, one can accord far less belief to the controversial writings of Lucian than to the idealising description of Epictetus." 62 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER new profession. The class of men against whom Plato had inveighed had become merged in the general class of educa- tors : they were specialized partly as grammarians, partly as rhetoricians ; the word ' sophist,' to which the invectives had failed to attach a permanent stigma, remained partly as a generic name, and partly as a special name for the new class of public talkers. They differed from philosophers in that they did not mark themselves off from the rest of the world, and profess their devotion to a higher standard of living, by wearing a special dress." ^ Some of them were settled in one place, others travelled about. They indulged in rhetorical contests with one another, especially at one of the great festivals, and were regarded as public entertainers, not much raised above jugglers and soothsayers. Dio Chrysostom carries us back through the centuries with his vivid picture of a scene in Corinth at the Isthmian games : " You might hear many poor wretches of sophists shout- ing and abusing one another, and their disciples, as they call them, squabbling, and many writers of books reading their stupid compositions, and many poets singing their poems, and many jugglers exhibiting their marvels, and many sooth- sayers giving the meaning of prodigies, and ten thousand rhetoricians twisting law-suits, and no small number of traders driving their several trades." ^ They expected, and used their arts to secure applause ; but sometimes suffered the humiliation of signs of disapproval. They cared not for fame only, but gold also ; and some of them were very successful in securing both. The successful were puffed up with conceit, and often made themselves ridiculous by their pretensions. " The common epithet for them is aka^cov — a word with no precise English equivalent, denoting a cross between a braggart and a mountebank. But the real grounds on which the more earnest men objected to them were those upon which Plato had objected to their prede- cessors: their making a trade of knowledge, and their unreality." ^ " They preached, not because they were in ' Hatch's Hihbert Lectures : The Influence of Greek Ideas a.nd Usages upon the Christian Church, p. 91. 2 Quoted by Hatch, op. cit., p. 94. * Ibid., p. 99. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 63 grim earnest about the reformation of the world, but be- cause preaching was a respectable profession, and the listen- ing to sermons, a fashionable diversion." ^ Against this movement there was a counter-movement, especially in the Stoic school ; and we are justified in assuming that among the sophists there were serious and earnest men, who preached because they believed, and wished to share this good with others. 3. We must now try to estimate the influence of this sophistic on the Christian Church. (1) In the Apostolic Age there was an " inspired " ministry of apostles and prophets, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Their preaching was primarily by divine gift and not human art, although human talents were consecrated by the Spirit in His operations. Having undoubtedly in view the wisdom of the pagan sophist, Paul says of himself : " My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power ; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." ^ Prophecy was not studied, but spontaneous, utterance. As the high tide of " the holy enthusiasm " of the Apostolic Age ebbed (and the difference can be seen if we compare the Apostolic Fathers with the apostles), prophecy gave way to preach- ing. It was discredited by impostors, who pretended without possessing the charism ; and it was at last suppressed by ecclesiastical authority in the Montanist movement as a peril to the established order in doctrine, worship, and polity. It must be admitted that in it« last phase it degenerated into fanaticism. The preaching, which now replaced " prophecy," became the regular function of the bishop ; and in it " were fused together, on the one hand, teaching, — that is, the tradition and exposition of the sacred books and of the received doctrine ; and, on the other hand, exhortation, — that is, the endeavour to raise men to a higher level of moral and spiritual life." Not depending as did prophecy on " inspiration," but on ' Pp. 100, 101. 2 I Co 2'*- 5, 64 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER natural aptitude, developed by training and practice, it could be efficiently discharged by a permanent official, and came gradually to be limited to the official class. (2) The form of the homily, the term applied to this combination of instruction and exhortation, was taken from the sophists ; and Christian preachers, in their methods, followed the example thus set them. The term itself, " which was unknown in this sense in pre-Christian times, and which denoted the familiar intercourse and direct personal addresses of common life," was gradually superseded " by the technical terms of the schools — discourses, disputa- tions, or speeches" (StaXefet?, disputations).^ Even the external circumstances became similar. " The preacher sat in his official chair : it was an exceptional thing for him to ascend the reader's amho, the modern ' pulpit ' ; the audience crowded in front of him, and frequently interrupted him with shouts of acclamation. The greater preachers tried to stem the tide of applause which surged round them : again and again Chrysostom begs his hearers to be silent ; what he wants is, not their acclamations, but the fruits of his preaching in their lives." ^ The quotation which Dr. Hatch gives from one of the sermons of Chrysostom, in illustration of this point, has so permanent an interest that it must be reproduced in full : " There are many preachers who make long sermons : if they are well applauded, they are as glad as if they had obtained a kingdom ; if they bring their sermon to an end in silence, their despondency is worse, I may almost say, than hell. It is this that ruins churches, that you do not seek to hear sermons that touch the heart, but sermons that will delight your ears with their intonation and the structure of their phrases, just as if you were listening to singers and lute- players. And we preachers humour your fancies, instead of trying to crush them. We act like a father who gives a sick child a cake or an ice, just because he asks for it, and takes no * Hatch, op. cit., pp. 108-109. We may recall Dr. Parker's definition of preaching as " dignified conversation." 2 Op. cit., p. 110. A modern parallel may be mentioned. The Rev. Dr. (now Sir) George Adam Smith rebuked an outburst of applause with the words, " We do not applaud, but obey, the Word of the Lord." APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 65 pains to give him what is good for him ; and then when the doctors blame him, says, ' I could not bear to hear my child cry.' . . . That is what we do when we elaborate beautiful sentences, fine combinations and harmonies, to please and not to profit, to be admired and not to instruct, to delight and not to teach you, to go away with your applause in our ears, and not to better your conduct. Believe me, 1 am not speaking at random : when you applaud me as I speak, I feel at the moment as it is natural for a man to feel. I will make a clean breast of it. Why should I not ? I am delighted and overjoyed. And then when I go home and reflect that the people who have been applauding me have received no benefit, and indeed that whatever benefit they might have had has been killed by the applause and praises, 1 am sore at heart, and lament and fall to tears, and I feel as though I had spoken altogether in vain, and I say to myself, What is the good of all your labours, seeing that your hearers don't want to reap any fruits out of all that you say ? And I have often thought of laying down a rule absolutely prohibit- ing all applause, and urging you to listen in silence." ^ Mutatis mutandis this passage exposes a constant peril of the Christian preacher, and shows that not only the forms, but even the spirit and purpose, of pagan sophistic had got into the Christian Church : " Christian preachers, like the Sophists, were sometimes peripatetic ; they went from place to place, delivering their orations and making money by delivering them." ^ Thus was preaching prostituted to the base pursuit of fame and wealth. We must not exaggerate the evil, and suppose that all Christian preaching sank so low ; there were many good and godly men who, even in using the same forms of preaching, were seeking to serve the Lord alone. II. 1. Preaching was a part of the public worship of the Christian Church, of which Justin Martyr, about 140 A.D., gives us an account : " On Sunday, a meeting of all, who live in the cities and 1 Op cU., p. 111. 2 P. 112. 66 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER villages, is heW, and a section from the Memoirs of the Apostles (the Gospels) and the writings of the Prophets (the Old Testament) is read, as long as the time permits. When the reader has finished, the president, in a discourse, gives an exhortation {ttjv vovdecriav koI TrapaKXijabv) to the imitation of these noble things. After this we all rise in common prayer. At the close of the prayer, as we have before described (chapter 65), bread and wine with water are brought. The president offers prayer and thanks for them, according to the power given him, and the congregation responds the Amen. Then the consecrated elements are distributed to each one, and partaken, and are carried by the deacons to the houses of the absent. The wealthy and the willing then give contributions according to their free will, and this collection is deposited with the president, who therewith supplies orphans and widows, poor and needy, prisoners and strangers, and takes care of all who are in want. We assemble in common on Sundny, because this is the first day, on which God created the world and the light, and because Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead, and appeared to his disciples." ^ This was the setting of the Christian preaching within the Church. 2. Outside of the New Testament, the oldest Christian homily which has come down to us is the so-called Second Epistle of Clement,^ which may be taken to represent the transition from " prophesying " to " preacliing." "The work known as the Second Epistle of Clement," says Hatch, " is perhaps a representative of the form which it (prophesying) took in the middle of the second century ; but though it is inspired by a genuine enthusiasm, it is rather more artistic in its form than a purely prophetic utterance is likely to have been." ^ Its form is not borrowed from the rhetorical schools, but ^ Apol. i. c. 67, quoted by ScliafiF, Ante-Nicene Christianity, pp. 223, 224. See Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. ii. 65-66. * Lightfoot's S. Clement of Rmne, Appendix, 378-390 ; or Ante-Nicene Christian Library : Recently Discovered MSS, pp. 251-256; or The Apostolic Fathers, pt. i., in The Ancient and Modern Library of Theological Litera- ture, pp. 195-204. 3 Op. cit., p. 106. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 67 appears to resemble the kind of speech in which Stoic teachers gave their practical instructions. Its pervading enthusiasm, of which Hatch speaks, rises to eloquence only in the opening passage, in which he states the motive of Christian living : " that we ought to entertain a worthy opinion of our salvation, and to do the utmost that in us lies to express the value we put upon it, by a sincere obedience to our Saviour Christ and His Gospel."^ Eo 12^ might have served as the text; but the Paul- ine tone in the beginning is not maintained throughout the sermon : the moralist, and even legalist, rather than the evangelical spirit prevails. The call to live well is enforced by prudential considerations, the reward or the punishment of the future life. The need of repentance is insisted on. A peculiar argument for sexual purity is advanced : " If we say that the flesh is the Church, and the spirit is Christ, then verily he who hath dishonoured the flesh hath dishonoured the Church : such an one, therefore, shall not be a partaker of the spirit which is Christ." ^ The teaching about fasting is so unevangelical in tone, that Bishop Lightfoot conjectures some corruption of the text. There is an evident reference to a similar statement in Tob 12^-^; and it is possible that the preacher's words have been assimilated to that. Be that as it may, the passage runs as follows : " Beautiful is almsgiving, even as repentance from sin. Better is Fasting than Prayer, but Almsgiving is better than both. Love covereth a imdtiUide of dns. But prayer out of a good conscience delivereth from death. Blessed is every one that in these things is found full, for almsgiving re- moveth the burden of sin." • The sermon rises again to a higher note in the closing ascription : ' The analysis of th* sermon in The Apostolic Fathers, part i. p. 193. • The Apostolic Fathers, part i. p. 202. » Pp. 202-203. 68 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER " To the only God invisible, Father of truth, who sent forth to us the Saviour and Prince of incorruption, by whom also He made known to us the truth and the heavenly life, to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." ^ 3. A rapid development of the art of preaching is indicated by a sermon, " In Sanctam Theophaniam," which is ascribed to Hippolytus^ (died 235), and which, if it is indeed his, justifies Eusebius' description of him as dvrjp \67t09, and offers an interesting proof of the use of Greek in the worship of the Eoman congregation in the earliest centuries. While it is very loosely attached to the pas- sage which was read before it, Mt 3^^'^^, it shows unity and progress in its structure ; and is an excellent example of rhetorical art. While it does not, as the title indi- cates, refer to the feast of Epiphany, in its praise of and invitation to Baptism, it points to an approaching celebration of the rite, and so may be placed before Easter or Whitsuntide.^ With many analogies, showing an ap- preciation of nature, it magnifies beyond measure the worth of water, to which so exalted a function is assigned. A brief passage to illustrate the rhetorical quality of this sermon may be quoted : *' Very good are all the works of our God and Saviour. . . . And what more requisite gift, again, is there than the element (^uo-ew?) of water ? For with water all things are washed and nourished, and cleansed and bedewed. Water bears the earth, water produces the dew, water exhilarates the vine, water matures the corn in the ear, water ripens the grape-cluster, water softens the olive, water sweetens the palm-date, water reddens the rose and decks the violet, water makes the lily bloom with its brilliant cups. . . . There is also that which is more honourable than all — the fact that Christ, the Maker of all, came down as the rain (Hos vi. 3) and was known as a spring (John iv. 14), and diffused Himself as a river (John vii. -^^SS), and was baptized in the Jordan (Mat iii. 13). For you have just heard how Jesus came to John, and was baptized by him in 1 p. 204. 2 See Ante-Nicene Library, vol. ix. pp. 80-87. » See HLH, p. 8. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 69 the Jordan. Oh things strange beyond compare! How should the boundless Eiver (Ps xlvi. 4) that makes glad the city of God have been dipped in a little water ! The illimit- able Spring that bears life to all men, and has no end, was covered by poor and temporary waters ! He who is present everywhere, and absent nowhere — who is incomprehensible to angels and invisible to men — comes to the baptism ac- cording to His own good pleasure. When you hear these things, beloved, take them not as if spoken literally, but accept them as presented in a figure (ceconomically)." ^ Here we get a glimpse of the preacher's exegesis and theology as well. 4. Although not usually mentioned among preachers, Justin Martyr, who died about 166, deserves notice, not only for his own worth, but also because he is a proof, as is also Origen, that preaching was not as yet rigidly confined to the clergy, and is a conspicuous instance of the apolo- getic activity of the Church. He remained a layman, and yet none of his contemporaries rendered as great a service to the Christian cause as he did. His spirit is shown in his words : " Every one who can preach the truth and does not preacn it, incurs the judgment of God." Having found in Christ what he had vainly sought in the philosophies of his age, he nevertheless after his con- version retained the philosopher's cloak, and so found easier access to the philosophical circles, in which be ever sought to witness for Christ. From his First and Second Apologies we may infer how in conversation and discourse he de- fended his fellow-Christians against heathen calumnies and persecutions, and sought justice for them. His Dialogue shows the line of argument from prophecy which he took against Jewish objections : " In his Apologies he speaks like a philosopher to philo- sophers ; in the Bialogtie as a believer in the Old Testament, with a son of Abraham. The disputation lasted two days, in a gymnasium just before a voyage of Justin, and turned ' See Ante-Niceue Library, vol. ix. pp. 80, 81. 70 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER chiefly on two questions, how the Christians could profess to serve God, and yet break His law, and how they could believe in a human Saviour who suffered and died. Trypho, whom Eusebius calls ' the most distinguished among the Hebrews of his day,' was not a fanatical Pharisee, but a tolerant and courteous Jew, who evasively confessed at last to have been much instructed, and asked Justin to come again, and to remember him as a friend." ^ Justin was unwearied in his labours for the Gospel, and travelled far and wide as an evangelist ; and at last in Eome suffered martyrdom. He is a notable instance of one who not only sought to edify the Church, but also to convert the world. 5. In the North African Church a distinctive type of preaching is represented by Tertullian (born about 150, and died 220 or 240). Although no sermon of his has been preserved, yet his writings enable us to represent to our- selves the force and fire of his speech. He knew no com- promise with the world and its wisdom in his passionate devotion to Christianity. If he was sometimes carried away in violence of speech against error or sin, he could also among his brethren strike the tender, humble note. In his Apologeticus he gives us a glimpse into the Christian assembly : " We assemble to read our sacred writings, if any peculi- arity of the times makes either fore-warning or reminiscence needful. However it be in that respect with the sacred words, we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more stedfast ; and no less by inculcations of God's precepts we confirm good habits." ^ There can be little doubt that he was able in all these ways to edify his brethren. To North Africa also belonged Cyprian (born about 200, if not earlier ; martyred Sept. 14, 258). So far as we are warranted in inferring his style of preaching from his writings, his language was more polished and accurate than Tertullian's ; in both the Latin * Schaffs Ante-Nicene Christianity, p. 718. See Ante-Nicene Library, vol. ii.. The Writings of Justin Martyr, pp. 1-278. 3 The Ante-Nieene Library, Writings of Tertullian, i, 118. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 71 of North Africa shows a tendency to extravagance and artificiality. But in his Epistle to Donatus he mentions the need of a simple and undecorated style in the preaching of the Gospel.^ 6. The dominant purpose of Origen (born 185, died 253 or 254) was the exposition of the Scriptures, that he might exhibit in them a wisdom surpassing the philosophy of the Greeks. His method was that of allegorising. He found all Christian truth in the Old Testament no less than in the New. He maintained that as the literal sense of the Scriptures was often unworthy of God, and impracti- cable for man, a deeper meaning must be sought. Besides the somatic (literal or historical) meaning he discovered a psychic (doctrinal and practical), and beyond that even a pneumatic (mystical or speculative) sense.^ But in spiritual- ising as he believed the letter of Scripture, he put into it " all sorts of foreign ideas and irrelevant fancies." In his exegetical works we are here concerned only with his Homilies (ofilXiai), " hortatory or practical applications of Scripture for the congregation. They were delivered ex- temporaneously, mostly in Caesarea in the latter part of his life, and taken down by stenographers. They are important also to the history of pulpit oratory. But we have them only in part, as translated by Jerome and Rufinus, with many unscrupulous retrenchments and additions, which perplex and are apt to mislead investigators."^ In spite of this allegorical method the sermons do often exhibit a fine moral and spiritual insight. A specimen of Origen's method may be given from his sermon on Jer 16^^, which has the added interest, that it describes the two ends of preaching, the converting of sinners, and the edifying of saints. Connecting with the prophetic pas- sage the call of the disciples to become fishers of men as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, he works out the analogy in detail : 1 See HLH, p. 9 ; DHPI, p. 58 ; KLP, p. 100. ' See ScbaflF's Ante-Kicene Cliristianity, rol. ii. p. 521. » Op. cit., p. 7 05. 72 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER " Thou hast come up from the sea, falling into the nets of the disciples of Jesus : coming forth thou changest thy soul, thou art no longer a fish, passing thy time in the briny waves of the sea ; but at once thy soul changes, and is trans- formed, and becomes something better and diviner than it formerly was. . . . And being thus transformed, the fish that is caught by the fishers of Jesus, leaving the haunts of the sea makes his haunts in the mountains, so that he no longer needs the fishers who bring him up from the sea, but those second ones, such as are called hunters, who hunt from every mountain and every hill. Thou, therefore, having come up from the sea, forget it, come up upon the mountains, the prophets, and upon the hills, the righteous, and make there thy haunts, in order that after these things, when the time of thy departure is at hand, the many hunters may be sent forth, other than the fishers. But who could these be but those who have been appointed for the purpose of receiving the souls that are in the hills, that are no longer lying below. And see if the prophet has not mystically called out, saying these things, and offering this thought, when he says, ' Behold I send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them ; and afterwards I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain, and upon every hill.' " ^ III. 1. The victory of Christianity over paganism in the fourth century resulted in so great a change in the character of the congregations in the Christian Churches that the purpose, content, and method of preaching were necessarily affected. While outwardly more powerful, the Church was inwardly less pure. A multitude, only partially influenced in thought and life by the Christian Gospel, now pressed into the Church, and so needed to be disciplined in Christian faith and morals. To so mixed a congregation the Christian preacher had to address ^ Quoted in DHPI, pp. 53-54. See Origoiis Opera Omnia, ed. Caioli Delarue, Tom Tcrtius, pp. 227-228. The Writings of Origen have been in part translated in the Ante-Niceue Christian Library, vols. x. and xxiii. Edinburgh, 1869-1872. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 73 himself, not only expounding and enforcing Christianity, but also exposing and attacking pagan superstition and corruption. It was a stern warfare, which had to be bravely and steadily waged. (1) In order to be influenced, however, the people had to be attracted by the preacher. Hence he was tempted to prostitute his sacred calling to secure popu- larity. In the Greek-speaking congregations there was a keen taste for rhetoric, and the Christian preachers had to compete with the Sophists, who have already been spoken of. This tendency was confirmed by the education of the clergy, in which instruction in the art of rhetoric had had a large place. It was inevitable that Christian preaching should be more and more affected by the popular demand, and the clerical aptitude for rhetorical display. In a genuinely and intensely Christian personality the art was subordinated to the purpose of Christian preaching ; but men of shallower experience and weaker character became the slaves rather than the masters of the tool thus put into their hands. It is a proof of the cleansing and renewing power of the Christian faith that the pulpit of that age was not more secularised even than it was. This dangerous tendency is seen at its worst in one class of pulpit discourse, panegyrics of the living, in which fulsome flattery breaks all bounds of Christian judgment. (2) One of the greatest safeguards against this peril was the close connection still maintained between the reading of the Scriptures and the sermon. In spite of the elaboration of the liturgy, the lesson kept its place in public worship, and a fixed selection of passages, called pericopes, was gradually introduced. While the sermon might be based on the pericope, it was not bound to it. Some of the great preachers, such as Chrysostom and Augustine, dealt with whole books in consecutive portions. On a festival, an appropriate or customary text was chosen. Despite the allegorical method of interpretation, and the rhetorical forms of the sermons, the moral and religious wealth of the Scriptures preserved Christian preaching 74 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER from the artificiality and futility into which it might have fallen. (3) Unless in the homilies, where a verse-by- verse exposition of a portion of Scripture was given, sermons assumed a more definite form, a theme gave unity to the whole. Doctrinal and practical problems came to be discussed. At the great festivals, the sermon was neces- sarily closely connected with the Scripture record of the event being celebrated ; but even here the Greek orators allowed themselves to be less controlled by the details of the narrative than did Augustine. The reading of the records of martyrdom on saints' days, combined with a panegyric, further loosened the connection of the sermon with the Scripture lesson. If we may apply a modern distinction, preaching tended to become less expository and more topical. The Old Testament receded and the New Testament advanced in favour with preachers. The prophets and the psalms were still preached on in the current Christian interpretation. In contrast with the cosmology of paganism, the record of the Creation received attention. Some of the Old Testament stories still attracted, and the Old Testament types of Christ were diligently sought after ; but the Four Gospels held the first place, and the Epistles the second, in preaching. (4) The Scriptures, however, did not alone give the content to sermons. It was the age of the Christological controversies, and preachers sought in their sermons to justify from the Scriptures the theological views which they themselves held. While a distinct confession of the faith of the Church is desirable, and its exposition and defence in the pulpit are legitimate, there is always the peril that moral and religious interests may be sacrificed to dogmatic, and that the manifold wealth of the Scrip- tures may not be adequately used for the enrichment of Christian experience and character. In the East especially there was an undue prominence of the controversial theological interest. While in the disputes about the person of Christ vital religious interests were involved, yet APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 75 the conception of salvation which dominated Greek thought detached Christ's work, and so His person also, from the essential moral interests. The quasi-physical deification of man, for which the Son of God was represented as having assumed human nature, was unrelated to holy living. Morality was conceived in the legal rather than in the evangelical way, and so the sermons on Christian morals did not magnify divine grace in asserting human duty, as Augustine did. In the East the extremes of genuine eloquence and artificial rhetoric were both found. In the West much less value was attached to oratory by preachers or hearers ; and it is rec9rded that some bishops had the doors closed, so as to prevent the departure of most of the congregation before the sermon.^ 2. Great as were the services of Athanasius (296-372) to Christian truth, we know too httle of him as a preacher to deal with him as such.^ The three theologians who formulated the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity in the East were also noted preachers, and of their powers we have abundant evidence. (1) Of Basil the Great of Ccesarea (330-379), Van Oosterzee's estimate deserves quotation: " Apart from the consideration of his excellent character and his ceaseless zeal in the defence of the orthodox Christology, he shines as an ecclesiastical orator especially, by the rare purity of his style and diction, animation of delivery, vivacity of conception, and abundance of manifold knowledge, as well of the human heart as of the nature around him. Of the last kind of knowledge, instances are to be found in his renowned Nine Homilies on the six-days' work of creation {Hexaemeron) ; of the other in his four-and- twenty discourses on moral subjects. . . . Basil shines even more by the magnificent and nervous character of his preach- ing than by its softness and tenderness." ^ (2) The introduction and the conclusion of the second Homily in the Hexaemeron may be quoted as illustrating the structure of his sermons as well as his style : » See HLH, pp. 11-15 ; DHPI, p. 60 f. ; KLP, pp. 73-80. ^ Home, ofp. cit., pp. 113-129, deals with Athanasius as an instance of the royalty of the pulpit. ^ qpt, p. 93. 76 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER " In the few words (Gn 1^) which have occupied us this morning we have found such a depth of thought that we despair of penetrating further. If such is the forecourt of the sanctuary, if the portico of the temple is so grand and magnificent, if the splendour of its beauty thus dazzles the eyes of the soul, what will be the holy of holies ? Who will dare to try to gain access to the innermost shrine ? Who will look into the secrets ? To gaze into it is indeed forbidden us, and langua-e is powerless to express what the mind conceives. However, since there are rewards, and most desirable ones, reserved by the just Judge for the intention alone of doing good, do not let us hesitate to con- tinue our researches. Although we may not attain to the truth, if, with the help of the Spirit, we do not fall away from the meaning of Holy Scriptures, we shall not deserve to be rejected, and, with the help of grace, we shall contribute to the edification of the Church of God." Then follows an exposition of Gn 1^'^ clause by clause. The conclusion is suggested by the last clause discussed : " But whilst I am conversing with you about the first evening of the world, evening takes me by surprise and puts an end to my discourse. May the Father of the true light, Who has adorned day with celestial light, Who has made to shine the fires which illuminate us during the night, Who reserves for us in the peace of a future age a spiritual and everlasting light, enlighten your hearts in the knowledge of truth, keep you from stumbling, and ' grant that you may walk honestly as in the day.' Thus shall you shine as the sun in the midst of the glory of the saints, and I shall glory in you in the day of Christ, to Whom belong all glory and power for ever and ever. Amen." ^ 3. His funeral sermon was preached by his friend, Gregory Nazianzen (330-390), who, in spite of inferior natural gifts and unfavourable circumstances, to his own surprise, won a commanding position as a preacher in securing the triumph of orthodoxy. (1) The secret of his combined power and charm may be found in his own confession : " My only affection was eloquence, and long did I apply ^ Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. viii. pp. 58 and 65. Oxford, 1895. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 77 myself to it with all my might ; but I have laid it down at the feet of Christ, and subjugated it to the great word of God." 1 His rhetorical art is best shown in his sermons on special occasions, but the defects of that art are also there betrayed — extravagance, artificiality, prolixity. (2) A sample of his style may be given from his eulogy on his friend Basil : " Should we even pursue this inquiry, who, so far as my knowledge extends — and my acquaintance with him has been most intimate — who was so delightful as Basil in company ? Who was more graceful in narration ? Who more delicate in raillery ? Who more tender in reproof, making neither his censure harshness, nor his mildness indulgence, but avoiding excess in both, and in both follow- ing the rule of Solomon, who assigns to everything its season ? But what is all this compared with his extraordinary eloquence and that resistless might of his doctrine, which has made its own the extremities of the globe ? We are still lingering about the base of the mountain, as at great distance from its summit. We still push our bark across the strait, leaving the broad and open sea. For assuredly, if there ever was, or ever shall be, a trumpet, sounding far out upon the air, or a voice of God encompassing the world, or some unheard of and wondrous shaking of the earth, such was his voice, such his intellect, as far transcending that of his fellows as man excels the nature of the brute. Who more than he purified his spirit, and thus qualified himself to unfold the Divine oracles ? Who, more brightly illumi- nated with the light of knowledge, has explored the dark things of the spirit, and, with the aid of God, surveyed the mysteries of God ? And who has possessed a diction that was a more perfect interpreter of his thoughts ? Not with him, as with the majority, was there a failure, either of thought sustaining his diction, or of language keeping pace with thought ; but, alike distinguished in both, he shewed himself as an orator throughout, self-consistent and complete." ^ 1 OPT, p. 94. ^ CME, vi. p. 301. See Nicene and Post-Kicene Fathers, vii. p. 417. 78 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 4. The younger brother of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa (c. 3 3 5- 395), although inferior as a preacher, must also be men- tioned. (1) He was so great a lover of oratory, that for a time he forsook the service of the Church for the study of rhetoric, but on his return made the art he had acquired so effective in the defence of orthodoxy that immense crowds were attracted by his preaching. In moral and religious insight, as well as fineness of feeling, he was not the equal of either his brother or their common friend. He often falls into irrelevancy and oratorical display, although his in- tellectual powers were conspicuous. In his fifteen Homilies on The Song of Songs he not only employs the allegorical method, but in his introduction expressly justifies it in opposition to the Antiochian school, which insisted on the literal interpretation. (2) A sample may be given from his sermon on the Baptism of Christ : " Abraham's servant is sent to make the match, so as to secure a bride for his master, and finds Eebekah at the well ; and a marriage that was to produce the race of Christ had its beginning and first covenant in water. Yes, and Isaac himself also, when he was ruling his flocks, digged wells at all parts of the desert, which the aliens stopped and filled up, for a type of all those impious men of later days who hindered the grace of Baptism, and talked loudly in their struggle against the truth. Yet the martyrs and the priests overcame them by digging the wells, and the gift of Baptism overflowed the whole world. According to the same force of the text, Jacob also, hastening to seek a bride, met Rachel unexpectedly at the well. And a great stone lay upon the well, which a multitude of shepherds were wont to roll away when they came together, and then gave water to themselves, and to their flocks. But Jacob alone rolls away the stone, and waters the flocks of his spouse. The thing is, I think, a dark saying, a shadow of what should come. For what is the stone that is laid, but Christ Him- self ? for of Him Isaiah says, ' And I will lay in the founda- tions of Sion a costly stone, precious, elect ' ; and Daniel likewise, ' A stone was cut out without hands,' that is, Christ was born without a man. For as it is a new and APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 79 marvellous thing that a stone should be cut out of the rock without a hewer or stone-cutting tools, so it is a thing beyond all wonder that an offspring should appear from an unwedded Virgin. There was lying, then, upon the well the spiritual stone, Christ, concealing in the deep and in mystery the laver of regeneration which needed much time — as it were a long rope — to bring it to light. And none rolled away the stone save Israel, who is mind seeing God. But he both draws up the water and gives drink to the sheep of Rachel ; that is, he reveals the hidden mystery, and gives living water to the flock of the Church." ^ 5. The greatest orator of the Greek Church, however, was John Chrysostom'^ (Golden-Mouth, 347—407) (1) As a fearless preacher of truth and righteousness he enjoyed popular favour, but incurred a hostility in high quarters, which led at last to his death as he was journeying to a distant place of exile. As an exegete he is distinguished by his application of the better methods of the Antiochian school in opposition to the extravagances of the alle- gorising fashion of Alexandria. As an orator, though not entirely free of the defects of the rhetorical method, in which he had been thoroughly trained by Libanius, his natural gifts were entirely consecrated by his Christian devotion. He set forth his ideal of the Christian ministry in his work on The Priesthood (De Sacerdotio), in which he reveals the secret of his power as a preacher in the words ipya^6fievo<; rov^ Xoyov^ a><; av apetrue tw de(p (" let him frame his discourse so as to please God ")} A passage has already been quoted which shows that he recognised the dangers of popularity, and also how he sought to guard himself against them.^ . He was more concerned about moral purity than theological orthodoxy ; and while he was not uninfluenced by the prervalent asceticism, he occu- 1 NiceTie and Post-Nieene Fathers, v. p. 521. It is interesting to com- pare this passage with that quoted from Hippolytus, as showing how differently imagination can play about the same subject. - St. Chrysostom of the Priesthood, translated by Bunce, London, 1759, p. 301. ' See pp. 64-65. 80 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER pied himself for the most part with the virtues, which do in reaUty belong to the Christian ideal. He frankly and boldly attacked the common vices of his age, and showed no respect of persons. Even in public affairs he intervened at some personal risk. As he himself had deeply experi- enced, so he could with intimate knowledge and delicate insight, present the " inner life " of the Christian. As that life was nourished by, so his theology was rooted in, the Scriptures, of which he had the knowledge of a scholar, having made himself familiar even with Hebrew. He was most skilful in the practical application of the teaching of the Bible; but we do miss a full understanding of the Pauline doctrine of grace. The stories in the Bible ap- pealed to his aesthetic sense, and he used his art to present to his hearers some of the outstanding figures and events in the sacred narratives ; but it must be admitted that his art did not always restrain him from excess, and the light and shade are overdone. (2) His sermons were of two kinds. In his Homilies he dealt not only with long passages of Scripture, but even with whole books (Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, John, Paul's letters to Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Timothy, Titus) ; excellent as these are both in exposition and applica- tion, they lack artistic structure. In his topical (theoristic) addresses (" against the Protopaschites," " concerning the statues," *' against the Jews ") he has a text, and uses it, but his sermon is not an explanation of it.^ Nevertheless it is in the second kind of sermon that we can study better the rush of his eloquence. He paid great atten- tion to the introduction, and displayed a wealth of pictures, comparisons, epigrams, observations on life, which arrested attention and secured interest. He could use the inci- dent of the moment most happily to catch the mind of his hearers, as when he turned the attention of his audi- ence, disturbed by the kindling of the lights of the church, to the Light of the World. He usually closed 1 As we shall afterwards try to show, the syuthosis of the sermon should be based oo the analysis ot the text. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 81 his sermons with a doxology. While he possessed the two necessary qualities of the orator, abundance and order, he had more of the first than the second, and sometimes missed his full effect by his lack of modera- tion.^ (3) One passage may be quoted which illustrates his treatment of a vice : "There is nothing more cruel, nothing more infamous, than the usury so common amongst men. The usurer traffics on the misfortunes of others ; he enriches himself on their poverty, and then he demands his usury, as if they were under a great obligation to him. He is heartless to his creditor, but is afraid of appearing so ; when he pretends that he has every inclination to oblige, he crushes him the more and reduces him to the last extremity. He offers one hand, and with the other pushes him down the precipice. He offers to assist the shipwrecked, and instead of guiding them safely into port he steers them among the reefs and rocks. Where your treasure is, there is your heart, says our Saviour. Perhaps you may have avoided many evils arising from avarice ; but still, if you cherish an attachment to this odious vice, it will be of little use, for you will still be a slave, free as you fancy yourself to be ; and you will fall from the height of heaven to that spot wherein your gold is hidden, and your thoughts will still complacently dwell on money, gains, usury, and dishonest commerce. What is more miserable than such a state ? There is not a sadder tyranny than that of a man who is a willing subject to this furious tyrant, destroying all that is good in him, namely, the nobility of the soul. So long as you have a heart basely attached to gains and riches, whatsoever truths may be told you, or whatsoever advice may be given you, to secure your salvation — all will be useless. Avarice is an incurable malady, an ever-burning fire, a tyranny which extends far and wide ; for he who in this life is the slave of money is loaded with heavy chains and destined to carry far heavier chains in the life to come." ^ » See HLH, pp. 21-24 ; OPT, pp. 95-99 ; KHP, pp. 65-69 ; DHPI, pp. 86-93. Many of his sermons have been translated in The Oxford Library of the Fathers. 2 CME, iii. pp. 309, 810. 82 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER IV. While the East was engaged in the trinitarian and Christological controversies, and preaching was affected by the dogmatic interest, in the West attention was more directed to Soteriology ; and so preaching was more evangelical and practical. Begun by TertuUian, advanced by Ambrose, this movement reached its culmination in Augustine, whose influence persisted not only in the subse- quent preaching of the Catholic Church, but even through the Reformers in Protestantism. 1. A few sentences must suffice for Ambrose (340-397) ^ before we turn to " the Chrysostom of the West," whose conversion was one of the worthiest fruits of his labours. (1) Dependent as he was for much of his matter on Philo, and especially Basil, Ambrose nevertheless in his sermons, which for the most part were worked up into treatises, displayed a genuinely independent Christian personality, practical, forceful, constant, courageous, with a fuller under- standing of the secret of saving grace than was shown by the Greek fathers. One characteristic incident may be mentioned regarding the truly great bishop. When the Emperor Theodosius, who had shed the blood of many innocent persons in Thessalonica, sought communion, the bishop refused with the words : " How wilt thou lift up in prayer the hands still dripping with the blood of the murdered ? How wilt thou receive with such hands the most holy body of the Lord ? How wilt thou bring to thy mouth his precious blood ? Get thee away, and dare not to heap crime upon crime." The Emperor was so impressed that he submitted to the bishop's discipline.^ (2) Augustine's testimony must be added : " To Milan I came, to Ambrose the Bishop, known to the whole world as among the best of men, Thy devout worship- per ; whose eloquent discourse did then plentifully dispense 1 HLH, i>p. 27-28 ; DHPI, pp. 98-100 ; KHP, 101-102. * SchafTs Nicene and Post-Nicene Christiavity, pp. 963-964. APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 83 unto Thy people the fatness of Thy * wheat,' the gladness of Thy ' oil,' and the sober inebriation of Thy ' wine ' (Ps iv. 7, civ. 15). To him was I unknowingly led by Thee, that by him I might knowingly be led to Thee. That man of God received me as a father, and shewed me an Episcopal kind- ness on my coming. Thenceforth I began to love him, at first indeed not as a teacher of the truth, of which in Thy Church I wholly despaired, but as a person kind towards myself. And I listened diligently to him preaching to the people, not with that intent I ought, but, as it were, trying his eloquence, whether it answered the fame thereof, or Howed fuller or lower than was reported ; and I hung on his words attentively ; but with regard to the matter was but a careless and scornful bystander ; and I was delighted with the sweetness of his discourse, which, as far as concerns manner, was more learned, but less sparkling and flattering than that of Faustus. Of the matter, however, there was no comparison, for the one was wandering amid Manichaean falsehoods, but the other most wholesomely taught salva- tion. But * salvation is far from sinners ' (Ps cxix. 155), such as I then stood before him ; and yet I was drawing nearer by little and little, and unconsciously." ^ 2. We may now turn to Augustine (354-430) himself.^ (1) " ' If I might leave one bequest,' said Dr. Pusey, ' to the rising generation of the clergy, who have, what I have only had incidentally, the office of preachers, it would be in addition to the study of Holy Scripture, which they too studied night and day, study the fathers, especially St. Augustine.' No truer word could have been spoken. There is something so essentially great and broad about the soul of a man like this, that, however stormy his life, however fierce the conflict through which he passed, however intense the controversies in which he was engaged, we seem to stand on the mountain-top of truth as we take our place at his side, with the heaven clear above us and the mists rolling beneath our feet. Of the other two illustrious Africans, to whom he stands in direct succession, Tertullian has the fervour of Augustine without the serenity, Cyprian the saintliness without the breadth." ^ ^ Con/essio7iSy v. 13. 2 See HLH, pp. 28-42 ; KHP, pp. 103-109 ; DHLI, pp. 100-104. Simpson's Preachers and Teachers, p. 80. Many of Au OME ii. pp. 37-38. 2 hlh, pp. 67-68. 104 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER others). The Blickling Homilies (so called after the place where they were found), edited by Morris for the Early Enghsh Text Society (London, 1880), belong to about 971. The homilies of ^Elfric, a learned Benedictine monk, known as the Grammarian, and probably identical with an archbishop of York of that name (1023-1051), have been edited by Thorpe for the ^Kric Society, under the title of The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church (London, 1844). They are valuable from a linguistic standpoint as " a pure model of the beautiful Saxon mother-tongue, and on that account alone are of the highest significance." ^ One passage from a sermon by .^Ifric on the Paschal Lamb may be given : " That innocent lamb which the old Israelites did then kill, had signification after ghostly (spiritual) understanding of Christ's suffering, who unguilty shed his holy blood for our redemption. Hereof sing God's servants at every mass — 'Agnus dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.' That is in our speech. Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Those Israelites were delivered from that sudden death, and from Pharaoh's bondage, by the lamb's offering, which signified Christ's suffering : through which we be delivered from everlasting death, and from the devil's cruel reign, if we rightly believe in the true redeemer of the whole world, Christ the Saviour. The lamb was offered in the evening, and our Saviour suffered in the sixth age of this world. This age of this corruptible world is reckoned unto the evening. They marked with the lamb's blood upon the doors, and the upper posts, Tau, that is the sign of the Cross, and were so defended from the angel that killed the Egyptian's first- born child. And we ought to mark our foreheads and our bodies with the token of Christ's rood, that we may be also delivered from destruction, when we shall be marked both on forehead and also in heart with the blood of our Lord's sufferings. Those Israelites ate the lamb's flesh at their Easter time, when they were delivered, and we receive ghostly (spiritually) Christ's body and drink his blood when we receive with true belief that holy housell (sacrament). ^ Schoell in Herzog, i. p. 185, quoted in DHPI, p. 170. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 105 That time they kept with them at Easter seven days with great worship, when they were delivered from Pharaoh and went from that land. So also Christian men keep Christ's resurrection at the time of Easter these seven days, because through his suffering and rising we be delivered, and be made clean by going to his holy housell (sacrament), as Christ saith in his Gospel, Verily, verily I say unto you. Ye have no life in you except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood." 1 This sermon is of theological interest, as it was printed and translated in the reign of Elizabeth to prove that, as regards the Supper, the ancient Church of England held the same doctrine as the Keformers.^ 4. A monastery which gained distinction for the preaching of its monks was that of St. Victor of Paris, founded by William of Champeaux in 1108. The cosmo- politanism of the Mediaeval Church is shown in the fact that of the two most famous preachers of this monastery, Hugo (died 1141) and Richard (died 1173), the one was a Saxon and the other a Scotsman. While both were mystics, they combined mysticism with scholasticism, Hugo in a higher degree even than Eichard, for, while the second divided the soul's ascent to God into three stages — cogitation, meditation, contemplation — the first divided each of these stages again into two, so reaching six steps, the highest of which was a religious ecstasy above reason.' The sermons of both suffer from the extravagances of scholasticism. III. 1. Of vital significance for the history of preaching is the rise of the mendicant orders, or the friars. When the papacy in Innocent asserted its supremacy at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 — i LELR, pp. 22-23. * Observe in the quotation the qualifying ghostly of the reception of Christ's body. * DHPI, pp. 216-218. 106 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER " Eome had conquered, yet the victory was gained at the expense of religion, as the innumerable sectaries showed who sought guidance beyond the Church, and listened to a Gospel no priest would proclaim. Heresy was rampant, because the Church had turned from Christ to the world, and her servants had not gone forth into the highways and byways of Christendom, to teach the people the orthodox creed and to lead them into truth. Innocent himself was not ignorant of the perversion of the Church, and when the mendicants appeared and offered, though they were not all priests, to instruct the people in the knowledge of the Bible and the doctrines of theology, he did not seek to crush them, but retained them as obedient servants. Thus it happened that when religion was impotent in the hearts of the people, the friars arose and stirred it into life and strength ; and when the Church was a v, orldly institution, and her priests had departed from the spirit of Christ, these friars devoted themselves to the missionary labour to which He had consecrated Himself. Their ideal was noble, their aim the loftiest, while yet they retained the zeal and piety of their founders ; but ere many years had passed after their recog- nition as Orders, the Church succeeded in binding them to her own worldly uses. Eome profited by their foundation. Her dominion over the ecclesiastics of any land might perish through the combination, of a national clergy ; but such a combination, she saw, was less likely to be formed if the mendicants who had broken worldly ties acted as her emissaries. Her political power might suffer with the death of the great pope to whom the earth seemed given for a possession; but it might be saved if the mendicants, wandering in all countries, preached the Gospel of papal supremacy. Many were the offices of the friars. They spread throughout the world, filling the seats of learning, attaining ecclesiastical pre-eminence, serving as directors of kings, acting as instructors of the people ; now reviving religion, now quickening church life, and preserving for Eome a semblance at least of that power which HOde- brand had sought and Innocent wielded, retaining for her a fragment of that dominion which the one had seen in vision and the other had beheld extending from sea to 8ea."i ^ Herkless, Fraiids and Dominic, pp. 13-15. See also Brown's Puritan Preaching in England, pp. 15-27. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 107 Seldom has the power of preaching been proved as it was by the friars. 2. St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is one of the most beautiful, gracious, and attractive figures in the history of the Christian Church. He has been compared with Gautama the Buddha, and there is a close resem- blance. While our reverence forbids our comparing him to Jesus, yet few, if any, have followed more closely in the Master's steps than, according to his understanding, did this disciple. At his conversion he resolved to give up everything, and wholly to follow Christ in poverty, humility, and love. Soon after, in the year 1209, Christ called him to preach and heal, without any provision for his needs, even as the Twelve had been commanded to do. At once he obeyed ; and, clothed in " the brown woolen gown, tied with a rope," the dress of the poorest, and barefooted, he entered on his mission. He won converts ; and, although he had no wish to found an order, yet those who gathered around him, and were sent out by him two and two, soon formed a brotherhood, the rule of which was in the words from the Gospels in which Francis himself had received his call to serve. The relation of the order to the papacy does not here concern us, as our interest is in its preaching and ministry to the people. Even although chui'ches were put at the disposal of Francis, he preferred to preach in the open air to the crowds who gathered around him. His style of preaching was like his surroundings. Although he was not altogether free of the superstitions of the age, a subtle intellectualism or a rigid dogmatism was quite foreign to him, and he preached Christ out of the fulness of his own heart, and called men to follow Christ, even as he himself did. As the brotherhood grew in numbers, its field of labour widened. It did not confine its labours within Christendom. Syria was visited by brother Elias, and Francis himself tried, although at first he failed, to carry the Gospel to the Mohammedans of the East and Morocco. It is uncertain whether he did reach the Moors in Spain. 108 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Several stories are told about visits he afterwards paid to Moslem lands.^ 3, At the time heresy was widespread in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy itself. Of the numerous sects, united only in their opposition to Rome, only one here calls for mention, the Waldenses, "Peter Waldo of Lyons, with whose name the Walden- sians are associated, seeking to lead the life in Christ, distributed his goods to the poor and began to preach the gospel. Causing a translation of parts of the New Testament, and also of ' Sentences ' from the Fathers, to be made, he distributed these by the hands of disciples sent out, two by two, to teach and to preach. Poverty and simplicity of religious ceremony were the distinctive works of the Waldensians. They did not spare the reputation of the clergy, and being subjected to persecution, appealed to Pope Alexander in., who approved their poverty but condemned them for preaching. The time had not come for sanctioning an irregular ministry. A few years later, at the Council of Verona, Pope Lucius iii. excommunicated them as heretics. This condemnation, however, did not end their progress." ^ The Waldensian Church still exists, and is taking a large share to-day in the evangelisation of Italy. It is probable that Francis was not ignorant of and uninfluenced by them in founding his order, which shows many points of resemblance. Probable also is it that Dominic, the founder of the second great order, was led by them, as well as by the more extreme sects, to use preaching in the interests of the Church. 4. Dominic (born 1170 in the Castilian village of Calaruega), as the assistant of Azevedo, Bishop of Osma in 1203, on the return journey to Spain from Eome, was brought into close contact with the heresy prevalent in Southern France. The sect which was most dangerous to the church was the Cathari, called Patarines in Italy and Albigenses in Languedoc. Dominic and Azevedo, laying aside all ecclesiastical state and assuming the guise of ^ See Herkless, op. cit., pp. 16-38 ; DHPI, pp. 247-252. ' Herkless, op. cit., pp. 84-85. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 109 poverty, devoted themselves, despite the indifference of the bishops, to missionary labours to strengthen the Church, and to refute, when they did not succeed in converting, the heretics. Dominic proved himself a very powerful preacher, and his life was imperilled, as the heretics dreaded his influence. The miracles ascribed to him need not detain us. Around him there gathered a number of men, eager if not altogether capable of sharing his labours against the heretics. " With papal permission, therefore, they ordained com- petent men, wherever they could be found, and thus was associated, not an Order, but a company to meet heretical with orthodox doctrine. While many of the Cathari were restored to the faith, real progress was slow, since the charge was constantly preferred that clerics, high and low, were everywhere disgracing their calling." ^ The papacy, men said, preferred the sword to the word as a weapon ; and in 1208 the cruel and shameful crusade against the Albigenses took place. In this violent repression there is no evidence that Dominic took any part, and an early biographer gives this account of him : " St. Dominic, left almost alone with a few companions who were bound to him by no vow, during ten years upheld the Catholic faith in different parts of Narbonne, especially at Carcassonne and Fanjeaux. He devoted himself entirely to the salvation of souls by the ministry of preaching, and he bore with a great heart a multitude of affronts, ignominies, and sufferings for the name of Jesus Christ." * It is not proved that he was ever appointed to, or exercised the office of an Inquisitor, although after his death the Dominicans (the Domini caries, the Lord's hounds) were most devoted agents of the Inquisition. One would be glad to think that he wished to use no carnal, but only spiritual weapons in the fight for the faith. What is certain is that he did found an order, the members of which were to be not only popular preachers, but also learned theologians, a combination which at the * Herkless, op, ciL, p. 89. ^ Quoted by Herkless, op, cit., p. 90. 110 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER present day is regarded by many persons as impracticable. On this subject, however, a few sentences may be quoted : " One significant fact about this thirteenth century move- ment," says Dr. Brown,^ " is that while aiming at what some would call mere popular preaching, it allied itself with an enlightened love of learning. The scientific speculative spirit of that time, so far as it was imbued with religious feeling, was powerfully influenced by leading Franciscans and Dominicans. As in the first century the greatest missionary, the Apostle Paul, was also the greatest theologian, so in the thirteenth century the most effective teachers of the people were the most ardent metaphysicians and theologians. Among them we find the great schoolmen of the continent — Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, and Thomas Aquinas; also the great English schoolmen — Alexander of Hales, John Duns Scotus, and Eoger Bacon." The order of Dominic obtained the papal sanction in 1215 on condition of an alliance with one of the existing orders ; and the Rule of Augustine was adopted. The story of the order need not be followed further. Worn out with his labours, and regardless of his health, Dominic died at the age of fifty, in 1221. Ominous as the word Dominican afterwards became, we cannot doubt the founder's true intent. 5, To the Franciscan order belonged the two most famous preachers of their time, Antony of Padua (c. 1195- 1231) and Berthold of Regensburg (c. 1220-1272). Antony was born in Lisbon; fired with missionary zeal by seeing at Coimbra the remains of two Franciscan missionaries who had been martyred in Morocco, he abandoned the Augustinian order, and, becoming a Francis- can, sailed for Africa, seeking there martyrdom. Recog- nising in a serious illness God's leading, he left Africa for Italy, the home of the Franciscan movement. For ten years he preached in Italy with growing fame. For the last two years of his life he exercised his ministry of preaching at Padua. The report runs that sometimes thirty thousand people thronged to hear him, as he preached » Op. cit., pp. 23-24. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 111 in the open air with great power and abundant fruit. No complete sermon of his has been preserved ; and, even if any of the outlines of sermons which bear his name are authentic, they cannot reveal to us the secret of his power. While using the allegorical method in the interpretation of the Scriptures, he is guided by the scholastic analytical method of theology in his arrangement of the matter, and illumines his treatment by effective illustrations from the world and the life around him.^ 6. Berthold of Eegensburg (Ratisbon in Bavaria) preached to the common people from Austria to the Ehine and even Switzerland, and northwards to Thuringia and Franconia, for twenty years. He did not in any way oppose himself to the teaching of the Church ; but he insisted, without any of the reservations which lowered the practice of the Church, on " true repentance, honest confession, and strict or severe penance," in short, complete satisfaction. While not attacking the absolution of the Church, he was opposed to the sale of indulgences. The sins of greed and meanness, luxury and self-indulgence, he ruthlessly denounced ; and the common people heard his attacks on the rich and mighty gladly. But he did not spare the vices of the people ; and dealt alike with high and low, rich and poor : " He has a Bunyan-like power of using quaint similitudes, and can still be read with interest for his parables and com- parisons. No church could hold the multitudes that flocked to hear him, and he preached in the market-places and fields to thousands, reckoned by the fifty or the hundred — vague numbers, but telling of the immense popularity of the man, and of the growing desire to listen to Christian truth when presented plainly in the mother-tongue." ^ Simple and natural as his preaching appeared, a closer scrutiny shows the intention and the method of the trained orator. His lively imagination probably explains his arbitary treatment of the Scriptures. To use a modern distinction, his sermons are not expository but topical ; and 1 See DHPI, pp. 252-256. « KHP, pp. 127-128. 112 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER the subject is generally very loosely attached to the text. The divisions, too, are often very fanciful.^ 7. That the Franciscan order paid attention to the theory as well as the practice of preaching, is shown by the small book of Bonaventura on The Art of Preacliing. We may place alongside of it the work of Hubert de Eomanis, General of the Dominican Order, entitled De Eruditione Prcedicatorum, of which Dr. Brown gives an account : " He speaks of preaching as above the mass and all liturgical services. ' For ' says he, ' of the Latin Liturgy the laity understands nothing ; but they can understand the sermon ; and hence by preaching God is glorified in a clearer and more open manner than by any other act of worship.' This work of Hubert's on preaching may be described as epoch-making, appearing as it did after long cen- turies of comparative silence. It sets forth to the members of the Order the obhgation under which they were placed to preach the Gospel; the gravity and dignity of this great work; and the qualifications necessary for its effective discharge. Of all spiritual exercises in which monks employed themselves, preaching was set forth as the highest, and whoever possessed the talent for it, was bound to cultivate it to the utmost. . , . While thus urging the importance of preaching, he also set before the members of the Order the most effective way of doing it, and the best way of making the most of themselves as preachers. 'Though,' says he, 'the talent for preaching is obtained through the special gift of God, yet the wise preacher will do his own part of the work, and diligently study that he may preach correctly.' He warns the brethren against making a mere display of their own ingenuity and eloquence, as, for example, deriving the theme of their discourse from a text altogether foreign to the matter in hand. Such devices, he thinks, are more likely to excite derision than promote edification. As for those who looked more to fine words than true and noble thoughts, they seemed to him to be like people who were more concerned to display their beautiful dishes than to provide food for their guests." 2 ^ HLH, pp. 69-71. The best edition of bis sermons is that of Pfeifer, Vienna, 1862, 1880. A translation into modern German was made by Gobel in 1849. 2 Op. cit., pp. 17-19. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 113 Dr. Brown also mentions a book on preaching by Guibert of Novigentum. 8. The greatest theologian of the Mediaeval Age, who is still regarded as the authoritative teacher in the Roman Catholic Church, was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274); but he too was a preacher acceptable to the people. His preaching is thus described by Broadus : " Amid the immense and amazing mass of his works are many brief discourses, marked by clearness, simplicity, and practical point. He is not highly imaginative nor flowing in expression ; the sentences are short, and everything runs into division and subdivision, usually by threes. But while there is no ornament and no swelling passion, he uses many homely and lively comparisons, for explanation as well as for argument." ^ Dargan extracts from an English translation of some of his sermons,^ the outline of two on the same subject and text: " The Mystical Ship, Matt. viii. 23. Four things are to be considered in this Gospel: (1) The entering of Christ and his disciples into a ship ; (2) the great tempest in the sea; (3) the prayer of the disciples; (4) the obedience of the storm to the command of Christ. Morally we are taught four things : (1) To enter into holiness of life ; (2) that temptations rage after we have entered ; (3) in these temptations to cry unto the Lord ; (4) to look for a calm according to his will. The next sermon continues thfr same subject and shows how a ship symbolizes holiness. I. The Material: (1) The wood represents righteousness. (2) The iron, strength. (3) The oakum, by which leaks are stopped, temperance. (4) The pitch, charity. II. The Form : (1) Smallness at the beginning represents grief for sin. (2) Breadth of the middle, hope of eternal joy. (3) Height of stern, fear of eternal punishment. (4) Narrowness of keel, humility. III. The Uses : (1) To carry men over seas : in holiness we go to honour. (2) To carry merchandise: in ^ History of Preaching, p. 106 f., quoted in DHPI, p. 241. ^ T^e Homilies of S. Thomas Aqiiinas upon the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays of the Christian Year, translated by John N. Ashley London 1873. 114 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER holiness we carry good works. (3) To make war : in holi- ness we fight against the demons." ^ It is ingenious and interesting preaching ; and this sermon at least would not justify Ker's too sweeping judgment regarding the influence of the Summa Theologice : "The preaching founded on it addresses itself to the intellect rather than to the heart or conscience, and to the intellect of the Schools rather than to common intelligence and reason." 2 His preaching generally was scholastic in content and method, and yet there is evidence that he was popular. 9. During the Middle Ages, scholasticism and mysti- cism were blended in varying proportions : Hugo and Richard of St. Victor, who have already been mentioned, were more mystical than scholastic ; Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas were much more scholastic than mystical. Bonaventura (1221—1274), the "doctor seraphi- cus," has been described as " the greatest scholastic among the mystics, and the greatest mystic among the scholastics." ^ The outline of a sermon on the Life of Service * may be given : Christ in the Gospel offers us " four very notable things . . . namely, the Cross in the chastisement of our evil natures ; His Body in Sacramental Communion ; the Holy Ghost in mental unction ; the Penny in eternal remunera- tion." The reasons for taking up the Cross are four: (1) " the irrefutable example of our Lord Jesus Christ " ; (2) the " invincible help " of the Lord ; (3) the " inviolable privileges of those who bear the marks of the Lord Jesus " ; and (4) " a reward that cannot be lost. " The sermon is full of quaint fancies and strained anal- ogies. He developed the mystic teaching both of St. Bernard and the Victorines by the scholastic method of subtle refinements and distinctions, and yet an intensely religious spirit gives life to the dry bones. 10. Bonaventura and his predecessors had moved within the range of ecclesiastical orthodoxy; but in the • DHPI, pp. 241-242. " KHP, p. 125. » DHPI, pp. 273-276. * CME ii. pp. 149-151. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 115 fourteenth century there appeared what may be described as a speculative development of mysticism. — (1) The first of the succession was Meister Eckhart (died 1327). He started from the conception of God in the Pseudo- Dionysius and borrowed much also from Thomas Aquinas ; but he carried out all the logical consequences of the conception of God as undefined and undefinable reality. His speculation, however, was inspired by an intense inward, world-renouncing piety, even as was Spinoza's. His pantheistic expressions sprang out of his passionate desire to escape from self and to be united to God. It is this " inwardness " which attracted many at a time when the religion of the Church had become external and mechanical ; many appreciated the piety who could not apprehend the philosophy.^ (2) Less speculative and more practical was John Tauler (1290-1361), who influenced Luther in the same way as William Law afterwards influenced John Wesley. At Strasburg he "filled the immense cathedral with crowds, and preached the Gospel fervently when the black death raged in 1348." He " was strongly influenced by Nicolas von Basel, a Waldense," and used his " wonderful power on behalf of the oppressed, and against the avarice and luxury of clergy and laity, not sparing even the Pope." ^ The aim of all his preaching is the " unmaking " of man that he may be " made again " in God ; and the means he urges is the Cross, by which alone, willingly accepted and submissively endured in imitation of Christ, perfection can be attained. While there is an ascetic aspect in the morality he enjoins, he places love above contemplation : he practised what he preached in ministering to the plague-stricken. While he shows little art as an orator, his speech is vitalised by his spirituality, reverence, and solicitude.^ 1 HLH, pp. 71-73. 2 KHP, pp. 125-126. ' HLH, pp. 73-74. The following extract illustrates the inwardness of his piety : "How, children, would a man attain to such a point that the 116 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER (3) Less great a personality, but a more poetic and artistic preacher, was Henry Suso (1295—1366), of whose preaching Dargan gives us a suggestive description : " His soft and sentimental nature made him the idol of the nunneries and of the devout women in all ranks." ^ IV. The mystics represent the unconscious revolt of the soul against mediaeval religion in the Church : in them we have the first stirrings of a new life. More explicit expression to the " divine discontent " was given by four men, who may be described as heralds of the dawn. 1, The greatest of these was John Wyclif (between 1320 and 1330-1384). (1) He first came into promi- nence as the champion of national feeling against papal aggression. This made him also the opponent of the mendicant orders, who, as we have already noted, were the zealous servants of the Papacy. With his political and theological activities we are not concerned, but with his preaching, of which he made effective use in this conflict.'^ outward things should not hinder the inward workings of the soul, that would be indeed above all a blessed thing ; for two things are better than one. But if thou find that the outward work hinders the inward workings of the soul, then boldly let it go, and turn with all thy might to that which is inward, for God esteemeth it far before that which is outward. Now we priests do on this wise ; for during the fast days in Lent we have many services, but at Easter and Whitsuntide we shorten our services and say fewer prayers, for the greatness of the festival. So likewise do thou when thou art bidden to this high festival of inward converse ; and fear not to lay aside outward exercises, if else they would be a snare and hindrance to thee, except in so far as thou art bound to perform them for the sake of order. For I tell thee of a truth, that the pure inward work is a divine and blessed life, in which we shall be led into all truth, if we can but keep our- selves pure and separate, and undisturbed by outward anxieties. ... By such exercises, with love, the soul becomes very quick to feel God's touch, far more so than by any outward practices of devotion " {History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler, with Twenty-five of his Sermons, trans- lated by Susanna Winkworth (London, 1857), pp. 345-346). 1 DHPI, p. 280. ^ His sermons have been preserved both in Latin (ed. Loserth, Johannis Wyclif sermones, 4 vols., London, 1887-1890) and English (Th. Arnold, SeUa English Works of John Wyclif, vol. i., 1869 ; vol. ii., 1871). Hering PKIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 117 At Oxford he was noted as a schoolman, " in philosophy second to none, in the training of the schools without a rival " ; but " from subtle disputations he passed into politics. He was the brains of the party who sought in Parliament and elsewhere to resist the papal claims. Hitherto reformers had attempted to accomplish their purposes from within, and would have resisted outside interference. Wyclif introduced a new thing into the mediaeval world by calling upon the State to reform an unwilling clergy. Next he laboured to effect the revival of religious life by the restoration of simple preaching, ' a humble and homely proclamation of the gospel,' and the distribution to the people of the Word of God. He struck hard at the current methods of the pulpit, the endless logical distinctions and divisions, ' the subtle hair- splitting which the apostles would have despised/ the rhetoric, legends, and poetry which men substituted for the bread of life. Finally, he felt that the souls of men were being sacrificed to an overgrown sacramental system, at the roots of which he struck by his attack on the doctrine of transubstantiation. In all these aspects — Schoolman, Politician, Preacher, and Eeformer — Wyclif was the fore- most man of his age, the range of whose activities was not less remarkable than the energy with which he pursued his aims." ^ (2) In this warfare Wyclif used as one of his weapons the Bible, which he had translated from the Vulgate into the language of the people. Although the Church did not condemn the translation, it put hindrances in the way of the circulation ; and yet the greater difficulty was the lack of the press to provide abundant cheap copies. This drove Wyclif to adopt another means to reach the people. notes a difference in the character of the sermons. The Latin are thoroughly scholastic in method, and were probably delivered before young theologians. The English represent popular preaching, delivered as recorded, or preserved only in outlines (HLH, pp. 75-76). ^ Workman's The Bavm of the Reformation, vol. i. ; The Age of Wyclif, pp. 113-115. 118 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER " He had unconsciously copied the methods of St. Francis, and fallen back on the lost secret of the friars. From Oxford, as from Assisi two centuries before, Wyclif, like Wesley four centuries later, had sent out as early as the year 1377 his order of ' poor priests,' who in the highways and byways and by the village greens, sometimes even in the churches, should win the souls of the neglected. These Biblemen were not laymen, as is so often assumed. The silence of Wyclif's enemies is sufficient proof of the contrary ; even Courtenay only calls them ' unauthorised preachers,' i.e. clerics without a bishop's licence. Some, no doubt, like Wesley's Holy Club, were men of culture, students attracted by his enthusiasm ; the majority, especially after his expulsion from the University, were simple and unlettered clerks whom Wyclif's keen eye had detected among his parishioners at Lutterworth — ' an unlettered man,' he said, ' with God's grace can do more for the Church than many graduates ' {Dialogues, 54). Clad in russet robes of undressed wool, without sandals, purse, or scrip, a long staff in their hand, dependent for food and shelter on the goodwill of their neighbours, their only possession a few pages of Wyclif's Bible, his tracts and sermons, moving constantly from place to place — for Wyclif feared lest they should become ' posses- sioners — not given ' to games or to chess,' but ' to the duties which befit the priesthood, studious acquaintance with God's law, plain preaching of the word of God, and devout thank- fulness,' Wyclif's ' poor priests,' like the friars before them, soon became a power in the land. How great must have been the influence of ' these wolves in sheep's clothing,' as Courtenay called them, is evident from the panic-stricken exaggeration of Knighton, ' that every second man you met was a Lollard.' " ^ (3) The sermons of Wyclif himself, while inspired by a noble zeal for reform, in their religious quality do not equal those of Augustine or Bernard, nor even the best products of mysticism. The details of the Scripture narrative he makes available for popular edification by the allegorical method. For instance, the seven loaves are the Four Gospels and the three divisions of the Old Testament, the few fish are the New Testament epistles, the people resting on the ground are people humbly disposed to hear ^ The Age of Wyclif, pp. 207-209. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 119 the word of God, the seven baskets of fragments are the sermons with which afterwards the people are to be nourished, the four thousand is the totality of the right- eous, which is marked by the four cardinal virtues.^ (4) The following passage from a sermon on the Two Fishings of Peter (Lk 5) not only illustrates his method and style, but also conveys his ideas of preaching : " Two fishings that Peter fished betokeneth two takings of men unto Christ's religion, and from the fiend to God. In this first fishing was the net broken, to token that many men ben converted, and after breaken Christ's religion ; but at the second fishing, after the resurrection, when the net was full of many great fishes, was not the net broken, as the Gospel saith ; for that betokeneth saints that God chooseth to heaven. And so these nets that fishers fishen with betokeneth God's Law, in which virtues and truths beii knitted; and other properties of nets tellen properties of God's Law ; and void places between knots betokeneth life of kind (nature), that men have beside virtues. And four cardinal virtues ben figured by knitting of the net. The net is broad in the beginning, and after strait in end, to teach that men, when they ben turned first, liven a broad worldly life ; but afterward, when they ben deeped in God's Law, they keepen them straitlier from sins. These fishers of God shulden wash their nets in this river, for Christ's preachers shulden clearly tellen God's Law, and not meddle with man's law, that is troubly water ; for man's law con- taineth sharp stones and trees, by which the net of God is broken and fishes wenden out to the world. And this betokeneth Gennesareth, that is, a wonderful birth, for the birth by which a man is born of water and of the Holy Ghost is much more wonderful than man's kindly (natural) birth. Some nets ben rotten, some ban holes, and some ben unclean for default of washing ; and thus on three manners faileth the word of preaching. And matter of this net and breaking thereof given men great matter to speak God's word, for virtues and vices and truths of the Gospel ben matter enow to preach to the people." ^ 1 HLH, pp. 75-77. * LELB, pp. 72-73. Besides the book by "Workman already referred to, Carrick's Wydiffe and the Lollards (The World's Epoch- Makers) may be mentioned. 120 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 2. It is probable that Wyclif's influence was more prominent and potent abroad than at home ; for, through the personality of John Huss (1369-1415), the reform movement in Bohemia was decisively affected by his ideas. Huss was so entirely dependent on Wyclif, that he often reproduced his teaching in his very words. His distinction is that not only did he widen the range of his master's influence, but even set the seal of fidelity to his teaching by his death as a martyr. While his advocacy of Wyclif's doctrine involved him in difficulties with his ecclesiastical superiors, what brought down on him the condemnation of the Papacy was his opposition by word and writing to an indulgence granted in 1412 by the pope, John xxiii. " His most staunch supporter was a Bohemian knight, Jerome of Prague, who had studied at Oxford, and returned in A.D. 1402 an enthusiastic adherent of Wiclifs doctrines. Their addresses produced an immense impression, and two days later their disorderly followers, to throw contempt on the papal party, had the bull of indulgence paraded through the streets, on the breast of a public prostitute, representing the whore of Babylon, and then cast into the flames." Even after his excommunication " he spread his views all over the country by controversial and doctrinal treatises in Latin and Bohemian, as well as by an extensive correspondence with his friends and followers." ^ He did not cease preaching, however great the peril to himself. The Hussite propaganda continued after his martyrdom, and was dreaded by the Church even in the time of Luther. Here is a glimpse into the past, given by a contemporary : " Once Dr. Martin spoke these words to Dr. Eck, when hard pressed, upon John Huss, ' Dear Doctor, the Hussite opinions are not all wrong ! ' Thereupon said Duke George, so loudly that the whole audience heard, ' God help us, the pestilence ! ' and he wagged his head and placed his arms akimbo." ^ ' Kurtz, Church History, vol. ii, pp. 208-209. ' Quoted by Lindsay, History of the Refm-niation, vol. i, p. 238. PKIEST, MONK, AND FKIAR 121 3. Savonarola (1452—1498), even as Huss, was a martyr for righteousness' sake. (1) Home has dealt with him as one of the Kulers of Peoples : " Three great facts determined the form of his ministry, the shameless corruption in the Church, the open profligacy and sinful luxury of the ruling classes, and the renaissance of art and learning. Savonarola's sensitive temperament was profoundly affected by all these signs of the times. It was his cross to live and bear witness in days when the princes of the Church outvied, in greed and lust and passion, the princes of the State. He was one of many who fled to the cloister as to a sanctuary, to escape the contagion of the plague of immorality. He was driven across the Apennines to Florence by the scourge of war wielded by the merciless hand of an arrogant and ambitious ' Vicar of Christ ' who actually died of grief and rage because of the conclusion of peace." At first the Eenaissance affected the pulpit for evil rather than good, as "it bred affectation of learning. It had its fruit in the scholastic temper and speech. It enriched the artificial orations of windy rhetoricians with obscure and sometimes even obscene illustrations from the classics." ^ On account of the depraved taste such preaching en- couraged, Savonarola at first failed to win popularity. The new learning, however, helped him to understand the Scriptures better, and freed him from bondage to the traditions of the Church ; and yet so absorbed was he by his practical duty of fighting against the evils of his age, that he never found the opportunity to think out for him- self a consistent theological position. Rejecting all the art of rhetoric, he at last conquered by his natural eloquence : " The great moving discourses which swept all Florence subsequently into the cathedral to sit at Savonarola's feet were surprisingly simple and direct and scriptural, but the passion of the preacher expressed itself in the irresistible rush * The Romance of Preaching, pp. 152-153. 122 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER of his flaming sentences which no soul could face and remain unscathed." ^ The style of his sermons has been criticised as immoderate and too vehement ; but they had the merit that many more correct utterances lack, they achieved a great, if not enduring, change in the thought and life of a city : " No man has ever failed," says Home, " in the Christian ministry who has inspired a whole people, even for an hour, to aspire to be subject to the sovereignty of Christ." ^ (2) George Eliot, in Romola^^ gives a description of Savonarola's preaching . " The sermon here given," it is explained in a note, " is not a translation, but a free representation of Fra Girolamo's preaching in its more impassioned moments." The conclusion of the sermon and the account given of its immediate efifort may be quoted as enabling us to realise more vividly than a prosaic historical narrative cq,uld, the character and influence of his preaching. " ' Listen, O people, over whom my heart yearns, as the heart of a mother over the children she has travailed for ! God is my witness that but for your sakes I would willingly live as a turtle in the depths of the forest, singing love to my Beloved, who is mine and I am his. For you I toil, for you I languish, for you my nights are spent in watching, and my soul melteth away for very heaviness. 0 Lord, thou knowest I am willing — 1 am ready. Take me, stretch me on thy cross : let the wicked who delight in blood, and rob the poor, and defile the temple of their bodies, and harden themselves against thy mercy — let them wag their heads and shoot out the lip at me ; let the thorns press upon my brow, and let my sweat be anguish — I desire to be made like thee in thy great love. But let me see the fruit of my travail — let this people be saved ! Let me see them clothed in purity ; let me hear their voices rise in concord as the voices of the angels ; let them see no wisdom but in thy eternal love, no beauty but in holiness. Then they ^ The Romance of Preaching, p. 156. - Ibid. p. 161. • Book II. chapter xxiv. : Inside the Duomo, PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 123 shall lead the way before the nations, and the people from the four winds shall follow them, and be gathered into the fold of the blessed. For it is thy will, 0 God, that the earth shall be converted into thy law ; it is' thy will that wickedness shall cease and love shall reign. Come, 0 blessed promise ; and behold 1 am willing — lay me on the altar ; let my blood flow and the fire consume me ; but let my witness be remembered among men, that iniquity shall not prosper for ever.' During the last appeal, Savonarola had stretched out his arms and lifted up his eyes to heaven ; his strong voice had alternately trembled with emotion and risen again in renewed energy ; but the passion with which he offered himself as a victim became at last too strong to allow of further speech, and he ended in a sob. Every changing tone, vibrating through the audience, shook them into answering emotion. There were plenty among them who had very moderate faith in the Frate's prophetic mission, and who in their cooler moments loved him little ; nevertheless, they too were carried along by the great wave of feeling which gathered its force from sympathies that lay deeper than all theory. A loud responding sob rose at once from the wide multitude, while Savonarola had fallen on his knees and buried his face in his mantle. He felt in that moment the rapture and glory of martyrdom without its agony." ^ 4. In France a reforming spirit was shown by John Gerson (1363-1429), the Chancellor of the University of Paris. While still held fast by the scholastic and allegorising methods of his time, in his preaching he was scriptural, experimental, and practical ; and without fear or favour exposed the abuses of the clergy. In one of his sermons he speaks very wisely about the aim of preaching : " Many believe that sermons should be delivered only that the people may learn and know something that they did not know before. Hence their scornful saying, ' What is preaching to me ? I already know more good than I am willing to do ! ' But these people are in error ; for sermons are not delivered for this reason only, that one may learn something, but also for this reason, to move the heart and ^ Prof. P. Villari's Life and Times of Scummarola has been translated into English by his wife. It contains selections from his sermons. M 'Hardy's Savonarola (The World's Epoch-Makers) may also be mentioned. 124 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER inclination so that they shall love, desire, and accomplish that which is good. Therefore the apostle desires not so much that one should learn what is in Christ, as that he should be like*minded with him. They, however, who attend sermons only to learn something new are like those of whom the apostle writes, that they are ever learning and yet know nothing." ^ 5. These four men, with a few others, such as Geiler of Kaisersberg (1445-1510), John Veghe (d. 1504), and John Staupitz (d. 1524),^ held the promise of a better futui'e at a time when preaching had fallen very low in its quality, although it had not lost its influence, but was used very effectively to further the interests of the Papacy, to commend the indulgences on sale, to assail all who were suspected of heresy, and even at times to revive the failing zeal of Christendom against its ancient enemy the Turk.' (1) Towards the end of this period some attention was given to homiletic theory by such writers as Henry of Langenstein, Jerome Dungersheim, Ulrich Surgant, and Nicholas of Clemanges. They deal with the exordium or introduction, and then the statement of the subject, which is attached either to a text, given first in Latin and then in German, or to the passage, generally from the Gospel, for the day. In the divisions of the sermon the text does not guide, but practical considerations connected with the subject. Even when the text is taken into account, the allegorical method prevents its proper exposition, and the suggestions of the text are seldom brought into any organic unity.* (2) Ker ^ gives a description of the four kinds of preaching which were common : (a) Sermons were read from one of the current collections such as the Gesta Romanorum, the Lumen Animce, and the J) or mi Secure ("Sleep at ease"). (6) "The more learned preached » Quoted in DHPI, p. 333. > See HLH, pp. 80-84 ; DHPI, 334-335. • HLH, pp. 78-80. * See HLH, pp. 84-85, and DHPI, pp. 304-305. » KHP, pp. 142-144. PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 125 sermons of a Scholastic type, full of plays upon words and ridiculous conceits. Erasmus gives an account of one which he heard from an old theologian who ' looked so wise that you thought Duns Scotus had come to life again.' He took the word * Jesus ' as his text, and showed what wonders it contained. It is declined in three cases, Jesus, Jesum, Jesu ; wherein we have manifestly an image of the Trinity. Then the first of these ends in s, the second in m, the third in u ; which is a deep mystery, summum, medium, ultimum. Further, if Jesus is divided into two equal portions, s is left in the middle, which in Hebrew is ir, sin, and this in the language of the Scots (Scotorum opinor lingua) signifies peccatum ; it is thus implied that Jesus takes away the sin of the world. The custom of those preachers was to have an introduction, which they called jprceambulum, as far from the text as possible, so as to keep the hearers in suspense, and make them say, QiLo nunc se proripit ilk ? Where is the man rushing to now ? " (c) The monks especially dealt with legends of the saints " of the most trifling and irreverent kind." (d) " Others again amused their hearers with ridiculous anecdotes, and acted the part of comedians and jesters. In this the parish clergy showed as much skill as the friars. Their extravagances would be almost incredible, if we had not the authority of grave and trustworthy writers who give the names and parts of the sermons of some of the preachers. Maillard, Menot, and Barletta were noted in this department." In one of the sermons of Barletta a story is told, which is current still, and has been assigned to an innumerable company of preachers : "A certain priest, in celebrating the mass, observed a woman who seemed much touched, and freely wept as he intoned the service. After it was over he spoke to the woman and asked the cause of her emotion, and she told him it was his voice, which reminded her tenderly of her recently deceased ass." ^ It was because the mediaeval type of religion had exhausted » See DHPI, pp. 302-304. 126 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER its vitality and vigour, that the common preaching sank so low. A few there were who shone as gleams in the dark- ness, and gave promise of the dawn of a better day, in which Christ the Head of His Church, never forgetful of His promise of continued presence, again found men and women hungering and thirsting for Him, and some chosen vessels in whom He could again prove Himself the Bread from Heaven and the Water of Life. CHAPTER V. REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS. At the Reformation a new period in the history of preaching began, for new thought and life seek an outlet in the spoken word. Protestantism, by its very nature, gives a place and a power to public speech on the concerns of the soul which Roman Catholicism does not. The group of great preachers in the Roman Catholic Church of France, who will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter, had felt the quickening influence of Protestantism. Without that challenge there would not have been any such revival of preaching in Roman Catholicism. 1. Foremost among the heralds of the recovered Gospel stands Luther himself (1483-1546).i (1) Most unwill- ingly, and only in obedience to the head of his monastery, he began to preach first in the dining-hall of the cloister /?=-/ at Erfurt, and then in the small church of the cloister at>^' Wittenberg. Some of his earliest sermons are scholastic compositions in Latin on the mysteries of the creed ; but soon he was preaching in German as often as four times a day on such practical subjects as the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, Repentance, and the True Life ; and the freshness and frankness of his speech quickly attracted attention, commanded interest, found favour with most of the people, but also provoked the opposition of some of the ecclesiastics. The traditional forms were for a time retained, even when the contents marked his breach with the past. But soon even the style was changed ; and he himself has described the change : » See HLH, pp. 86-100 ; KHP, pp. 147-167 ; DHPI, pp. 384-391. 127 128 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER "When I was young, and especially before I was acquainted with theology, I dealt largely in allegories, and tropes, and a quantity of idle craft : but now I have let all that slip, and my best craft is to give the Scripture, with its plain meaning; for the plain meaning is learning and life."i From 1516 onwards he was influenced, both as regards the thought and the language of his sermons, by his grow- ing familiarity with the German mystics. In his contro- versy with Rome his powers of popular argument and appeal rapidly developed. His sermons on the Ten Com- mandments and the Lord's Prayer were published, and by their wide circulation extended his influence beyond the borders of Germany. His sermons on a great variety of subjects, yet all directed towards the one purpose of pre- senting the truth of the Christian Gospel and of exposing the errors of Eomanism, were circulated from one end of the land to the other, and everywhere moved the heart and reached the conscience of the multitude. When to these sermons were added, in 1520, the three chief tracts of the Reformation,^ it became clear that this one man was bringing about, by the convincing and converting power of his words, spoken and written, a fresh era in the history of the Christian Church. "There had been nothing like it," says Ker,' "since the day of Pentecost. On his way to Worms, to meet the Diet, he could not escape from the crowds. At Erfurt, » Quoted in note, KHP, p. 152. • The three treatises — Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate, Concerning Chris- tian Liberty, On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church, together with A Short Catechism, The Greater Catechism, and the Ninety-Five Theses — have been translated by Wace and Buchheim, under the title Luther's Primary Works, London, 1896. Thirtie-Foure Speciale cmd Chosen Sermons, Discovering the Difference between Faith and Workes, of Luther's, were translated and published in London, 1649. His Commentary on the Galatians, in 1644 and 1741 ; and On Psalms of Degrees, in 1687. See Lindsay's History of the Reformaticm, vol. i., and his Luther and the German Reformation. 8 KHP, pp. 152-153. REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 129 where he had commenced in the little refectory, the great church was so crowded that they feared it would fall. At Zwickau, the market-place was thronged by 25,000 eager listeners, and Luther had to preach to them from the window." Amid all his other labours "he continued to preach all his life long, though broken in health — in this, too, like Knox — and so enfeebled that he often fainted from exhaustion. But to the end he retained his wonderful power. The last time he ascended the pulpit was on February 14th, 1546, a few days before he died." (2) His one aim was to present the Gospel in ex- pounding the Holy Scriptures. At Easter, 1519, he began a continuous exposition of the Four Gospels and the book of Genesis. In 1520 he began in Latin, but then con- tinued in German, a collection of sermons on the portions of Scripture appointed to be read in public worship, which served as an example and help to less gifted preachers, and as an abounding spring of edification to the people. He himself regarded this book, called Die Kirchenpostille, as his best work. Doctrine drawn from the Scriptures was here combined in a living, fruitful unity with practical application to the needs of believers and of the Church alike. As the time demanded, the great truths, for which the Eeformation stood against Komanism, were constantly declared ; but when necessary the harder problems of Christian theology were also faced. The appeal generally, however, was to the heart and the will rather than the intellect. While he retained the allegorical method of exposition, his sense of reality and his intimacy with the very core of the truth of the Scriptures, freed him from bondage to it. As regards form, there was no endeavour to give the sermon an organic unity ; but, as in the ancient homily, the passage was expounded verse by verse. In his language nature spoke rather than art ; it was simple, fresh, abounding, strong, and manly.^ Into the details of his later activities as a preacher in correcting error within the Protestant churches and instructing them in truth and duty, it is not needful for our purpose now 1 See HLH, pp. 91-96. 130 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER to enter.^ Suffice it to say that it was he who put the sermon in Protestantism in the place held by the mass in Koman Catholicism; and made preaching the most potent influence in the churches of the Reformation. (3) The views on preaching of so great a master of the craft are full of interest. In 1504 Reuchlin had published his treatise De Arte Prcedicandi, and in 1534 Erasmus his Ecclesiastes s. Goncionator Evangelicus. Luther's views, though more valuable than those of either of the classical scholars, were never systematically presented, but must be gathered from his letters and Table-talk.^ The summary which Ker gives ^ must be further condensed into a few sentences. Placing preaching as the most important part of public worship, even above the reading of the Scriptures, he insists that it must be rooted in and draw its authority from these. The subject of preaching is " the glory of God in Jesus Christ " ; where that is not, the preaching is not only worthless, but even harmful — a betrayal of souls. While the sermon should be attached to a text, it should not attempt to deal with all that the text may suggest, but should lay hold of its main thought, and stick to that. For " fine introductions or brilliant perorations " he has no use. Instruction and impression (the work of the dialecticus and rhetor) are the preacher's sole concern, but the proportions of these may vary. Clearness and simplicity of style is what he insists on. "While many of his sermons have come down to us, few, if any, were written out by himself ; and those which were reported by others, he did not even revise. He had no care at all for his own Literary fame. It is probable, there- fore, that the form in which we have most of his sermons does not do him full justice. Imperfect though the trans- mission of much of his preaching may be, of the greatness of the preacher there is more than sufficient proof. 1 See HLH, pp. 96-100. 2 This, according to KHP, p. 153, has been done by Nebe in hi3 GeschicMe der Predigt. » KHP, pp. 154-158. REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 131 (4) One short passage from a sermon on Gal 4^' may be quoted, as not only giving simply and firmly, but in a very brief compass, the substance of his preaching : •' But here perhaps thou wilt say : What is needful to be done ? By what means shall I become righteous and accept- able to God ? How shall I attain to this perfect justification ? The Gospel answers, teaching that it is necessary that thou hear Christ, and repose thyself wholly on him, denying thy- seK and distrusting thine own strength ; by this means thou shalt be changed from Cain to Abel, and being thyself acceptable, shalt offer acceptable gifts to the Lord. It is faith that justifies thee. Thou being endued therewith, the Lord remitteth all thy sins by the mediation of Christ his Son, on whom this faith believeth and trusteth. Moreover, he giveth unto such a faith his Spirit, which changes the man and makes him anew, giving him another reason and another will. Such a one worketh nothing but good works. Wherefore nothing is required unto justification but to hear Jesus Christ our Saviour and to believe in him. Howbeit these are not the works of nature, but of grace. He, there- fore, that endeavours to attain to these things by works, shutteth the way to the Gospel, to faith, grace, Christ, God, and all things that help unto salvation. Again, nothing is necessary in order to accomplish good works but justifica- tion ; and he that hath attained it, performs good works and not any other." ^ 2. As might be expected, Luther exercised a potent influence on the preaching of his companions and disciples both as regards the content and the character of the ser- mons. The Holy Scriptures were expounded in accordance with his evangelical principles, and preaching in Protes- tantism became much more directly dependent on the Scriptures than it had been in Eoman Catholicism. Some- times a continuous exposition of a book of the Bible was given, e.g., by Brenz in his Latin homilies on Luke and Acts (1534); sometimes selected passages only were dealt with, as by J. Mathesius in his PostiUa Prophetica (preached 1559, printed 1588). The use of Luther's translation of the Bible became more general ; the allegorical method fell > CME vii. 412. 132 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER into disuse, but a minute typology made all the Old Testa- ment still available for the declaration of the GospeL As Protestantism was still engaged in opposing its truth to Roman Catholic error, the preaching was necessarily for the most part doctrinal, and liberal use of this effective weapon was made in this warfare. While the common people needed very elementary instruction from the pulpit, this was not deemed sufficient for the children, and special sermons were preached to them. Brenz probably com- posed the Nlirnberg collection of sermons for children, which appeared in 1533. Even as regards the choice of language, Luther was followed ; but the mantle of the great Elijah did not always fit the lesser Elishas. Gradu- ally the simple and strong common speech of Luther was displaced, however, by an ambitious pulpit rhetoric ; and in the heat of controversy evangelical truths were exaggerated in a morally offensive way, against which Urbanus Rhegius had in 1544 to utter words of serious warning. 3. A few of the notable names alone need to be men- tioned. Urbanus Rhegius combined power of popular appeal with a rich theological culture ; Agricola and Linck showed the influence of the mysticism which had so deeply affected Luther himself at one stage of his growth in knowledge and grace ; Nicolas Amsdorf was mighty in controversy. Most distinguished of all, and marked by independence, was Brenz (1499-1570), the Reformer of Wiirtemberg, who was no less concerned about the duties of life than the articles of faith. Among preachers who reached the common people were Veit Dietrich of Niirnberg, Bugenhagen of Wittenberg, and John Mathesius (1508- 1565). Two features on the development of Lutheran preaching must be mentioned. First of all, the sermon was brought into closer relation with the worship, in which attention was again given to the great days of the Church year, so that the sermon often began with a reference to the occasion. When the mass for souls was abolished, the funeral sermon took its place. In connection with the REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 133 death of a notable person this tended to become a pane- gyric, going beyond the bounds of good taste.^ 4. While Luther was the more prominent, he was not the sole reformer. Zwingli (1484-1531), who led an indepen- dent movement, was great as theologian and as preacher ; in him more than in Luther the Renaissance brought its gifts to the Eeformation. Not by the path of religious experience as was Luther, but by his studies of the Scrip- tures and the Fathers he was led to his revolt against the tyranny of Rome over the human reason and conscience. From 1518 he exercised his gifts as a preacher in the interests of Reform. He expounded the Gospel of Matthew in order to present the life and work of Jesus, the Acts of the Apostles as the picture both of the spread of the Gospel and what the Church should be, the First Epistle to Timothy as showing the true Christian way of life, the Epistle to the Galatians as the type of the Apostolic saving faith, and the Epistle to the Hebrews as the source of our knowledge of the mission and the benefits of Christ. While these sermons have not been preserved, there is con- temporary evidence that they exercised a very great influence. The treatises he published show that he combined with his humanistic culture the genuine evan- gelical doctrine and the scholarly exposition of the Holy Scriptures. His use of the Swiss dialect of German con- fined the effectiveness of his preaching to his own country- men, while his theology exercised an influence on Protestant thought generally.^ 5, Later in date, but greater in influence, was John Calvin (1509-1564). (1) A Frenchman by birth, his greatest work on which his fame mainly rests was done in Geneva, in French Switzerland. "Calvin, in his intellectual qualities," says Fisher, "differed widely from Zwingli, but he gave to the Swiss or Reformed theology its mature form, and completed a work which his forerunner had commenced. Nevertheless, 1 See HLH, pp. 100-107. "See HLH, pp. 107-110, and DHPI, pp. 400-415. 134 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER he had little sympathy with the personal traits of Zwingli, and Dorner is right in saying that there was, all things con- sidered, more affinity between him and Luther and the Lutheran exposition of the Gospel, than there was with Zwingli and the Zwinglian theology taken as a whole. The religious experience of Calvin corresponded essentially to that of Luther. Distress of conscience and a sense of help- lessness were followed by peace of mind through trust in the wholly undeserved grace of the Gospel.' '■ The first edition of the Institutes of Theology was pub- lished in Latin in 1536 as an apology for the French Protestants. His genius as a dogmatic theologian there displayed at once set him beside Luther and Zwingli as one of the leaders of the Eeformation. In the same year he visited Geneva, and his help was claimed by Farel, the leader of the new movement there. His reluctance to enter public life, due to his love of study, was at last over- come by " the terrible adjuration " of Farel : "You have no other pretext for refusing me than the attachment which you declare you have for your studies. But I tell you, in the name of God Almighty, that if you do not share with me the holy work in which i am engaged, he will not bless your plans, because you prefer your repose to Jesus Christ." ^ He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision ; and from this time on to the end of his life, with one brief internal, he ruled the city, with his pulpit as his throne. (2) In the exercise of this ministry, he added to hia fame as a theologian that of an expositor, and combined both with a statesman's mastery of practical affairs. He has been described as the orateur exegdte ; for not only did his scholarly exposition of the Scriptures ever issue in practical application, but in both alike there was a fervour of feeling and force of will which sought through the conscience to move to action. While Calvin no less than ^ History of Christian Doctrine, p. 298. ^ Beza's Life (old French ed.), p. 22, quoted in DHPI, p. 445 ; Calvin's Commentaries were published by the Calvin Translation Society in Edin- burgh, 1847 r. REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 135 Luther found the Gospel of salvation in the Scriptures, his emphasis fell on God's demand, and Luther's on God's pity and mercy. More systematically even than Luther, he set himself to expound the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament no less than the New, as he maintained the identity of the true religion in both the old and the new covenant. Eejecting the allegorical method, by means of typology he linked the two stages of the divine revelation. (3) As he preached without manuscript, his sermons had to be taken down as delivered. " In the Preface to the Sermons on Deuteronomy, the deacons relate that the deceased Kagueneau (Eaguenier) had since 1549 devoted himself to the task of reporting Calvin's sermons ' de mot a mot ' by the use of specially invented abbreviations, so that only a few words had escaped him. He himself then made a fair copy, and handed it over to the deacons, in order that the word of the great teacher might build up and strengthen the poor strangers of the reformed faith, the number of whom in France grew day by day. The proceeds of the printing were to be used for the benefit of the poor." ^ It is in this way a large number of his sermons has been preserved. (4) Home has placed Calvin between Savonarola and John Knox as one of the rulers of peoples^ and thus describes Calvin's preaching : " Students of Calvin's sermons and writings will see tor themselves how admirably the instrument he employed was adapted to the kind of constructive work he set out to do. Members of congregations will note with relief that he evidently believed in short sermons ; indeed, he had no patience, as he said, with a prolix style. Men have called him by almost every depreciatory epithet, but, those fifty- three octavo volumes notwithstanding, nobody will truth- fully caU him ' wordy.' Seldom will you read anywhere discourses with less of illustration or ornamentation which are yet more penetrating and pertinent. There are no 1 HLH, p. Ill, note 2. ' Tlie Homance of Preaching, pp. 169-170. 1/ 136 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER chasings on the blade of his sword. It is plain, keen steel, and with what an edge ! Calvin's style of address was, we are told, somewhat slow and measured. For one thing, he was a martyr to asthma, and often breathless in the pulpit and before the Council. It can be said of him, as it can be said of very few, that he spoke literature. Strong, stately, lucid, nervous, his sentences carry you forward from point to point of his argument. Little wonder that the French school-books of to-day should point to Calvin as one of the supreme masters and even makers of the French language, and should describe his style as an ' admirable instrument of discourse and of affairs.' It is remarkable that one who was so scholarly in all his tastes should be the determined champion of extempore preaching. Indeed, he went as far as to declare that the power of God could only pour itself forth in extempore speech. . . . He never ceased to insist that out of the fulness of the heart the mouth must speak." 6. Closely associated with Calvin was the Eeformer of Scotland, John Knox (1505-1572), who "united to the statesmanship of Calvin the fiery eloquence of Savonarola." ^ At his grave, according to Calderwood, the Regent Morton said, " Here lyeth a man who in his life never feared the face of man." Yet Knox always spoke of himself as a coward by nature, and brave and strong only by grace. (1) He, too, shrank from the ordeal of preach- ing, and was got into the pulpit at St. Andrews in 1546 by the solemn importunity of John Eough, who exhorted him " to refuse not his holy vocation ... as you look to avoid God's heavy displeasure." Such was the impression at once made by his preaching that his hearers said to one another, " Master George Wishart spak never so plainelye, and yet he was brunt ; even so will he be." ^ Not the stake was his lot, but a French galley for nineteen months. It was on his retm*n to Scotland in 1559 that he became by his word the ruler of the Scottish people, and, in spite of the opposition of the Court, established Protestantism * Home, op, cit., p. 171. "^ Lindsay's History of the Reformation, ii. 285. See John Knox, by Taylor Innes. " Famous Scots " Series, / REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 137 of the Calvinistic type in Scotland. No reckoning can be made of the debt his country owes to him. We may look at him and hear him in the pulpit through the eyes and ears of a contemporary, Jaiaes Melville. " Of all the benefits I had that year (1571) was the coming of that most notable prophet and apostle of our nation, Mister John Knox, to St. Andrews. I heard him teach there the prophecies of Daniel, that summer and winter following. I had my pen and little book, and took away sic things as I could comprehend. In the opening of his text, he was moderate the space of half an hour ; but when he entered to application, he made me so grue and tremble that I could not hold the pen to write." He wielded this power when in bodily weakness, for he had to be helped to the church and even lifted into the pulpit, " where he » behoved to lean at his first entrie . . . but ere he was done ' with his sermon he was so active and vigorous that he was like to ding (beat) the pulpit into blads (pieces), and fly out of it." 1 He was assuredly an illustration of the ingenium perfervidum ScotoTum. That his fervour sometimes passed the bounds of courtesy and consideration may be allowed. It was to his disadvantage in the eyes of men that he had to deal sternly, and even harshly, with a young and charming queen ; but he shrank from no task, however trying, to which the interests of the Gospel summoned him. Savonarola and Calvin each ruled a city ; Knox ruled a nation, and his influence has been even more permanent than theirs. (2) While Knox was much engaged in controversy, and when needful smote hard and spared not in his preaching, he could address himself to believers for their comfort and encouragement. With what directness and simplicity he indicates the motive, and with what care and clearness he arranges the matter of his sermon on The First Temptation of Christ (Mt 41) 1 " The cause moving me to treat of this place of Scripture is, that such as by the inscrutable providence of God fall * Quoted by Home, oj^. cit., pp. 174-175. 138 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER into divers temptations, judge not themselves by reason thereof to be less acceptable in God's presence. But, on the contrary, having the way prepared to victory by Jesus Christ, they shall not tear above measure the crafty assaults of that subtle serpent Satan ; but with joy and bold courage, having such a guide as here is pointed forth, such a champion, and such weapons as here are to be found (if with obedience we will hear and unfeigned faith believe), we may assure our- selves of God's present favour, and of final victory, by the means of Him who, for our safeguard and deliverance, entered in the battle, and triumphed over his adversary, and all his raging fury. And that this being heard and under- stood, may the better be kept in memory, this order, by God's grace, we propose to observe, in treating the matter : First, what this word temptation meaneth, and how it is used within the Scriptures. Secondly, who is here tempted, and at what time this temptation happened. Thirdly, how and by what means He was tempted. Fourthly, why He should suffer these temptations, and what fruits ensue to us from the same." ^ (3) It is true that this is one of only three written sermons which have been preserved, and it is possible that, when he spoke, the disposition of his matter was not always as orderly as this. In the conclusion there is an interest- ing reference to the conditions of composition : " But for bringing of the examples of the Scriptures, if God permit, in the end we shall speak more largely when it shall be treated why Christ permitted Himself thus to be tempted. Sundry impediments now call me from writing in this matter, but, by God's grace, at convenient leisure I purpose to finish, and to send it to you. I grant the matter that proceeds from me is not worthy of your pain and labour to read it ; yet seeing it is a testimony of my good mind toward you, I doubt not but you will accept it in good part. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, grant unto you to find favour and mercy of the Judge, whose eyes and knowledge pierce through the secret cogitations of the heart, in the day of temptation, which shall come upon all flesh, according to that mercy which you (illuminated and directed * WGS, i. 173-174. His works, edited by Laing, were published in 2 vols., in Edinburgh, 1846. EEFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 139 by His Holy Spirit) have showed to the afflicted. Now the God of all comfort and consolation confirm and strengthen you in His power unto the end. Amen." ^ Even these few sentences show another and more attrac- tive aspect of Knox than usually appears. 7. There were many preachers of the Eeformation in other parts of Europe, as in Italy and Spain on the one hand, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden on the other, as well as Austria, Bohemia, and Poland ; and an account of some of them may be found in Dargan's History of Preaching, vol. i. pp. 451-472 ; but to deal with them in detail would not serve our present purpose. We shall in the next chapter return to the contrast in England of the preaching of Anglican and Puritan ; here may be mentioned, however, one of the pioneers and martyrs of the Eeformation in England, the most powerful and popular preacher of the age, Hugh Latimer (about 1490—1555).^ (1) At first a vehement opponent of the Eeformation, he was won by the personal influence of Bilney ; and soon attracted attention as a frank and bold champion of the new views ; but his ability and tact on several occasions warded off from him threatened ecclesiastical censure. The persistence of his enemies brought him to the Tower in the closing months of Henry viii.'s reign. During the reign of Edward he was free, and used his freedom to preach the truth he loved. On Mary's succession he refused to seek safety in flight, as he might have done, and he and Eidley completed their confession at the stake. His last words are familiar to all : " Be of good comfort, Master Eidley, and play the man ; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out." Although Latimer did not write his sermons, a number of them were reported by Augustine Bernher, a Swiss, who 1 WGS, pp. 200-201. ^ Sermons and Remains of Bp. Latimer, with biographical sketches compiled from Foxe and other sources, edited for the Parker Society by the Rev. G. E. Corrie, Cambridge, 1844-1845. 140 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER acted as his secretary ; and these reports allow us to judge of his qualities as a preacher.^ (2) A characteristic passage may be quoted — his description of the busiest prelate in England : " Well, I would all men would look to their duty, as God hath called them, and then we should have a flourishing Christian Commonwealth. And now I would ask a strange question. Who is the most diligentest bishop and prelate in all England, and passeth all the rest in doing his office ? I can tell, for I know him who he is; I know him well. But now methinks I see you listening and hearkening, that I should name him. There is one that passeth all the other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England. And will ye know who it is ? I will tell you. It is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all others. He is never out of his diocese, he is never from his cure ; ye shall never find him unoccupied, he is ever in his parish ; he keepeth residence at all times, ye shall never find him out of the way ; call for him when ye will, he is ever at home; the diligentest preacher in all the realm, he is ever at his plough ; no lording nor loitering may hinder him, he is ever applying his business ; ye shall never find him idle, I warrant you. And his office is to hinder religion, to maintain superstition, to set up idolatry, to teach all 1 Home thus characterises Latimer as a preacher. "The essential Protestant faith captured the ear and the heart of sixteenth-century London, through the pithy pregnant Saxon speech of Latimer, with his command of laughter and tears. He presented the citizen in the street with a plain man's religion. He spoke it as simply, I say it with reverence, as the Saviour spoke to the peasants in the fields of Judaea, or the fishermen by the Galilean lake. He did not so much appeal to the theologically trained mind ; and he certainly did not appeal to any sense of ecclesiastical authority. He appealed to common sense ; he appealed to the instincts of the multitude. He appealed to their love of justice and of humanity. There never was a more human being than Hugh Latimer. The people well know the men who love them, believe in them, and understand them. The sheep hear the voice of the true shepherd. , . . Latimer's preaching is oratory stripped of all that ia meretricious, and oratory that is not sterilised by conventionality. No timid, stilted pulpiteer, who has never learned that grace is more than grammar, and that to win your hearers you may break every pulpit con- vention that was ever designed by a sleek respectability to keep our volcanic Gospel within the bonds of decency and order, will ever capture the soul of a great city, or speak with a voice that will ring in the hearts of a free people " {The Romance of Preaching, pp. 190-191). REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 141 kind of popery. He is as ready as he can be wished for to set forth his plough, to devise as many ways as can be to deface and obscure God's glory. Where the devil is resident, and hath his plough going, then away with books, and up with candles ; away with Bibles, and up with beads ; away with the light of the Gospel, and up with the light of candles, yea at noon days. Where the devil is resident, that he may prevail, up with all superstition and idolatry, censing, painting of images, candles, palms, ashes, holy water, and new service of men's inventing, as though man could invent a better way to honour God with than God Himself hath appointed. Down with Christ's cross, up with Purgatory pickpurse, — up with Popish Purgatory, I mean. Away with clothing the naked, the poor and impotent, up with decking of images, and gay garnishing of stocks and stones ; up with man's traditions and his laws, down with God's will and His most holy Word. Down with the old honour due unto God, and up with the new god's honour. Let all things be done in Latin. . . . And in no wise they must be translated into English. Oh that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine, as Satan is to sow cockle and darnel '." ^ 8. While the Eeformers themselves were too much concerned about the matter of preaching to pay attention to the form, the theory of preaching was not in this period altogether neglected. Mention has already been made of books by Reuchlin and Erasmus. (1) Of Erasmus' Ecdesiastes, Hering gives the following brief description : " He has, after a beautiful estimate, evangelical in tone, of preaching and the calling of the preacher, sketched with fervour a picture of the virtues of a true preacher, and has offered, in a homiletic theory, which attaches itself to ancient rhetoric without denying the pecularity of Christian preaching, many fine observations and suggestions in order at last, in his teaching on the matter of sermons, with a total disregard of the achievement of the Reformation to take up a standpoint, in which ecclesiastically orthodox propositions are set side by side with a humanistic moralism." ^ ^ LELR, p. 151 ; the Sermons and Remains, pp. 70-71. a HLH, 114. 142 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Worth noting is the summons which the first part contains to the Church to send missionaries to heathen, Jews, and Mohammedans. (2) Luther's companion, Melanchthon, was also a humanist ; and from the same standpoint as regards the ancient rhetoric, but with the new appreciation of the Gospel, he delivered a course of lectures on preaching. His own sermons, however, follow the homiletic method of the other Reformers. ffyperiiis{1511—15QQ, Andrew of Ypres), a Eeformed theologian, "offered his age a comprehensive Homiletic." While recognising what dis- tinguishes Christian preaching from ancient rhetoric, and taking into account what prophets, apostles, and fathers have to teach, he borrows many elements from the rhetoric and dialectic of the ancients. He gives special attention to the gathering of the material. His humanism, and especi- ally his admiration for Chrysostom, stand in the way of his giving a homiletic theory wholly in accord with the new evangelical standpoint, which he aims at maintaining. His counsels, however, are thoroughly practical, (a) The sermon is to be adapted to the capacity of the hearers. (b) The theological questions which excite curiosity rather than provide edification are to be avoided. (c) The doctrines taught are to be confirmed from the prophetic and apostolic writings, (d) Time, Place, and Hearers are to be considered in deciding whether doctrinal explanation is suitable or not. (e) In confirmation of what is taught only the canonical writings are to be employed. (/) The proofs used are to be simple and direct. (^) Preference is to be given to the simple sense, (h) Figurative language is to be used sparingly, types and allegories very seldom, and never for proof, (i) The mode of expression should not provoke contradiction. (J) When a doctrine is taught, it should be practically applied both in regard to the Church as a whole and the individual conscience.^ Do not these counsels remind us that the book was written for an age of doctrinal controversy, when there was the danger » HLH, pp. 115-117. REFORMEES AND DOGMATISTS 143 of preaching becoming too dogmatic and polemical ? When the fervour of the Spirit had departed, these two features became unduly prominent, and preaching lost its living force. II. As we have watched the flow of the tide of religious thought and life at the Keformation, so must we glance, as briefly as we can, at the ebb in Germany. 1. The decline of the pulpit began even in the second generation. Not only did the contents of the sermons become more dogmatic and controversial, but even the form became more abstract and artificial. Doctrine displaced the Scriptures; learning was paraded rather than life expressed. " Where are now," asked Scriver, " the fiery tongues and the glowing hearts of the apostles ? Where is the glad spirit of Luther ? Where are those drunken with the love of God, and the heralds of the great deeds of God ? " ^ We should do the age an injustice if we assumed that the men themselves were as lifeless as the subjects and style of their preaching. Even John Gerhard, the great dogmatic theologian of the Lutheran Church, is affected by the fashion of the hour. The hymns and prayers reveal a piety the sermons fail to express. " It is," says Hering, " as if then amid the severest visitation of our fatherland the confessing faith renewed its original strength in singing and praying, while this was denied to it for the word of witness, for the proclamation in the sermon." ^ 2. Some illustrations of this general statement may be added : " The preaching which resulted," says Ker, " became in many cases of a scholastic kind, dry and hard and formal, 1 Quoted in HLH, p. 118. 2 HLH, p. 118. In KHP, pp. 168-173, will be found a brief and clear account of the conditions, outward and inward, of the age. 144 THE CHKISTIAN PREACHER full of endless disputes. One well-known volume of sermons, for example, preached in 1658 by Jacob Andrea of Esslingen, is divided into four parts, for the four quarters of the year ; the first against the Papists, the second against the Zwinglians, the third against the Schwenkfeldians, who were the mystics and perfectionists of that time, and the fourth against the Anabaptists. When such heresies had all been dealt with, preachers turned to the early Christian age, and in their sermons the Patripassians, the Nestorians, and the Valentiuians rose and fought again, like the dead at Chalons." ^ The homiletic theory of the period did not correct, but increased, the evil. Hyperius, who has already been mentioned, failed to exercise a lasting influence, and found no worthy successor. Andreas Pancratius " receives the credit of being the inventor of the synthetic mode of preaching, which was called after him, the Pancratian. It was, however, in use long before, as it could not but be, only he brought it more fully into notice. . . . Now there were found out endless methods, which were discussed in special treatises. As many as twenty-five are reckoned up in the scholastic style — methodus paraphrastica simplex, methodus 'paraphrastica mixta, methodus zetetica, etc. There were also methods named after the different univer- sities— the Witteriberg method, the Jena method ; and methods were imported from other countries — the English method, the Dutch method ; books being published with these titles as recommendations. Exact mles were laid down for the treatment of texts; sometimes three introductions, special, inore special, most special, were recommended, with five different kinds of applications. Nature was sacrificed to art ; texts were stretched out on the rack, and dealt with, not according to their contents or the wants of the people, but according to the method of some particular homilete or university. The formalism of the dogmatic theology of the time thus found its way into the manner of preaching, and the attempt to improve sermons by such means only made them worse." ^ 1 KHP, p. 173. - KHP, pp. 175-176. This quotation is given so fully, as the warning it conveys is so necessary to preachers at all times, and weight is added to it because the words are those of a great preacher. REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 145 Some preachers felt the weariness and unprofitableness of this kind of preaching, and tried to gain freshness for their preaching by seeking subjects other than Scripture texts or doctrines. Sermons were prea-ched on hymns, or emblems, such as a rose, a lily, or honey, which were dealt with by a fanciful allegorical method ; or proverbs, from which practical applications to common life were made. " There were sermons on the dressing of the hair, tobacco smoking, and so forth. Scarcely one of the subjects chosen by our sensational advertising preachers had not its proto- type more than two hundred yeai^s ago in Germany." ^ Thus, when men had lost the skill to draw from the fountain of living waters, did they hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.^ 3. Luther himself had been much influenced by German mysticism, and the leaven remained in the religious thought and life of the country. The Lutheran mysticism, however, differed from the Mediaeval, in that evangelical verities were recognised and expressed in it. It exercised a whole- some influence on preaching, and was a preparation for the movement of pietism. The peril of an exaggerated sub- jecti\'ism was seen in Valentin Weigel (died 1588), for whom the significance of Christmas and Easter alike was the rebirth of the soul, and the inner experiences of the believer seemed more important than the outer revelation of God in Christ. Evangelical doctrine was quickened by mystical experience in John Arndt (1555-1621). " For preaching and popular edification," says Ker, *• he is the foremost figure between Luther and Spener, and has, more than any other of that time, the characteristics of our Puritans — of men Kke Baxter and Rutherford and Bunyan, though without Bunyan's genius." ^ His principal book is Das wahre Christentum (" The true Christianity "). " His avowed aim in writing it was (1) to draw the minds of students and preachers away from combative and 1 KHP, p. 177. ' Jer 2". 3 KHP, p. 178. 146 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER scholastic theology ; (2) to lead good Christians from a formal to a fruit-bearing faith ; (3) to bring them from the mere science and theory of Christianity to the enjoyment and the practice of it; (4) to show the meaning of a Christian life as indicated by the apostle's words, ' I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' " ^ Although influenced by Arndt, Valerius Herberger (1562— 1627) differs from him in mode of preaching. He illustrates a fashion of the hour in revelling in imagery, regardless of good taste. In contrast to him, Joachim Liitkemann (1608—1655) was free of all such trifling, and preached forcefully ; even for some of his hearers his earnestness seemed harshness. A sharp critic of the conditions in the Church in the interests of a more living and inward piety was Henry Mliller (1631-1675), who, however, in his homiletic form favoured the current artificiality. A man of independent, original mind, belong- ing to no party, keen in observation, bold in utterance, endowed with the gifts of humour and sarcasm, and using all his powers for the betterment of the morals of the people, was Balthasar Schupp (1610-1661).^ These names are evidence that even in this period of barren scholasticism and arid polemics the pulpit of Germany could still claim some living witnesses of Christian truth and grace ; and these continued the evangelical succession until the religious revival of the seventeenth century, which is known to us as German pietism. "For a whole century," says Ker, "after the death of the leaders of the Reformation, Germany was in a state of spiritual hardness and coldness of the most distressing kind, . . . Yet a genuine revival came in the course of the seven- teenth century." Thus the period " may teach us never to despair of the revival of religion in any country." ^ ^ KHP, pp. 178-179. * HLH, pp. 118-131. » KHP, p. 180. CHAPTER VI. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN, THE CHURCHMAN AND THE NONCONFORMIST, THE EVANGELICAL AND THE MODERATE. 1. In his letter to Somerset, Calvin said of the Church : " There is too little of living 'preaching in your Kingdom. . . . You fear that levity and foolish imaginations might be the consequence of the introduction of a new system. But all this must yield to the command of Christ which orders the preachifig of the Gospel." ^ Moderate reform under the guidance and control of the civil power — that was the policy in England ; individual enthusiasm must be restrained and repressed. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign preaching was even for a time forbidden, and for a long time there was a lack of preachers. Homilies were provided and appointed to be read. The first collection of these was issued in the reign of Edward for " the staying of such errors as were then sparkled among the people." Among the contributors were Cranmer, Eidley, Latimer, and Butzer. The second collection appeared under Elizabeth in 1562. These homilies were distinctly Protestant in content and tone, affirming both the formal and the material principle of the Reformation, the authority of the Scriptures and the doctrine of justification by faith. While there were good and godly, serious and earnest men among the leaders of the move- ment, yet there was lacking a personality great enough to control and direct by moral and religious influence instead of State regulation.^ * Quoted by Home, op. cit., p. 170. * See DHPI, pp. 473-481. U7 148 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 2. The attempts by Queen Elizabeth to repress free speech in the pulpit, and to limit preaching to the reading of homilies, evoked a protest from Archbishop Grindal in 1577, an offence for which he was set aside from the exercise of his office. His views on freely spoken sermons and read homilies are worth remembering. " Now, when it is thought that the reading of the godly Homilies, set forth by public authority, may suffice, I con- tinue of the same mind I was when I attended last upon your Majesty. The reading of Homilies hath his commodity, but is nothing comparable to the office of preaching. The godly preacher is termed in the Gospel Jidelis servus et prudens qui novit famulitio Domini cibum deviensum dare in tempore; who can apply his speech according to the diversity of times, places and hearers, which cannot be done in Homilies; exhortations, reprehensions and persuasions are uttered with more affection, to the moving of the hearers, in Sermons than in Homilies. Besides Homilies were devised by the godly bishops in your brother's time, only to supply necessity, for want of preachers, and are by the statute not to be preferred, but to give place to Sermons, whensoever they may be had; and were never thought in themselves alone to contain sufficient instruction for the Church of England. If every flock might have a preaching pastor, which is rather to be wished than hoped for, then were reading of Homilies altogether unnecessary." ^ 3. Hugh Latimer has been dealt with in the preceding chapter, as he comes before the division of English Protestantism into the Anglican and Puritan type, and has a claim to be placed alongside of the notable preachers of the Keformation, even although his influence was not so great or so enduring as theirs. Kichard Hooker (1553-1600) may be takeil as a typical Anglican. The controversy in which he was involved against his will with his colleague, Walter Travers, at the Temple, of which in 1585 he became Master, led to the writing of the classic apology for Anglicanism, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Characteristic of his tolerant, conciliatory spirit and his reverence for his spiritual ancestry is his plea for the 1 LELR, pp. 180-181. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 149 kindly judgment of Eonian Catholics in his sermon, entitled " A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and How the Foundation of Faith is overthrown." ^ " I have proved heretofore, that although the Church of Rome hath played the harlot worse than ever did Israel, yet are they not, as now the synagogue of the Jews, which plainly denieth Christ Jesus, quite and clean excluded from the new covenant. But as Samaria compared with Jerusalem is termed Aholah, a church or tabernacle of her own ; con- trariwise, Jerusalem Aholihah, the resting place of the Lord ; so, whatsoever we term the Church of Eome, when we com- pare her to reformed churches, still we put a difference, as then between Babylon and Samaria, so now between Rome and heathenish assemblies. Which opinion I must and will recall; I must grant, and will, that the Church of Rome, together with all her children, is clean excluded ; there is no difference in the world between our fathers and Saracens, Turks or Painims if they did directly deny Christ crucified for the salvation of the world. But how many millions of them are known so to have ended their mortal lives, that the drawing of their breath hath ceased with the uttering of this faith, ' Christ, my Saviour, my Redeemer Jesus.' And shall we say, that such did not hold the foundation of Christian faith ? . . . Forasmuch, therefore, as it may be said of the Church of Rome, she hath yet ' a little strength,' she doth not directly deny the foundation of Christianity. I may, I trust without offence, persuade myself, that thousands of our fathers in former times, living and dying within her walls, have found mercy at the hands of God." This charity does not, however, loosen his hold on the Reformation principle of justification by faith alone. " Indeed many of them in former times, as their books and writings do yet show, held the foundation, to wit, salva- tion by Christ alone, and therefore might be saved. For God hath always had a Church among them, which firmly kept his saving truth. As for such as hold with the Church of Rome, that we cannot be saved by Christ alone without works; they do not only by a circle of consequences, but ^ This was preached in the first year of Hooker's Mastership of the Temple. 150 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHEB directly, deny the foundation of faith ; they hold it not, no not 80 much as by a slender thread." ^ 4. Very soon the influence of the Renaissance as well as the Reformation appeared in the preaching of the Anglican pulpit. (1) " The sermons of Andrewes (1555-1626)," says Dar- gan, "are at times artificial and stilted in tone, and often over- loaded with learning and Latin quotations, not free from the whimsical fancies of the age, but weighty in thought, ex- haustive in treatment, and much occupied with careful exposition of Scripture; but his exposition is sometimes vitiated, both by polemical bias and the play of fancy." ^ John Donne (1573-1631) enjoyed great popularity as a preacher, but his sermons also are marred " by the affec- tations and pedantry and straining for effect which were common to the age." ^ An Anglican with Puritan sym- pathies was Joseph Hall (1574—1656), who was counted " in character, learning and eloquence " ^ one of the greatest preachers of his age. We must pass over other noted preachers, to deal more fully with one, Jeremy Taylor (1613—1667), who holds a foremost place in the devotional literature not only of his own Church, but of his nation, and who also deserves remembrance as a preacher. In his Liberty of Prophesying (1647) he tried to recon- cile the contending factions in the Church on the basis, not of the Bible itself, but of the Apostles' Creed, and pleaded for toleration while recognising the authority of the State. His Holy Living (1650) and Holy Dying (1651) are recognised as religious classics. As a preacher, Hering takes him as the illustration of the change which came over English preaching in the seventeenth century. He is " a brilliant author-preacher, who is as prodigal with his wealth of anecdote ' as an Asiatic queen with her ' Everyman's Library. Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, i. pp. 32, 34, 35. * DHP ii. p. 150. Simpson, however, speaks very highly of Andrewes, Preachers and Teachers, pp. 116-120. 8 DHP ii. p. 151. * DHP ii. p. 153. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 151 pearls.' In contrast to Latimer, who grips life, he makes full use of the treasures of the classics, and his speech also is of that exalted style, which is more suitable for an audience of patricians than for a popular congrega- tion." i (2) A passage on Married Love from one of two sermons on " The Marriage King," in which he gives wise counsel to the married, will serve to illustrate his style : " It contains in it all sweetness, and all society, and all felicity, and all prudence, and all wisdom. For there is nothing can please a man without love ; and if a man be weary of the wise discourses of the Apostles, and of the innocency of an even and a private fortune, or hates peace or a fruitful year, he hath reaped thorns and thistles from the choicest flowers of Paradise ; for nothing can sweeten felicity itself but love. . . . No man can tell but he who loves his children how many delicious accents make a man's heart dance in the pretty conversation of these dear pledges ; their childishness, their stammering, their little angers, their innocence, their imperfections, their necessities are so many little emanations of joy and comfort to him that delights in their persons and society ; but he that loves not his wife and children feeds a lioness at home, and broods a nest of sorrows, and blessing itself cannot make him happy : so that all the commandments of God enjoining a man to love his wife are nothing but so many necessities and capacities of joy. She that is loved is safe, and he that loves is joyful. Love is a union of all things excellent; it contains in it proportion, and satisfaction, and rest, and confidence; and I wish this were so much proceeded in that the heathens themselves could not go beyond us in this virtue and in its proper and its appendant happiness. Tiberius Gracchus chose to die for the safety of his wife ; and yet methinks to a Christian to do so should be no hard thing; for many servants will die for their masters, and many gentlemen will die for their friend ; but the examples are not so many of those that are ready to do it for their dearest relatives, and yet some there have been. Baptista Fregosa tells of a Neapolitan that gave himself a slave to the Moors that he might follow his wife ; and Dominicus Catalusius, the Prince 1 HLH 135. See DPH ii. pp. 155-159, and Simpson, op. eit., pp. 131-132. 152 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER of Lesbos, kept company with his lady when she was a leper ; and these are greater things than to die." ^ II. 1. We are fortunate in having a volume on Puritan Preaching in England from the pen of the biographer of John Bunyan, the Eev. Dr. John Brown. He quotes from a contemporary a description of the manner of preachings of one William Bourne, a preacher in Manchester early in the seventeenth century. " He seldom varied the manner of his preaching, which after explication of the text was doctrine, proof of it from Scripture, by reasoning and answering more and more objections ; and then the uses, first, of information, secondly of confutation of Popery, thirdly of reprehension, fourthly of examination, fifthly of exhortation, and lastly of consolation." ^ This suggests a very dreary performance. In contrast may be placed two short passages of " that eloquent divine of famous memory, Thomas Playfere" (about 1561-1609), " who was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge in Queen Elizabeth's time, and afterwards Court preacher to King James. In a sermon entitled ' The Pathway to Per- fection,' based on Philippians iii. 14, he begins by saying that as Solomon went up six steps to come to his great throne of ivory, so must we ascend six degrees to come to this high top of perfection. He therefore proceeds to divide his text into six parts. On that part which deals with the Apostle's forgetting those things which are behind, Playfere says: ' He that remembers his virtues has no virtues to remember, seeing he wants humility, which is the mother virtue of all virtues. For this is the difference between the godly and the wicked ; both remember virtues, but the godly remem- ber other men's virtues, the wicked remember their own. Wherefore though thou have conquered kingdoms yet crake not of it as Sennacherib did ; though thou hast built Babel yet brag not of it as Nebuchadnezzar did ; though thou hast rich treasures yet show them not as Hezekiah did ; though thou hast slain a thousand Philistines yet glory not in it as Samson did; though thou give alms yet blow not a 1 LELR, p. 288. 2 puritan Preaching in England, p. 60. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 153 trumpet ; though thou fast twice a week yet make no words of it (remember it not, but) ' Forget that which is behind.' " ^ This extract suggests artificiality ; but genuine feeling, in spite of some rhetorical extravagance, breaks out in a sermon on " Heart's Delight," on the text " Delight thy- self in the Lord." " Nay, I cannot hold my heart for my joy ; yea, I cannot hold my joy for my heart ; to think that He which is my Lord is become my Father, and so that He which was offended with me for my sin's sake, is now reconciled to me for His Son's sake. To think that the High Majesty of God will one day raise me out of the dust, and so that I who am now. a poor worm upon earth shall hereafter be a glorious saint in heaven. This, this makes me delight myself in the Lord, saying, O Thou that art the delight of my delight, the life of my life, soul of my soul, I delight myself in Thee, I live only for Thee, I offer myself unto Thee, wholly to Thee wholly, one to Thee one, only to Thee only. For suppose now, as St. John speaketh, the whole world was full of books, and all the creatures in the world were writers, and all the grass piles upon the earth were pens, and all the waters in the sea were ink : yet I assure you faithfully all these books, all these writers, all these pens, all this ink would not be sufficient to describe the very least part, either of the goodness of the Lord in himself, or of the loving-kindness of the Lord towards thee." ^ 2. Nearly all the makers of the Puritan movement were university men, and most of them Cambridge men. For nearly fifty years Laurence Chaderton (about 1536— 1640) preached in Cambridge as afternoon lecturer at St. Clement's Church ; and when he thought of resigning, on account of his age, more than forty Christian ministers wrote asking him to carry on his work, as each of them had been brought to Christ by his ministry. Dr. Brown describes him as "an almost ideal preacher."^ Through his own brother-in-law, Ezekiel Culverwell, his influence reached a youth of eighteen, " John Winthrop, afterwards ^ Puritan Preaching in England, pp. 61, 62. ' Quoted by Brown, pp. 62, 63. ^ P. 69. 154 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER better known to the world as Governor Winthrop." ^ Through William Perkins (died 1602), "a Puritan preacher of more than ordinary spiritual power," he affected the life both of John Cotton, who did a great work in Boston, New England, and of John Eobinson (about 1576-1625), whose name and fame are linked with the Pilgrim Fathers.^ These illustrations show how expansive like the mustard seed, and pervasive like the leaven, the preacher's influence may be. He cannot measure the greatness of his own work, and in few cases can it be traced. William Perkins gave a series of addresses to divinity students and preachers in Cambridge on " The Calling of the Ministry, describing the Duties and Dignities of that Calling," of which Dr. Brown gives a summary^ which cannot here be reproduced, but one short passage may be quoted, as it describes the preacher's twofold function as prophet and as priest. "Every true minister is a double interpreter — God's interpreter to the people by preaching to them from God, and the people's interpreter to God, laying open their wants, confessing their sins, craving pardon and forgiveness for, and in their names giving thanks for mercies received, thus so offering up their spiritual sacrifices to God."* For this task he needs the tongue of the learned, and he can have this tongue only as he has human learning and divine knowledge, as well as being inwardly taught by the Holy Ghost. One condition of this equipment is that he labour for sanctity, and holiness of life. Himself saved and sanctified, he must preach for the salvation and sanctification of others. Perkins then shows how the prophet is made by a discussion of the vision of Isaiah, offering an exposition that is full of insight and suggestion. 1 P. 70. 2 P. 71. Home devotes one of his lectures to "Founders of Freedom : John Robinson and the Pilgrim Fathers " ; and seeks to show that in the preaching of Robinson the Pilgrim Fathers found instruction and inspiration for their enterprise, quoting as his warrant Seeluy's saying, "Religion alone can turn emigration into Exodus" {The Romaiiee of PreoA^hing, pp. 198-199). » Pp. 73-83. * P. 74. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 155 3. One of the greatest preachers in the period of the greatest literary luxuriance and brilliance in the history of England, and reproducing its characteristics, was Henry Smith (1550-1593), who was spoken of as the silver- tongued, " aud therefore, as Thomas Fuller says, only one metal below Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed, himself." As lecturer at St. Clement Danes, London, from 1587, he quickly gained the fame of " prime preacher of the nation." Free of the artificiality in form, and the dogmatism in tone, which characterised many preachers, he reached the common people without any attempt at pandering to low tastes. Simplicity, and not vulgarity, was his aim. " There is a kind of preacher," he says, " risen up of late which shroud and cover every rustical and unsavoury and childish and absurd sermon under the name of the simple kind of teaching. But indeed to preach simply is not to preach rudely, nor unlearnedly, nor confusedly, but to preach plamly and perspicuously that the simplest man may understand what is taught, as if he did hear his name." ^ He describes the hearers as well as preachers of his time. " One is like an Athenian, and hankereth after news ; if the preachers say anything of our armies beyond the sea, or Council at home, or matters at Court. Another cometh to gaze about the church ; he hath an evil eye, which is still looking upon that from which Job did avert his eye. And another cometh to muse : so soon as he is set he falleth into a brown study ; sometimes his mind runs on his market, sometimes on his journey, sometimes of his suit, sometimes of his dinner, sometimes of his sport after dinner, and the sermon is done before the man thinks where he is. Another cometh to hear, but so soon as the preacher hath said his prayer he falls fast asleep, as though he had been brought in for a corpse, and the preacher should preach at his funeral." =» This frankness, keenness, directness and vividness appear in his frequent character sketches. How solemn * Quoted by Brown, p. 85. -Idem, pp. 85-86. 3 56 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER and searching his words could be this description of remorse shows. " There is a warning conscience and a gnawing con- science. The warning conscience cometh before sin, the gnawing conscience followeth after sin. The warning conscience is often lulled asleep, but the gnawing con- science wakeneth her again. If there be any hell in this world, they which feel the worm of conscience gnaw upon their hearts may truly say that they have felt the torments of hell. Who can express that man's horror but himself ? Nay, what horrors are there which he cannot express himself ? Sorrows are met in his soul at a feast ; and fear, thought and anguish divide his soul between them. All the furies of hell leap upon his heart like a stage. Thought calleth to fear; fear whistleth to horror; horror beckoneth to despair, and saith. Come and help me to torment the sinner. One saith that she cometh from this sin, and another saith that she cometh from that sin, so he goeth through a thousand deaths and cannot die." ^ 4. Even greater as a Puritan preacher than Henry Smith was Thomas Adams (died after 1630), "the Shakespeare of the Puritans." "While Adams is not so sustained as Jeremy Taylor, nor so continuously sparkling as Thomas Fuller, he is surpassingly eloquent, and much more thought-laden than either." While doctrine of the Calvinistic Evangelical type had a large place in his preaching, he did not overlook morals and manners. He insists on both learning and piety in the preacher, and warns him against seeking the applause of men. In a sermon on the Fatal Banquet he anticipates Bunyan in describing the vanity of human desires and efforts. The following sentences explain why he was likened to Shake- speare : " Oh, how goodly this building of man appears when it is clothed with beauty and honour ! A face full of majesty, the throne of comeliness wherein the whiteness of the lily contends with the sanguine of the rose; an active hand, 1 Quoted by Brown, pp. 88-89. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 157 an erected countenance, an eye sparkling out lustre, a smooth complexion arising from an excellent temperature and composition. Oh, what a workman was this, that could raise such a fabric out of the earth and lay such orient colours upon dust." Aware of man's dignity, he is moved by the tragedy of man's sin and refusal of God's grace. " Come then, beloved, to Jesus Christ, come freely, come betimes, the flesh calls, we come ; vanity calls, we flock; the world calls, we fly; let Christ call early and late, He has yet to say, ' Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life.'" ^ 5. More typical of the Puritan school, which was more doctrinal in form, and in spirit more experimental and evangelical, than either Smith or Adams, was Dr. Thomas Goodwin (1600-1679). The character of his preaching was determined by the nature of his experience. From deep conviction of sin he was delivered by firm assurance of grace. This inward change at once banished the ambition he had cherished to win popularity by the " vainglorious eloquence " cultivated by some preachers at the university, and brought him to the resolution that he would " preach wholly and altogether sound and whole- some words, without affectation of wit and vanity of eloquence." At the end of his life he could say : " I have preached what I thought was truly edifying, either for conversion or bringing them up to eternal life." Dr. Brown regards as characteristic of his preaching, and so outlines the argument of a seimon on " The Heart of Christ in Heaven to sinners on earth." The purpose of this sermon, he says, " was to make intensely real to the men to whom he spoke the Christ who had gone beyond the region of sight into the heavens — to make them feel that He was as closely one with them in sympathy and personal relations of helpfulness as though they could look into His face." ^ The argument may be summarised in one sentence. The living Christ is the same in character and ^ Brown, op. cit., pp. 89-95. - Op. ciL, pp. 100-114. 158 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER purpose as the historical Jesus ; and what He is in heaven that as universally present He also is to us on earth.^ 6. After 1662, Puritanism survived under the name of Nonconformity. Hering mentions as the representatives of vs^hat he calls " the ascetic tendency," to which also he ascribes an influence on German pietism, Kichard Baxter (1615-1691) and John Bunyan (1628-1688). To each of these Dr. Brown devotes a lecture. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is one of the classics of English litera- ture, but here we must think of him only as a preacher. " John Bunyan is chiefly thought of," says Brown, " as a Dreamer of wonderful dreams, but he was also, as his con- temporaries have told us, one of the most living preachers England has ever known. His own intense religious ex- perience largely aided his genius in this. As he tells us himself, he had tarried long at Sinai to see the fire and the cloud and the darkness, that he might fear the Lord all the days of his life upon earth, and tell of his wonders to others. So that when, in after days, he spoke with kindling eye and tongue of fire the things that he had seen and felt, men bent to his words as the cane bends to the wind. No piler-up of mere rhetoric was this Dreamer of Bedford, but one deeply learned in the lore of human souls, heaven-taught in the great and wonderful art of laying hold of men." ^ His idea, which he largely realised, of the preacher is given in his description of the picture Christian saw in the house of the Interpreter. " Christian saw the picture of a very grave person hang up against the wall ; and this was the fashion of it. It had eyes uplift to Heaven, the best of Books in his hand, the law of Truth was written upon his lips, the world was behind his back ; it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over its head." ^ Bunyan has the Christian minister in view in his description of Evangelist, the porter Watchful, Greatheart, ^HLH, p. 137. 2 Op. ciL, p. 133. See Life of John Bunyan, by John Brown, D.D., London, 1885. 8 P. 135. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 159 and the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains, Know- ledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere. As a preacher, " he was a master of grand and noble Saxon speech " ; ^ he aimed at simplicity and directness ; he sustained the interest of his hearers, never becoming dull ; he confined himself to permanent and universal truths, the central themes, and " spoke of them with an honest ring of clear conviction." ^ So familiar are, or should be, his writings, that no illustra- tion of his subjects or style need be given. 7. Richard Baxter is enshrined in history as the Kidderminster Pastor, for it is for his faithful and successful work in that then unpromising place that he should be remembered even more than for his writings, one of which, 2'?ie Saint's Everlasting Rest, may be mentioned as a religious classic. " There have been three or four parishes in England which have been raised by their pastors to a national, almost a world-wide, fame. Of these the most conspicuous is Kidderminster ; for, Baxter without Kidderminster would have been but half of himself ; and Kidderminster without Baxter would have had nothing but its carpets.'' * While he was a model as a pastor in his care of souls, it was his preaching that transformed the town. A godless people were turned to godliness. The carpet-weavers be- came deeply versed in theology, but better still, were marked by their spirituality and sanctity. The people repeated his sermons in their lives with like effect. " The holy, humble, blameless lives of the religious sort was a great advantage to me," says Baxter himself. " The malicious sort could not say. Your professora here are as proud and covetous as any. But the blameless lives of godly people did shame opposers, and put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, and many were won by their good conversations." * » P. 145. 2 p^ 154 ' Dean Stanley, quoted by Brown, p. 169. * Quoted by Brown, p. 171. 160 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Nature had not given him any advantage as a preacher, except a glowing eye and a moving voice. He combined " vigorous intellect and vehement speech " with " a devotion pure and ethereal, a benevolence ardent and sincere," and an unfailiug earnestness. His own weak health made very real to him the unseen future. He says of himself : " Doing all in bodily weakness, as a dying man, my soul was all the more easily brought to seriousness, and to preach as a dying man to dying men ; for drowsy formality and customariness doth but stupefy the hearers and rock them asleep. It must be serious preaching which must make men serious in hearing and obeying it." ^ He advises preachers to feel ever that necessity is laid upon them in study and labour alike. 8. Although George Fox (1624-1691) is not even mentioned in the Histories of Preaching the writer has consulted, his name cannot be altogether passed over. From his twelfth year employed by a shoemaker and shepherd, his youth was passed in inward struggles, and in his nineteenth year he began to denounce the clergy of the Church for selling the word. Abandoning his earthly calling, clothed in leather, amid hardships, perils, and persecutions, as " a man of sorrows " he moved about the country preaching his own doctrines — " Christ in us," " the Unction from above," and " the Inner Light." In six years he had gathered companions around him, in spite of all attempts to suppress the movement. Three years later he found a home in the Manor of Swarthmoor ; and here was founded the community, nicknamed Quakers, calling itself the Society of Friends. He employed his frequent im- prisonments for writing, and so continued to influence the movement. In its interests, too, he visited North America, the West Indies, and Germany. His mysticism retained a Christian character, but was not altogether free of fanaticism. To regard him, however, as only affording an interesting object of study in religious pathology would be to mis- understand him. With all his eccentricity, he must be » Quoted by Brown, p. 177. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 161 regarded as " a man of the spirit " raised up for a work needing to be done. III. Dr. Brown maintains that "any study of Puritan preaching in the seventeenth century would be incomplete without some reference to that small body of remarkable men known as the ' Cambridge Platonists,' or, the ' Sect of Latitude Men,' or the * Latitudinarians ' as they were variously called ; including Benjamin Whichcote, Ralph Cudworth, Nathaniel Culverwell, John Smith, and Henry More," since " though separating themselves from much that was distinctively Puritan, they yet started from Puri- tanism and were greatly influenced by it."^ This school attempted to reconcile reason and revelation, Christianity and philosophy ; but they failed to exercise any wide or lasting influence on either religious or speculative thought. 1. One of the hearers whom Whichcote inspired was John Tillotson (1630-1694), who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1691. Hering^ mentions him as the iP. 114. ^ HLH 136. Simpson in his Preachers mid Teachers, pp. 106-107, offers an estimate of him worth quoting. "Tillotson, in fact, represents more fully, perhaps, than any other English divine, the religious appeal most consonant with the spirit and ideas of the middle-classes among his fellow- countrymen — in fact, of the typical Englishman. Springing from a class and county which have no vein of mysticism, and where the dictates of « common sense, which is taken as coincident with reason, are more highly valued than the impulses of an exalted spirit, there is something solid, not to say tangible, in these views of religion which he most forcibly recom- mends. He is no prophet nor expounder of mysteries. He moves more easily among the normal effects of religion than in the contemplation of God, or the realization of Christ or the spiritual life. The very phrases, the very turns of expression which he adopts are those with which we are still familiar in the speech of sober and undemonstrative Britons. What is personal, direct, intimate, he instinctively avoids. He will speak of 'professing the Christian religion' where a Spurgeon might speak of 'closing with Christ.* Jesus is ' the author of the doctrine ' rather than ' the friend of sinners.' On Good Friday he ' considers the sufferings of Christ as a proper means of salvation,' instead of preaching the Gospel and leading burdened souls to the foot of the Cross. There is a studied moderation in his commeudation of the example of Christ." 162 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER most noble representative of the new type of preaching in which the emphasis fell on reason rather than faith, moral character rather than religious experience, and, under the influence of science and philosophy, the Christian message was rationalised and moralised. Such was his fame as a preacher that his sermons were translated into German and French, and won the praise of Mosheim and the admiration of Voltaire. Bishop Burnet said of him : "He was not only the best preacher of the age, but seemed to have brought preaching to perfection ; his sermons were so well liked that all the nation proposed him as a pattern and studied to copy after him." ^ His subjects, however, do not awaken our interest, nor his style suit our taste to-day. 2. While representing the same tendency, Eobert South (1633-1716) may be regarded as even a greater preacher than Tillotson. Henry Eogers assigns him a very high place. " Of all the English preachers. South seems to furnish in point of style the truest specimen of pulpit eloquence. His robust intellect, his shrewd common sense, his vehement feelings, and a fancy always more distinguished by force than by elegance, admirably qualified him for a powerful public speaker. His style is everywhere direct, condensed, pungent. His sermons are well worthy of frequent and diligent perusal by every young preacher." ^ Dr. Brown appears to endorse this opinion, and adds in confirmation of it a reference to one of his sermons. " There is a sermon of his in which he pours scorn on the florid declamation, the mere tinsel rhetoric which some people think to be so very fine. He mentions no names, but you can see that he is speaking for the especial benefit of his illustrious but too fanciful and ornate contemporary Jeremy Taylor. The passage is worth quoting : ' I speak the words of soberness,' said St. Paul, 'and I preach the Gospel not with the enticing words of man's wisdom,' This was the way of the Apostle's discoursing of things sacred. 1 Quoted by DHP ii. p. 165. » Idem, p. 167. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 163 Nothing here of ' the fringes of the north star ' ; nothing * of nature's becoming unnatural ' ; nothing of the ' down of angels' wings ' or ' the beautiful locks of cherubims ' ; no starched similitudes introduced with a ' Thus have I seen a cloud rolling in its airy mansion,' and the like. No — these were sublimities above the use of the apostolic spirit. For the Apostles, poor mortals, were content to take lower steps, and to tell the world in plain terms that he who believed should be saved, and that he who believed not should be damned. And this was the dialect which pierced the conscience and made the hearers cry out, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? It tickled not the ear, but it sunk into the heart, and when men came from such sermons they never commended the preacher for his taking voice or gesture, for the fineness of such a simile or the quaintness of such a sentence ; but they spoke like men conquered with the overpowering force and evidence of the most concerning truths, much in the words of the two disciples going to Emmaus: 'Did not our hearts burn within us while He opened to us the Scriptures ' ? In a word, the Apostles' preaching was therefore mighty and successful, because plain, natural, and familiar, and by no means above the capacity of their hearers ; nothing being more preposterous than for those who were professedly aiming at men's hearts to miss the mark by shooting over their heads." ^ This is admirable criticism for every age. But South himself showed more mind than heart. 3. While these preachers opposed themselves to the increasing deistic tendency, yet they had not a little in common with it. " The same tendencies," says Fisher, " which produced the Latitudinarian movement led, in minds of a different cast and training, to the development of Deism, and gave rise to the Deistic controversy. There were minds less appreciative of the need and the nature of Christianity. There were special co-operative influences, among which was the effect of the Copernican discovery upon the views taken of Scripture and its effect, along with that of the philosophy of Bacon, and of the new studies in natural , science, upon the general mood of feeling. This new mood » Oil. ciU, pp. 175-177. 164 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER may be described, for the lack of a better term, as rational- istic. Deism in its English type did not, like the Epicurean theory, deny the Providence of the Deity. It cast aside the belief in a special revelation, and of course the reahty of denied miracles. The Latitudinarians sought for the basis of the religious creed in the truths held in common by the various contending Christian, or at least, Protestant bodies. The Deists did the same in reference to the different forms of religion, including the Christian. The value of the Bible is made to consist in its republication, but without super- natural sanction, of the principles of natuial religion, ascer- tainable and ascertained by * the light of nature.' " ^ 4. The controversy does not require our close attention, but it is necessary to remember that it was a potent influence on the religious thought and life of England, depressing spiritual vitality and decreasing moral vigour alike. Amid such conditions we cannot look for, and we do not find, great preaching. A few names, however, call for mention. We must mention first of all Bishop Butler (1692-1752). The conditions under which he did his work have been described by Canon Simpson in his study of Butler's Sermons.^ " Men laughed at ideals, and scorned enthusiasms. They knew no measure of excellence but that of material comfort, no standard of value but that of personal advantage. The aristocracy were devoted to cynicism and clothes; the middle - classes immersed in commerce; the proletariat steeped in gin. If religion was ever near to extinction in this country it was then. As the brotherhood of man was discounted by a cool self-love, so the love of God was deemed an extravagant enthusiasm by a temper that mistook itself for sober Reason. . . . There were no problems. For the fashionable there were routs, for the merchants wealth, for the multitude enough to eat and too much to drink. And so the world wagged." ^ As Butler's own words in his advertisement of . his famous work The Analogy show, he was acutely sensitive * History of Christian Doctrine, pp. 371-372. * Preachers and Teachers, v. pp. 145-173. * Idem, pp. 146-147. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 165 to the contemptuous rather than hostile attitude of the " people of discernment " to Christianity. To the " un- mitigated individualism " of its morals he opposed a conception of the relation of the individual to society, which is being now forced on our recognition, " The greatness of Bishop Butler," says Simpson, " con- sists in this, that, when the developments of the nineteenth century were yet unborn, when neither biological science nor industrial disorganization nor religious revival had emphasised the social principle, he reaffirmed, against the prevailing sentiment of the age, and by vigorous application of the very method by which his contemporaries endeavoured to establish their ' reasonable ' view of life, the great truth rooted deeply in human nature, the basis alike of moral relationships and social unities and submission to a Living Will larger than the purposes of men, which St. Paul had expressed in the words * We are members one of another.' " ^ For him the benevolence which recognised the claims of fellow-men was bound to, nay even rooted in, the piety which submitted to the Will of God. " Human nature is so constituted," he says, " that every good affection implies the love of itself. It becomes the object of a new affection in the same person. Thus, to be righteous, implies in it the love of righteousness; to be benevolent, the love of benevolence ; to be good, the love of goodness ; whether this righteousness, benevolence, or good- ness be viewed as in our mind, or in another's. And the love of God, as a being perfectly good, is the love of perfect goodness contemplated in a Being or Person. Thus morality and religion, virtue and piety, will at last necessarily coincide, run up into one and the same point, and love will be in all senses the end of the commandment" ^ His contribution to ethical theory is contained in fifteen sermons, which are hard to read, and must have been even harder to hear. The difficulties they present are not altogether due to their subjects, but to the defects of Butler's style, as well as the too great closeness of his reasoning. While he cannot be taken as an example of an ^ Idem, p. 158. - Quoted by Simpsou, ojy. eit., p. 173. 166 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER effective preacher, yet his contribution to the thought and life of his age was so weighty, that he cannot be passed over in a history of preaching. Few, if any, sermons have been so much studied as his have been. 5. Contemporary with Butler, but illustrating the Puritan or Nonconformist as he does the Anglican type, were two Independent preachers whose names are still held in honour, Isaac Watts (167 4- 1748) ^ and Philip Doddridge (1702-1751). They represent the quiet and sober evan- gelicalism, which had not yet caught the glow of the Evangelical Ptevival, and may therefore be mentioned here. Watts is best known as a hymn writer, but his sermons do not show the qualities one would expect, for they are not poetical nor even emotional. They do not show him as a great preacher. Doddridge is noted for his work as the teacher of many preachers in his Academy, first at Kibworth near Leicester, and then at Northampton,^ and for his well-known work on experimental religion. The Bise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. " His sermons," says Dargan, " are judicious rather than weighty in thought, evangelical in theology, clear in order and style, but with no special unction or eloquence."^ His work as an educationalist deserves lasting remembrance. " Doddridge was great not only in his own Academy at Northampton, but in his influence in the country generally. In his day, to mention Northampton Academy was not merely to speak of the best educational centre in the country, it was also to speak of a new education."* The students were encouraged in the study of French that they might become familiar with the great French preachers. Of the kind of teaching given the same writer says : " Indeed the Tutors * The Life of Isaac Watts, by Thomas Wright, London, 1914. ' Admission to his Academy was not confined to students for the Ministry ; but boys preparing for other professions were also admitted. The sons of clergy and lay members of the Established Church were sent because the education was better and cheaper than at the Universities. There was careful moral supervision, and no " undue influence" was exerted to effect any change of religious opinion. (See Dissenting Academies in England, by Irene Parker, M.A., pp. 83-84.) 3 DHP ii. p. 331. * Parker, op. cU., p. 101. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 167 seem to have been desirous not of cramming their students with facts, but of educating them and of training them to think, and what is more, to express their thoughts in their own tongue." ^ IV. 1. Across the Border there was in the eighteenth century a movement which resulted in a similar contrast of types among the Scottish preachers, that between the Evangelicals and the Moderates. As this movement began before the Evangelical Eevival in England, and was due to the influence of a book, The Marrow of Modern Diviniti/, which, although the authorship is unknown, belongs to the Puritan type in England, it falls to be mentioned in this connection. (1) Of the book which had so great an influence on the preaching of Scotland, either by commanding assent or provoking antagonism, the modern editor, the Eev. Dr. C. G. McCree, writes : " The design of the treatise is to elucidate and establish the perfect freeness of the Gospel salvation ; to throw wide open the gates of righteousness ; to lead the sinner straight to the Saviour; to introduce him as guilty, impotent and undone; and to persuade him to grasp, without a moment's hesitation, the outstretched hand of God's mercy." ^ (2) Thomas Boston (1676-1732) was ordained in 1699 to the charge of Simprim in Berwickshire ; but his mind was in difficulty and doubt about the Gospel. It was this book from England which brought him theologically out of darkness into light, when he found it in 1770 in the house of one of his parishioners. In 1717 he was led to speak to others about it, and in 1718 it was reprinted. Its influence spread so rapidly that in 1720 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland condemned its teaching on five matters as contrary to the Holy Scriptures, the Confession of Faith, and the Catechisms. A remonstrance from the " Marrow " men, as they were called, against this decision -vas dismissed in 1722, and the previous action * P. 103. ' p. XV, ed. published by Bryce, 1902. 168 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER was confirmed and explained. The controversy need not be followed further, but its issue was the first Secession in 1733. The opponents of the book were hyper-Calvinists. " The Calvinism of the Marrow, on the other hand, was broad, catholic, liberal. The Marrow men, both in England and Scotland, dwelt much upon the love of God for the whole world, the offer of Christ to every sinner. . . . Believ- ing the Gospel offer was for all, that to mankind sinners the call and overture of divine love are to be addressed, the moderate Calvinists of the eighteenth century were animated and dominated by the missionary spirit of Christianity." ^ Among the " Marrow " men were noted preachers such as Boston himself, and the brothers Erskine, Ebenezer (1680-1756) and Ealph (1685-1752). Of their work in Scotland a general description must suffice. "The Ministers of the Church of Scotland who were evangelical in creed and evangelistic in preaching, proclaim- ing a gospel of good tidings of great joy to all people, were preachers whom the common people heard gladly. They secured large audiences wherever they ministered, and on communion occasions they gathered immense crowds to their open-air services. To the Marrow men and those who lighted their torches at the same altar fire we owe the main- tenance in Scotland of the evangelistic and evangelical succession at a time when the dominant party in the Church of Scotland, becoming heartless in a high and dry hyper- Calvinism, abandoned theology for morahty, and so drifted into moderatism." ^ (3) A sample of the kind of preaching of these men is afforded by Boston's series of sermons on The Fourfold State of Man (1712). In the opening sentences of the first sermon he clearly states his intention. " There are four things very necessary to be known by all that would see heaven. First, what man was in the state of innocence as God made him. Secondly, what he is in the state of corrupt nature as he had unmade himself. Thirdly, what he must be in the state of grace as ' created in Christ Jesus unto good works,' if ever he be made a par- 1 Idem, pp. xxviii, xxix. * Jdem, pp. xxix, xxi. THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 169 taker of the ' inheritance of the saints in life.' And, lastly, what he should be in his eternal state as made by the Judge of all, either perfectly happy or completely miserable, and that for ever. These are weighty points that touch the vitals of practical godliness; from which most men and even many professors, in these dregs of time, are quite estranged. I design, therefore, under the divine conduct to open up these things and apply them." ^ Much of the theology is now antiquated ; the form of the sermons is scholastic to the extreme ; there is a lack both of imagination and illustration ; and yet the fervent feehng gives them living power. (4) When just entering on his work, Boston wrote a Soliloquy on the art of Man-Fishing? The account he gives of the occasion of writing it is worth quoting, as it reveals the preacher's true aim. "The occasion thereof was this — January 6, 1699, reading in secret my heart was touched with Matt. iv. 19, ' Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' My soul cried out for accomplishing of that to me, and I was very desirous to know how I might follow Christ so as to become a fisher of men, and for my own instruction on that point I addressed myself to the consideration of it in that manner. And, indeed, it was much in my heart in these days, not to preach the wisdom of mine own heart, or produce of my own gifts, but to depend on the Lord for light that I might, if I could have reached it, been able to say of every word, 'Thussaith theLord."'3 This meditation on his craft by a master of it is still worthy of the study of his fellow-craftsmen. 2. The Moderates were opposed to all enthusiasm, which they regarded as fanaticism. They insisted on moral character rather than religious experience ; but as their morality had no deep roots, so it bore no rich fruits. They attached much importance to good taste and literary excellence. (1) One of the extreme instances of this tendency was 1 Quoted in DHP ii. pp. 336-337. * Published by Alexander Gardner, 1899. " 0^. cit., p. 11. 170 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Alexander Carlyle (1722—1805), who can be described only as a cultured, capable and respectable worldling, for whom the ministry was " the clerical profession," and who prized above all the admiration which his oratory evoked among his genteel hearers.^ (2) To the same school belonged Dr. Hugh Blair (1718—1800). He combined the duties of a parish in Edinburgh with the professorship of Belles Lettres at Edinburgh University. His lectures in Ehetoric were very popular, and for many years were regarded as the best text-book on the subject. A man of finer character than Carlyle, his preaching was of the same type. "His sermons are cold presentations of the accepted Christian doctrines and ethics, without the warmth of evangelic earnestness or the driving power of great convic- tion. There is want of vitality, and the elegance which characterizes them has passed away along with the starched frills, powdered wigs, and buckled knee-breeches of that age." 2 In Scotland, as in England, there was need of religious revival, although in each there was a '* remnant." 1 DHP iL p. 339. * P. 341. CHAPTER VII. ORATORS AND COURTIERS. I. 1. Pee ACHING is more appreciated and exercises greater influence in Protestantism than in Eoman Catholicism ; and there can be no doubt that the classic period of the Eoman Catholic pulpit in France had as one of its antecedents the influence of the French preachers of the Reformation. It was inevitable that much of this preaching was polemical, directed against Roman Catholicism, in defence of the Reformed theology. This controversy worked less injuri- ously on religious life than in Germany ; and as regards the form of the sermons, French tact and taste saved preaching from the commonness and coarseness into which elsewhere controversy fell. Hering distinguishes two periods in Protestant preaching in France. " In the first controversy comes much to the front ; the development of thought attaches itself closely to the text, and endeavours, if at all, to get beyond the analytical- exegetical method to a grouping arrangement, and to a structure which attaches itself to the thoughts of the Biblical passage." ..." This epoch passes slowly over into the other, in which the synthetic displaces the disjointed analytic method, and instead of the labour to explain the Bible comes the endeavour to seize a main thought in the text, and to unfold it." ^ It is this tendency to a more artistic form which prepares the way for the classic period of the French pulpit. ^ HLH, p. 132. Hering refers in a note on p. 131 to the work of Vinet, Historie de la Predication parmi les riformf^ de la France au 17 aiide. Paris, 1860. 171 172 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 2. One of the most vigorous opponents of Eoman Catholicism was Pierre du Moulin (1568—1658). In his preaching there was no oratory; it was simple and poprdar. The eloquence of Moses Amyraut (1596-1664) excited the admiration even of Eoman Catholics, and impressed such critical hearers as Richelieu and Mazarin in favour of the persecuted Protestants. Jean D'Ailly (1595—1670) was regarded in his Church us the greatest man since Calvin ; although he is as vehement a controversialist, he is also a greater stylist than his predecessors. To the transition between the two periods belongs Jean Claude (1619-1687). Even his opponents spoke of " ce fameux M. Claude," and the great Bossuet dreaded his logical powers. He already was influenced by the conditions which produced the classic French oratory. Among the exiles from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) who carried this influence with them, the most noted was P. Dubosc (died at Rotterdam 1692), of whom Van Oosterzee gives a very high estimate. " After Louis xiv. had on one occasion listened to him pleading the cause of the Protestants, he declared that he had that day heard the most eloquent man of his Kingdom. As an orator he rendered to Calvinism no less important services than did Claude as a controversialist ; and when he was banished, England, Denmark and Holland vied with each other in seeking the honour of aff"ording him an asylum. The seven volumes of his discourses present equally fine proofs of invention, as of arrangement and action. In him was made manifest anew how much an extensive theological knowledge, when its results are applied with tact, contributes to the effectiveness of preaching. A plastic form is here combined with abundance of material, and if the orator in some passages shows that he has taken Basil as a model, he nevertheless still survives Dubosc." ^ A suggestive criticism is offered by Hering: " His practical interest is above all directed to the moral impression, while polemics fall into the background. 1 OPT, pp. 129-130. See also HLH, pp. U7-149. OEATORS AND COURTIERS 173 Although for this purpose he is helped by his rich culture, his knowledge of men and of the world, yet he stands behind the Catholics, whom casuistry and the confessional gave a multitude of individual applications, in their ability to deal with the special cases and circumstances ; a defect of the Protestant preaching of the time generally." ^ 3. A still more famous name is that of Jacques Saurin (1677—1730), on whom the influence of the great Catholic preachers is evident. While Hering regards him as not the equal to the Catholic orators, although greater in respect of his evangelical message, Vinet asserts that not only is he the greatest of the Protestant preachers, but he is even not inferior to any of the Catholic masters of the pulpit. He was, however, an unequal preacher, sometimes insipid, prolix, irrelevant, but often and quickly he soared from these lower levels of thoughts and speech into the loftiest heights of a rare eloquence, sustained by a genuine inspiration of " living faith and joyful hope." ^ An illustra- tion of his style may be given from a sermon on The Effect of Passion (1 Pet 2^). " O deplorable state of man ! The littleness of his mind will not allow him to contemplate any object but that of his passion, while it is present to his senses; it will not allow him, then, to recollect the motives, the great motives, that should impel him to his duty ; and when the object is absent, not being able to offer it to his senses, he presents it again to his imagination clothed with new and foreign charms, deceitful ideas of which make up for its absence, and excite in him a love more ardent, than that of actual possession, when he felt at least the folly and vanity of it. 0 horrid war of the passions against the soul ! Shut the door of your closets against the enchanted object, it will enter with you. Try to get rid of it by traversing plains, and fields, and whole countries ; cleave the waves of the sea, fly on the wings of the wind, and try to put between your- self and your enchantress the deep, the rolling ocean, she will travel with you, sail with you, everywhere haimt you, because wherever you go you wfll carry yourself, and »HLH, p. 149. -OPT, p. 131. 174 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER within you, deep in your imagination, the bewitching image impressed." Change of earthly objects, he then by a number of illustrations shews, can bring no satisfaction ; and hence his conclusion : " Let us shorten our labour. Let us put all creatures into one class. Let us cry ' vanity ' in all. If we determine to pursue new objects, let us choose such as are capable of satisfying us. Let us not seek them here below. They are not to be found in this old world, which God has cursed. They are in the ' new heavens and the new earth.' " ^ IL 1. While the preaching of the Reformed Church in the seventeenth century showed the influence of classical cul- ture, yet it was excelled by the Roman Catholic pulpit oratory, which in turn soon began to affect the style of preaching not only of the Protestants of France, but even of Germany.^ The French language is marked by its lucidity; the French people possess a quahty which can be expressed only by their own word esprit ; quickness of feeling, light- ness of touch, fineness of taste, a ready wit, vivid imagina- tion, all combined to produce the brilliance of the classic orators. In their art they were under the influence of ancient models. The appeal was not to the common people, but to the King and his Court, for whom preaching was an aesthetic interest,, The King chose the preachers at Versailles, and rewarded them with his compliments ; in the correspondence as well as the conversation of the Court the merits of the orators were discussed. We should do injustice to the preachers themselves, however, if we assumed that the favour and applause of the King and Court were all that they sought in their endeavours. Doubtless they hoped and strove to use their gifts as orators for the higher end of influencing the King, and through him the Court and the nation, for their moral and religious good. A minor motive for the Catholic orators was the desire to excel their 1 CME ix. pp. 145-146. 2 See 0-reat French Serinons, ed. byO'Mahony, London, 1917. ORATOES AND COURTIERS 175 Protestant rivals in the art of the pulpit. But even when we have tried to be as generous in our judgment of their intentions as we can, we are forced to admit that there was not a little in their methods which now offends. In their panegyrics and funeral sermons there was an exaggerated patriotism ; and their flattery went beyond the bounds of good taste, and sometimes even became blasphemous. This national enthusiasm was allied even in the pulpit with Roman Catholic fanaticism. These orators provoked and exulted in the persecution of their Protestant fellow- countrymen. They all approved the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and rejoiced in any humiliation of a Protestant State. Such preaching could not fail to be injurious to morality as well as religion, and its influence did not retard, but rather stimulated the process of national deterioration, which one hundred years later found its judg- ment in the French Revolution. But with " the wood, hay, stubble," there were mingled in these sermons to the King and his Court " gold, silver, and precious stones." Vices were boldly and frankly denounced ; solemn warnings were uttered against piety from unworthy motives. The duties of a king even were openly and earnestly declared. But such is the perversity of human nature. The courtiers gained a malici- ous pleasure in listening to exhortatiocs addressed to their sovereign, and found enjoyment in the eloquent denuncia- tion of the vices which they had no intention whatever of abandoning.^ 2. While a statement of the general characteristics of the period may be made, yet individual differences must be recognised ; and each of the preachers must be separ- ately treated. In Jules Mascaron (1643—1703) and Esprit Fl^chier (1632-1710) the art of the orator had not yet found its full development.^ The itinerant preacher, Jacques Bridaine (died 1767), excelled the even famous preachers in his avoidance of flattery, and his courage in exposing sin and its penalty.^ Fran<;ois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon (1651—1715) stands 1 See HLH, pp. 137-142. ^ HLH, p. 142. « OPT, p. 132. 176 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER apart, more attractive in personality, if less oratorical in style. The summit of the eloquence of the age is reached by three preachers, Jacques B^nigne Bossuet (1627-1704), the Bishop of Nimes and Meaux, Louis de Bourdaloue (1632-1704), the Jesuit father, and a little later in date than these contemporaries, Jean Baptiste Massillon (1663-1742), an Oratorian, with leanings to the Jesuits.^ 3. Bossuet first claims notice. (1) He was in his home as well as in his course of training brought under the influence of the Holy Scriptures, and their thought and language greatly and lastingly affected his preaching more as regards the style than the contents. Into the forms of prophetic speech he pours his own ardour and imagina- tion. A diligent student of the Fathers, he learned much from Augustine and Chrysostom. The third factor in his development as a preacher was humanism, the culture of the Eenaissance. The native intensity and impetuosity of his personality fused all these elements into a glowing mass, which, however, shone rather than warmed.^ Van Oosterzee compares him to " a broad mountain stream, which with thundering roar rushes down from the heights, and carries away everything which would offer resistance." ^ • His usual method of preparation was to make a rough draft only, and to leave to the moment the filling out and shaping of his sermon ; a proof of his extraordinary power as a speaker. His art appears more fully in the funeral orations, which he afterwards worked over with great care, now holding himself in and then letting himself go as his mastery of his craft required. A learned theologian, a vehement controversialist, a consummate courtier, a supreme orator, his is not the eloquence of the life which is hid with Christ in God. Tested by this, his oratory often sounds hollow, and feels cold. (2) His funeral sermon on the Death of the Grande Cond^ is an example of his use of the pulpit for the unstinted praise of the great, and » See HLH, pp. 142-147 ; DHP, ii. pp. 82-117 ; OPT, pp. 131-134. « See HLH, p. 143. ^ OPT, p. 131. ORATORS AND COURTIERS 177 yet in the following passage he justifies himself for so doing with masterly skill. " Let us try, then, to forget our grief. Here an object greater and worthier of this pulpit presents itself to my mind ; it is God, who makes warriors and conquerors. ' It is Thou,' said David unto Him, ' who hast trained my hand to battle, and my fingers to hold the sword.' If He inspires courage, no less is He the bestower of other good qualities, both of heart and mind. His mighty hand is the source of everything; it is He who sends from heaven generous sentiments, wise counsels and every worthy thought. But He wishes us to know how to distinguish between the gifts He abandons to His enemies and those He reserves for His servants. What distinguishes His friends from all others is piety. Until this gift of Heaven has been received, all others not only are as naught, but even bring ruin on those who are endowed with them ; without this inestimable gift of piety what would the Prince de Conde have been, even with his great heart and great genius ? No, my brethren, if piety had not, as it were, consecrated his other virtues, these princes would have found no consolation for their grief, nor this pontiff any confidence in his prayers, nor would I myself utter with conviction the praises which I owe to so great a man. Let us, by this example, then set human glory at naught; let us destroy the idol of the ambitious, that it might fall to pieces before this altar. Let us to-day join together (for with a subject so noble we may do it) all the qualities of a superior nature ; and for the glory of truth, let us demonstrate, in a prince admired of the universe, that what makes heroes, that what carries to the highest pitch worldly glory, worth, magnanimity, natural goodness — all attributes of the heart; vivacity, penetration, grandeur and sublimity of genius — attributes of the mind ; would be but an illusion were piety not a part of them — in a word, that piety is the essence of the man. It is this, gentlemen, which you will see in the for ever memorable life of the most high and mighty Prince Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, first prince of the blood." ^ 4. It was in 1669 when Bossuet had reached the height of his fame, and withdrew from Paris to his diocese of Condom, that the Jesuit father, Bourdaloue, by his 1 WGS ii. pp. 86-88. 178 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER eloquence captured the French aristocracy. At six in the morning servants were sent to secure places for the after- noon service. His sermons were taken down as preached, and were published without his authority. He died before he had carried out his intention to revise them for pub- lication. For thirty-four years he held his audiences spellbound whenever he opened his lips. (1) " Bourdaloue," says Feug^re, " addresses himself much more to the reason than to the imagination and the emotions. ... If sometimes his tone became more tender or more passionate, these are exceptions which seem unintended. One could even say, that the more a subject lent itself to pathos, the more was Bourdaloue on his guard against it." ^ He excelled Bossuet in the orderly arrangement and the logical cogency of his sermons. " He is — Sit venia verbo — as compared with this royal eagle, as the royal serpent which with velvet coils slowly surrounds the object of its prey, softly, indeed, but in such a way that the captured animal can no longer escape. He convinces you, but — without carrying you with him ; through the intellect he seeks the way to the heart, but frequently he does this in a manner which reminds you rather of the accomplished barrister than of the preacher pleading with unction from on high." 8 His expression went beyond his impression ; and eloquence tended to drop to rhetoric. With his intel- lectual vigour he combined moral seriousness. His training as a Jesuit in casuistry gave him masterly skill in dealing with moral issues. He was bold enough not only to depict vices generally, but to denounce the evil customs of his own age. He held up the Court of Herod as a mirror in which the Court at Versailles might see itself. In this respect he recalls Chrysostom.^ (2) In a sermon on the Passion of Jesus Christ, Bourdaloue expounds 1 Co 522-2*. Jq dealing with Christ Criuyified the potver of God, he thus explains that death : * Bowrdaloue, Sa Predication et son temps, Paris, 1888, p. 64, quoted HLH, p. 144. » OPT, pp. 131-132. » See HLH, pp. 143-145. ORATORS AND COURTIERS 179 " He died, then, only because He willed to die (Isa. liii. 7), and even in the manner He willed to die. And this, says St. Augustine, is what the God-Man alone could do ; this is what shows forth, even in death, the sovereign independence of God. It is hereon I base another proposition, namely this, that the Death of Jesus Christ, if we consider it closely, was not only a miracle, but the most singular of all miracles. And why ? Because, instead of dying as other men die out of weakness, out of violence, out of necessity, He died by the effort of His own absolute power ; so that as Son of God and God Himself, He never exerted that absolute power more supremely than at the moment in which He consented that His most blessed soul should be separated from His body. And for this theologians give two reasons. In the first place, they say, Jesus Christ being exempt from all sin and absolutely impeccable, He could not but be naturally immortal ; whence it follows that His body and His soul, which were united hypostatically with the Divinity, could not be separated from each other but by a miracle. It was, then, of necessity that Jesus Christ in order to effect this separation, should, so to speak, do violence to all the laws of ordinary providence, and that He should employ all the power which God had given Him for the destruction of that beautiful life which, although human, was at the same time the life of a God. Secondly, because Jesus Christ, in virtue of His Priesthood, was pre-eminently the High Priest of the New Law, none but He could or should offer to God the Sacrifice for the redemption of the world and immolate the Victim destined for that Sacrifice. Now, this Victim was His own Body. None then but He was to offer this Sacrifice, none but He had the power necessary for such an act. The executioners who crucified Him were indeed the ministers of the justice of God, but they were not the priests who were to sacrifice this Victim to God. For this a High Priest was needed who should be holy, innocent, spotless, separated from sinners and endowed with characteristics peculiar to Himself (Heb. vii. 26-28)." 1 5. Thirty years elapsed between the appearance in Paris as preachers of Bourdaloue and Massillon.^ *■ Oreat French Servians, pp. 10-12. ' Hering refers in a note on p. 145 to a monograph by Blainpigiion in two volumes. Paris. 180 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER (1) As a boy he was interested in pulpit eloquence, and attracted attention by the vivacity with which he was able to reproduce a sermon he had heard. The oratory of Bourdaloue taught him to correct his faults, but he made no man his model. He aimed, not at the oratory of the imagination and the intellect, but the eloquence of the heart. He impressed by his seriousness and his modesty. Less majestic than Bossuet, and less polished than Bourda- loue, he showed more spiritual unction as, like Barnabas, a son of consolation. Yet he could also search the conscience of his hearers, and make them see themselves as they really were. Thus he laboured in Paris for twenty years. Twice, in 1701 and 1704, he preached to the Court at Versailles. He, by his frank and bold speech, moved even the king to discontent with himself ; but what does discount the value of the fact as a testimony to his power is that the king was growing old, and was under the influence of the bigoted Madame Maintenon. In the funeral sermon for Louis XIV. he allowed himself to follow the fashion of the panegyric without the restraint which might have been expected from him. More worthy of him, however, were the fatherly educative counsels which he addressed to the eighteen years old king, Louis XV., in Lent, 1718. His addresses as bishop to the clergy of his diocese show him as zealous to make his brethren worthy of their calling in the cure of souls. Though himself a preacher, he does not give any prominence to the duty of preaching. " We should compare him," says Van Oosterzee, " by preference, not to a brilliant meteor, but to a moon veiled with fleecy clouds, which sheds a kindly light over a wide prospect." He adds this qualification to his praise, and his words are worth repeating, as they point to the common defect of the French pulpit of the classic period, and a danger which threatens every preacher : " We are afraid that even he too often sought to recom- mend himself to the refined tastes of his hearers, rather ORATORS AND COURTIERS 181 than to their awakened conscience, and that here too the courtier stood only too often in the way of the orator, and the orator in that of the preacher of the Gospel in the proper acceptation of the term." ^ (2) However doubtful we may be of the propriety of using the pulpit in the season of Lent to give advice to a young king instead of preaching Christ Crucified, and of at any time adopting such a method of education, yet the content and spirit of the counsels are admirable. " Sire, always regard war as the greatest scourge with which God can afflict an empire; seek to disarm rather than to conquer your enemies. God has entrusted to you the sword only for the safety of your people, and not for the misfortune of your neighbours. The empire over which heaven has set you is vast enough ; be more zealous to assuage its miseries than to extend its borders ; put rather your glory in redressing the misfortunes of past wars than in undertaking new ones ; render your reign immortal by the happiness of your people more than by the number of your conquests ; do not measure the justice of your under- takings by your power, and do not forget that in the most righteous wars, victories always bring after them as great calamities for States as the most sanguinary defeats." ^ (3) Characteristic of his own disposition is the saying addressed to his clergy : " It is not always the great talents which imply in us the greatest virtues. They make us more useful to men, but they do not always make us more acceptable to God ; they advance his work in others, but they often retard it in ourselves." ^ His description of the restless and reckless priest is true of all times : " They undertake everything. All that has the appear- ance of being good inspires and impels them, nothing appears impossible to them, and nothing seems to them to be in the place where it should be. They would wish to » OPT, p. 132. 2 Blampignon, i. p. 275, quoted in HLH, pp. 146-147. » Op. cit, i. 125, quoted HLH, p. 147. 182 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER change everything, to displace everything. They begin by putting into general confusion all they touch under the pretext of putting it again in order. Eestless, narrow, rash, venturesome, if only they are doing something, they are pleased with themselves, and think that they are fulfilling all righteousness. They rashly hurl themselves against the most delicate and difficult situations which deserve to be most carefully handled, are most exposed to great and griev- ous consequences, and are most capable even of baffling the most masterly prudence and skill ; and when they have got out of this scrape where they come to grief and offer the public a spectacle always unbecoming for a clergyman, they go with the same foolhardiness to deal with some other undertaking which offers them no less danger, and promises them no less confusion." ^ While these illustrations reveal to us the man, they do not show us the preacher when he most moved the hearts of men, (4) The concluding passage of a sermon on The Woman that was a Sinner (Lk 7^^"^) may serve as an example of his art in the pulpit. " By her sins Mary Magdalene had been degraded in the eyes of men ; they beheld with contempt the shame and the infamy of her conduct, and the Pharisee is even astonished that Jesus Christ should condescend to suffer her at His feet. For the world which authorises whatever leads to dissipation never fails to cover dissipation itself with infamy ; it inspires and approves all the passions, yet it always blames all the consequences of them ; its lascivious theatres resound with extravagant praises of profane love, but its conversation consists only of biting satires upon those who yield themselves to that unfortunate tendency ; it praises the graces and charms that light up impure desires, and it loads you with shame from the moment that you appear inflamed with them. Such had been the afflic- tions by which the passions and the debaucheries of our sinner were followed ; but her penance restores to her more honour and more glory than had been taken away from her by the infamy of her past life. This sinner, so despised in the world, whose name was not mentioned without a blush, ^ Op. dt., ii. 129, quoted HLH, p. 147. ORATORS AND COURTIERS 183 is praised by Jesus Christ for the things which even the world considers as most honourable, for generosity of senti- ments, kindness of heart, and the fidelity of a holy love ; this sinner, whose scandal was without example in the city, is exalted above the Pharisee ; the truth, the sincerity of her faith, of her compunction, of her love, merits at once the preference over a superficial, pharisaical virtue ; this woman, whose name was concealed as if unworthy of being uttered, and whose only appellation is that of her crimes, is become the glory of Christ Jesus, a triumph of grace and an honour to the Gospel." ^ 6. The personality of F^nelon, as revealed in his writings, commands our affection as none of the great orators can do. (1) As only two of his sermons on special occasions have been preserved, we cannot compare him with them, or estimate what he was capable of as a preacher. With his controversy with Bossuet we are not here con- cerned ; nor yet with the consequences of it as regards his ecclesiastical position. The doctrine of Quietism, which he defended, may be illustrated by a passage from a sermon on Simplicity and Greatness. " If we desire that our friends be simple and free with us, disencumbered of self in their intimacy with us, will it not please God, who is our truest friend, that we should sur- render our souls to him, without fear or reserve, in that holy and sweet communion with himself which he allows us? It is this simplicity which is the perfection of the true children of God. This is the end that we must have in view, and to which we must be continually advancing. This deliverance of the soul from all useless, and selfish, and unquiet cares, brings to it a peace and freedom that are unspeakable ; this is true simplicity. It is easy to perceive, at the first glance, how glorious it is, but experience alone can make us comprehend the enlargement of heart that it produces. We are then like a child in the arms of its parents, ' we wish nothing more ; we fear nothing ' ; we yield ourselves up to this pure attachment ; we are not anxious about what others think of us ; all our motions are free, graceful, and happy. We do not judge ourselves, and we 1 Great French Sermons, pp. 220-221. 184 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER do not fear to be judged. Let us strive after this lovely simplicity; let us seek the path that leads to it. The farther we are from it, the more we must hasten our steps towards it. Very far from being simple, most Christians are not even sincere. They are not only disingenuous, but they are false, and they dissemble with their neighbour, with God, and with themselves. They practise a thousand little arts that indirectly distort the truth. Alas ! every man is a liar ; those even who are naturally upright, sincere, and ingenu- ous, and who are what is called simple and natural, still have this jealous and sensitive reference to self in every- thing, which secretly nourishes pride, and prevents that true simplicity, which is the renunciation and perfect oblivion of self."i Such a type of preaching would not lend itself to oratory. It lacks passion, since it aims at self- repression, and the power of passion ; to its sense of truth the art of oratory must be an offence. (2) F^nelon is of greater importance for our present purpose as a writer on homiletics than as a preacher. In his youth he wrote his Dialogues concerning Eloquence in General ; arid particularly, that kind which is Jit for the Pulpit, and later he returned to the same subject in A Letter to the French Academy, concerning Rhetoric^ Poetry, History, and a Comparison between the Ancients and Moderns.'^ One passage, giving his view of the purpose and the method of eloquence from the Letter, may be quoted. " We must not judge so unfavourably of eloquence as to reckon it only a frivolous Art that a declaimer uses to impose on the weak unagination of the multitude and to serve his own ends. 'Tis a very serious Art ; designed to instruct people ; suppress their passions, and reform their manners ; to support the laws ; direct public Councils ; and to make Men good and happy. The more pains a haranguer takes to dazzle me by the artifices of his discourse, the more I should despise his vanity. His eagerness to display his 1 CME vi. pp. 111-112. - A translation of both works was made in 1722 by William Stevenson, M.A., and published in London, 1722 ; Glasgow, 1750. ORATOKS AND COURTIERS 185 wit would in my judgment render him unworthy of the least admiration. I love a serious preacher, who speaks for my sake, and not for his own ; who seeks my salvation, and not his own vainglory. He best deserves to be heard who uses speech only to clothe his thoughts, and his thoughts only to promote truth and virtue. Nothing is more despicable than a professed declaimer, who retails his discourses as a quack does his medicines." ^ In dealing with poetry he expresses his preference for simplicity in style. " There's much gained by losing all superfluous ornaments, and confining ourselves to such beauties as are simple, easy, clear, and seemingly negligent. In poetry, as well as in architecture, all the necessary parts should be turned into natural ornaments. But that which serves merely as an ornament is superfluous ; lay it aside ; there will be nothing wanting ; vanity is the only sufferer by the loss. An author that has too much wit, and will always show it, wearies and exhausts mine. I don't desire so very much. ... So many flashes dazzle me. I love a gentle light that refreshes my weak eyes. I choose an agreeable poet that adapts himself to common capacities ; who does everything for their sakes ; and nothing for his own." ^ It is a surprise to find that in his Dialogues he advocates the analytic homily rather than the synthetic sermon. " The further I enquire into this matter, the more I'm convinced that the ancient form of sermons was the most perfect. The primitive pastors were great men ; they were not only very holy, but they had a complete clear knowledge of religion, and of the best way to persuade men of its truth, and they took care to regulate all the circumstances of it. There's a great deal of wisdom hidden under this air of simplicity, and we ought not to believe that a better method could have been afterwards found out." * This conclusion which cannot claim assent, must not hide from us the great value of his discussion of the subject. 7. The Eoman Catholic and the Reformer pulpit of ^ Pp. 229-230 of the translation mentioned in previous note. »76i1-158. * OPT, pp. 121-122. 187 188 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER The life and work of the Eefoimed Church in Geneva, where he studied for a year, made a deep impression on him. " He was also moved by the fiery preaching of Labadie, so different from the stiff and formal methods which then prevailed in Germany." ^ On his return to Germany, his promotion in the Church was rapid. His influence spread over the whole of Germany. His labours were almost incredible. He excited violent antagonism no less than secured passionate attachment. (3) In his Pia Desideria, or Pious Wishes, his position is most briefly defined. "(1) The larger circulation of the Word of God, and private meetings of Christians for the study of it. (2) The diligent exercise of the Christian priesthood — i.e., the co-operation of the members with the minister for prayer and edification. (3) The earnest conviction that knowledge is not enough in Christianity, and that we must also have life and action. (4) A right bearing towards unbelievers, so as to carry on discussion with heart-felt love, and to seek not merely to answer them but to gain them and do them good. (5) Such a course of theolfigical training as will make students feel that they should progress in heart and life as much as in learning. (6) A new way of preaching, in which the great aim will be to show that Christianity consists in the inner or new man, whose soul is found in faith, with the fruits of a good life as the results." ^ (4) While devoted to Luther, and desiring in all things to be Lutheran in his theology, his emphasis is other than Luther's. "Like Luther he preaches the Gospel as a message of grace ; but he more than the other emphasises the import- ance of making with the benefit of redemption and the consolation of faith a proper impression on the heart, of touching the conscience and commending the following of Jesus. If Luther's preaching of faith is a restoration, a comfort of the frightened conscience by the grace of for- * KHP, p. 187. Ker in a note on p. 199 gives an account of Jean de Labadie. 2 Idem, pp. 189-190. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 189 giveness, Spener's ultimate object is consecration with the warnings, characteristic of pietism, against false comfort from grace ; and in the acuteness and purity of the moral judgment and sentiment, the knowledge of the heart, and the Christian wisdom of life, in the caution with which he pursues that task is to be found the great and good part of his preaching. This its essential tendency, when one looks at it as a whole, throws into such predominance the preach- ing of penitence and consecration rather than the testimony of faith, and gives such prominence to the demand for conversion and the new birth, that in this already one becomes aware of the ditference between him and Luther ; and that not the less on account of the difference which separates him from later pietism. He at least did not wish to give absolutely an affirmative answer to the question whether it is necessary to know the time and hour of one's conversion."^ In him the emphasis on subjective ex- perience is not yet exaggerated. To produce the inward change of contrition, conver- sion, and consecration was the object of his preaching. With a view to the last he dealt often with the moral duties of the Christian, but never as a moralist merely. (5) Not only did he always seek the contents and the warrant of his message in the Holy Scriptures, but it was no less the aim of his preaching to make the Bible familiar to, and so a dominant influence in the life of the Christian people. He chafed under the limitation imposed by the prescribed selection of passages for use in public worship, as forbidding his use of the whole Bible, but especially as not giving adequate opportunity for dealing with matters so important as the new birth. He tried to get over this difficulty in two ways. He seized on some aspect of a Gospel narrative, which served his particular purpose, even if it were in itself quite subordinate, and made that his sole subject ; or he made use of the introduction to explain other passages, even in a course of sermons a whole epistle, regardless of the abandonment of the unity of the sermon which this involved. When a passage was suitable, he would give a practical exegesis of it, dwelling even on 1 HLH, pp. 152-153. 190 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER the explanation of single words according to the original text. (6) How little importance he attached to homiletic theory his own confession shows. " From the time on- wards, when I had learned to grasp in some measure the realia I set aside all the technica and oratoria prcecepta so that I scarcely have any more remembrance of all such artificialities. . . . The matter must always give me the method, and this so to speak changes always as the materials differ." ^ In practice, however, his sermons usually assumed the same structure. An introduction (sometimes even two, a general and a special) was followed by the statement of the subject. An exposition of the passage led up to the chief doctrine and the practical lessons. Lastly came the application in warning or comfort. The sermon closed with a long prayer. He was prolix, unable on his own testimony to be brief, often preaching for two hours. There was no brilliance, nor poetry, nor passion ; but he held his audiences by his sincerity and earnestness, the freshness of the truth he presented, and the variety of his use of the Holy Scriptures^ His practice was to write out his sermons carefully ; after only three readings his excellent memory enabled him to deliver almost exactly what he had written without the use of any notes. While he was ready to take up into his sermon thoughts which came to him in the pulpit, he inserted them afterwards into his manuscript. He had a distrust of extempore preaching, which he had himself tried for a time. (7) Hering shows the artificiality and prolixity of his sermons by giving an account of a sermon on Fidelity in the Preacher's Office, based on Jn IG^-^^^ " In the introduction he starts from the spiritual character of the Kingdom of Christ according to John 18^^, As all its members are spiritual, therefore this Word does not belong only to the preachers, but they must in a special 1 Theol. Bed. iv. p. 228. Quoted HLH, p. 156. 2 HLH, pp. 156-157. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 191 sense be spirituals,^ who have still an advantage in ministerial arrangements. Now comes the theme ; the official duty and fidelity of the teachers and preachers, Hymn and Prayer — The Explanation of the Gospel ; I. the foundation, it is an office of the spirit, 2 Cor. 3^. Sp. explains briefly the statements of the passage regarding the Spirit, His proces- sion, His connection with the work of Christ (John 7^®). His working (vv.^- ^^) ; II. the duties : 1, to teach (to lead into all truth) ; 2, to punish (to convince inwardly) ; 3, to comfort; 4, good and holy example: III. the fruit: 1, from the side of God, that Christ is thereby glorified ; 2, from the side of man ; to be led into all truth and then to lead others into it. (Now Sp. weaves in as well a similar exposition according to John 10) — The 'main doctrine ' considers the official duty and fidelity of the preacher. I. The foundation of the fidelity consists — 1, in this, that the clerical office is not a human office, but an office of the Holy Ghost ; it has to do with the Word of God, which comes from the Spirit, and its living recognition, which only the Spirit of God can give ; also all the gifts of the preacher's office spring from the Holy Ghost; accordingly the person who fulfils the office must have the Spirit dwelling in him ; lastly, it belongs to the office of the Spirit, that it is He who calls thereto ; 2, the call does not always come immediately from God, but also through men ; but not without the inner call. This call is a foundation of fidelity. II. As regards the duties, they demand — 1, first of all generally a consciousness of being Christ's servant and steward of his mysteries ; 2, the special duties, to teach, to warn, to punish, i.e., powerfully to con- vince, to comfort ; also to dispense rightly the seals of the Word, the Sacraments; to present to the congregation a good example ; to follow the individual with care for his souL III. The Fruit : 1, God's Honour ; 2, the blessedness of the hearers and the preachers themselves. IV. The Means of this fidelity : 1, generally God's word ; 2, witnessing holy baptism ; 3, the Holy Supper ; 4, Prayer ; 5, the Cross. Special Means : diligent consideration of the heavy responsi- bilities, as of the splendid promises. V. Only two hindrances to fidelity here : fleshly wisdom and the love of the world, — Thereon admonition, consolation, and closing prayer." Long as this summary is, it is worth quoting, as it not ^ The German word for a clergyman or minister is a spiritual ; there is here a play on the word. 192 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER only shows us the method of the preacher, but also his motives, his purposes, and the manner of his fulfilment of his calling. 2. Next to Spener as a leader in the movement of Pietism stands August Hermann Francke (1663—1727). (1) "In point of form," says Van Oosterzee, " Francke stood above Spener ; as regards spirit and depth not below him; and, though Francke's sermons were a little longer than those ordinarily listened to, they did not fail to hold captive a numerous audience. Like his predecessor, he was specially concerned about the application, and for the defects which, as judged by the standard of later times, might perhaps be discovered in the homilete, amends were made by the excellence of the preacher." ^ Although he used none of the arts of the orator, he had a natural eloquence which made a deep impression. WhUe his early ambition to be a learned man was lost in his aspiration to be wholly surrendered to God, he made good use of his learning in expounding the Scriptures ; but unlike Spener he wove his exposition of the passage into his development of his theme. In opposition to orthodoxy, but with Spener's approval, his explanation of words, based on a study of the original languages, prepared the way for a revision of Luther's translation. In him scholarship was allied not with piety only, but also with philanthropy. He founded the Orphan House at Halle, where he was both a professor at the university and the minister of a town church. " He also set up," says Ker, " a great Apothecary Insti- tute for supplying medicine and medical advice, and an establishment for printing the Bible in different languages, and other books for the people. These buildings still excite the wonder of everyone who visits Halle, and the remarkable little book in which he tells how they were raised. The Foot- steps of Ood in the Building of the Orphan House at Halle, may well be reckoned among the classics of Christian faith." ^ 1 OPT, p. 122. See also HLH, pp. 158-159, and KHP, pp. 201-207. « KHP, pp. 204-205. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 193 (2) These wider interests influenced his preaching. He preached on the care of the poor. He was one of the foremost advocates of the Danish mission in Tranquebar. In this respect he was in advance both of Luther and Spener. By his presence and influence the university became a fountain of living truth and grace for all Germany. The number of theological students rose to twelve hundred, and they perpetuated and diffused their teacher's life and work wherever they went as pastors. The journeys which for the sake of his health he had to make were used by him to secure adherents, and to conciliate opponents of the movement. At his death, worn out with his labours, it seemed as if a spring-time which would pass into a summer of religious revival had come to Germany ; but the move- ment proved less enduring than might have been hoped. (3) Before glancing at the reasons for this disappoint- ment of hopes, a sketch by Ker of one of Francke's sermons may be given, which will justify the statement of his superiority to Spener as regards form. "Luke viii. 4-16. — The Parable of the Sower. Intro- duction ; Not enough to hear the word of God, we must take heed of what and how we hear, and ask if we are bearing fruit from it. Theme stated ; How are we to act so that the Word of God may come to a true, ripe, and rich fruit. Short prayer hearing on the subject. I. A man must learn to know the right seed, and that by looking to the Good Sower, Jesus Christ. It is in His Word, the Word of God, specially the Gospel Word. ' Thy sins are forgiven Thee.' This is the beautiful and precious little seed which when falling into the sinner's heart brings the sweet and joyful message of grace, and springs up in the soul as righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We also know the right seed by its power. Man's seed cannot overcome sin or fill the heart ; power comes only from Christ's hand. II. A man must see that the field is prepared. Here the husbandman may be taken for a copy, and the parable followed. (1) The heart must be free from the hard wayside surface; the thinking, speaking, or doing of evil makes the ground so hard that the seed cannot enter ; there must come the plough of the law, the stem plough of Sinai. (2) The heart must 194 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER be freed from the rock below the surface. The understand- ing often takes the seed and talks of it ; the fancy takes it and is pleased with it ; while the heart beneath is rocky and callous. The heart must be broken — a contrite heart. The rock must be pierced. We need repentance to open it for the seed, and for this we must plead with God who alone can take away the hard and stony heart. (3) The heart must be free from thorns and thistles, i.e., the worldly mind, the love of worldly pleasures, the anxiety of worldly cares, which deprive the seed of room for growth. Therefore pray the Lord that He may tear out such thorns and thistles, clearing the field for the precious seed. III. A man must work and wait for the seed to grow. Here, again, the husbandman is our example with his harrows and his roller waiting through weeks and months in sunshine and rain, in drought and frost, in weariness and fainting of heart, till the grain is ripe. Therefore (1) the Word must be kept in the heart, not in the memory only, hidden there and pondered. Parents, hide the word in your children's hearts. (2) It must be commended in faith and prayer to God, who is the God of the harvest, of the early and latter rain. (3) It must be waited for. It does not grow in a day, at least in its fulness. It needs the cross, and often many crosses to drive it in and cover it up. (Then follow words of sorrow for the small spiritual harvest in Germany after so many years of waiting, and the sermon closes with a suitable prayer.)" ^ 3. With two such leaders it is surprising that pietism did not stay the full tide of rationalism in Germany. Ker suggests three reasons for the failure of pietism. (1) Its intellectual interest was too narrow, being focused almost entirely on the inner Christian life, and it neglected the art of popular effective speech. (2) It was too subjective and introspective, and the spiritual experiences so observed were reported in a language which, real as long as emotion was intense, became affected when feeling had subsided. (3) While at the beginning, in Halle especially, there was considerable activity directed outwards, the adherents of the movement afterwards and elsewhere tended to separa- tion, to the formation of small self-righteous and self- satisfied societies which assumed a censorious and » KHP, pp. 219-221. PIETISTS, KATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 195 uncharitable attitude to the world around.^ While this judgment must be passed on the movement as a whole, what was best in it was continued in two notable men, Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752) and Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760). " These are the two offshoots from the Pietism of Spener and Francke," says Ker, " which gave it a permanent interest and influence — the school of Bengel led to a deeper and more comprehensive study of the Bible, and the school of Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren transformed the ecclesiolce of Spener into an ecdesia that exercised an import- ant influence on the Church and the World." ^ 4. With the great work of Bengel as an expositor of Scripture in his famous Gnomon and other books, we are not at present concerned ; but only with him as a preacher. (1) " His preaching was thoroughly evangelical, though he did not dwell upon conversion as constantly as did the Pietists. 'That doctrine,' he says, 'is very important; it ia the finger-hand of the clock, but we must also remember the round dial-plate — all duties in their turn.' His preaching was also more expository than that of the body of Pietists, and had therefore more of the breadth and variety of Scrip- ture. His weakness, if we can call it so, was that he dealt rather frequently with prophetical chronology. He fixed, e.g., upon 1836 as the year when a great catastrophe would befall the Kingdom of evil — a catastrophe still delayed." ^ (2) More important still as a preacher, but dependent on Bengel as his teacher, although more potently influenced even by Bohme, was Friederich Christoph Oetinger (1702— 1765), who may be described as a Christian theosophist. Although he indulged in speculation even in the pulpit, yet he knew how to make his speech popular, and far and wide quickened religious thought and life. For his thinking was attached very closely to the Holy Scriptures, and not less decisive for his language were the sacred writings. He was a decided opponent of the rationalising of his time. » KHP, pp. 210-217. * KHP, pp. 236-237. • KHP, p. 228 ; see pp. 225-229. HLH, pp. 173-174. 196 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Bengel and Oetinger were the dominant influences in the Wurtemberg type of pietism — which did not form a sepa- rate community, but like a leaven pervaded the whole people. The ideas of Oetinger were carried further by Phihpp Matthaus Hahn (1739-1790), who developed a scriptural and yet speculative Christology in representing the reign of Christ as a new creation, the glory of which should far exceed that of the thousand years' reign. In M. F. Christoph Steinhofer (1706-1761) the influence of Bengel combined with that of Zinzendorf to form a person- ality full of unction as a preacher.^ The influence of this pietism has continued in Wurtemberg to the present day, where, besides attendance at the ordinary church services, fellowship meetings are used as a means of grace.^ 5. Count Zinzendorf, whose family, old and noble, had been compelled to leave Austria for Germany on becoming Protestant, came to Halle at the age of ten, and for six years there was under the influence of Francke. (1) " At an early age he became decided in his religious life, and he never swerved till he died. He was a man of lively fancy and poetic temperament, with considerable power of judgment, which, however, was ready to be carried away by his ardour and restless activity. His devotion to the Gospel took the form of an intense personal love to the Saviour sometimes marked by an over-sweetness and familiarity which made his hymns distasteful to Bengel, whose depth disliked great demonstrativeness. Bengel and Zinzendorf are men who shew in what different moulds Christianity may be cast; the one full of thought and regulated feeling, the other full of impulse, demonstrative expression and action."^ (2) In 1722 he was led by Christian David to befriend the persecuted community of " Bible Christians," or Moravian Brethren, and to afford them an asylum in the village he built for them, and to which was given the name Herrnhut, the Lord's watch. The Brethren were hence known in Germany as fferrnhiiter, " the Lord's Watchmen." To the » See HLH, pp. 174-176. 2 khP, p. 229, note. » KHP, pp. 232-233 ; see HLH, pp. 170-172. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 197 interests of this community Zinzendorf devoted the rest of his life. He travelled far and wide, not only in Europe, but even in America, to spread the movement. Crowds, drawn from all classes, gathered to hear him preach. He preached salvation through Christ as not only outward forgiveness, but as inward renewal, with an earnestness and insight that gave him power over human hearts. There are two facts about the Moravian community of special interest. Not only were the Moravians the first to send out missionaries as an essential function of the Church, but they even regarded the Church itself as a whole as com- mitted to mission work at home and abroad. It was a Moravian, Peter Bohler, " who revealed to John Wesley the way of God more perfectly,"^ and Methodism borrowed much from the Brethren. 6. Another centre of pietism in the West of Germany was in Elberfeld and Barmen. (1) Here Gerhard Ter- steegen (1697—1769), a cultured layman, exercised a wide-spread and deep-rooted influence. Beginning as an ascetic hermit, he passed through great inward struggles to a more friendly attitude to the Church : by the practice of the presence of God and constant self-discipline he fitted himself to be the guide of the inner life of many, especially when he founded at Otterfeld, in the " Pilgrim's Hut," a brotherhood which in a common life devoted itself to prayer, labour and joy in God. His influence as a preacher spread far beyond this community; and his sermons, " Spiritual crumbs, fallen from the Lord's Table," pub- lished shortly before his death, perpetuated the spirit of his piety, which influenced especially Gottfried Menken (1768—1831), and which still remains in the Wupperthal.^ (2) Other representatives of the more spiritual move- ment, even when rationalism was dominant, who are mentioned by Ker, are Jung Stilling (1740—1817), who by his correspondence was a helper of many in the higher life; Lavater^ (1741—1801), a pastor of Zurich, best known for his theories and researches on physiognomy, but 1 KHP, p. 237. 2 HLH, pp. 177-178. » KHP, pp. 267-268. 198 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER still more worthy of remembrance as one who hungered and thirsted for the living God, and who boldly confessed Jesus Christ as Lord in a circle of unbelieving friends ; Joharm Georg Hamann ^ (1730-1788), a philosophical thinker of great power who held fast the belief in Divine revelation, and whose counsels to many in distress of soul won him the title of the Wise Man of the North, even as Oetinger was called the Wise Man of the South. Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), who, while emphasis- ing feeling in religion, as did Jacobi, yet maintained the need and worth of God's Word as the support of religious feeling, was less the mystic than either Stilling or Lavater and less the philosopher than Hamann, and may best be described as an old pietist and Puritan with modern cul- ture. It was by such men as these that the faith of many who were grieved by the prevalent rationalism, and who feared even that the evangelical piety might succumb to its withering influence, was sustained. They were the watchmen who gave the assurance, that the night would pass and the dawn break.^ 11. 1. In a previous chapter the fact was noted that the Latitudinarian movement in England had a historical connection with Puritanism ; so it was also with Pietism and llluminism or Rationalism. Thomasius and Wolff, the leaders of the German " Enlightenment," worked at the same high school with Francke.^ For the reasons already stated, the later movement to a large extent superseded the earlier. The buds of spring were nipped by the frosts of winter. Between the two movements, however, stands Johann Lorenz Mosheim (1693 or 4-1755), orthodox in doctrine but " moderate " in feeling. Not only was he the most learned man, but he was also the most popular preacher of his age. He did not reach the masses, but rather the cultured classes ; and yet the congregations he » KHP, pp. 269-275. « KHP, pp. 276-285. * HLH, p. 159. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 199 atttacted were often so large as to require that soldiers should be present to keep order. His practice as a preacher was based on a theory which he expounded in lectures on Homiletics, published after his death, " A sermon," he says, " is a discourse in which, following the guidance of a portion of Scripture, an assembly of Chris- tians, already instructed in the elements of religion, is confirmed in knowledge or roused to zeal in godliness." ^ He does not, be it observed, take account of missionary or evangelistic preaching ; " edification " of those already in the Church is the object, and this must determine what shall be included or excluded, to enlighten the mind, or quicken the will. As regards the form, he lays down these rules : " That it should be in keeping with the dignity and importance of the subject ; that it should be lively and have as much ornament as does not interfere with clearness ; and that the language should as far as possible be that which is used in ordinary life among cultivated people." ^ So great a contrast was there between his method and style of preaching and that current, that multitudes were charmed by his eloquence. He belongs to the same type as the " classic " French preachers ; and his preaching lacked permanent influence just as did theirs. He was lucid, but superficial ; he was eloquent, but not fervent ; his reasonableness and seriousness did not sound the depths of God or man. He was too fluent ; and so his sermons assumed an inordinate length, e.g., his funeral sermon for Frederick ii. fills eighty-three printed pages.^ » Quoted KHP, pp. 242-243. ^ kHP, p. 243. ' HLH, p. 166 ; see pp. 164-167. He mentions as examples of the influence of the new intellectual conditions, not primarily on the content, but the form of preaching, Johann Jacob Rambach (1698-1735) and Johann Gubtav Reinbeck (1688-1741); and describes them as the first-fruits of this movement (pp. 162-164). As instances of increasing influence on content as well as form, he gives two younger contemporaries of Mosheim, Jh. Friederich Wilhelm Jerusalem (1707-1789) and A. F. Wilhelm Sack (1703-1786). The second imitated Tillotson, and followed the Reformed French preachers in taking short sayings as his texts (pp. 167-169). The conti-ast of the two positions (the orthodox and the rationalist) is clearly presented in Ker's quotation from Reinhard's Gesldndnisse in his note on pp. 286-287. 200 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 2. The enlightenment in Germany was but part of a wider movement. "In Scotland, Hume was writing his Essay against miracles, and Blair was the great preacher. In England, it was the age of the deists who followed Tillotson, the English Mosheim ; and the old Presbyterian church of Howe, Baxter, and Henry was passing along the road of culture and pro- gress, to drop one after another of the Cln-istian doctrines, till it became the church of Taylor ^ of Norwich, Price, and Priestley, and the sparse Unitarianism of our day. In France, Voltaire had taken the place of Pascal and Bossuet, and, worse than Voltaire, the materialism of the Encyclo- paedists was sowing the seeds of the Eevolution." ^ The object of the Illuminism was to make everything, Christianity itself, appear " reasonable " to the knowledge and intelligence of the age. It was assumed that nature had endowed man with certain simple truths about God, duty and destiny ; and the Christian revelation itself had to be brought within the bounds of this natural religion. (1) Thomasius applied these principles not only to science and philosophy, but also to religion and even preaching. " Since all knowledge had this alone as its object to distinguish the true from the false, the good from the bad, to learn how one may understand to live rightly and use- fully, it seemed natural and justified, to place instruction about religion, preaching, under this application. The tendency to moralising which first became popular in England, could only be strengthened by the German Illumination in respect of securing the utility of preaching, inasmuch as the religious was employed as a means of virtue." ^ 1 KHP, p. 245. ^HLH, p. 160. See pp. 160-162. "Most of this School," says Ker, "took to 'moral preaching.' Sometimes they changed the language of the Bible, in order to make it, as they said, more rational. For conversion or regeneration, they spoke of amendment of life ; for justification, of for- giveness on condition of repentance ; for the Holy Spirit, of the exercise of the higher reason ; for the atonement of Christ, of the spirit of sacrifice which He has taught us by His esample, and so ou " (p. 247). The "Moderate" movement in Scotland shows the same characteristics. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 201 (2) To the form of preaching Wolff contributed the demonstrative method. Formal logic found its way into the pulpit. Apprehension was to be secured by clear definition, and conviction wrought by rigid inference. That religion by its very nature and object refuses to be forced into the Procrustes bed of logical method was not realised ; because the piety of the time was itself so super- ficial. The Wolffian philosophy affected even the language of the pulpit. While French and English influences did not succeed in imparting to German all the excellences of these tongues, and German prose remained not swift and light- winged, but slow and heavy-footed, it did gain greater lucidity and intelligibility. Gottsched became dictator as regards the language to be used in the pulpit, and lent it that insipidity which characterised it long after the great poetic revival in the literature.^ 3. In the absence of religious life to sustain the aspiration and endeavour of the pulpit, a lamentable degradation soon appeared. The language, in aiming at sublimity, became bombastic. Paul was patron isingly described as " the enlightened teacher of the Gentiles." The principle of utilitarianism dominated the pulpit; " refinement and enlightenment " were to be brought within the reach of the common people. "There appeared," says Van Oosterzee, "during the second half of the eighteenth century ' agricultural ' dis- courses, 'nature sermons and field sermons,' homiletic commendations of vaccination (end of eighteenth century), silk-worm culture, etc. Who has not heard of the Christ- mas sermon on the stall-feeding of cattle ; of the Epiphany sermon on listening to good counsels ; of the Palm Sunday sermon on the damaging of trees ; the Easter sermon on the benefit of a walk (the travellers to Emmaus) ; the Pentecost sermon on drunkenness, etc. ? not to speak of a Maundy- Thursday discourse 'on the making of a good will'; or another on the exciting theme, ' how wise and beneficial the arrangement, that death is placed not at the beginning, but at the end of lifa' The 'sermons on texts taken from 1 HLH, pp. 160-161. 202 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER uature/ by J. L. Ewald (died 1822) and others, in which, e.g., the storm, the eye, the tongue, etc., supplies the theme to be treated of, were of this kind, still the best." ^ 4. Amid such conditions no great preaching is to be expected ; but a few of the notable preachers may be mentioned. (1) Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804) ^ offered a defence of the ministry against the assaults of unbelief in his book on the Utility of the Office of the Freacher. The preacher's duty is to instruct and improve his hearers. He should not teach theology, the meta- physical doctrines which the common people cannot understand and of which they can make no good use ; such as the Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the atonement. All moral duties are to be enforced by diligent presentation of the teaching and example of Christ. Ker gives a Sketch of a Sermon by Spalding on Luke 113*-*o — Simeon and Anna in the Temple. " The whole life of a Christian can, and should be, the service of God. I. The whole life can be divine service, for — 1. Every benevolent deed in God's name is service. 2. The common work of life, with the feeling of religion, is service. 3. The pleasures of life, when innocent and God- grateful, are service. II. Our whole life should be divine service, for — 1. All our life belongs to God, as its Author and Owner. 2. All our life may thus be made true happiness." * (2) George Joachim Zollikofer (1730-1788) was considered " the Cicero of the pulpit " in his own age. He was a topical preacher ; his subjects often had very little connection with his text, the exposition of which he ignored, and were at the circumference of Christian morals 1 OPT, p. 124. 2 See KPH, pp. 248-250; also HLP, pp. 187-190. Spalding was involved in a controversy with Herder, which will afterwards be noted. » KHP, p. 260. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 203 rather than at the centre of Christian faith. Style and delivery, however, were faultless, and so he enjoyed a great popularity.^ (3) Frank Volkmar Keinbard* (1753-1812) had so great a fame, that in the common opinion he was held tso be the greatest preacher since Luther. He strove for something more satisfying to the soul than the thought of bis own time ; but could not escape from it. Preaching evengelical doctrines, he lacked the spiritual fervour which gives them power. An account which Ker gives of his method of preparation is interesting enough to justify quotation. "He worked out each sermon with the greatest care. First he sketched a scheme in which the chief thoughts were outlined in logical order, and on this he set great value, both for its own sake and as an aid to his memory. His memory for words was very weak, and, despite all the exercise he gave it, did not improve. But he had a memory for the logical outline, and he constructed his discourses accordingly, filling up the parts of the plan as a painter might do with a sketch. The committing of the sermon was to him the most disagreeable part of his work. But he did not shirk it. Beginning on Monday, he committed a section every morning, so that on the Saturday the whole sermon was fast and firm. While he was committing one thus piecemeal, he was working out another, and by the time he had the first committed, the second was ready in his desk. The sermon, in his view, is a piece of art, to which, as to its outer form, both logic and rhetoric must contribute, but logic is the more important. Its thoughts must come up in regular order, group themselves in pro- portion, and lead to proper conclusions. The language should be suited to this, simple, clear, pointed. The preacher must never forget that he is above all a teacher ; he who makes it his chief aim to awaken and move robs his office of much of its value, for if we are to reach the heart, it must be through the understanding." ' Unhappily it must be added what the understanding 1 See KHP, pp. 250-262 ; also HLH, pp. 196-197. 2 See HLH, pp. 202-205, and KHP, pp. 252-259. ^ ggp^ 257-258. 204 THE CHEISTIAN PREACHER of the time accepted was not capable of reaching and moving the heart. (4) Joh. Caspar Hafeli (1754—1811) began as a follower of Lavater, but violently changed to extreme rationalism, and only his eloquence remained to link to- gether the two periods. A similar revolution took place in Fried. Wilh. Abraham Teller (1734-1804). Faith for him was only a stage preparatory for knowledge in the sense of the Enlightenment. Hence his advice to preachers is : " In religion men need to be enlightened, always more enlightened, and they cannot get too much enlightenment." With good moral intentions his preaching was religiously impotent. At the Church festivals he advised that history and doctrine should be quickly passed over for the sake of the practical lesson. The visit of the wise men (Mt 2^"^^) shows how we may give and take good advice. It was along such a downward path that preaching went to the depths of degradation, already described, in which it lost not only Christian, but even religious character, and was concerned only about earthly business and worldly pru- dence.^ Contrary to the general practice of this volume, a larger number of individual preachers has been referred to, but in each case to illustrate some characteristic, condition, or consequence of the two movements under discussion. III. 1. The opposition between pietism and rationalism could not remain permanent : a reconciliation must be sought between revelation and reason as the final authority on religion. A promise of a better day was given by Johann Gotfried Herder (1744-1803), who was " preacher and poet, theologian and many-sided author." ^ He aspired for a spirit-filled preaching, but did not soar above the enlightenment, the spiritual poverty of which he felt. His youth was influenced by pietism, and Hamann as well as Kant affected his development as a thinker. (1) At the » HLH, pp. 197-200. ^ HLH, p. 186 ; see pp. 185-187. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 205 very beginning of his activity as a preacher he sketched his ideal in his small book, God's Speaker. " God's Speaker 1 great in quietness, solemn without poetic splendour, eloquent without Ciceronian periods, powerful without the bewitch- ing arts of the drama, wise without learned sophistication, and captivating without politic cleverness." ^ He required in the preacher sincerity and simpKcity, no assumption and no artificiality ; but preaching based on experience, in- tuitive, confident and inspiring confidence, awakening the sense of God's presence, and promoting a morality that had its roots in religion. This ideal remained his during the whole of his distinguished and influential career as a preacher. To the influence of Hamann probably was due his loving appreciation of the stories and persons in the Holy Scriptures. He delighted in the humanness of the Bible as showing God's condescension. He did not, how- ever, altogether detach himself from his environment, and may be described as " an Illuminist with his Bible in his hand." In his Provincial Leaves to Preachers (1773—1774), he attacked with all the intellectual resources at his com- mand, " Spalding's attempt to lay a firm ground for the certainty of salvation and the importance of the office of the preacher in morality." His guiding idea is God's education of mankind in piety by a progressive revelation, in which the Bible is rooted, and of which it forms a part Accordingly the business of preaching is the proclamation of this revelation, and not teaching wisdom or virtue by argument. For him moralism was one-sided in regarding religion only as a motive of morality ; piety as relationship to God both in the Bible and in human history ever touched a responsive chord in his sensitive soul. Nevertheless, he himself did not make the Gospel of the reconciling love of God in Christ central in his own preaching ; but a " humanity transfigured by pious morality, of which Jesus is regarded and presented for imitation as the archtype and mediator, forms the content of his own sermons." ^ (2) In spite of his living interest in history, he does » HLH, p. 186. 2 HLH, pp. 190-192. 206 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER not always succeed in making it valuable for religious life. An opponent of moralism, he shows his greatest power when he is dealing with moral issues. In sermons on special occasions the distinctively Christian is often lost amid the generally religious reflections. His sermons were cast in the form of homilies, although based on a full out- line ; and the delivery was living, sometimes fiery, some- times quiet, as in talk, made more effective by full-toned voice and expressive face, but without any gestures. While he disappointed those who from his early defence of the Bible expected a scriptural expositor, yet by his poetic genius he did impart vital reality to the Bible and the religious history of mankind, and by his influence carried religious thought beyond the narrowness of pietism and the shallowness of rationalism.^ (3) A characteristic passage on The Meaning of In- spiration may be quoted. Having shown that as speech is a sign of human imperfection, God does not speak, he next explains how God reveals Himself. " Now, if we suppose that God wished to reveal himself to man, and yet otherwise than in his essential nature, how else could he do it but by human agency? How can he speak to man otherwise ? to imperfect men, otherwise than in the imperfect, defective language in which they can understand him, and to which they are accustomed ? I use far too inadequate a comparison for our purpose, when I say that a father speaks to a child only in a childish way ; for between them both there still exists a relationship. Father and child are yet both akin, who can think no otherwise than by words, and have a common language of reason. But between God and men there is no correspondence ; they have, as it were, nothing at all in common as a basis of mutual understanding. God must, therefore, explain him- self to men altogether in a human way, according to our own mode and speech, suitably to our weakness, and the narrowness of our ideas; he cannot speak like a god, he must speak altogether like a man." The use of human agency involves other limitations. " Now this religion has been revealed in an Eastern land ; how, then, could it be 1 HLH, pp. 193-194. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 207 revealed except in a manner intelligible to Orientals, and consequently in those forms of thought prevalent among them ? Otherwise God would have failed entirely in his object. Our Bible, therefore, carries upon every page of it all the traces of Oriental habits of thought." The Bible must, therefore, be interpreted by our own thinking. " Believe me, my hearers, it is no tenet of religion to abjure thinking. It is rather its decay and the decay of humanity." If we think about our religion, it " serves also for the educa- tion of our time, and that which has already so far exalted the human understanding would continue to elevate it, and with it our virtue, our humanity, our bliss. Happy times ! happy world ! " ^ 2. A theologian and preacher of greater endowments and wider and more enduring influence was Friedrich Daniel Schleiermacher (1768— 1834),^ who combined piety and philosophy, culture and faith, the power of the thinker, and the gifts of the speaker in so great a personality, that he marks the beginning of the most fruitful epoch of religious thought in Germany. (1) At first, in his S2)eeches on religion (1799), he appealed to the class which had been most affected by the Illumination. He showed that " the pious consciousness of entire dependence belongs essentially to the human consciousness, when it rightly understands itself." It is impossible to estimate the number of those to whom he made religion significant and authoritative as it had never been before. In his theology he vindicated the claim of faith, and reconciled it with the rights of knowledge. In his preaching, to which much of his commanding influence was due, he gave the central position to Christ as the Sinless Saviour, the Mediator between God and man, because of the unique potency of His consciousness of God, which He communicates to others. Laying stress on religious emotion in the relation to God through Christ, he » CME vii. pp. 37-41. ^ Dr. Selbie has offered a Critical and Historical Study of Schleiermacter (London, 1918) ; and Dr. Cross has given a condensed presentation of his chief work, The Christian Faith (Chicago, 1911). See HLH, pp. 209-212, and KHP, pp. 288-303. 208 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER always related piety to the tasks of the individual believer and the Christian community, for he was a " practical mystic." (2) Educated at a Moravian school, "his heart was with Pietism " ; a student at Halle, under the influence of Semler and other rationalist teachers, " his mind was with Illuminism " ; and these two elements in him were never quite fused into an inward unity. Perhaps for that very reason he was the better able to prepare for, if not finally to perform, their synthesis. Ker, judging him from a more conservative theological position than prevails to-day, bears this testimony concerning him : " There can be no question as to the deep sincerity, earnestness, and lofty character of Schleiermacher, nor as to the fact that he struck a deadly blow at the old rationalism by his deeper views of sin and redemption, and his more exalted conception of the work of Christ; but his was a position that could not be maintained. He himself was wounded in the heel by the arrow of doubt. The shifting sands of restless criticism that were blowing about him prevented him from seeing clearly the real and the positive. Yet, after all, his face was not towards rationalism, but away from it. It is this that marks the difference between men, not so much where they stand as whither they are looking and going, and teaching others to go ; and Schleiermacher was the man who made the Church turn from the theology of the surface understanding to the deeper theology of religious feeling and faith." ^ (3) He had a distinct conception of what preaching should be. The source of the sermon is the inward experience, the religious feeling of the preacher, stimulated and confirmed by the Bible ; and the subject must be Christian ; the person and the influence of Christ must be applied in manifold ways to life and duty. The purpose is not conversion, for the Church is not a missionary agency, but the confirmation of the faith which it is to be assumed the congregation already possesses. Not instruction, on the one hand, nor impulse to action on the other, is to be 1 EHP, p. 295. PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 209 the purpose, but the stimulation of the religious emotions by the presentation of the object of faith. In seeking the heightening of feeling, he was himself often led to a process of reflection which strained rather than stirred. While insisting that each sermon should have a text, his treat- ment was topical rather than expository ; having got out of the text the subject wanted, he was no more concerned about it. As his aim was neither exposition nor instruc- tion, but the movement of the heart, he attached no importance to logical structure. What matters in his view is that the preacher himself gets the tone proper to his subject, and by mutual sympathy the tone of the preacher is imparted to his hearers. The sermon should be a homily or conversation, a dialogue of the preacher and the Scriptures on the one hand, and a dialogue of the preacher and his congregation on the other ; what by inquiry of the Scriptures he gains he imparts by question- ing his hearers as to their needs and wishes. The style suitable for the sermon is not the poetic, but animated and elevated prose, moderate and modest in the delivery .^ ; (4) His preaching was neither reading nor recitation from memory of what had been written, but ex tempore speech after much and careful meditation. His language often fails to be concrete, and loses power and charm because it lacks close touch with the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament. Whatever defects a close scrutiny may detect, they do not diminish his greatness. " It was not a school that he founded," says Otto Braun, " but an epoch. He is a great man, for he cannot be replaced. From his writings and deeds there confronts us radiant, a pure and complete humanity. In him a cheerful gentleness was combiued with active manliness, and both united to form a harmony of the inner man that issued in a selfless devotion to the highest aims. Schleiermacher's greatest work was his own life." ^ 3. Among other preachers we may distinguish several tendencies. * See KHP, pp. 296-303. * Quoted by Selbie, op. cit., p. 27. 210 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER (1) In the steps of Schleiermacher followed the Mediating School, which aimed at the reconciliation of religion and science, faith and reason ; its most distin- guished representatives in the pulpit were Karl Immanuel Nitzsch (1787-1868) and Friederich August Tholuck (1799-1877). Of the second Ker says : " While he lived he was probably the best preacher in Germany, and when he died it was felt that one of the finest-moulded Christian natures had left the world." * (2) The succession of pietism was maintained in Wiirtem- berg by Ludwig Hofacker (1798— 1828), who, by his simple, direct, earnest, intense, sympathetic and urgent preaching, without any arts of oratory, moved multitudes, as an ambassador of God beseeching men in Christ's stead to be reconciled. Glaus Harms (1788-1855) was the instru- ment of revival in the North of Germany, as from deep personal conviction he preached frankly and boldly the Christian Gospel as Luther had conceived it. Compared with Hofacker, " he was not so searching, arresting, sub- duing in spiritual power, but more broadly human and fresh, having a quaint fancy and a love for old confessional forms — an eloquent Matthew Henry." ^ (3) While both these preachers held fast the teaching of the Scriptures, the content and form of their preaching was not so completely dominated by it as that of Kudolf Stier (1800-1862) and Friederich Wilhelm Krummacher (1796-1868).^ There were popular preachers of many schools in Germany in the nineteenth century ; but they must be passed over, as the present purpose is to illustrate important movements in, and characteristic types of, preach- ing, rather than to give an account of preachers, however eminent or influential. » KHP, p. 319 ; see pp. 308-825. 2 KHP, p. 842 ; see pp. 328-345. • KHP, pp. 348-365. CHAPTER IX. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES. I. 1. A MOVEMENT, similar in some respects to German pietism, but of far greater and wider influence, was the Evangelical Eevival in England, which is comparable in its importance for the religious life of the country with the Eeformation,^ What it meant for the national history- may be stated in the words of a historian who speaks with special authority on the subject. Dr. J. Holland Eose is contrasting the political situation in France and England. " The relations of religion to democracy at the time of the French Eevolution offer a curious contrast to those which are noticeable in the life of England at the same period. The following reasons for that contrast may be suggested. In the first place the National Church in England had held a secure place in the hearts of English- men ever since the time of the glorious Eevolution of 1688 ; and though the eighteenth century witnessed a decline in her activity and an alarming increase in the stipends and sinecures enjoyed by the higher clergy, still these abuses were slight compared with those of the Church of France. Further, the Wesleyan revival then began powerfully to influence the Established Church for good ; and the work of many devoted preachers brought home to the people a vital knowledge of evangelical truth. Further, the names of Clarkson, Wilberforce and John Howard will remind the reader of the close connexion between evangelical religion and philanthropy in our land. Thus, whereas in France the philanthropic movement was mostly the work of Voltaire and the philosophers, in England it was an offshoot of reviving religious zeal."^ * See HLH, pp. 178-183. Home, The Romance of Preaching, pp, 217-251. * Christ and Civilization, p. 440. 211 212 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER As was shown in a previous chapter, the religious life of the country in the eighteenth century had lost vitality and vigour as a result of the Illumination. Irreligion and immorality went hand in hand throughout the land. Among dissenters as- well as churchmen the salt had lost its savour ; exceptions there were, as God leaves not Him- self without witness in any age of the history of the Church ; but speaking in general terms it is no exaggera- tion to say that religion was at the lowest ebb, when Wesley and Whitefield turned the tide to full flood. 2. John Wesley (1703-1791)^ was deeply religious from his youth. (1) At Oxford he became the soul of the small society, founded by his brother Charles, among some seriously-minded students for the cultivation of the devout life. Their nickname, Methodists, was afterwards adopted by the world-wide community which, as a result of his preaching, came into being. Yet before he could become the human instrument of the Divine Spirit in the Evangelical Eevival he needed a fresh experience of the Divine grace for himself. After his return from America in 1738 he was in great depression of spirit; he met Peter Bohler, who had come to start a Moravian society in London. "The Wesleys, having met Bohler at the house of a Dutch merchant, rendered him such services as his position in a strange land appeared to require. John Wesley pro- cured him lodgings, Charles Wesley taught him English. By way of return, Peter Bohler taught both John and Charles Wesley the meaning of faith. In a letter to Zinzendorf he diagnosed their case as follows : — The elder was a good-natured man, who knew that he did not properly believe on the Saviour, and was willing to be taught, while the younger was very much distressed in mind, but did not know how he should begin to be acquainted with the Saviour." ^ They both had intellectual belief and practical obedi- ence ; what they lacked was the trust of the heart, the 1 See DHP ii. yp. 315-326. See bibliography there. ' F. J. Snell, Wesley and Methodism, p. 53. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 213 comfort and the joy of the assurance of salvation. On the necessity of this Bbhler insisted ; and the possibility of the instant possession of this he asserted. It was at one of the meetings of the Moravians, on 24th May 1738, while Luther's Preface to his Commentary on Romans was being read, that John Wesley " felt his heart strangely warmed," and that he became sure " that his sins were freely forgiven." This emotional crisis had both intellectual and practical consequences : it gave new content to his theology, and fresh motive to his ministry. (2) He soon parted from his teacher on the question of works ; while teaching that justification is by faith alone without works, he could not accept fully the Moravian quietism, and insisted on works as not negligible, but as the necessary fruit of saving faith. For no less than in conversion did he see the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. *' This faith in the living power of the Holy Spirit, not anything ascribed to unaided human agency, was the secret of the emphasis which was laid on Assurance as a privilege attainable by all believers. From the same source sprang the Wesleyan doctrine of Perfection. All believers may attain to a perfection, which, however, is not a legal but a Christian perfection. It is a state where love to God and man reigns continuously, where there are no presumptuous sins, yet where there are still involuntary negligences and ignorances, transgressions of the perfect law, for which, therefore, forgiveness through the Atonement is requisite." ^ The Spirit of God, received through faith in Christ, both assures forgiveness and secures holiness; imparts the grace of God and the power for goodness ; cancels the miserable past and guarantees the blessed future ; quenches fear and enkindles hope ; saves from death and hell and makes sure life and heaven ; brings a full and free salvation. (3) This type of theology has its perils ; and emotional satisfaction may be felt where no personal transformation ' Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine, p. 392. 214 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER has taken place : the claim of perfection even in the restricted sense of Tightness of purpose may result in a lack of moral sensitiveness regarding what are deemed trivial failures. Nevertheless its quickening, arousing, and renewing influence when preached by one who, like John Wesley, had been made a new creature ^ by it, cannot be doubted or denied. His zeal for evangelism led him, as it afterwards led James Morison, to revolt against Calvinism, and the restriction of salvation to the elect, and to affirm the universality of God's grace towards sinful mankind. His Arminianism, however, laid stress more on God's grace and less on man's faith than some representatives of this school have done, and has been rightly described as " on fire." It kindled a flame which spread swiftly and far. 3. Before dealing with Wesley's preaching, an account must be given of his fellow-labourer, George Whitefield (1714-1770). (1) While admiring the piety of the members of the " Methodist Club " at Oxford, and even taking part in their godly exercises, he sooner than John Wesley discovered that his deepest need was not met. His change from darkness to light may be described in his own words : " About the end of the seventh week, after having under- gone innumerable buffetings of Satan and many months' inexpressible trials by night and day under the spirit of bondage, God was pleased at length to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold on His dear Son by a living faith, and by giving me the spirit of adoption, to seal me, as I humbly hope, even to the day of everlasting redemption." ^ This was in 1736, (2) On 27th June his first sermon was preached in the church in Gloucester, where he had been brought up. " As I proceeded," he says, " I perceived the fire kindle till at last, though so young and amidst a crowd of those who knew me in my childish days, I trust I was enabled to speak with some degree of gospel authority. Some few mocked, but most seemed for the present struck ; and" I » 2 Co 5". ' Quoted DHP ii. p. 309 ; see pp. 307-315. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 215 have since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop that I drove fifteen mad the first sermon. The worthy prelate wished that the madness might not be forgotten before next Sunday."^ 4. On his return from America in 1738 he had deep joy in observing the change in his two friends the Wesleys. (1) Denied access to the churches by the suspicion and hostility of the clergy, he began in February 1739 to preach in the open air to the colliers at Kingswood, near Bristol. It was with difficulty that he persuaded John Wesley to join him, as the ecclesiastical conservatism of the latter made him reluctant to preach outside of a church. On Monday, 2nd April, however, Wesley did preach at Kingswood to about three thousand people, and thus began a ministry that lasted fifty-two years. His reason for the new departure may be given in his own words : " God in Scripture commands me, according to my power to instruct the ignorant, reform the wicked, confirm the virtuous. Man forbids me to do this in another's parish ; that is, in effect to do it at all, seeing I have now no parish of my own, nor probably ever shall. Whom shall I hear, God or man ? . . . I look upon all the world as my parish ; thus far I mean that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation. This is the work which I know God has called me to ; and sure I am that his blessing attends it." ^ Well was it for England and the world that the new message was forced to adopt the new method, as it thus reached an innumerable multitude who would otherwise have been untouched. (2) Except when on visits to America, Whitefield made field-preaching his chief work till 1769. Wesley was spared to continue his manifold labours till 1791, when on 23 rd February he preached his last sermon. On Sundays he usually preached three times, and held other services besides ; during the week he liked to 1 DHP ii. p. 310. " Quoted DHP ii. 319 ; cf. Acts 13^. 216 THE CHKISTIAN PREACHER preach at five o'clock in the morning, so that the work- ing people might hear him before their day's toil began. In his Journal he records that up to 21st April 1770, he had ridden over a hundred thousand miles on horseback. In 1741 there was "a sharp contention" between Wesley and Whitefield, as between Paul and Barnabas,^ as White- field had remained a Calvinist, and was offended by Wesley's Arminianism. Before death they were recon- ciled, and Wesley did due honour to his companion in his funeral sermon. While Whitefield's movement is preserved in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, Wesley's assumed much larger proportions and a much wider diffusion ; and against his wishes, as he remained a loyal Churchman, he was forced by the logic of facts to make provision for its continuance in the separate society which bears his name. One feature of Wesleyan Methodism deserves mention : the pastoral care for the individual converts which is assured by the class meeting. This religious revival did not waste and lose itself in transient emotionalism, although there was often excess of emotion with abnormal psychical conditions ; but found permanent embodiment in a Christian community " zealous of good works." ^ 5. What were the sermons which reached and changed multitudes ? Of John Wesley's sermons Home writes : " As evangelistic discourses they are most significant and most surprising. The evidences of a mind steeped in classical culture, and keenly alive to the thought of his time, abound on almost every page. Every perusal of them leaves me wondering what it was in them that pierced the consciences of the most hardened sinners to the quick. There is nothing sensational in this evangehsm. There is plain dealing. There is much practical, sensible and serious exhortation as to the sins that corrupt men's lives and harden their hearts. Of rhetorical fireworks there is not a trace. We are less impressed by the vehemence than by the calm strength of them. Yet certain it is that when this man preached, the world knew that the hour of battle had sounded. Those » Acts 1539. 2 Tit. 2". EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 217 scenes of fury, which belong now to English history, and in which Wesley's life was again and again in peril, are the tribute to the power of his message. If he had been arguing for a verdict before a society of learned men, he could hardly have reasoned more closely or employed more classical illustrations. . . . Even as Wesley was singularly fine and pure in controversy when he was being assailed by a multi- tude of scurrilous pens and pelted with gutter-epithets, so, also in the warfare which he waged with error and evil in almost every market-place in the land, he was content to use the Gospel weapons of Truth and Love, and, as the smoke cleared from the battlefield, it was seen that he and his forces were in possession of the best strategical positions." ^ 6. To Wesley, Whitefield was a great contrast. " We f may accept the almost universal verdict that for dramatic and declamatory power he had no rival in his own age, and no superior in any age." ^ Although he used the art off the orator, which he possessed almost to perfection, his purpose was not to please, but to convert by arousing to the highest point the passions of love, hope and fear. | While he cast the spell of his eloquence over the cultured^ and the noble, not them alone did he seek to reach, but " the miners and the puddlers and the weavers ; the masses of neglected and ignorant artisans and field labourers, to whom clergymen and ministers had ceased to appeal, and for whom in all the land there existed no passionate sym- pathy, until George Whitefield arose and spoke to them, in a voice often choked with tears, of death in sin, and life in Christ." 3 His deep conviction and intense emotion was allied with " a large command of vivid, homely, and picturesque English, and an extraordinary measure of the tact which enables a practised orator to adapt himself to the character and disposition of his audience." * 7. An example of Wesley's preaching, which will illustrate both content and manner, may be taken from a sermon on The Poverty of Reason (1 Co 14-^). After 1 The Romance of Preaching, pp. 236-237. 8 Ibid., p. ;i38. » Ibid., pp. 240-241. * Lecky, quoted by Horue, p. 239. 218 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER several classical allusions (Latin and Greek in the original tongues) he states his argument : " Reason, however cultivated and improved, cannot pro- duce the love of God, which is plain from hence ; it cannot produce either faith or hope, from which alone this love can flow. It is then only, when we * behold ' by faith ' what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us ' in giving His only Son, that we might not perish, but have everlast- ing life, that ' the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.' It is only then, when we ' rejoice in hope of the glory of God,' that we ' love him because he first loved us.' But what can cold reason do in this matter ? It may present us with fair ideas ; it can draw a fine picture of love ; but this is only a painted fire. And further than this reason cannot go. I made the trial for many years. I collected the finest hymns, prayers, and meditations which I could find in any language, and I said, sang, or read them over and over, with all possible seriousness and attention. But still I was like the bones in Ezekiel's vision : ' The skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.' And as reason cannot produce the love of God, so neither can it produce the love of one's neighbour ; a calm, generous, disinterested benevolence to every child of man. This earnest, steady goodwill to our fellow-creatures never flowed from any fountain but grati- tude to our Creator. And if this be (as a very ingenious man supposes) the very essence of virtue, it follows that virtue can have no being unless it spring from the love of God. Therefore, as reason cannot produce this love, so neither can it produce virtue. And as it cannot give either faith, hope, love, or virtue, so it cannot give happiness, since, separate from these, there can be no happiness for any intelligent creatures. It is true, those who are void of all virtue may have pleasures, such as they are ; but happiness they have not, cannot have. No : ' Their joy is all sadness ; Their mirth is all vain ; Their laughter is madness ; Their pleasure is pain ! ' Pleasures? Shadows! Dreams! Fleeting as the wind! Unsubstantial as the rainbow ! As unsatisfying to the poor gasping soul 'As the gay colours of an eastern cloud.' EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 219 None of them will stand the test of reflection ; if thought comes, the bubble breaks ! " ^ 8. The closing appeal of Whitefield's sermon on " The Kingdom of God " (Ro 14^) illustrates his manner. " My dear friends, I would preach with all my heart till midnight to do you good, till I could preach no more. Oh that this body might hold out to speak more for my dear Eedeemer ! Had I a thousand lives, had I a thousand tongues, they should be employed in inviting sinners to come to Jesus Christ! Come, then, let me prevail with some of you to come along with me. Come, poor, lost, un- done sinners, come just as you are to Christ, and say : If I be damned, I will perish at the feet of Jesus Christ, where never one perished yet. He will receive you with open arms ; the dear Eedeemer is willing to receive you all. Fly, then, for your lives. The devil is in you while unconverted ; and will you go with the devil in your heart to bed this night ? God Almighty knows if ever you and I shall see one another again. In one or two days more I must go, and perhaps I may never see you again till I meet you at the Judgment Day. Oh, my dear friends, think of that solemn meeting ; think of that important hour when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, when the elements shall melt with fervent heat, when the sea and the grave shall be giving up their dead, and all shall be summoned to appear before the great God. What will you do then if the King- dom of God is not erected in your heart ? You must go to the devil — like must go to like — if you are not converted. Christ hath asserted it in the strongest manner: 'Verily, verily, I say unto you : Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.' Who can dwell with devouring fire ? Who can dwell with everlasting burn- ings ? Oh, my heart is melting with love to you. Surely God intends to do good to your poor souls. Will no one be persuaded to accept of Christ ? If those who are settled Pharisees wiU not come, I desire to speak to you who are drunkards. Sabbath-breakers, cursers, and swearers — will you come to Christ ? I know that many of you come here out of curiosity ; though you come only to see the congrega- tion, yet if you come to Jesus Christ, Christ will accept of 1 CME X. pp. 230-231. Wesley's fVorfcs are published in 14 vols, by the Wesleyan Conference Offices. 220 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER you. Are there any cursing, swearing soldiers here ? Will you come to Jesus Christ, and list yourselves under the banner of the dear Eedeemer ? You are all welcome to Christ. Are there any little boys or girls here ? Come to Christ, and he will erect his Kingdom in you. There are many little children whom God is working on, both at home and abroad. Oh, if some of the little lambs would come to Christ, they shall have peace and joy in the day that the Eedeemer shall set up his Kingdom in their hearts. Parents, tell them that Jesus Christ will take them in his arms, that he will dandle them on his knees. All of you, old and young, you that are old and grey-headed, come to Jesus Christ, and you shall be kings and priests to your God. The Lord will abundantly pardon you at the eleventh hour. ' Ho, every one of you that thirsteth.' If there be any of you ambitious of honour, do you want a crown, a sceptre ? Come to Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ will give you a kingdom that no man shall take from you." ^ 9. To the Evangelical Revival also is due the organi- sation of lay preaching as an important auxiliary of the work of the ordained ministry.^ (1) Meu were crying out for the Bread from Heaven and the Water of Life ; and there were not enough fully trained preachers to carry the divine provision for hungering and thirsting souls. In 1738 Joseph Humphreys began to help Wesley. In June 1739, John Cennick had to take the place of a young man who was to have read a sermon, but failed to appear. Wesley would not forbid his preaching. His reluctance to allow Thomas Maxfield, a companion and servant of his 1 CME X. pp. 243, 244. ^ Among ministerial helpers of John Wesley and George Whitefield may be mentioned Charles Wesley (1708-1788), who only for a short time devoted himself to the itinerant ministry, but was the "sweet singer of Method- ism"; John William Fletcher (1729-1785), the vicar of Madeley, and superintendent of the seminary for training preachers established by the Countess of Huntingdon at Trevecca, an ardent controversialist in defence of Arminianism yet devout in spirit, lovable and beloved ; Rowland Hill (1745-1833), who on account of his itinerant ministry was refused ordination, and at last found a permanent sphere of influence at Surrey Chapel, where many flocked to hear his earnest and evangelical, but original and oft quaint preaching, vivid in imagination, relieved by wit and humour, and intense in conviction, coming, as Sheridan described it, "hot from the heart." (See DHP ii. 326-329.) EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 221 brother Charles, was only overcome by the evidence of the Spirit's presence and power in him, which drew the con- fession : " It is the Lord ; let Him do what seemeth Him good." (2) In his Further Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, he defended his use of such agency on the ground of the manifest divine approval shown in the abounding fruit of these labours. He asserted their competence in the one thing needful, their personal experience of the Gospel they preached ; and, scholar as he was, carried his appeal to the court of Church history. Despite prejudice and opposition, and to begin with even his own inclinations, he continued to use all who were willing and fit to spread the good news of salvation. (3) John Haime, the dragoon, became a kind of chap- lain to his regiment, and his influence spread through- out the Army, as the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Cumberland, gave him permission to preach anywhere. Howell Harris (1714-1773), who was refused ordination, was the Apostle of Wales, and, though much persecuted, saw his native land thoroughly changed. The movement crossed the Atlantic in the person of Philip Embury, who was aroused from his despondency and inactivity by Barbara Heck, to preach the first Methodist sermon in New York. His hands were strengthened by Captain Webb, one of Wesley's converts. These were but the first-fruits of an abundant harvest of lay endeavour wliich has been an untold blessing to mankind.^ II. 1, The religious revival of the eighteenth century was not confined to the Methodist community. (1) While Whitefield cannot be claimed as the founder of the evan- gelical school in the Church of England, it felt his stimulus. John Newton (1725-1807),2 the friend of Cowper, had no ^ See Telford's A History of Lay Preaching, chap. v. « See DHP ii. pp. 306-307. 222 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER great gifts nor much art as a preacher, but his own deliver- ance from a very sinful life gave him power in the pulpit in dealing with those who were feeling the pangs of remorse. William Wilberforce (1759-1833) as an orator and statesman illustrates the influence of evangelicalism in philanthropy and politics. Wesley's Arminianism lessened his direct influence on the older dissenting Churches, Presby- terian, Baptist and Independent; but as many of the con- verts found their way into the membership of these Churches, there was a quickening of their religious life. 2. In 1740 Whitefield came into contact with the movement in New England, which had begun in 1734 as a result of the preaching of Jonathan Edwards (1703- 1758), and which after a pause had been renewed in 1839. " The ' Great Awakening ' was accompanied by the advocacy of Calvinistic doctrines and attacks upon Arminianism," which with Arian and Socinian opinions was held to be responsible for growing religious laxity. Not only was Edwards the leading preacher of this movement, he was its theologian, and the author of the modified Calvinism, known as " New England Theology." " Edwards is an example of that rare mingling of intellectual subtilty and spiritual insight, of logical acumen with mystical fervour, which qualify their possessors for the highest achievements in the field of religious thought." These contrasts appear in his books on The Will and on the Spiritual Affections ; as we turn from the one to the other " it is like passing from the pages of Aristotle to a sermon of Tauler." ^ It is with his preaching we are here concerned. " His sermons were thoughtful and argumentative, yet plain and searching. They were delivered, with little or no action, from the manuscript, but with that manifest depth of conviction and of feeling which has been likened to 'white heat.' "2 His wife noted the contrast between him and White- ' Fisher's History of Christian Doctrine, p. 395. ^ Fisher's The History of the Church, p. 526. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 223 field, who aimed at stirring the emotions. Unlike as the two men were, for a time they laboured together, and revivals resulted in many places in New England. " Physical manifestations — trances and th« like — some- times occurred while the revival preachers delivered their discourses. Other exhibitions of strong emotion, as tears and audible exclamations, were not infrequent." ^ The movement met with opposition even as did Wesley's labours in England ; and Edwards himself recog- nised that there was unhealthy excitement, and that many converts fell away, and yet approved it as a work of the divine grace. 3. A previous chapter has dealt with the " Marrow " movement in Scotland, with its issue in the Secession, and the contrast between Evangelicals and Moderates. We now deal with the influence of the Evangelical Eevival in Scotland. (1) John Maclaurin (1693—1754) was in correspond- ence with Jonathan Edwards, but his evangelicalism avoided all revivalist extremes. The translator of Van Oosterzee's Practical Theology says of him : " His one sermon on Gal 6^*, if it were the only one in the two little volumes of his ' Kemains,' would alone suffice to rescue himself and the age in which he lived from oblivion." ^ Blaikie is reported by Dargan as saying of it " that it is rather a treatise than a sermon."^ John Erskine (1721-1803), a cousin of the founders of the Secession Church, had some correspondence w4th Wesley, although doctrinally more in sympathy with Whitefield. Walter Scott, whose parents belonged to Erskine's church, has described him in his novel of Guy Mannering.* Not eloquent, he brought learning and ability to the service of a message which he himself describes : " Christ Crucified and salvation through Him ; the law as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ ; and exhorting the disciplias of Jesus to adorn his doctrine * Fisher's The History of the Church, p. 525. 2 p j^q^ 8 DHP ii. p. 342. * The passage is quoted DHP ii. p. 343. 224 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER by the conscientious performance of every duty, ought to be chief subject of our sermons." * (2) Early in the nineteenth century there was formed in the Church of Scotland the Evangelical Party to oppose the dominant Moderatism. The leader was Dr. Andrew Thomson, who in 1814 became minister of St. George's Church in Edinburgh. His preaching there soon made a great change. " Keligion was not in disrepute at the time of Dr. Thomson's appointment. . . . Some earnestness there was in connection with one or two congregations, which had recently obtained ministers of evangelical belief, faithful gospel preaching, and consistent Christian walk and con- versation. But the general atmosphere was extremely worldly, cold, and indifferent ; and church-going, as a rule, was attended to very much because it was generally con- sidered a proper thing to be done. . . . But the preaching of Dr. Thomson was like a bombshell falling among the people. Not only did he give constant prominence to the distinctive gospel doctrines of grace and redemption by an atonement, but in terms of great directness and plainness of speech he denounced the customs of a society calling itself Christian ; and in a marvellously short time, by his zeal and faithfulness under God, a remarkable change was effected in the habits and pursuits of many of his people." ^ Into the ecclesiastical conflict which resulted from the religious awakening we cannot now enter, but must note in it the close association of the claim of the Church's spiritual independence with the belief in evangelical doctrine. 4. The greatest personality in the movement which resulted in the formation of the Free Church of Scotland in 1843 was Dr. Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847),^ who was thinker, teacher, pastor, philanthropist, leader and preacher, whom it is no exaggeration to regard as the greatest man next to John Knox in the religious thought and life of Scotland. 1 Quoted DHP ii. p. 348. 2 Maclagan's History of St. George's, quoted in Walker's Scottish Church History, p. 130. 8 See DHP ii. pp. 487-495. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONAEIES 225 (1) There is a link between him and the Evangelical Revival in England. He entered on his ministry as a Moderate, not worldly in aim, genuinely conscientious in the discharge of his duties, but not possessed by the " holy enthusiasm " which afterwards glowed in him as a steady flame. On the 24th December 1810 he began to read Wilberforce's Practical View of Ghristianity. " * As I got on in reading it,' he says, ' I felt myself on the eve of a great revolution in all my opinions about Christianity.' Many things had prepared him to receive the light — a long illness, family bereavements, lines of study which he had been providentially led to pursue, and other things. But through all the Spirit of God was guiding him ; and when at last he rose above the mists, he soon compelled the country to recognize his mission as that of the great religious leader of his age." * (2) Confining ourselves to Chalmers as a preacher, it must be admitted that neither in appearance nor voice and manner was he specially qualified to excel in the pulpit. His sentences were long, and he read his sermons. And yet he put into the delivery the force and fervour of free speech ; and the mastery of the man, thinker and believer asserted itself over his hearers. He had one peculiarity, in which a noted preacher of to-day bears him a striking likeness : he repeated the same idea with a great variety of expression. Robert Hall states this fact with a touch of exaggeration. " Did you ever know any man who had that singular faculty of repetition possessed by Dr. Chalmers ? Why, sir, he often reiterates the same thing ten and twelve times in the course of a few pages. Even Burke himself had not so much of that peculiarity. His mind resembles ... a kaleidoscope. Every turn presents the object in a new and beautiful form, but the object presented is still the same. . . . His mind seems to move on hinges, not on wheels ; there is incessant motion, but no progress." ^ ^ Walker's Scottish Church History, p. 133. « Works of Robert Hall, vol. iii. p. 79 f., quoted DHP ii. p. 492. 226 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER His powers as an expositor are seen in bis sermons on Komans, and his scientific attainments in his Astronomical Discourses. (3) The most famous sermon is that on The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, and a short extract from this great utterance may justify the inclusion of Chalmers among the evangelists, " Nothing can exceed the magnitude of the required change in a man's character — when bidden, as he is, in the New Testament, to love not the world ; no, nor any of the things that are in the world — for this so comprehends all that is dear to him in existence as to be equivalent to a command of self-annihilation. But the same revelation which dictates so mighty an obedience places within our reach as mighty an instrument of obedience. It brings for admittance, to the very door of our heart, an affection which, once seated upon its throne, will either subordinate every previous inmate, or bid it away. Beside the world it places before the eye of the mind Him who made the world, and with this peculiarity, which is all its own — that in this Gospel do we so behold God as that we may love God. It is there, and there only, where God stands revealed as an object of confidence to sinners — and, where our desire after Him is not chilled into apathy by that barrier of human guilt which intercepts every approach that is not made to Him through the appointed Mediator. ... It is when He stands dismantled of the terrors which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver, and when we are enabled by faith, which is His own gift, to see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and to hear His beseeching voice, as it protests goodwill to men, and entreats the return of all who will to a full pardon, and a gracious acceptance — it is then that a love paramount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it, first arises in the regenerating bosom. It is when released from the spirit of bondage, with which love cannot dwell, and when admitted into the number of God's children, through the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is poured upon us — it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and in the only way in which deliverance is possible." ^ 1 WGS iv. pp. 66-67. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 227 5. Two other names may be mentioned. (1) " The oratory of a heart penetrated with the vital truths of the Gospels," says Van Oosterzee, " found one of its noblest exponents, of this or any other age, in the person of the youthful Eobert Murray M'Cheyne (died 1843), whose ' Memoir and Eemains ' and ' Additional Remains ' (by his friend, Andrew Bouar) have passed through numerous edi- tions, and whose influence continues to exert itself with blessed results both far and near even to the present day." ^ (2) That unhappy genius, Edward Irving (1792— 1834), took London by storm, but soon lost his popularity, and strayed into devious paths. " He produced an excitement," says Dr. Stoughton, " which, from the extent to which it prevailed, the class of persons it affected, and the prophetic fervour which it displayed, rose to the importance of a national event. . . . He spoke to men at large, to people of fashion in particular. Never since George Whitefield had anyone so arrested attention ; and Irving went far beyond Whitefield in attract- ing the respectful, even the admiring, notice of lords, ladies, and commons His name was on every lip. Newspapers, magazines, and reviews discussed his merits ; a caricature in shop windows hit off his eccentricities." ^ 6. Two movements of religious revival in Scotland claim brief notice. In dealing with the History of Con- gregational Ivdependency in Scotland, Dr. James Eoss makes this statement : " It is significant that most of the churches of this order came into existence within the short period of four years, from 1794 to 1798, thus indicating that there must have been some common causes of their origin, or rather of the state of mind and religious feeling of which they were the expression." " The origin " of most of these churches can be directly " traced to the great evangelistic movement that took place in Scotland during the last few years of the century, and with which the names of the brothers Haldane, 1 OPT, pp. 140-141. This was written in 1878. In the boyhood of the writer of this volume the memory of M'Cheyne was still fragrant in Scotland, a Quoted by DHP ii. pp. 484-485. 228 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER and Messrs. Campbell, Eate, Aikman, and others are asso- ciated. Robert Haldane has placed on record that * he was aroused from the sleep of spiritual death by the excitement of the French Revolution.' " i It was when his wish to go to India as a missionary was thwarted by the refusal of the East India Company, that he resolved to give himself and his means to work in his motherland. A few sentences from the Missionary Magazine will suffice to indicate the kind of ministry exercised. " The advantages of missionary schemes both in England and Scotland have remarkably appeared, not only in exciting the zeal of Christian people to send the Gospel of Jesus to the dark places of the earth, but to use means to extend its influence at home. With this view a missionary journey has been undertaken in the northern part of Scotland, not to disseminate matters of doubtful disputation, or to make converts to this or that other sect, but to endeavour to stir up their brethren to flee from the wrath to come, and not to rest in an empty profession of religion. Accordingly they are now employed in preaching the word of life, distributing pamphlets, and endeavouring to excite their Christian brethren to employ the talents committed to their charge, especially by erecting schools for the instruction of youth. . . . That their object may be misrepresented they have no doubt. It has already been said that they are going out with a design of making people dissatisfied with their ministers ; but they can appeal to the great Searcher of hearts that they are determined in their conversation and preaching to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. ' * The converts won by this preaching found so little encouragement and help in the existing Churches that they were driven to form small groups in order to sustain by prayer and study of the Scriptures their new life, and out of these grew the Independent Churches. 7. In time these Churches got fixed in their theological tradition, and were not ready to welcome any new light. 1 Pp. 42-44. » Quoted by Ross, op. cit., p. 51. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 229 Their most noted leader, Dr. Ealph Wardlaw (1799-1853V was a moderate Calvinist ; he held that the atonement of Christ has universal sufficiency, but that its efficiency is limited to the elect whom the Spirit of God moves by a special influence to exercise the faith that receives the gift of God.2 When James Morison (1816-1893) and others were led by their evangelising zeal in presenting a full and free salvation to all men, to break the hampering fetters of Calvinism, the old movement opposed itself to the new. Nine students were expelled from the Glasgow Theological Academy in May 1844 for sympathising with the heresy that not only is the atonement sufficient, but that it is also efficient for all who believe, as God withholds His enabling Spirit from none. It was in a religious revival due to his evangelising efforts that James Morison ^ was led step by step to abandon his Calvinism, until he reached the position of the three Universitalities, that God loves, Christ atones for, and the Spirit works in all ; and the preaching of this truth by himself and others continued the effective means of religious revival. Expelled for this view from the Secession Church in 1841, he and those like- minded formed the Evangelical Union in 1843, which sought to make an evangelical theology practical in evangelistic effort. 8. Later in the nineteenth century the outstanding evangelist was D wight L. Moody (1837-1899),* who visited Britain in 1873. For two years and three months he laboured from one end of Great Britain to another, moving by his simple, artless, yet sincere and powerful preaching a vast multitude to decision for, and consecration to Christ. Other evangelists have come and gone ; but this was the last of the great revival movements, unless in the mission field, to which we now turn. ' See DHP ii. p. 482. 2 See Ross, op. eit., pp. 125-136. ' See The Life of Principal Morison, by Wm. Adamson, D.D. (cc. v.-xx.). * See his Life, by his sou, W. R. Moody. 230 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER IIL 1. Amid all the defects and failures of the Christian Churches, the nineteenth century shines with an unquench- able glory as the period of world-wide foreign mission work. The evangelist at home and the missionary abroad are inseparable, for where there is the enlightened zeal of the one there must also be the constraining motive of the other. In the previous chapters the closeness of this connection has been illustrated ; but now we meet with its most conspicuous instance. The missionary as well as the philanthropic movement of the beginning of last century was one of the blessed fruits of the Evangelical Eevival. Wesley's saying : " I look upon all the world as my parish," is the inspiring watchword of the effort to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. (1) In the first period of missions the Eoman Empire was evangelised : in the second period the nations of Europe were christianised, although in a very superficial fashion. The records of the Eeformation are very dis- appointing as regards this sacred charge of the Christian Church. Eoman Catholicism showed greater zeal for propaganda than did Protestantism. Whatever we may think of his methods, Xavier's labours demand that his name be remembered ; and still more Eaimund Lull's. The missionary character of the Moravian Brethren has already been noted. The work of John Elliot (1604- 1690) and David Brainerd (1718-1747)1 among the Eed Indians must not be forgotten. But the world-wide movement of to-day has first on its roll of honour William Carey (1761-1834). (2) In 1784 the Northamptonshire Association of Baptist Ministers resolved to invite the Churches to join in united prayer not only for religious revival at home, but also for the spread of the Gospel abroad. " Let the whole interest of the Eedeemer be affectionately remembered and the spread of the Gospel to the most distant parts of the hahit- ' See Smith, Short History of Christiom Missions, pp. 136-138. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 231 aUe globe, he the object of your most fervent requests" ^ On this occasion Andrew Fuller (1754-1815 ),2 a noted expositor, theologian and preacher, delivered a sermon on WalkiTig by Faith. When the Baptist Missionary- Society was formed in 1792 he became its first secretary, and it owed much to his leadership. From 1787, William Carey, after reading Cook's Voyages Round the World, began to cherish the desire to go as a missionary to Otaheite ; but his zeal was at first repressed even by Andrew Fuller with the remark : " If the Lord should make windows in heaven, then might this thing be." The Spirit of God could not be quenched by discouragements in him, and through him others were convinced. In 1793, Dr. Kyland, who at first opposed his project, confessed : " I believe God Himself infused into the mind of Carey that solicitude for the salvation of the heathen which cannot be fairly traced to any other source." On the 2nd October 1792, Carey preached at Kettering on Is 542-3: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations : spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes ; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited " ; and uttered his two famous mottoes, " Expect great things from God ; attempt great things for God." ^ Such was the impression made that those who heard the sermon founded the Baptist Missionary Society. A short time before, Carey had published his " Enqwiry into the Obligation of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens ; in which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, are considered " ; and thus some of his hearers were prepared for the impression made. (3) It was fitting that Carey himself should be the first missionary ; but he went not to Otaheite as he had desired, but to Bengal The East India Company opposed * Quoted by Smith, Short History of Chnstia/)i Missimis, p. 156. ' See DHP ii. pp. 332-335. » Smith, op. ciL, p. 157. 232 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER all missionary enterprise, and it was under the Danish flag at Serampore tliat Carey and the two colleagues who joined him, MarsJiam and Ward, in scholarship no less than in preaching, laid the foundations of Indian Missions. For forty-one years without break Carey laboured in Bengal, and died there, at the age of seventy, on 9th June 1834. 2. Carey and the Baptist ministers he influenced were responsive to the Spirit of God, who was imparting the impulse to this new form of service to many besides themselves. (1) Dr. Haweis, chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon, was also stirred to interest by the account of Captain Cook's voyages, and made several attempts, which, however, were at the time frustrated, to send missionaries to the South Seas. In 1793 the Evangelical Magazine was started " to arouse the Christian public from its prevailing torpor, and excite to a more close and serious consideration of their obligations to use means for advancing the Kedeemer's Kingdom." ^ As showing the catholicity of the enterprise, it may be noted that the editor, the Eev. John Eyre, was a Churchman, and one of the chief supporters was the well-known Independent preacher, Matthew Wilks. Dr. Haweis and Dr. Bogue of Gosport now associated themselves with the enterprise ; and the outcome was the foundation of the London Missionary Society, on an inter-denominational basis, in 1795. Dr. Bogue in the sermon preached on the occasion declared that his hearers had been attending " the funeral of Bigotry " ; and added the fervent prayer : " May she be buried so deep that not a particle of her dust may be ever thrown upon the face of the earth." (2) The first mission undertaken was to the South Seas. In 1796 the Buff under Captain James Wilson, with thirty men missionaries, besides some wives and children, sailed to the sound of the hymn, "Jesus, at Thy command we launch into the deep." The troublous and even tragic experiences of this missionary party cannot be told in detail. After long delay the dawn began to 1 Quoted by Home, The St(yry of the L.M.S., p. 4. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 233 break ; and the victory of the Cross had begun in some of the islands, when one of the great missionaries of the Society arrived. John Williams (1795—1839) reached Tahiti in 1817; he had the aspirations of the pioneer. " For my part, I cannot content myself within the narrow limits of a single roof " ; ^ and he pushed on from island to island, preaching the Gospel, winning converts and starting churches, until his death on Erromanga. He multiplied his own labours by the employment of native Christians as missionaries, many of whom have since shared the glory of martyrdom with him. 3. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which had been at work in America since 1700, became a world-wide missionary agency in 1821. The Evangelical party in the Church of England in 1799 started the Church Missionary Society. (1) Most famous of the early Anglican missionaries in India was Henry Martyn (1781— 1812), who was aroused to interest by the experience of Carey, and who in 1806 landed as a chaplain in Calcutta. He at once began the study of Hindustani, Hindi, Persian, and Arabic, and within five years had translated the New Testament into the first of these languages. Pushing on into Persia in 1811, he had in a few months translated the greater part of the New Testament into that language also. As he was returning home by Asia Minor, he died at Tokat, worn out by his labours and perils. Short as was his career, although he won only one convert, his personality made a deep impression.^ At Cambridge he had graduated as Senior Wrangler ; and Sir James Stephen describes him as he was before the missionary call gave unity to his life. "A man born to love with ardour and to hate with vehemence, amorous, irascible, ambitious, and vain ; without one torpid nerve about him ; aiming at universal excellence in science, in literature, in conversation, in horsemanship, and even in dress ; not without some gay fancies, but more * Quoted by Home, p. 42. ' See Robinson, History of Christian Missions, p. 84. 234 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER prone to austere and melancholy thoughts ; patient of the most toilsome inquiries, though not wooing philosophy for her own sake ; animated by the poetical temperament, though unvisited by any poetical inspiration; eager for enterprise, though thinking meanly of the reward to which the adventurous aspire; uniting in himself, though as yet unable to concentrate and to harmonize them, many keen desires, many high powers, and much constitutional dejec- tion— the chaotic materials of a great character." ^ What the sacred passion made out of this material the brief record of his life shows, and at his death Lord Macaulay was constrained to offer him this tribute : "In manhood's early bloom The Christian hero found a pagan tomb ; Religion, sorrowing o'er her favourite son. Points to the glorious trophies which he won. Eternal trophies, not with slaughter red, Not stained with tears by hapless captives shed ; But trophies of the Cross. "^ 4. Alexander Duff (1806-1878), a Scottish Presby- terian, made a new departure in missionary policy ; he sought to influence the higher castes of India by means of schools offering a liberal education in the English language. From 1830 to 1863 he worked on these lines in Calcutta. " His converts were not numbered by thousands, or even by hundreds, but they included a large number of high caste Hindus whose brilliant mental gifts and whose strength of character have exercised an immense influence upon their fellow-countrymen in North India." ^ A marked contrast was the work of Kingeltaube,* who was one of a party of six missionaries whom the L.M.S. sent in 1804. He laboured with great success till 1815 among the pariahs and outcasts of Travancore, a country in which missionary work has made marvellous progress. 5. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed in response to a challenge from four ^ Quoted by Home, The Romance of Preaching, pp. 223-224. « IbU., p. 227. 8 Robinson, op. cit., p. 89. * See Home's History of the L.M.S., pp. 93-97. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 235 students, who asked " whether they may expect patronage and support from a missionary society in this country, or must commit themselves to the direction of a European society ? " ^ The most famous afterwards of the four was Adoniram Judson, who, when refused the opportunity of work in Calcutta, which he reached in 1812, went on to Burma, where he landed at Eangoon in 1813, As on the voyage he became a Baptist, the American Baptist Missionary Union was formed in 1814 to support him. In seven years he baptized ten converts. During the war with England in 1823 he suffered much hardship for twenty- one months in prison. He died in 1850. "Judson believed in peregrinating as opposed to concentrated mission work, and was doubtful as to the value of mis- sionary schools. His legacy to those who came after him was the inspiration of a devoted life and the translation of the Bible into Burmese." ^ 6. "A Chinese politician who held one of the highest positions under the new republican government, in answer to the question. When did the Chinese revolutionary move- ment begin ? replied : On the day that Eobert Morrison the missionary landed in Canton. The start of Protestant missions in China, notwithstanding the fact that the earliest Protestant missionaries were wholly devoid of poUtical aims, was, in fact, the introduction of a new factor into the political life of China, the far-reaching results of which can now be seen." ^ (1) It was in 1807 that Morrison (1782-1834)* was sent by the London Missionary Society and landed at Macao. Amid disappointments, difficulties and dangers which would have daunted most men, he persevered in secretly acquiring the language, preparing a grammar and dictionary, and translating the Scriptures. From Macao he had to remove to Canton, as permission for his colleague Milne to reside was refused. In 1813 the whole of the New Testament was printed. While Morrison remained * Smith, op. eit., p. 178. ^ Robinson, op. cit., p. 153. • Ibid., op. eit., p. 181. * See Home, op. cit., pp. 121-141. 236 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER at Cantou, Milne removed to Malacca, where greater free- dom for the work could be secured, and the projected college could be founded. As interpreter for the East India Company, not as missionary, Morrison was allowed to visit Peking, and so increase his knowledge of China. He had little opportunity of winning converts, as all his work had to be done as secretly as possible, but in 1814 his first convert, Tsae A-Ko, was baptized. While in England in 1824 and 1825 he presented the Chinese Bible to King George iv. "In June 1834 he prepared his last sermon on the text, ' In my Father's house are many mansions.' It was to show how much of the joy of the eternal Home would ' consist in the society formed there ; the family of God, from all ages and out of all nations.' ... On July 31st the pioneer Pro- testant missionary to China passed peacefully to his rest." ^ Small as was the Chinese Christian community that mourned his loss, he laid in his scholarly labours the foundations of modern missionary work in China. (2) In the footsteps of Morrison as a Chinese scholar followed James Legge (1815-1897),^ who in 1840 became head of the college at Malacca, which was soon removed to Hong-Kong, and who in 1876 was appointed Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford, and translated the Chinese classics into English. (3) For more than fifty years Griffith John^ (1831- 1912) laboured at Hankow. He devoted himself to evangelisation and the writing of books for the Chinese. One who still more largely contributed to the creation of a Chinese Christian literature was Dr. Timothy Eichard,* first Chancellor of the Imperial University founded in 1900 at Shansi by the Chinese Government. (4) In Mongolia a mission was attempted in 1817— 1841,^ but its evangelisation began with the coming of James Gilmour in 1870. About his book Among the 1 Home, p. 141. ^ ggg Robinson, p. 194, and Home, p. 309 ff. 3 Robinson, p. 194, and Home, pp. 326-328. * Robinson, p. 196. * See Home, pp. 141-145. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 237 3fongols (1882) the reviewer in the Spectator said: "Eobiu- son Crusoe has turned missionary, lived years in Mongolia, and written a book about it." ^ Incredible were the hard- ships, severe the strain, and small the encouragement of the work, but undaunted the resolution, and quenchless the hope of the worker. His story is one of thrilling interest. After his death in 1891 the small Christian community at Ch'ao Yang wrote of him to his orphan boys : " Pastor Gilmour in his preaching and doctoring at Ch'ao Yang, north of the Pass, truly loved others as himself, was considerate and humble, and had the likeness of our Saviour Jesus. Not only the Christians thank him without end, but even those outside the Church (the heathen) bless him without limit." ^ 7. Eeference has already been made to John Williams. The spread of the Gospel in the islands of the Pacific has been more rapid than in any other part of the world, and owes much to the labours and sufferings of native evan- gelists. (1) In 1871 Bishop Patteson was murdered on Nukapu Island, one of the Santa Cruz group ; " he was credited with being able to speak forty of the Melanesian dialects." 3 (2) In 1858, J. G. Paton, a Scottish Presby- terian, began work in Tanna in the New Hebrides. In 1906 he thus describe the results : " Our dear Lord has given our missionaries about 20,000 converts, and the blessed work is extending among the other cannibals. . . . In one year 1120 savages renounced idolatry and embraced the worship and service of Christ." * (3) Although the Eev. W. G. Lawes was the first missionary of the L.M.S. to settle in New Guinea in 1874,^ it is his colleague, the Eev. James Chalmers, who joined him in 1877, after ten years' labour in Earatonga, who in public regard holds foremost place among the pioneers in that island. " Tamate," as he was called by the islanders, exercised a marvellous personal influence. » Quoted by Home, p. 383. '^ Ibid., p. 393. • Robinson, p. 455. * Quoted by Robinson, p. 457. • See Home, pp. 394-412. 238 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER " No white mau had ever had a more wide and varied knowledge of the mainland of New Guinea, or visited more tribes, or made more friends, or endured more hardships, or faced more perils." ^ E. L. Stevenson knew him well, and wrote of him to his mother : " I shall meet Tamate once more before he disappears up the Fly Kiver, perhaps to be one of the unreturned brave ; he is a man nobody- can see and not love. He has plenty of faults like the rest of us, but he is as big as a church." ^ This foreboding (if such it was) was fulfilled. On 7th April 1901, Tamate and his whole party were slain and eaten by the savages at the Aird River. 8. Were this volume a history of missions, a chapter would be devoted to the Martyr-Church of Madagascar ; where through many years of persecution the Gospel was spread and the Church grew by the reading of the Scrip- tures and the witness of the converts. We must pass the island, however, to the continent of Africa.^ (1) One of the most fruitful of missions has been that in Uganda. It was in response to an appeal from the traveller Stanley in 1875 that the first missionaries were sent out. " Within two years of their start two of the original party of eight had been massacred, two had died of disease, and two had been invalided home. One of the remaining two, Alexander Mackay, an engineer, became the real founder of the Uganda Church." * The company of Christians was soon called to pass through the fiery furnace of persecution ; and the founder, in constant hardship, suffering and peril, sustained their faith and courage by his words and example. The numbers con- tinued to increase. The first bishop, James Hanniugton, was murdered as he was journeying to his diocese. It is wonderful that Mackay himself did not sufJbr martyrdom. Worn with his cares, labours and sorrows, he died on 8th February 1890. Twenty years later the number of ^ George Robson, The Pacific Islanders, p. 292, quoted by Robinson, p. 463. " Ildd., p. 463. • See Home, pp. 171-199. * Robinson, p. 348. EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 239 Christians had risen to 70,000. A letter which he addressed to the Christians of Uganda carries us back in language as well as spirit and content to the Apostolic Age. "We, your friends and teachers, write to you to send you words of cheer and comfort, which we have taken from the Epistle of Peter the apostle of Christ. Our beloved brothers, do not deny our Lord Jesus, and He will not deny you in that day when He shall come in glory. Eemember the words of our Saviour, how He told His disciples not to fear men who are able only to kill the body. ... Do not cease to pray exceedingly, and to pray for our brethren who are in affliction and for those who do not know God. May God give you His spirit and His blessings. May He deliver you out of all your afflictions. May He give you entrance to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." ^ On such a foundation was the Church built. (2) Eobert Moffat (1795-1883)2 spent nearly fifty years among the Bechuana in Africa (1821-1870). He translated the whole Bible into Sechuana, and established an influential missionary centre in Kuruman, including a training school for native evangelists. By his writings and his speech, when at home, he did much to awaken interest in the spread of the Gospel in Africa. (3) Greater in fame was his son-in-law, David Living- stone (1813-1873).3 The world thinks of him as one of the greatest explorers ; and as such " he travelled twenty-nine thousand miles in Africa, and added to the parts of the world known to civilised man nearly one million square miles."* He thought of himself as a missionary. "I am a missionary, heart and soul. God had an only Son, and He was a missionary. A poor, poor imitation of Him I am or wish to be. In His service I hope to live, in it I wish to die." ^ His wish was fulfilled, and be died on his knees at Ilala, to the south of Lake * Quoted by Robinson, p. 349. 2 Eobinson, p. 317 ; Home, pp. 72-88. 3 See Robinson, pp. 317-320 ; Home, pp. 232-245. * Robinson, p. 319. ' Quoted by Robinson, p. 320. 240 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Bangweolo, on Ist May 1873. Because he loved the African, and won, as no other probably had done, the love of the African, he wanted not only to give Africa the Gospel, but to save it from the blighting curse of the slave-trade. Words cannot describe the greatness of the man, the Christian, and the missionary : to him a whole continent will for ever be a debtor. 9. A few words of justification of the inclusion of the preceding pages may seem necessary. Of the preaching of these men little has been said, because their work was done under conditions and by methods which the Christian preacher at home cannot imitate. They all made the preaching of the Gospel their aim ; but they had also to use many other ways of influencing and instructing those whom they sought to win for Christ, and most of their preaching was not in sermons from pulpits, but in talk wherever and whenever the door of opportunity opened. An interesting volume might be written on the methods of presenting the Gospel in different lands, and some materials might be gathered from biographies and mission- ary reports; but the task, alluring as it is, cannot be attempted now, and the writer claims no competence to discharge it. But the history of preaching would have been incomplete for the encouragement and guidance of any preacher had not the outstanding personalities in this greatest enterprise of the Christian Church in our own age been presented. Doubtless many others by their labours and sufferings no less deserve mention ; but so far as the writer's knowledge reaches and his judgment guides, the names recorded here have won the foremost places in the admiration and gratitude of the Christian Churches.^ ^ The notes and references in Robinson's History of Christian Missions and Home's The Story of the L.M.S. should be consulted for the abundant literature on this great subject. CHAPTER X. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH. 1. In the preceding chapter some of the preachers of the earlier decades of the nineteenth century have been mentioned, as they attach themselves to the great Evan- gelical Kevival of the eighteenth. As the Missionary Movement sprang out of that Kevival, the great missionaries of the century have also been dealt with. In this chapter an attempt must be made to discuss some representative preachers of the nineteenth century, who have not been referred to in the one or the other connection. So great is the variety of type and tendency, that at first sight it appears a " forlorn hope " to bring them all under one banner : and yet, recognising that the description is but partial, and not at all exhaustive, the writer has ventured to give the definite title to this chapter, which to him does not seem inappropriate or forced, and which expresses what the pulpit specially needed to be. 2. So manifold and rapid were the changes in the thought and life of mankind during last century, that the Church did not keep its hold on the knowledge or the activity of the age. It may be that we are prone to magnify unduly what is nearest our vision, and that the breach between the Church and the world around was not wider than in many previous periods of the history of Christendom ; but that the Church was more conscious of the existence of the breach, and more concerned about the repairing of it, will not be generally denied. 3. Some of those whose names will be mentioned had no intention of departing from the familiar ways, nay, made it their endeavour to restore the old paths. Yet 242 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER even they did not, and could not, assume that the world they addressed stood unmoved and unmovable as regards Christian doctrine and practice. The passion of their protest against change was the evidence of the peril which they were forced to recognise. Others responded to the call of the hour, and were ready to go themselves and to lead others to " fresh fields and pastures new " ; although not many of the influential preachers of the age repre- sented this more advanced tendency. Most of the noted preachers sought rather the middle path of mediation between the old beliefs and the new knowledge. Without attempting rigidly to separate from one another men who had much in common, the writer feels justified for conveni- ence of treatment in distinguishing among the preachers of the nineteenth century the conservative, the progressive, and the mediating tendency. About the placing of some of the preachers there can be no difficulty ; others in the breadth of their outlook and effort defy classification. Any arrangement must be at best only an approach to, and not an attainment of, the exact truth. 1. There can be no hesitation about the place to be assigned to Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890).^ (1) The Tractarian movement, of which he was facile princeps, was a resolute, one might almost say a desperate, attempt to arrest modern progress in the Church, and to bring it back to Mediaeval or even Patristic ways. " What was to Thomas Arnold," says Fairbairn, " the evidence of God's action in the present — viz., its enlarging liberty, widening knowledge, saner morals, purer love of truth as truth and man as man — was to Newman, who read it through the ecclesiastical changes he both hated and feared, Liberalism, or the apostasy of modern man from God, and constituted the need for bringing out of a period where God most manifestly reigned, forces and motives to restrain and order and govern the present." ^ 1 See DHP ii. pp. .^114-518. ^ Christ in Modern Theologij, 1893, p. 178. 'iHE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 243 (2) It was contrary to his own inclinations that he was thiust into the leadership of the movement; but it was inevitable. "Never was there a religious vocation," says Sarolea, " more spontaneous and more certain. He understood that he had a care of souls as soon as he became conscious of his power to influence others. And that power he soon ex- hibited to an extraordinary degree. There are fifty points in Newman's life and work which have given rise to ardent controversies, but there has always been absolute unanimity on his magnetic gift in drawing to himself those with whom he came in contact. And the faculty appears all the more marvellous when we remember that it was combined with a shy and reserved disposition. . . . Never was there any man more devoid of all worldly ambition. And it was in the fitness of things that the greatest religious genius of his century, the man of whom even opponents like Gladstone only spoke in a whisper of awe and admiration, should live to the age of seventy-eight as a humble and solitary monk." ^ With that personal magnetism there was joined " an essenti- ally sympathetic intellect," for " he was himself highly recep- tive and impressionable" and " could enter into the ideas of others. This is indeed part of his power. He has always read the human soul as in an open book." ^ The intellectual- ism due to the influence of Whately in his earlier years in Oxford was conquered by " the vitality of his religious and mystical temperament."^ It was as he was preaching in St. Mary's, Oxford, for five years that his own experience deepened, and his own theology developed. Six months in Italy did still more for the unfolding of his genius. On his return in 1833 he resumed his work in Oxford, "fully conscious of his mission and delivered of his doubts." * The question why Newman became a Eoman Catholic is thus answered by Sarolea. " Newman hecame a convert because Catholicism was adapted to his temperament, because there was a pre-established harmony betiueen his character and the Catholic system, because his soul was naturaliter catholica." ^ His career in the Church of Eome we do not need to follow. (3) What for the present purpose is significant is, that ' Cardhml Newman, pp. 44-45 (The World's Epoch Makers). » Ibid., p. 46. ' lUd., p. 47. * Ibid., p. 51. « Ibid., p. 61. 244 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER it was his five years' preaching in St. Mary's, Oxford, that was the dominant influence in the Tractarian movement. " All contemporary witnesses," says Sarolea, " both friends and opponents agree in their testimony as to the indelible impression left by these extraordinary sermons, probably unique in the annals of sacred oratory : an impression ex- plained by the beauty of the language, lucid and direct, pure and simple, and devoid of all rhetoric ; by the lofty ideals and the wonderful psychological insight into the most hidden recesses of the human soul, by the external advan- tages of the orator and the mysterious charm emanating from his whole personality — a musical voice, quivering with restrained emotion, a manner in turn sweet and imperious, an appearance slender and graceful, emaciated and ascetic, as a messenger from that invisible world of which he was ever speaking to his hearers. And together with the revela- tion of a great spiritual force there was a revolution in the doctrine. That doctrine was rather suggested than explicitly stated ; but, whilst being asserted without dogmatism, the dogma was none the less novel; the orator restored the supernatural life, the Sacraments, the Visible Church, the Communion of Saints. He dwelt on the opposition between the City of God and the world, between faith and reason." ^ (4) One characteristic passage may be quoted in illus- tration. It is the concluding passage of a sermon on " God's Will the End of Life," from the text, " I came down from heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." 2 " The world goes on from age to age, but the Holy Angels and Blessed Saints are always crying Alas, alas ! and Woe, woe ! over the loss of vocations and the disappointment of hopes, and the scorn of God's love, and the ruin of souls. One generation succeeds another, and whenever they look down upon earth from their golden thrones, they see scarcely any- thing but a multitude of guardian spirits, downcast and sad, each following his own charge, in anxiety, or in terror, or in despair, vainly endeavouring to shield him from the enemy ^ Cardinal Newman, pp. 24-25 (The World's Epoch Makers). 2 Jn 6^. THE REPAIREKS OF THE BREACH 245 and failing because he will not be shielded. Times come and go, and man will not believe, that that is to be which is not yet, and that what now is only continues for a season, and is not eternity. The end is the trial ; the world passes ; it is but a pageant and a scene ; the lofty palace crumbles, the busy city is mute, the ships of Tarshish have sped away. On heart and flesh death is coming ; the veil is breaking. Departing soul, how hast thou used thy talents, thy oppor- tunities, the light poured around thee, the warnings given thee, the grace inspired into thee ? Oh, my Lord and Saviour, support me in that hour in the strong arms of Thy sacraments, and by the fresh fragrance of Thy consolations. Let the absolving words be said over me, and the holy oil sign and seal me, and Thy own body be my food, and Thy blood my sprinkling, and let my sweet Mother Mary breathe on me, and my angel whisper peace to me, and my glorious saints, and my own dear father, Philip, smile on me ; that in them all, and through them all, I may receive the gift of perseverance, and die, as I desire to live, in Thy faith, in Thy Church, in Thy service and in Thy love." ^ 2. Not all who threw themselves into the Tractarian movement followed Newman to Eome ; many not only remained in the Church of England, but even came out into open opposition to the claims of the papacy. The most famous preacher of the High Church Party in the nineteenth century was Canon Henry Parry Liddon (1829- 1890).2 (1) The Bampton Lectures on The Divinity of Christ, which on very short notice he delivered in Oxford in 1866, put him in the first rank as a learned and able theologian and an eloquent preacher. From 1870 till 1882 he was Ireland Professor of Exegesis at Oxford ; and he combined with this a canonry at St. Paul's, where, when twice a year he took his turn, he preached to great crowds. A strong High Churchman, he was opposed to the Broad Church views, and declined to preach at Westminster Abbey, because Dean Stanley threw the pulpit there open to preachers of all schools. German criticisms he abhorred. His last appearance in St. Mary's, Oxford, was to denounce » WGS iv. pp. 229-231. ^ See DHP ii. pp. 550-553. 246 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER the views of the Lux Mundi group.^ His rigid theology and vehement polemic will affect the permanence of his influence as a teacher ; but his powers as a preacher will continue to claim recognition. Learning and intellectual force were in his preaching so combined with intense con- viction and personal magnetism as to give him complete mastery over his hearers. The outward graces of the oratoi were his also : " a handsome face, a graceful action, and a ringing voice." The one word that describes his preaching best is loftiness of style, tone, thought and feeling. " Canon Liddon," says Hoyt,^ " brings the riches of exegesis and theology and philosophy to the pulpit, and gives to the sermon the distinction of his refined and spiritual personality." (2) In his sermon on " Influences of the Holy Spirit," ' he derives from the analogy of the wind and the Spirit the two characteristics of the Spirit's working, freedom and mysteriousness, and traces " the import of our Lord's simile in three fields of the action of the Holy and eternal Spirit ; His creation of a sacred literature, His guidance of a divine society, and His work upon individual souls." * A passage may be quoted from the beginning of the second division, which sets forth the presence of the Spirit of God in the history of the Church. " The history of the Church of Christ from the days of the Apostles has been a history of spiritual movements. Doubtless it has been a history of much else ; the Church has been the scene of human passions, human speculations, human errors. But, traversing these. He by whom the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified has made His presence felt, not only in the perpetual proclama- tion and elucidation of truth, not only in the silent, never- ceasing sanctification of souls, but also in great upheavals of spiritual life, by which the conscience of Christians has been quickened, or their hold upon the truths of redemption and grace made more intelligent and serious, or their lives and * The writer was a student in Oxford at the time, and remembers the sensation produced by the sermon. » The Work of Preaching, p. 60. ' Jn 3». * WGS vii. p. 130. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 247 practice restored to something like the ideal of the Gospels. Even in the apostolic age it was necessary to warn Christians that it was high time to awake out of sleep ; that the night of life was far spent, and the day of eternity was at hand. And ever since, from generation to generation, there has been a succession of efforts within the Church to realize more worthily the truth of the Christian creed, or the ideal of the Christian life. These revivals have been inspired or led by devoted men who have represented the highest con- science of Christendom in their day. They may be traced along the line of Christian history ; the Spirit living in the Church has by them attested His presence and His will ; and has recalled lukewarm generations, paralysed by indiffer- ence or degraded by indulgence, to the true spirit and level of Christian faith and life."^ He then shows how these movements illustrate both the freedom and the mysterious- ness of the Spirit's operation. *' Sometimes these movements are all feeling ; sometimes they are all thought ; sometimes they are, as it seems, all outward energy. In one age they produce a literature like that of the fourth and fifth centuries ; in another they found orders of men devoted to preaching, or to works of mercy, as in the twelfth ; in another they enter the lists, as in the thirteenth century, with a hostile philosophy ; in another they attempt a much needed reforma- tion of the Church ; in another they pour upon the heathen world a flood of light and warmth from the heart of Christendom." . . . "The Eternal Spirit is passing; and men can only say, ' He bloweth where He listeth.' " ^ 3. The most popular preacher of the nineteenth century was Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892).^ (1) Not only did he gather crowds wherever he preached, but his printed sermons reached a far wider circle. About two thousand five hundred of his sermons have been pub- lished, and the average sale of each was 25,000 copies ; they have been translated into many languages. He, too, stood in the old ways, professing himself a sound Calvinist, and denouncing in no measured terms modern expositions of the Christian Gospel He was neither a profound scholar » GWS vli. pp. 184-135. ^ Ibid., pp. 136-138. • See DHP ii. pp. 535-561 ; Edwards' Nineteenth Century Preachers, pp. 121-130 ; Brown's P\irilan Preaching, pp. 219-228. 248 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER uor an original thinker, although he was widely read, and had a very acute mind. His sermons were delivered ex tempore, and printed afterwards from shorthand reports. Often the immediate preparation was very short ; yet he was always living, thinking, and reading for his pulpit, so that the general preparation, to which more importance should be attached, was very thorough. It was to no empty treasury that he went to draw abounding riches for his pulpit. He was, in his own words, " always in training for text-getting and sermon-making." His constant study of the Bible supplied him with more texts than he could use. He often tried many a text before he got what seemed to him the right one. A text must lay hold on him so that he could not escape it, and he must get hold of a text so that it must speedily and surely yield up its meaning to him before he felt free to preach about it. He aimed at preaching in every sermon definite teaching on the Christian salvation ; but it was not mere theology he preached ; his truth was often embodied in a tale, and the arrow of his appeal was winged with a wise and witty saying. His wide and keen observation of life, his varied reading, supplied him with abundant illustrations of the doctrine he set forth. His exegesis, from our modern standpoint, may often have been forced ; his construction of his sermon faulty, according to rules of homiletics ; but " the common people heard him gladly," and he even impressed hearers of culture and influence. (2) What accounts for his marvellous success ? His personal appearance was not attractive, although, as he caught fire with his message, his face shone. He had not, as far as one can learn from reports, the personal magnetism some men possess. His voice had clearness and strength, and he could be well heard in a vast building. It had not, however, the range of expression which has been so great a gain to many orators. His preaching was natural, without any pulpit affectation ; he talked with fulness and freshness of thouglit. He knew how to make even an ordinary subject interesting by unhackneyed exposition and illustra- THE KEPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 249 tion. " He was a speaker of superb English, a master of that Saxon speech which somehow goes warm to the hearts of men." * Not only was such racy English native to his genius ; his early training and surroundings had been favourable to this gift, and he afterwards cultivated it by a close study of the masters of the language. The secret of his power, however, did not lie here, although these endow- ments might explain his popularity. He preached the Gospel of the grace of God, which men need and their hearts long for, with the distinctness and certainty which carries conviction to the hearers, because it springs out of the convictions of the preacher. He preached as himself sure that the Gospel is the power and wisdom of God unto salvation, and that is the will of God by the foolishness of preaching to save men.^ And its ancient inexhaustible efficacy was proved as he preached. (3) We may listen to him as he sets forth the doctrine of election as a reason for the believer's Songs in the Night^ " If we are going to sing of the songs of yesterday, let us begin with what God did for us in past times. My beloved brethren, you will find it a sweet subject for song at times, to begin to sing of electing love and covenanted mercies. When thou thyself art low, it is well to sing of the fountain- head of mercy, of that blest decree wherein thou wast ordained to eternal life, and of that glorious Man who undertook thy redemption ; of that solemn covenant signed, and sealed, and ratified, in all things ordered well ; of that everlasting love, which, ere the hoary mountains were begotten, or ere the aged hills were children, chose thee, loved thee firmly, loved thee first, loved thee well, loved thee eternally. I tell thee, believer, if thou canst go back to the years of eternity ; if thou canst in thy mind run back to that period, or ere the everlasting hills were fashioned, or the fountains of the great deep scooped out, and if thou canst see thy God inscribing thy name in His eternal book ; if thou canst see in His loving heart eternal thoughts of love to thee, thou wilt find this a charming means of giving thee songs in the night. No songs like those which come from 1 Brown, op. cU., p. 225. ^Tco^^. » Job 35^o. 250 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER electing love; no sonnets like those that are dictated by meditations on discriminating mercy. Some, indeed, cannot sing of election ; the Lord open their mouths a little wider ! Some there are that are afraid of the very term, but we only despise men who are afraid of what they believe, afraid of what God has taught them in His Bible. . . . But if thou hast not a voice tuned to so high a key as that, let me suggest some other mercies thou mayest sing of ; and they are the mercies thou hast experienced. What ! man, canst thou not sing a little of that blest hour when Jesus met thee ; when, a blind slave, thou wast sporting with death, and He saw thee, and said : ' Come, poor slave, come with Me ' ? Canst thou not sing of that rapturous moment when He snapt thy fetters, dashed thy chains to earth, and said : ' I am the Breaker ; I come to break thy chains, and set thee free ' ? " ^ 4. A few sentences must suflfice for Thomas Guthrie (1803-1873).2 He knew how to reach the hearts of the common people, and he was a master of what may be called pictorial preaching. Few preachers have so aimed at presenting truth in a tale. " An illustration," he says, " or an example drawn from nature, a Bible story or any history will, like a nail, often hang up a thing which otherwise would fall to the ground. . . . Mind the three P's. In every discourse the pr-eacher should aim at Proving, Painting, and Persuading; in other words, addressmg the Eeason, the Fancy, and the Heart."' There are two Scottish preachers whom the writer heard in his youth, and to whom he is constrained to bear his tribute. Repeated references have been already made in this volume to the History of Preaching by Dr. John Ker (1819-1886).* He was not only learned in the history, but himself skilful in the art of preaching. A man of varied culture and rare spiritual insight, he left the impress of his personality on many of his hearers, and as professor of Pastoral Theology in one of the Presbyterian * WGS viii. pp. 23-25. ' See DHP ii. p. 530 ; Edwards, op. cit., 56-64. * Quoted by Edwards, op. cit., p. 62. * DHP ii. p. 571 ; Edwards, op. cit., pp. 65-74. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 251 Colleges, influenced the preaching in many a pulpit. A big man in every respect, mentally, morally, spiritually, as well as physically, was Dr John Cairns (1818-1892). Rigid in his own theology, he was charitable to all men. Unaware of his greatness, he was simple and humble as a child. Himself unmoved by the changing thought of the age, however, he failed with all his powers to influence his age as he might have done. II. 1. One of the saddest and yet most influential minis- tries in the pulpit was that of Frederick William Eobertson (1816-1853V (1) Desiring to fulfil his Christian calling as an officer in the army, the seeming accident of the delay in obtaining his commission led him, against his own inclinations, to acquiesce in his father's wishes that he should take holy orders. Having once made the decision he devoted himself whole-heartedly to preparation for his work. Opposed to the High Church movement, in revolt against the narrow evangelicalism in which he had been brought up, too ardently positive in his own faith in Christ to be at home among Broad Churchmen, he stood alone. Sensitiveness even to morbidness, about what he regarded as his own failures, and about the antagonism which his fearless advocacy of what he believed right and true aroused made his loneliness, a martyrdom, and bad health increased the crushing burden that fell on him. Yet to the end he did his work bravely and faithfully. It was seven years after his ordination before he found the throne, from which he exercised an ever-widening rule over the spirits of men, in the pulpit of Trinity Chapel, Brighton. There he reached not only the cultured and thoughtful, but also the shop assistants and artisans of the town. Transparent in his sincerity, almost reckless in his courage, tender as any woman in his sympathy with need or sorrow, * DHP ii. pp. 620-524 ; Edwards, op. eit., pp. 113-120. Life and Letters of the Rev. F. W. Bobertson, by Stopford A. Brooke. London, 1872. 252 THE CHRISTIAN PBEACHER blazing with anger against any wrong, the very soul of chivalry, he threw his whole personality into his preaching. Much he learned in suffering that he taught in words which reached to the depths of the soul in many of his hearers. (2) Only one of his sermons was published before his early death after much pain ; it was entitled " The Israelite's Grave in a Foreign Land," and was preached on the occasion of the public mourning for the widow of William iv. in December 1849. It was not written out before dehvery, but in a condensed report for a friend after it had been preached. The sermons collected and published after his death were preserved in the same way. We do not possess any of them in full as spoken, or as revised for publication, and yet in what would appear so imperfect a form they have exercised and still exercise an indescribable influence over the choice circle of readers to whom they make their irresistible appeal. They are based on a constant and minute study of the Scriptures ; they breathe the spirit of intense devoutuess ; they are most searching in their scrutiny of the experience and character of men ; they are illumined by illustrations drawn from varied and accurate study ; their arrangement is logical and thus clear and memorable ; the plan is thoroughly thought out ; there is no ambiguity or uncertainty about the truth taught ; their theology, which excited so much suspicion and hostility, while thoroughly independent, the fruit of his own medita- tion, would now be regarded as liberal evangelical, having its centre in Christ the Saviour. Acceptable and attractive as is the truth, it is the personality through which it comes that gives to his preaching its enduring worth. (3) As bringing us into close living touch with the man himself we turn to his sermon on " The Loneliness of Christ." 1 He begins with the distinction : " There are two kinds of solitude ; the first consisting of isolation in space ; the other of isolation of the spirit." The first division deals with the loneliness of Christ. *' The loneliness of Christ was caused » WGS vi. pp. 113-130. The text was Jn 16^^-^. THE REPAIREKS OF THE BREACH 253 by the divine elevation of His character. His infinite superiority severed Him from sympathy; His exquisite affectionateness made that want of sympathy a keen trial." His insight into the human heart is shewn in distinguishing from Christ's loneliness the morbid sense of loneliness some people cherish, and in pressing home this test. " Is that because you are alone in the world — nobler, devising and executing grand plans, which they cannot comprehend; vindicating the wronged ; proclaiming and living on great principles; offending it by the saintliness of your purity, and the unworldliness of your aspirations ? Then yours is the loneliness of Christ. Or is it that you are wrapped up in self, cold, disobliging, sentimental, indifferent about the welfare of others, and very much astonished that they are not deeply interested in you ? You must not use these words of Christ. They have nothing to do with you." After dealing with his wonderful discernment of the mind of Christ with one or two of the occasions of loneliness, he in the second division makes the practical application in shew- ing the spirit or temper of Christ's solitude. 2. From Robertson we turn to a man of equally independent mind, and yet altogether different temperament, Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887).^ (1) His ideal of preaching may be given in his own words as quoted by Edwards : " To preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; to have Christ so melted and dissolved in you, that when you preach your own self you preach Him as Paul did ; to have every part ' of you living and luminous with Christ, and then to make use of everything that is in you ... all steeped in Jesus Christ, and to throw yourself with all your power upon a congregation — that has been my theory of preaching the Gospel. ... I have felt that man should consecrate every gift that he has got in him that has any relation to the persuasion of men and to the melting of men — that he should put them all on the altar, kindle them all, and let them burn for Christ's sake." 1 Dargan has reserved for a third volume the treatment of preaching in the United States, so that no reference to him can be given. See Edwards, op. cit., pp. 1-7. Beecher gave the first three courses of the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching in Yale University, 1871-1872, 1872-1873, 1873-1874. 254 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER The personality is here emphasised, if not over empha- sised, and it was characteristic of Beecher to give himself with utmost freedom and force. (2) The love of Christ dominated his theology, and his wide knowledge and keen insight into men enabled him, as he made it his steadfast aim, to bring home to " all sorts and conditions of men " their need of this Saviour. He was con- stantly studying his Bible, the world around him, and the men he met, reading, observing, meditating with one object, to gather material for his pulpit. Thorough as was his general preparation, his special preparation was very slight, and only a pulpit genius could have ventured so to make ready for his work. His Saturday was " a kind of active rest-day," in which he got himself fresh and fit for the tasks of Sunday. " His Sunday morning sermons were prepared after breakfast, and the evening sermons after tea." ^ Sometimes the outline of the sermon came to him only in the pulpit. Nevertheless so great a preacher as Phillips Brooks regarded him as the greatest preacher in America, and he has even been described as "the greatest pulpit orator the world ever saw." His vivid imagination and his intense passion gave him an extra- ordinary dramatic power. Without exaggeration he may be regarded as one of the greatest orators who have used the heaven-sent gift in the pulpit. He passed through all the horror and heroism of the Civil War, and doubt- less the times helped to make the man. Great events should find great voices. One of his greatest orations was delivered, 14th April 1865, by request of President Lincoln, on the occasion of the Eaising the Flag over Fort Sumter.2 (3) It is more consonant with the purpose of this volume, however, to give a passage from his sermon on " Immortality," ^ in which he develops the argument from the human affections, and shows his tender insight into the hearts of men. 1 Edwards, op. cit., p. 6. ^ See CME i. pp. 352-374. » WGS vi. pp. 3-25. The text is 1 Co IS^^. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 255 " I cannot believe, I will not believe, when I walk upon the clod, that it is my mother that I tread under foot. She that bore me, she that every year more than gave birth to me out of her own soul's aspirations — I will not believe that she is dust. Everything within me revolts at the idea. Do two persons walk together in an inseparable union, mingling their brightest and noblest thoughts, striving for the highest ideal, like flowers that grow by the side of each other, breathing fragrance each on the other, and shining in beauty each for the other ; are two persons thus twined together and bound together for life until in some dark hour one is called and the other left : and does the bleeding heart go down to the grave and say, ' I return dust to dust ' ? Was that dust then ? That trustworthiness ; that fidelity ; that frankness of truth ; that transparent honesty ; that heroism of love ; that disinterestedness ; that fitness and exquisite- ness of taste ; that fervour of love ; that aspu-ation ; that power of conviction ; that piety ; that great hope in God — were all these elements in the soul of the companion that had disappeared but just so many phenomena of matter ? And have they already collapsed and gone, like last year's flowers struck with frost, back again to the mould ? In the grief of such an hour we will not let go the hope of resur- rection. Can a parent go back from the grave where he has laid his children and say, ' I shall never see them more ' ? Even as far back as the dim twilight in which David lived, he said, ' Thou shalt not come to me, but I shall go to thee ' ; and is it possible for the parental heart to stand in our day by the side of the grave, where the children have been put out of sight, and say, * They neither shall come to me, nor shall I go to them ; they are blossoms that have fallen ; they never shall bring forth fruit ' ? It is unnatural. It is hideous. Everything that is in man, every instinct that is best in human nature repels it. Is not the human soul, then, itself a witness of the truth of immortality ? " 3. When Henry Ward Beecher died, Joseph Parker (1830-1902) was spoken of as his successor.^ (1) An eccentric and egotistic personality, his genuis in the pulpit triumphed over all obstacles. Without any training of the schools, he entered the Congregational ministry ; but his powers quickly showed themselves in his first pastorate at 1 See DHP ii. pp. 561-567 ; Edwards, op. eit., pp. 101-112. 256 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER Banbury. He was for eleven years in Manchester (1858— 1869), but his name is inseparably linked with the City Temple, London (1874-1902). The two sermons on Sun- day and the noonday sermon on Thursday drew crowds of devoted hearers; and he reached a still wider circle with his books. Besides his own more permanent congregation, he was constantly reaching by his influence the multitudes of visitors to London from all parts of the world, whom his fame attracted. Eough and overbearing in manner as he often was, his heart was tender and gentle. His self- conceit was often quite ludicrous ; and yet was forgotten in the strength of his faith, the fervour of his feelings and the force of his speech. Taking his own line in theology, he remained true and devoted to the evangelical verities. Unfettered by the technicalities of scholarship, he delighted in the exposition of the Scriptures, in which he displayed a very fine moral and religious discernment. A rich imagination and a keen humour were controlled by a thoroughly masculine intellect. While his style was often conversational, yet it could also rise to a lofty and glowing eloquence. His fertility of mind was amazing ; and his sermons were full of surprises. The thunder and the earthquake of vehement emotion, anger or scorn against evil, sometimes expressed without due restraint, did not exclude the still small voice of comfort and entreaty. (2) A short sample of the wooing note in his preaching may be given. The sermon on a " Word to the Weary " ^ ends with a tender appeal : " Did we but know the name of our pain we should call it Sin. What do we need, then, but Christ the Son of God, the Heart of God, the Love of God ? He will in very deed give us rest. He will not add to the great weight which bears down our poor strength. He will give us grace, and in His power all our faintness shall be thought of no more. Some of us know how dark it is when the full shadow of our sin falls upon our life, and how all the help of earth and time and man does but mock the pain it cannot reach. Let no 1 The text is Is 50*. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 257 man say that Christ will not go so low down as to find one so base and vile as he. Christ is calling for thee ; I heard His sweet voice lift itself up in the wild wind and ask whither thou hadst fled, that He might save thee from death and bring thee home. There is no wrath in His face or voice, no sword is swung by His hand as if in cruel joy, saying, ' Now at last I have My chance with you.' His eyes gleam with love ; His voice melts with pity ; His words are gospels, every one. Let Him but see thee sad for sin, full of grief because of the wrong thou hast done, and He will raise thee out of the deep pit and set thy feet upon the rock." ^ One of the Boanerges could also be the Barnabas, as this passage shows. 4. Independent as thinkers, the preachers hitherto mentioned, Eobertson, Beecher, Parker, still held the evangelical position. Brief reference must be made to one who represented with conspicuous ability the Unitarian position, Dr. James Martineau (1805-1900).^ Dis- tinguished as a philosophical, theological and critical writer, he may also claim remembrance as a preacher. Negative as his theological position appears to the orthodox believer he was a man of deep devoutness of spirit. The two volumes of sermons, Endeavours after the Christian Life, in which he gathered the fruit of his ministry in Liverpool, are " unsurpassed for beauty and charm by his later writings, and realise his ideal that a sermon should be a ' lyric ' utterance." " His spoken addresses were simpler in style than most of his literary works." " The delivery of his sermons was vivid and even dramatic, though without action." 5. Without identifying their theological position with Martineau's, mention may here be made of the brothers Pulsford, William and John. William in Edinburgh (1856-1865) and Glasgow (1865-1886) and John in Edinburgh (1867-1884) made a deep impression on many hearers by their devout mysticism ; a tendency by no 1 WGS vii. pp. 207-208. '^ Didionary of National Biogra/phy, Supplemeut, iii. pp. 146-15] 258 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER means common in the pulpit to-day.^ It may be observed, however, that the preachers who reach and move the multitude are those vs^ho hold strongly and preach clearly the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ as Saviour and Lord. 6. Although his name might almost as fitly be included in the next group, the representatives of the mediating tendency, on the whole Dr. John Caird (1820-1898)^ may be most properly dealt with here as representing the liberal movement. (1) He began as a fervent and force- ful evangelical preacher. His younger brother's influence probably led him to recast his thought in the Hegelian mould, but his later writings indicate a movement towards the evangelical position. As the writer during his student days in Glasgow had the opportunity of hearing a number of the addresses on various themes which Caird delivered as Principal of the University, he retains to this day a very vivid impression of his mastery as an orator. His range of learning, his sweep of thought, his wealth of exposition or illustration, his dignity of diction, made one of his hearera at least feel as he used to feel when listening to a grand symphony. While his fame by no means rests on one sermon, yet one of his sermons has become more famous than any other. His sermon on " Religion in the Common Life " ^ was preached in 1855 at Balmoral Castle, before Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, and won the approval of the Royal hearers. (2) It seems inevitable that his preaching should be illustrated by a quotation from this sermon, part of his peroration, for we may so describe the conclusion of his sermons. "No work done for Christ perishes. No action that helps to mould the deathless mind of a saint of God is ever 1 A rare spirit, who appealed only to a very small circle of choice hearers, was the Rev. S. A. Tipple of Norwood ; their enthusiasm warrants this mention. 2 DHP ii. pp! 532-533. •" The text was Ro 12", and the treatment rests on the current mis- representation of the first clause. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 259 lost. Live for Christ in the world, and you carry with you into eternity all of the results of the world's business that are worth the keeping. The river of life sweeps on, but the gold grains it held in solution are left behind deposited in the holy heart. ' The world passeth away and the lust thereof ; but he that doeth the will of God abide th for ever.' Every other result of our * diligence in business ' will soon be gone. You cannot invent any mode of exchange between the visible and invisible worlds, so that the balance at your credit in the one can be transferred, when you migrate from it, to your account in the other. Worldly sharpness, acute- ness, versatility are not the qualities in request in the world to come. The capacious intellect, stored with knowledge, and developed into admirable perspicacity, tact, worldly wisdom, by a lifetime devoted to politics or business, is not, by such attainments, fitted to take a higher place among the sons of immortality. The honour, fame, respect, obsequious homage that attend worldly greatness up to the grave's brink, will not follow it one step beyond. These advantages are not to be despised ; but if this be all that, by the toil of our hands, or the sweat of our brow, we have gained, the hour is fast coming when we shall discover that we have laboured in vain and spent our strength for naught. But while these pass, there are other things that remain. The world's gains and losses may soon cease to affect us, but not the gratitude or the patience, the kindness or the resignation they drew forth from our hearts. The world's scenes of business may fade in our sight, the sound of its restless pursuits may fall no more upon our ear, when we pass to meet our God, but not one unselfish thought, not one kind and gentle word, not one act of self-sacrificing love done for Jesus' sake, in the midst of our common work, but will have left an indelible impress on the soul which will go out with it to its eternal destiny. So live, then, that this may be the result of your labours. So live that your work, whether in the Church or in the world, may become a discipline for that glorious state of being in which the Church and the world shall become one — where work shall be worship, and labour shall be rest — where the worker shall never quit the temple, nor the worshipper the place of work, because ' there is no temple therein, but the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.' " ^ 'WGS vi. pp. 191-193. 260 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 7. In connection with John Caird, the writer is constrained to mention his brother Edward Caird (1835- 1908), and with his name may be linked that of Thomas Hill Green (1836-1882). Both were teachers of philo- sophy, but both exercised a potent moral and religious influence on the young minds brought into contact with them. They both gave addresses on topics usually dealt with in the pulpit ; but, excellent as these are, they are not the sole reason why these two thinkers should be held in grateful remembrance. There are many in Christian pulpits to-day who have abandoned the philosophy which they taught, but who are worthier preachers of the Gospel as better men because of their influence ! Each had been a Socrates to those he taught. III. 1. We may give the first place in the group of preachers who seek to offer the Gospel to the age in its own language, to Bishop Phillips Brooks (1838-1893).^ (1) His lectures on preaching have already been quoted, and he was himself a conspicuous example of his own definition. His personality was great, a fit channel for the Gospel he preached. It was not till he had begun his work, and had passed " through a period of trial and disappointment," that he discovered himself as born for his calling because of the joy he found in it, and the powers that were brought into free and full exercise by it. He was a very hard worker, a very diligent student, reading widely " science, literature, biography, history, poetry " ; but the one thing he did was to preach, using all else for this end. Edwards quotes a series of striking testimonies to his power and charm. Only one of these we may quote. " Mr. (now Lord) Bryce, in comparing his preaching with that of Wilberforce, Spurgeon and Liddon, said, ' In all these ^ See Edwards, op. cit., pp. 8-18; Phillips Brooks, Memoirs of Ms Life, by Alexander V. G. Allen, London, 1898. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 261 it was impossible to forget the speaker in the words spoken, because the speaker did not seem to have quite forgotten himself, but to have studied the effect he sought to produce. With him it was otherwise. What amount of preparation he may have given to his discourses I do not know. But there was no sign of art about them, no touch of self-con- sciousness. He spoke to his audience as a man might speak to his friend, pouring forth with swift yet quiet and seldom impassioned earnestness the thoughts and feelings of a singularly pure and lofty spirit. The listeners never thought of style and manner, but only of the substance of the thoughts.'" 1 Unlike Beecher, Brooks made laborious preparation. He was always recording in his notebooks germs for sermons. On Monday and Tuesday he was gathering the material suitable for the development of the subject he had chosen. On Wednesday he wrote the plan. On Thursday and Friday he wrote out the finished sermon. By such labour he found his freedom in the pulpit. Varied as were his interests and resources, be concentrated in his preaching on the great central truths of Christianity, and to this was in large measure due his attractiveness. It is not novelty of subject, but freshness of treatment for which the pulpit calls. (2) No fitter illustration of the spirit and the purpose of his preaching could be found than the last paragraphs of his volume on Preaching. " It is by working for the soul that we best learn what the soul is worth. If ever in your ministry the souls of those committed to your care grow dull before you, and you doubt whether they have any such value that you should give your life for them, go out and work for them ; and as you work their value shall grow clear to you. Go and try to save a soul and you will see how well it is worth saving, how capable it is of the most complete salvation. Not by pondering upon it, not by talking of it, but by serving it you learn its preciousness. So the father learns the value of his child, and the teacher of his scholar, and the patriot of his native land. And so the Christian, living and dying 1 Op. ciL, pp. 11-12. 262 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER for his brethren's souls, learns the value of those souls for which Christ lived and died. And if you ask me whether this whose theory I have been stating is indeed true in fact, whether in daily work for souls year after year a man does see in these souls glimpses of such a value as not merely justifies the little work which he does, but even makes credible the work of Christ, I answer, surely, yes. All other interest and satisfaction of the ministry completes itself in this, that year by year the minister sees more deeply how well worthy of infinitely more than he can do for it is the human soul for which he works. I do not know how I can better close my lectures to you than with that testimony. May you find it true in your experience. May the souls of men be always more precious to you as you come always nearer to Christ, and see them more perfectly as He does. I can ask no better blessing on your ministry than that. And so may God our Father guide and keep you alway." ^ This is written from his own heart ; and he claims our reverence and affection as few of the great preachers do in the same degree, for few there are so utterly forgetful of self and mindful of their hearers as he was. 2. Archbishop William Connor Magee (1821-1891)2 expressed his view of the function of the pulpit in the words : " The office of the preacher is to smite the rock, that the living waters may gush forth to satisfy the thirst of the age."^ This description could be applied to him- self. He desired always in his preaching, which was warmly evangelical in tone, to be the ambassador of God. Not distinguished either as scholar or thinker, he took his place in the front rank of the orators of the age. Liddon regarded him as the greatest orator ; others place him only second to Gladstone or John Bright. He was an ex tempore speaker, believed thoroughly in this method, and com- mended it to others. In contrast to Magee may be men- tioned Dean Frederic William Farrar^ (1831-1903), whose preaching often tended to become rhetoric rather than ^ Lectures on Preaehing, pp. 279-281. AUenson's Handy Theological Library, 1908. 2 See DHP ii. pp. .^48-549. » Quoted by Edwards, op. cit., p. 88. * See DHP ii. pp. 557-558; Edwards, oji. cit., pp. 45-55. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 263 oratory. He had an amazing memory, had read very widely, and adorned his sermons with quotations, allusions and illustrations, which his too fertile mind suggested to him with a prodigality that seemed to know no restraint. His scholarship was not always exact, nor was his language always measured. The rush of his thoughts and feelings was allowed to carry him away, and he did not allow himself time to prune his sermons ; but he was a very popular preacher, who exercised a wide influence for good. There can be no doubt that his Life of Christ did a great deal to diffuse among the people a vivid sense of the historical reality of Jesus. 3. The claim of Dr. Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) ^ to be placed among the greatest preachers of the nineteenth century cannot be challenged. (1) Dargan quotes the testimony of the Bishop of Manchester in 1896. "In an age which has been charmed and inspired by the sermons of Newman and Eobertson of Brighton, there were no published discourses which, for profundity of thought, logical arrangement, eloquence of appeal, and power over the human heart, exceeded in merit those of Dr. Maclaren." If the occasion, the presentation of a portrait, may have led the speaker to slight over-statement, yet a very generous estimate of the value of Maclaren's ministry is fully justified. The words of Edwards may be accepted as true and just. "He possesses in an eminent degree the true expository genius, the power of vivid and glowing illustration, a fervent and established faith joined to wide and generous culture, and an attractive and fascinating style. Keenly alive to and fully abreast of all the intellectual questions of the day, he is singularly free from any taint of modern scepticism ; confident and undismayed in presence of its loud-voiced materialism." (2) Dr. Brown, who had personal knowledge of him, gives an analysis of the causes of his success as a preacher : 1 DHP ii. pp. 572-577 ; Edwards, op. eit., pp. 75-87. ; Brown's Puritan Preaching in England, pp. 263-288. 264 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER (1) "His teaching is firmly based upon and is a careful exposition of the revelation God has given to us in the Scriptures. (2) His intelligent reverence for Scripture is accompanied with, or rather grows out of his firm belief in the historical facts related in Scripture." (3) His preach- ing is " intensely practical in character," not in the sense of " ethical instruction in the duties of daily life," although that is not absent, but of " clear and definite instruction as to the rationale of the divine life in the souls of men, — its nature, its beginnings, its after developments, and the spiritual forces by which it is begun, and carried on " ; in this teaching the contrast of the natural and spiritual man is emphasised ; and the need of faith in Christ for the change from the one to the other is asserted. (4) Not only the substance of his preaching has given him his place, but "also the crystal clearness of his way of putting the truth before the minds of his audience. (5) The great literary and intellectual qualities of this man are suffused with intense spiritual earnestness." (3) The methods of preparation of such a master are worth recording. He resolved at the beginning of his ministry not to write sermons, but to think and feel them, not a less but a more arduous method of preparation, and still more of delivery. A few introductory sentences were written to launch him out into the deep ; but afterwards he spoke freely with only the help of jottings. The heads were also carefully worded, and the closing sentences written. In the earlier years of his ministry this method involved, however, long pauses, when he was carefully choosing the best words, and a very short sermon, when his matter gave out sooner than he expected. In later years these defects were altogether overcome. Instead of a quotation from one of Dr. Maclaren's sermons, some sayings of his on the preacher's calling may be given. "I have always found that my own comfort and efficiency in preaching have been in direct proportion to the frequency and depth of daily communion with God. I know no way in which we can do our work but in quiet fellowship with Him ; in resolutely keeping up the habits THE EEPAIREES OF THE BREACH 265 of the student's life, which needs some power of saying, No ; and by conscientious pulpit preparation. The secret of success in everything is trust in God and hard work." ^ In answer to an inquiry about his method of prepara- tion he wrote : " I have really nothing to say about my way of making sermons that could profit your readers. I know no method, except to think about a text until you have something to say about it, and then to go and say it, with as little thought of self as possible." ^ This thinking about a text with him included, however, careful exegesis. " A minute study of the mere words of Scripture, though it may seem like grammatical trifling and pedantry, yields large results. Men do sometimes gather grapes from thorns: and the hard dry work of trying to get at the precise shade of meaning in Scripture words always repays with large lessons and impulses." ^ As Dr. Brown's analysis indicates, in Maclaren's preaching that Christian truth is definitely conceived and distinctly expressed, and that truth goes forth to men through a personahty genuinely and intensely Christian. 4. The writer has never met a man, or heard a preacher, who so deeply impressed him with the sense of greatness as Dr. Eobert William Dale (1829-1895);* and he cannot pretend to write about him with cool impartiality. (1) Dale was not so much an expository preacher as Maclaren, although he was at home in the Holy Scriptures ; but he was more explicitly doctrinal. He took a more prominent and active part in public life in Birmiugham than did Maclaren in Manchester ; his civics and politics, however, did not lower his standard, but increased his * Quoted by Brown, op. cit., p. 287. 2 Quoted by Edwards, op. eit., p. 78. ^Ibid., p. 80. * See DHP ii. pp. 560-561 ; Edwards, op. cit, pp. 32-44; Brown, op. cit., pp. 231-259. Life of R. W. Dale of Birmingham, by his Son, London, 1898. 266 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER influence. His doctrinal preaching was not remote from reality, but experimental, rooted in his own inner life, and ethical, applied to the outer life of his hearers. His independent and constructive contribution to theology does not lie in his lectures on the Atonemetit, which do not come into close living touch with the thought of to-day ; but in his exposition of what was distinctive of his own inner lite, fellowship loith the Living Christ ; and this should make a persuasive appeal to present mystical tendencies. To the perils of negative criticism he opposes this defence of positive experience. Himself compelled to restate his own belief in terms of modern thought, he regarded it as a binding duty that he should share with others the dis- tinctness and assurance of faith which he had himself attained. In a time more averse to doctrinal preaching than is our own, which is being driven to ask questions about the ultimate realities, he disregarded the fashion of the hour, and preached theology, not divorced from ethics, for he was one of the sanest and strongest moral forces of his age, and not presented in a technical or academic fashion, for he had a robust common sense, and a constant and intimate contact with the busy world around him ; but as the interpretation of an experience of the divine truth and grace possessed by Christian believers, and possible to all, which is the source of all worthy character and good conduct ; and this he offered in language which he sought to make intelligible to all his hearers. (2) His style was influenced by Edmund Burke more than by any other writer ; and in the same manner bears the marks of greatness. His sermons may be claimed as literature ; but we must ask, is such a style the best fitted for the pulpit ? Dr. Brown quotes Dr. Fairbairn as saying that Dr. Dale's words " though written to be spoken, are even more fitted to be read than to be heard ; for his books are as firm in texture, as weighty in matter, as vigorous in expression as the concentrated thought of a strong man could make themu" ^ Dr. Brown's own opinion is, however, * Op. cit., p. 249. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 267 that they are less fitted to be heard than to be read, and so are not as well adapted for the pulpit as they should be. His delivery of the sermons was, as a hearer testifies, adversely affected by this mode of composition. It tended to monotony, and lack of pathos ; the intellectual pre- dominated over the emotional. On great occasions when thoroughly aroused, he could profoundly affect an audience. Often, however, he moved in a region beyond the common reach. As a student of theology the writer found no difficulty in following the course of Dr. Dale's thought ; and yet he must admit that he sometimes had a feeling of oppression, as if too great a weight were being laid upon his mind. It is surely an evidence of the greatness of Dr. Dale that he himself recognised his own limitation, while realising that he could not altogether escape from it, for his habit had become a second nature. 5. Although none of the books consulted on the preachers of the nineteenth century reckons Dr. Andrew Martin Fairbairn (1838-1912)^ among them, the writer as one of his students cannot withhold his tribute to his master. The sermons were often far too long, learned, philosophical and theological for popularity ; and the preacher inclined to make his boast of what to most persons would appear his defect ; he overtaxed the attention, because he overrated the intelligence of most of his hearers. His delight in description and narration, and his warm human sympathy did something to relieve the tension, and to secure in some measure a personal re- sponsiveness, if not mental receptivity, in many of his hearers. He had no natural advantages as an orator, and his mannerisms sometimes distracted the attention ; but, when he was at his best, for those who could appreciate him, his preaching was great, profoundly impressive in its range of knowledge, sweep of thought, keenness of vision, passion of conviction, and power of personality. Had he laid less stress on intellect in religion and so in preaching, ^ See The Life of Andrew Martin Fairbairn, by W. B. Selbie, London, 1914. 268 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER and had he allowed as free and full exercise in his sermons to his great heart revealed to those who knew him as to his great mind, he would have been more effective as a preacher. The writer heard him on the same day preach two sermons, which presented a striking contrast. In the morning he preached from his Christian heart on the Christian Motive : " The Love of Christ constraineth us." ^ In the evening he delivered a lecture in answer to the question, " What think ye of Christ ? " ^ The first moved his hearers to the depths of their inner life ; the second only bewildered most of them. One is safe in conjecturing that his own judgment of the respective value of the two utterances would be the reverse of that of his hearers. The limitation of Dr. Dale's influence by the stateliness of his style has been mentioned ; and yet Dr. Dale was more experimental and practical, less historical and speculative than was Dr. Fairbairn. Both were great men, and the writer who knew both well fully appreciates their great- ness ; more effective as preachers they would have been had they known better how to stoop to conquer. 6. All the preachers mentioned were concerned about repairing the breach between the Christian Gospel and the thought of the age. Just as, if not more serious is the breach between the Christian Church and the toiling masses. Two men may be mentioned who sought to reach the shepherdless multitude, and to bring it into the fold of Christ. The first of these was Hugh Price Hughes (1847- 1902).' He cannot be reckoned among the great preachers, but he claims a place here as representative of the necessary, and too long delayed, endeavour to get the common people to hear the Gospel gladly, and to commend the Gospel not in word only, but also in deed, by manifold ministry to their needs of body as well as of soul. He was a strong and bold champion of the application of Christian principles to public life, to the moral issues of modern society. The writer heard him preach twice in Oxford, once revealing his power, and again showing his » 2 Co 5'*. 2 Mt 22". 8 DHP ii. pp. 568-569. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 269 limitation. A straight talk on personal decision, based on the words, " Sir, we would see Jesus," ^ moved his audi- ence of students who had no love of academic discourses, too reminiscent of their work in classrooms. A more ambitious efifort to deal with the Natural Agnosticism of the Human Heart ^ failed of any effect. It is the former kind of preaching that the multitude needs ; and that even the cultured, unless spoiled by pride of culture, also delight in. His strength lay in the speech that moves from heart to heart. 7. The second of these leaders of the Church back to the people was Charles Silvester Home (1865-1914). (1) As one of his fellow-students at Glasgow, and then Oxford University, the writer can testify that his powers as a speaker were early acknowledged. In spite of his tendency, when excited, to overstrain his voice, there was no speaker who could move an audience of Free Church- men to such an enthusiasm or indignation as he could. Although he excelled on the platform, yet in the pulpit also his influence was great. He left a West-end congrega- tion to lead a new movement to recapture the masses for Christ at Whitefield's Central Mission. Many of his friends regretted that, impelled by his high sense of public duty, he added to his manifold exacting labours the burden of representing a constituency in Parliament. Whether, if he had spared himself, his life would have been prolonged, who can tell ? In the midst of his work in a moment death took him ; just after he had finished the delivery of the Yale Lectures on Preaching. (2) As a personal friend from student days the writer ventures to bring to a conclusion the history of preaching in this volume by a brief summary of Home's last lecture, entitled " The Eomance of Modem Preaching." ^ He seeks to answer the question what gives preaching " a perennial fascination and glory." He offers four reasons, (a) " Preach- » Jn \T\ " The text, if memory does not deceive, was Ps 14'. * The Romance of Modern Preaching, pp. 255-292. 270 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER ing can never lose its place so lo7ig as the mystery and wonder of the human spirit remains. For we are dealing with that which is the source of all the amazing interest of life." . . . " We preachers live always in the conscious presence of the supreme mysteries." (6) " Amid all changes of thought and phrase the wonder of conversion remains." . . . " There is not a moment of any day, in any year, when we may not rise with Christ into newness of life and walk in His ways with transfigured spirits. All this goes to make up the charm, the fascination, the rapture, the romance of the ministry." (c) " We are manifestly on the eve of new application of Christ's teaching, which will revive the interest of the people in Christianity to a surprising degree. , . . The watchword of our new century is Justice. It will create as splendid an army of prophets ; and it may very well be that, before the victory is won, men and women will have to buy the new inheritance at a great price. But buy it they will ; for the master passion in the breast of the noblest of our young men is that the will of the Father shall be done * on earth as it is in heaven.' " (d) " Over this world of military camps, bristling frontiers and armoured fleets, there is being heard to-day with new insistence the ever-romantic strains of the angels' song of Peace and Goodwill." 8. Does this last statement ring in our ear as a cruel mockery ? Home did not live to witness the outbreak of war.* Yet he was no false prophet ; the general permanent purpose of the nations, in so far as they are Christian, is peace, and not war. If the Churches are true and brave, on the bloody battlefields of Europe will be sealed the doom of its armed camps. One cannot doubt that had he lived he would not have abated heart or hope, but would have continued the prophet of the better day, the im- passioned advocate of the League of Nations. More than ever the preachers of to-day must labour as the repairers * Two volumes of the Yale Lectures have appeared which take account of the war in its influence on preaching. Coffin's In a Day of Social Mebuild- ing, and Kelman's The War and Preaching. THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 271 of the breach in the world which, professing Christianity, has yet in mutual slaughter been disowning the sovereignty '' of the Prince of Peace. Even if, as the writer himself believes, war was forced on some of the nations in defence of the precious heritage of nationality, and to prevent the triumph of might over right, so that all the peoples at war are not involved in blood-guiltiness, yet inevitably much of the good gained during the last century, which to him, who, though dead, speaks to us in this hopeful forecast of the future, seemed an assured possession, must be recovered by suffering and toil. In that resurrection of the Christian Churches from among dead aims, hopes and achievements, the Christian preacher ^ must in this age, as in former ages, bear his witness to the inexhaustible power and final triumph of the Eisen Lord ; must continue calling to the world around, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee," ^ and send forth to the Churches themselves the summons : " Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."* 1 The writer has decided not to mention any preachers still Uving, owing to the greater difl5culty of making a choice. An intelligent appreciation of a number of these may be found in the book entitled Vmces of To-day, » Eph 5". • Is 60^. PART II. THE CREDENTIALS, QUALIFICA TIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE PREACHER. INTRODUCTORY. The history of preaching, with which the First Part has dealt, is the necessary presupposition of any discussion of the credentials, qualifications and functions of the preacher to-day. Since he stands in a historical succes- sion, he will recognise the responsibility of his trust, and the difficulty of his task, only as he has a distinct con- sciousness of this succession, and takes up into his ideal of his vocation all the elements of permanent significance and value in the previous history. But on the other hand " God fulfils Himself in many ways lest one good custom should corrupt the world," and accordingly the conception of the preacher's calling which the past yields cannot simply be transfeiTed to the present ; but in his work he must recognise the necessity of adaptation to the existing conditions, as in this sphere, no less than in others of human activity, the principle of evolution is applicable. What must as far as possible be combined are loyalty to the past and devotion to the present ; and with that alli- ance there will surely go also guidance for the future. As far as possible, in order to emphasise the virtue of con- tinuity, the old terms descriptive of the position and obli- gations of the preacher will be used, with such modification of meaning, however, as changed times may demand. 872 CHAPTER I. THE PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE. As the preacher claims to be offering men truth valid for their reason and authoritative for their conscience, he must be able to offer his credentials, he must show that he has the competence, and so the authority, to speak to men in the name of God. As it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he is called to preach, he must first of all be able to show that Christ Himself has entrusted His Gospel to him, and that Christ's Church has confirmed his claim ; he must be an apostle. While the Gospel of Jesus Christ was given once for all, yet in the interpretation and appli- cation of that Gospel, the Christian preacher needs the enlightening and quickening of the Spirit of God, that he may declare the permanent and universal revelation of God as personally revealed to himself ; he must be a prophet. This revelation of God has been preserved in the Holy Scriptures, and the personal illumination of the preacher cannot be a substitute for, but is always in dependence on his study of the Holy Scriptures; he must be a scribe. These three relations, apostle, 'prophet, scribe, indicate the channel through which comes to him the message for which he can claim the validity and the authority of truth. I. 1. In dealing with the Christian preacher the starting- point must be the relation of Jesus to the Twelve, whom He chose, called, taught and trained, and then sent forth as the witnesses of His Gospel, and the workers for His king- dom. We are not concerned here with any ecclesiastical 274 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER figments of apostolic succession ; but are simply trying to learn from what the apostles were what the Christian preacher should be. As was pointed out in a previous chapter,^ a necessary qualification of apostleship was per- sonal knowledge of Jesus, especially witness of the Resurrec- tion. The personal experience of Christ as Saviour and Lord is also the primary qualification of the Christian preacher. While we must not insist on any one type of Christian development as essential, yet we may lay down the broad general principle that the less the religious life of the Christian preacher is second-hand, dependent on the theological traditions and pious conventions of the religious community to which he belongs, and the more it is first- hand, due to his individual consciousness of the presence and power of the living Christ in his own soul, the fitter will he be to bear testimony to what Christ is and what Christ can do. If his Christian life has been a gradual development, he runs the risk of not recognising adequately in the natural growth the supernatural grace of Christ which has made, and is making him what he is. The necessity, sufficiency and efficiency of the grace of Christ may not be adequately appreciated by him. If, on the other hand, his Christian life has had a certain and distinct beginning in a conscious and voluntary conversion, his peril is that he may so emphasise the supernatural act of Christ in saving as to ignore the manifold natural channels of this gracious activity. Whatever be the type of his Christian experience, the preacher will be disqualified for his work by one-sidedness, unless he learns to live his religious life vicariously, to live in the life of others whose experience is unlike his own. Sympathy and imagination, however, should enable a man to put himself in the varied and varying positions in which, owing to differences of education, temperament and circumstances, men living the same life in Christ do find themselves. Preaching is to be the voice, not of the preacher's individuality, with its narrowing limitations, but of the universal Christian » Pp. 48-49. PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 275 experience which testifies to the manifoldness of the truth and grace of Christ. Without desiring to qualify this statement, the writer cannot but add that to him, at least, it seems that preaching can be truly apostolic only when the note of certainty that Christ is risen is distinctly heard. Jesus as teacher and example may be the theme of Christian preaching ; but that preaching will surely lack the " holy enthusiasm " of the preaching of the apostles which does not witness from personal experience that the Lord is risen indeed.^ 2. This personal experience must, however, include the consciousness of personal vocation by Christ for the work of preaching. (1) Each of the Twelve was called; and so must the preacher know himself called. While to all Christians according to the gift of the Spirit some work in the Christian Church is appointed, this work, because so much more prominent, responsible and representative, does demand a certainty of vocation. Some men can testify to having received as distinct a call from Christ to the work of the ministry as did any of the Twelve. It may be even that contrary to their previous education, their personal inclination, and their determining circumstances, necessity was laid upon them, while recognising their unfitness, un- readiness, and the difficulties in the way of obedience, so that they dared not be " disobedient to the heavenly vision." The possibility of mistake may be admitted. There are disqualifications of capacity, character and even circum- stances, which only ignorant conceit could disregard and vain ambition could defy; but nevertheless it would be rash for another to challenge the reality of the call where it comes with such authority and urgency. All that in the one case seemed to offer a reason against the choice of this calling, may in the other combine to compel the question, whether the natural inclinations are not to be taken as God's supernatural guidance. If a man recog- nises that the fields ripe for the harvest are needing ^ Dr. Stalker devotes four of the nine lectures of his book on The Freueher and his Models, to St. Paul, as the representative of apostolic preaching. 276 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER labourers, and that God in His providence has made it possible for him to render such service, he may decide that it is his duty so to serve, even if there be no distinct experience of a call. In either case it is not the form of the experience which matters, but the reality of the divine guidance which is experienced. (2) As the preacher in the Christian Church is the representative of the community, speaks for it as well as to it, to his own sense of his calling there must come the confirmation of the call of the Church. Here too there is possibility of mistake ; the Church may appoint whom God has not set apart, and may refuse its acknowledgment to one who has the divine warrant. And yet the man's sense y of being called, and the appointment of the man who has heard the call by the Church, are a mutual safeguard, and ordinarily the Church should satisfy itself that he who seeks its ordination can claim the vocation by God, and the man who thinks himself called, but fails to win the Church's recognition, should accept the judgment of the community in correction of his own estimate of himself. The qualifications which will be indicated in the course of these chapters are such as demand a special education of the preacher, and it is for the good of the Churches that the possibility of such an education should be placed within the reach of all who have felt the call, and in whom the Church sees the promise of fitness for the calling, without regard to financial resources or social rank. The training for the ministry should be offered freely to the poor youth, if worthy and fit. 3. It is the personal experience and the personal voca- tion, confirmed by the Church, which give to the Christian preacher his authority. There can be no doubt whatever that, in the early Church, the apostles claimed an authority which was conceded to them. Without any hierarchical pretensions or official arrogance, the Christian preacher also may claim authority, but an authority which imposes an obligation. The apostles had authority as the companions of Jesus and the witnesses of His Eesurrection ; and so the PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 277 Christian preacher has authority only as he continues the same function in the Church. (1) It is the truth and grace of Christ which he must apprehend for himself and offer to others. It is Christ, and the Christ of the evan- gelical history, apostolic testimony, and Church's continuous experience, and not himself, his own views and aims, that he must preach. Whatever be his own immediate contact with Christ in personal experience, yet historically he is linked to Christ by the Christian community, and it is his relation as its representative which gives him his authority, and this relation demands on his part, if his authority is not to be a usurpation, fidelity to its historic confession of Christ as Saviour and Lord. This does not mean that he is to go on repeating stereotyped phrases, or even in his own mind to preserve superseded phases of Christian belief, but it does mean that in his preaching he does declare the historic facts, the religious truths, and the moral duties which, undefined and undefinable in any creed, would command the acceptance of all Christians, and which form, nevertheless, the common treasure which believers and saints know themselves to possess. (2) Most Christian denominations seek to secure the continuity of faith by means of subscription to a creed, but even if such subscription were desirable, as in the writer's opinion it is not, it is useless as a safeguard without the personal loyalty to the doctrine it includes on the part of those who subscribe it. No creed has yet been formed the terms of which were so unambiguous as to leave no room for variety of interpretation, and no subscription was ever so rigid as not to allow for mental reservations. Given the loyalty, the creed subscription is unnecessary ; failing the loyalty, it is futile. The Christian community is a living body, and the continuity of its life cannot be main- tained by such mechanical devices as creed subscription. The recognition of this fact makes not less, but more necessary the insistence on the duty of the Christian preacher to recognise fully his responsibility in his preach- ing to maintain with all necessary adaptation in the forms 278 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER of presentation, the faith which has linked the Christian generations to one another. Only as he recognises that he is a man under the authority of the truth can he declare the truth with authority. 4. It was the apostolic function to link historically the Christian Church to the historical Jesus, and so it is the function of the Christian preacher as an apostle to maintain the historical continuity of the Church. It is surely not in rites, customs, creeds and codes that the Christian life maintains its identity through the changing centuries, for that identity cannot be a uniformity such as these external forms alone can maintain, but must be realised in a development, to which change as well as sameness belongs. It is for the Christian preacher to receive the Christian inheritance of the past, and to adapt it in such wise to the need of his own age that it will be effective for all religious and moral ends, and will pass from him to another generation as a greatly enriched bequest. So conceived, the pulpit becomes the channel of the growing life of the Christian Church from generation to generation ; it is not an individual possession of the preacher, however great and many his gifts may be, but a common trust, and the Church's fidelity to its purpose in the world will depend on the preacher's loyalty as its representative. That there is need of, and room for, originality in the pulpit, will be shown in the subsequent discussion ; but what needs to be asserted in view of many tendencies towards an excessive subjectivity is that the Christ of the faith of the Church is a constant objective reality, and that the preacher is Christian only as he recognises and respects the distinctive- ness of the faith he preaches as historical.^ II. 1. But if the apostolic function suggests one aspect of the Christian preacher's work, the prophetic offers us the ^ This subject has been fully treated by Dr. Forsyth in his book, Positive PreMcking and the Modern Mind. See pp. 71-72. PEEACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 279 complementary aspect. The Christian preacher does not stand only in a historical succession ; he has also a spiritual equipment. The Spirit who fitted the prophets for their calling has made the Christian Church His permanent organ, and all who share the common life of the Church are subjects of the Spirit's presence and power. He who possessed the Spirit without measure has also endowed His body with a like possession.^ The Montanist movement was an attempt to force a recovery of the external aspects of the Spirit's operation in the Apostolic Church, the abnormal psychical conditions which in some persons accompanied the " holy enthusiasm " kindled by the certainty of the Kisen Living Lord ; but in suppressing Montanism, the Church tended to substitute mechanics for dynamics, organisation for inspiration. Even to-day it is necessary to insist that a genuinely and intensely Christian life will be an inspired life, not sporadic exaltations, but a constant religious and moral transformation of the spirit of man by the Spirit of God. In His Spirit the Living Christ gives Himself to be the inner life of believers. To be His is to possess the Spirit. There is an enlightening of the mind, a quickening of the heart, a cleansing of the conscience and a renewal of the will in the Christian, which is not merely natural human development, but is also a supernatural divine action. 2. While this claim of inspiration may and ought to be made for all Christians, yet there is diversity of the Spirit's operations, and some are specially endowed for distinctive service. Although the historic connection with Jesus was a necessary condition of apostleship, yet the apostles also possessed a distinctive gift of the Spirit to fit them for their leadership of the Church.^ Next to the apostles ranked the prophets, of whose functions a previous chapter ^ also gave some account. The difference between the apostolic and the prophetic aspect of the Christian ^ John 3** AV. " God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." RV. "He giveth not the Spirit by measure." n Co 1228. 'Pp. 49-50. 280 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER ministry may be thus briefly stated. The apostle declares the faith which has once for all been delivered as the sacred deposit of the Christian community; the prophet reads the signs of the times, and applies the truth as it is in Jesus to the new needs. There is still a purpose of God being fulfilled in human history ; and that men may co-operate with that purpose it is necessary that they should understand it. It is to be feared that while on the one hand rash men have far too confidently declared the decrees and the designs of the divine providence ; yet on the other hand the Christian preacher has often shrunk from his pro- phetic task when God was calling him to it. Contemporary human events have some eternal divine meaning ; and this both for guidance and encouragement the Christian Church should seek to know, and the preacher or prophet is especi- ally charged with the function of such interpretation. 3. It is a task full of peril. As in Israel so in the Christian Church there may be false as well as true prophecy.* National prejudices, ecclesiastical preferences, class interests may so blind the eyes of the preacher that he does not see the history of his own time as God would have it understood. During recent years Christian preachers in Germany were defending the war as necessary and legitimate self-defence, on which the blessing of God could be invoked. Little more than a decade ago Christian preachers in Britain were as zealously defending the Boer War. Now the invasion of a small country like Belgium is a crime against humanity for those who regarded the suppression of the Boer nation as a debt to civilisation and even Christianity. While the man who always finds his own country wrong is probably just as mistaken as the man who always finds it right ; yet the prophet must be specially on his guard against confusing human prejudices and divine principles, his own inclinations and God's inspiration of him. Great as is the difficulty of an objective judgment of what concerns us personally very closely, yet for the * Dr. stalker in the book already referred to deals in the fifth lecture with the Preacher as a false prophet. PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 281 discharge of his duty the preacher must learn as in this, 80 in all respects to rise above and go beyond his own limitations of time and place, and so to live in the per- manent and universal life of the Spirit of God, that God will find in his moral insight and spiritual discernment an unimpeded channel for the communication of His mind and will to his age and people. 4. A very important distinction between ancient and modern prophecy must be asserted. The prophet of old was the agent of a preparatory and progressive revelation, but the prophet to-day is the agent of a confirmatory and expository revelation. When Jesus made the promise of the Paraclete to His disciples. He so defined the functions of the Spirit of truth as to subordinate the revelation by the Spirit to the revelation in the Son. " Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come. He will guide you into all truth : for He shall not speak of Himself ; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. . . . He shall glorify Me : for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you." ^ As He the Son was wholly dependent on the Father, so would the Spirit be dependent on the revelation that He the Son had already given of the Father, The religion of the Spirit is sometimes so represented as to be a setting aside of Christ as the Saviour and Lord. If a man is convinced that the Lord hath spoken to Him something above and beyond what has akeady been spoken in the Son, he cannot be hindered in declaring the oracle which has been committed to him ; but it can be said with an impartial historical judgment that nothing of any value has been added by any of these new prophets to the deposit of moral and religious truth already possessed by the Church in the revelation of God in Christ. The Christian prophet claims only the humbler service of confii'ming and interpreting under the Spirit's influence the revelation already received.^ " The jireaclier's inspiration has been dealt with by Dr. Horton in his book, Verbum Dei. 282 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER III. 1. The revelation which culminated in Christ, and the revelation which is complete in Christ, are both recorded in the Holy Scriptures. This record includes not only the narrative of the historical events in which God's purpose was fulfilled, but also the testimony to, and the interpreta- tion of, this history in the religious life and thought of the subordinate agents of revelation, prophets and apostles. The Christian preacher both as apostle and as prophet has a dependent relation to the Holy Scriptures ; and we may, retaining as far as we can the old terms, describe him as a scribe. He is the student and exponent of the Bible, because, alike in his apprehension of Christ and his inter- pretation of the mind and will of God, he cannot know and understand the revelation of God apart from the Holy Scriptures. This dependence is confessed, though often it is to be feared unconsciously and involuntarily, when the text of a sermon is given out. Thus the preacher acknow- ledges that what he is about to say has its source and its authority in what God has already said in Christ, or by prophets and apostles. The use of a text, then, is not an arbitrary convention which may be set aside without making any difference to the preacher and the character of the preaching. There may be rare occasions, and peculiar subjects, when the preacher may feel war- ranted in dispensing with a text ; and this is the more honest course than to attach a sermon to a text by a tour de force of exegesis. But a preacher would have good ground for suspecting the adequacy of his knowledge of the Bible, or the loyalty of his preaching to Christian truth, who found it necessary frequently to depart from not only a time-honoured custom, but an authoritative principle rooted in the very character of Christian preach- ing as dependent on divine revelation. The contents of the Scriptures are so varied, and the wisdom, righteousness and grace therein recorded so manifold with a divine abundance, that it could be but very seldom that a PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 283 preacher who was also an instructed scribe could not find in that treasure-house a warrant both for things new as well as old which he might desire to bring forth.^ Ac- cordingly it may be urged as strongly as possible that the preacher who does not find in the Holy Scriptures not only his themes, but even the most profitable treatment of them, is likely very soon to exhaust his stock of subjects, and to get theadbare in his treatment of them ; while, on the contrary, he who knows and understands the literature of the divine revelation and of the human redemption, has an inexhaustible source to which he can constantly return with confidence that he will not be sent empty away, but that he will find the record as abundant as the truth and grace of the Infinite God can make it. It has pleased God that as in His Christ, so in His Scriptures His fulness should dwell — and of that fulness we may keep on freely receiving according to our desires and capacities. 2. The generally accepted results of modern scholarship in regard to the Bible raise a problem for the preacher which cannot be ignored or escaped. (1) It is, of course, possible for a man to decide that he will keep his eyes closed to all new light on this as on other subjects ; and, if he is ignorant and dishonest enough, he may be able to go on treating the Bible in the pulpit in the traditional way. Apart from the injury, moral as well as intellectual, of such an attitude to the man himself, and the weakness of faith which lies at the root of such cowardice in facing fact and truth, his influence over his hearers who read and think will be not to promote faith, but rather to provoke doubt and unbelief. The Christian ministry is probably not aware to how great an extent its moral and religious authority is being undermined by a growing suspicion in the cultured class that ministers have not the courage either to acquaint themselves with any new knowledge which might disturb their theological assumptions, or, having gained some acquaintance, the sincerity to betray it lest they might disturb the tran- 1 Mt 1352, 284 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER quillity of their congregations. It is certain that a preacher cannot influence those who are doubtful of his courage and his sincerity, and that a fearless following of the truth, whithersoever it may lead, alone will command respect. It is not merely the preacher's intellectual adequacy, but even his moral integrity, which is involved in the solution of this problem. (2) If a man has both knowledge and courage, there still remains a difficult question, which will demand all his Christian wisdom to answer : how far is he in the pulpit to deal with the results of the literary and historical criticism of the Bible ? He must consider not only what he means to say, but also what his hearers are likely to understand by what he says. Truth may be so spoken as on un- prepared minds to leave the injurious impression of falsehood. The denial of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, or of the unity of the book of Isaiah, to men- tion as instances only two of the most assured conclusions of modern scholarship, may appear to some ignorant saints (and saints are often very ignorant) in a congregation a challenge of the authority of the Bible in morals and religion as well. Some of the very best men and women in a congregation are most firmly bound by the traditional views of the Bible ; and, even in the interests of accurate knowledge, their convictions, however mistaken, must not be disregarded. Courage must be combined with con- siderateness. The " strong " in faith in this respect must not despise the " weak " ; but, at the same time, the " weak " cannot ever continue to impose their limitations on the liberty of the " strong." ^ But the adjustment of these two interests requires a judgment and tact which only the enlightening of the Spirit can give. Are there any general principles which can be laid down, while their application must always remain the obligation and responsi- bility of individual conscience ? (3) The following considerations are offered with some diffidence, even although there is practical experience ' See Ro 14 for Paul's treatment of a similar problem. PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 285 behind them. In the first place, it must be maintained that the pulpit is not the place for instruction about the Bible, but for declaration of the truth and grace of God conveyed in the Bible. Special courses of lectures on Sunday evenings on some of the critical questions may be in some congregations not only tolerable, but even desir- able ; for, if the public mind is engaged at any time by any theological problem, it may be the duty of the preacher to offer his own contribution to the solution. As a general rule, however, any parade of learning in the sermon is offensive in the highest degree, and most of all to those who are best able to judge its value. In the Bible Class, the minister may prepare the young people of his " cure of souls " to accept the new knowledge without any loss of the old faith. In the second place, the exposition of a passage of Scripture may require that the results of modern scholar- ship should be assumed. For instance, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah cannot be made as intelligible and inter- esting as it should be, unless the historical situation is fully and clearly presented. The existence of the great prophet of the Exile may be simply affirmed without any debate about the unity of the Book. Or again, the differences of the Synoptic and the Johannine presentation of the person of Jesus may need to be recognised in order to leave the true impression of the life and work of Jesus ; and yet the Synoptic question, or the problem of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel, need not be discussed in detail. The influence of changing historical conditions on Paul's the- ology may be noted without raising any controversy about " the husk " and " the kernel " in his teaching. So far as modern scholarship is an aid to an understanding, and an appreciation of the Holy Scriptures, the preacher not only may, but ought to, use it freely and boldly ; never in a controversial spirit, but always with a constructive purpose. In the third place, even when a preacher is not directly dealing with any matters of scholarship, his treatment of his text will show any discerning and informed hearer 286 • THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER whether or not he has the scholarship, and is using it. A reverent and sympathetic hearer, however well informed on these questions, does not expect nor desire that these ques- tions should be discussed in detail in the pulpit. What such a hearer resents, and resents with good reason, is that the preacher should show by his handling of his subject either that he is ignorant of what he ought to know, or that, though not ignorant, he does not allow his knowledge to have its due influence on his method of exposition of the Scriptures. Competence and candour are legitimate demands of the pew upon the pulpit. In the fourth place, it is possible so to present the moral and religious truth of the Bible, detached from the traditional view hitherto associated with it and in consist- ency with modern scholarship, that gradually and insensibly a congregation is moved from one standpoint to the other, so that it becomes detached from the traditional, and accustomed to the critical without any feeling of the loss of anything valuable for conscience or spirit. While there are prejudiced bigots of the new as well as of the old, who would like the pulpit to be aggressive either tradition- ally or critically, most Christian men and women desire simply to hold fast the truth as it is in Jesus, the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and are relieved to find that they can retain what alone they can value as well in the new as in the old position on all critical questions. 3. In the considerations just presented it has been assumed that modern scholarship does not affect the substance of the Christian Gospel, and this assumption must as briefly as possible be justified.^ (1) It will be readily conceded that questions of date, authorship, modes of composition of the writings in the Bible, do not affect matters of faith unless in so far as the credibility of the history recorded, or the trustworthiness of ^ The question has been discussed by Dr. Forsyth, in his book already mentioned, Positive Preaching, pp. 106-109, as well as by Dr. (now Sir) George Adam Smith, in his Modem Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament. PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 287 the witnesses of the divine revelation is involved. A book is not morally or religiously less or more valuable because it was written by one author or another, in one century or another. Poetry may convey truth even more effectively than does prose ; the literary character of a writing affects our method of exposition, and not the substance of its message for us. If modern scholarship had changed our traditional views of the Bible in these respects only, there would be no problem about which we need trouble our- selves. It must be admitted, however, that we are forced to face the question whether the history of the divine revela- tion and the human redemption as recorded in the Scrip- tures is substantially accurate. Did God fulfil His purpose in the Hebrew nation progressively making Himself and His will known to man, or was the history just the same as that of any other nation, and was the difference which the records present not objective reality but subjective illusion ? Was there no choice and call, no guidance and guardianship, no teaching and training of this people by God ? Did Jesus exist at all, or was He, if He did exist, in reality Christ, Saviour, Lord, as He now is for the Christian faith ? Is the New Testament the literature of an actual religious movement which was as it is there represented, or is it the result of the mythical tendency of all religion ? Can the death and rising again of Jesus be resolved into the myth of a dying and reviving God ? All these questions are not equally crucial for Christian faith. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha mean far less than the miracles of Jesus ; and the surrender of the records as unhistorical would involve far less loss. The translation of Enoch is immeasurably less significant for Christian thought and life than the resurrection of Jesus. The accui'acy of the narratives in Kings does not touch us as Christians so closely as does that of the Gospels. And when we insist on the necessity of the trustworthiness of the history con- tained in the Scriptures for our Christian faith, we should always recognise these distinctions between the essential and the non-essential. 288 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER (2) To the question whether we have or have not a historical revelation of God and redemption of man, modern scholarship, candid and courageous, does allow us to give an affirmative answer. Upon many subordinate matters there are, and will remain, wide differences of opinion ; but the general conclusion may be hazarded that the historical reality of the Lord Jesus Christ remains unshaken, that the testimony to and interpretation of His person and work in the New Testament retains its value for Christian faith, that even in the Old Testament a pre- paratory and progressive revelation towards Him can still be traced. What is necessary and valuable for the moral and religious life in the Holy Scriptures has not been taken away from the Christian Church ; and the preacher may use fully and freely in the pulpit the teaching of the hallowed writings. (3) Although we must not try to answer historical questions otherwise than historically, yet from the stand- point of the preacher another consideration remains relevant. The Scriptures are self-witnessing to the moral conscience and religious consciousness. They have proved their value and their authority in Christian experience, which they have sustained, and Christian character, which they have produced. It is here that their pre-eminence in literature is seen, and it is here that the concern of the preacher lies.^ Apart from the trustworthiness of the historical revelation of God, especially in Christ, the preacher is not primarily concerned with historical questions at all ; but only with matters of faith and duty ; and to moral and spiritual discernment the Scriptures remain unchanged by all the results of modern scholarship. (4) The new knowledge we have gained about the Bible does not in the least degree lessen the demand that the preacher shall be a scribe as well as an apostle and a prophet ; but it does render two valuable services to him. In the first place, there is a simplification of the content of ' This argument has been developed by Dr. Dale in his book. The Living Christ and the Four Go-wels. See pp. 10-11. PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 289 his preacliing as determined by the Holy Scriptures. A great deal in the Bible, which from the old standpoint still possessed dogmatic authority, has now for him literary, biographical and historical interest. He is now not at all concerned about defending the cosmology or anthro- pology of Genesis, or the morality of the patriarchs or judges. Balaam's ass or Jonah's whale are no more formidable obstacles in the path of faith. He can now confine himself to that in the Bible which does sustain the Christian experience and produce the Christian character. In the second place, there is a liberation of his reason and conscience. The Bible does not now require him to believe and teach what his knowledge in other spheres of inquiry renders unintelligible and incredible. There need be no schism between his respect for science and his reverence for the Bible. He is free to follow modern knowledge where it alone is competent to lead, and yet be loyal to the truth and grace of God offered to him in the Holy Scriptures. 4. The fresh light which modern scholarship throws on the Bible imposes on the Christian preacher the obliga- tion to study in order that he may teach according to the best methods. (1) The allegorical method is now discredited, and yet there are preachers found who are always striving to impose on the Scriptures another than the literal sense. The only proper method of study is the historical, to use all the resources of our modern knowledge to find out what the ancient writer meant that his words should mean. Far from taking liberties with the Scriptures, this historical method alone treats the Scriptures with the respect due to them, for its one object is to discover the meaning in them, and not to impose a meaning on them. By textual criticism, to discover as nearly as possible what at first was actually written ; by linguistic study, to fix the exact meaning of every word, clause, sentence and passage ; by literary criticism, to ascertain what each writing tells us about itself, its date, author, occasion, literary character 290 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER and historical value; by historical criticism, to test the trustworthiness of each writing in relation to the history contained in the writings as a collection, and to any other historical evidence, and to construct an intelligible record of what did actually take place from this history — this is what the historical method in its manifold disciplines attempts to do. Its ideal is to make each reader of the Bible an eye-witness of each scene, an ear-witness of each discourse, a contemporary of prophet, evangelist, apostle and even Jesus Himself. Only when this has been done can the full moral and religious significance of the writings be apprehended and appreciated. The goal is actuality, reality, truth.^ (2) This process of study is not for the pulpit, but the product is ; for it is a fatal mistake for a preacher to suppose that in his preaching he can ignore and neglect what he learns as a student. There is a common impres- sion that the treatment of the Bible in the pulpit by methods now ignored by scholars is for the greater profit of the hearers ; and that, however valuable for scholars, this method of study of the Bible has less value for Christian believers ; and accordingly a devotional and a scholarly study of the Bible are contrasted. But against this assumption two considerations must be insisted on. In the first place, if God be truth, that cannot be for profit, which is not according to truth. The Bible, as it is, has far greater moral and spiritual value than a preacher may arbitrarily make it appear to be. What prophet or apostle or Christ meant to say is much more worth hearing than any meaning that the preacher's fancy may put into their words. And in the second place, the Bible studied by the historical method is a far more interesting book than the traditional exposition can ever make it. Many who have adopted this fresh method with prejudice have come to acknowledge that the Bible had become a new book to them. If the study of the Bible is interest- ' For a full discussion of this method see Peake's A Guide to Bibli/xil Study. PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 291 ing to the preacher, unless he is exceptionally unskilful, he will make it interesting to his hearers. 5. While in the last part of this book the different kinds of sermons will be discussed, it is relevant to the present subject to add, that if a preacher wants to keep his freshness, variety and attractiveness in theme and treatment alike, he will aim at being an expository preacher, not in the narrow sense of always expounding in detail a passage of scripture, but in the broad sense that even when he deals with a subject, that subject will be connected by no forced exegesis, but by natural affinity with his text, and that the context historically studied will determine his treatment of his text. Many preachers search high and low, near and far, for ingenious divisions of their text, for varied contents for their sermons, when in the text itself taken with its context there lies close to their hand an abundance of appropriate material. It is only by such a method of preparing his sermon that the preacher will prove himself a true and a wise scribe, rightly dividing among men the treasures of truth and grace contained in the storehouse of the Scriptures. It is by being thus a scribe in dependence on the Holy Scriptures, a prophet directed and instructed by the Spirit of God, and an apostle with a personal relation to Christ Himself and in Christ to the Christian community that the preacher can assure himself that he possesses the truth from God, which must be the motive, the content and the warrant of his preaching, the credentials which he may confidently offer to men. CHAPTER II. THE PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT. In the previous chapter an attempt was made to indi- cate in what ways the Christian preacher might assure himself of the truth of his preaching, in this chapter we must try to describe the personality of the preacher through which that truth is to be presented. Before deahng with this subject it is necessary to relate it to the preceding. (1) It is a common and persistent error which seeks in Christian life and work to magnify God by depreciating man ; and in regard to preaching, the form which the error takes is this : the truth from God is represented as alone important, and the personality of the preacher as insig- nificant. It is even argued that the more contemptible the preacher, the greater glory to God may redound from his preaching ; and some men disguise their indolence as piety, and do nothing themselves, that God through them may do all. The writer can confidently say that he has never yet heard a sermon worth listening to from a man who substituted reliance on the Spirit for preparation. It is true that often the results of preaching are quite dis- proportionate to the resources of the preacher, that the Spirit of God exalts the humble and abases the proud. The preacher does not preach himself, but Christ, and he seeks to hide his own personality behind the truth. Nevertheless God does not despise and reject the gifts in human person- ality which He has Himself bestowed, and it is ingratitude to the Giver to depreciate His gifts. As the history of preaching has shown, the great preachers have been men richly endowed, fully equipped, and thoroughly trained for 292 PREACHEE AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 293 their work. And accordingly no preacher need shrink from the effort of making himself as complete a personality, mentally, morally and spiritually, as the use of human powers in dependence on the grace of God will allow him to become, lest he should appear to magnify man rather than God. In personal self-development only ignor- ance and conceit can assume human self-sufficiency, and fail to recognise constant and complete dependence on God, who gives the self to be developed, and all the conditions of its development. We do not show humility in refusing to make of ourselves the very most and the very best that we can in order that we may be as fit and worthy instruments of God's will as can be.^ (2) The personality of the preaclier is to be developed as fully as possible mentally, spiritually and morally. In the mental development we may further distinguish two aspects : there is the gathering of as much knowledge as possible, there is also the forming of as true a judgment on questions of belief and of duty as we can. We can thus distinguish the scholar and the sage, the man of knowledge and the man of wisdom. But for religion more than a true judgment is wanted ; there must be vision of the spiritual as the real; and this is the gift of the seer. And the end of all is the character of the saint. I. 1. As a scribe, the Christian preacher must be a scholar in all that relates to the Bible ; but he will not be even that unless he is a good deal more. Much nonsense has been talked and written about knowing the Bible rather than about the Bible, although the contrast is a contradiction ; for a man cannot really know the Bible until he has learned all he can from modern scholarship about the Bible; and who can imagine what knowledge about the Bible without knowledge of the Bible can * Much valuable help in meutal discipline will be found in Adams' The Student's Ghiide. 294 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER possibly be ? A pious man may be ignorant of scholarship, and a scholar may lack piety ; but this contrast is not properly expressed in the above statement. A man cannot know all worth knowing about the Bible unless he is not a man of one book. Let him follow out thoroughly any enquiry that arises from the Bible, and he will be led into far wider fields of knowledge. It is necessary for the Christian preacher who is thoroughly equipped for his task to be a man of as wide a culture as possible. The world is God's world, and the knowledge of nature and man is a study of God's works and ways. There is a revelation of God which science, history and philosophy can interpret to us, and the wider revelation will not impoverish but enrich for wise understanding the less extended and more concentrated revelation of God through the Holy Scriptures. Not that we are to use this wider knowledge merely as a handmaid to fetch and carry for our theology ; it has claims upon us for its own worth. 2. It is now quite impossible for a man to claim " all knowledge for his province," and for the preacher what is important is not so much the extent of his knowledge as the quality of it. If the words may carry this distinction, he need not be so much learned as scholarly. To avoid one- sidedness it is desirable that he should be familiar with different kinds of knowledge. It is probable that the training of ministers has hitherto been too exclusively literary and linguistic with a very slight addition of philosophy. (1) There are mental and moral sciences, such as psychology, ethics and sociology, with which for the efficient discharge of his duties the preacher must be acquainted, and to their consideration we must return. In addition to these, however, it does seem very desirable that be should have some acquaintance with at least one physical science, so that its methods of observation, experi- ment, hypothesis, generalisation, verification, etc., may become familiar to him. If a preference may be suggested, physics or biology would seem to be of most interest and PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 295 importance as raising some of the fundamental problems to which no theologian can be indifferent.^ (2) His biblical studies will have familiarised him with the ways of literary and historical criticism ; but it is desirable that the general history of mankind in outline at least should be known to him, so that the history recorded in the Scriptures and the history of the Christian Chui'ch with which he is familiar, should be seen in their proper background. That a preaclier should know his own age should need no mention. He cannot afford to pretend the superiority of not reading the news- papers ; but he should try so to read that he will not only know the gossip of the hour, but be an intelligent and appreciative observer of the main currents of the world's life, in which as prophet he should be able to discern the activity of God. (3) Without philosophy it seems to the present writer no man can be a thinker. Without depreciating the mental discipline which may be derived fi'om the study oi formal logic, it seems to him that a man will learn to think best as he tries to rethink the thoughts of the world's greatest thinkers. He will discover that the last questions to which the mind is driven are just the problems which religion seeks to solve. Where the philosophical task ends, there the theological begins. (4) Whatever he knows, or does not know, religion he must know, not only in the familiar form of the faith he himself professes, but in the manifold forms in which the spirit of man has sought the reality above, beyond and through all. Here more than in any other sphere he will find that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin. In the beliefs, customs and rites of the savage he will find the same Godward movement of man as in his own experience has met with the manward movement of * Although the writer may expose himself to the charge of personal bias, he feels constrained to e.\press the conviction that the requirements for the Scottish M.A. under the old regulations aflforded a better general discipline than do the more recent. 296 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER God in the revelation and redemption in Christ Jesus. Of the value of literature generally much will have to be said in a subsequent chapter.^ II. 1. Knowledge, however extensive and varied, which is merely stored in the memory, is only an external pos- session ; it becomes an inward gain only as judgment is developed. The three spheres in which judgment is to be exercised are the intellectual, the moral and the religious ; and we may distinguish two excellences of judgment as prudence and wisdom. In his judgment the preacher must aim as a sage to display both these excellences in these three spheres. (1) Science, history, philosophy, the study of religion will be constantly presenting to him conclusions which require the exercise of judgment. Knowledge does not always lead to judgment ; there have been only too many " learned fools." In every department of knowledge, theories are advanced, with a great parade of learning in their support, which are conclusive on only one point, the lack of judgment of their authors. While on the one hand prejudice should never stand in the way of an impartial examination of any unfamiliar view, however much it may run counter to our deeply-rooted convictions ; yet, on the other hand, all things must be proved that the good may always be held fast.^ Theology has suffered much from obscurantism. Theories, now generally accepted among thinkers, were at first derided as folly. We must not forget the discredit Christian theology brought upon itself by its attitude to the doctrine of evolution, or to the * Dr. Dale iu his Nine Lectures