1. The Great Aim of the Ministry: Winning Souls for Christ
William M. Taylor, The Ministry of the Word (1876), chapter I, “The Nature and Design of the Christian Ministry”. Assigned excerpt. The interpretations are the author’s.
But to complete our idea of the nature of the ministry, we must take into consideration the end which in his life of service the preacher is to keep in view. Now, we find that, also, clearly set before us in the New Testament, for Paul, in tracing up the origin of the ministry to the gift of the ascended Christ, has said, “He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints; for the work of the ministry; for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;” and in describing his own procedure, he speaks after this fashion, “Christ whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”
So also in the book of the Acts of the Apostles we observe, that in all their public discourses the first preachers of the Cross sought to carry conviction to the hearts of their hearers, and used every means to bring them to the acceptance of Christ, and to the beginning of a new life in Him. Now it is Peter on the day of Pentecost, or in the household of Cornelius; and now it is Paul in the synagogue of Antioch, or on the top of Mars hill, and though like men well skilled in the reading of human nature, they varied their methods with the circumstances and previous histories of their audiences, yet always they had before them as their great aim the bringing of souls to Christ, and the carrying of them forward to higher attainments in Christ. Their constant design was to move men to accept Him as their deliverer from sin, and to persuade them to adopt His precepts as the rule, and His example as the model of their lives. They endeavored everywhere to mold character through the presentation of “the truth as it is in Jesus.” Or, as Paul himself has phrased it, they constantly attempted “by manifestations of the truth” to commend themselves “to every man’s conscience, in the sight of God.”
In doing this, they did not care what happened to themselves. They had no eye or thought for anything but the benefit of their fellow-men through the proclamation of the gospel. Hardship might come upon them. They might be cast into prison or stoned till they were left for dead. But “none of these things moved them.” They made objection only when men sought to worship them as gods. They did not measure their success by the applause they evoked, or by the comforts they secured, but only and always by the change which, through the power of God working with them, they produced upon their auditors. Not to display themselves, or to win for themselves the reputation of eloquence, did they labor. They could say to all the congregations which they addressed what Paul said to the Corinthians, “I seek not yours, but you;” and their “joy and crown of rejoicing” was not in the preaching of sermons which might secure admiration, but rather in the winning of souls for Christ. If they could succeed in that, they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods; and when, as at Ephesus, they saw conjurors renouncing their deeds of deceit and burning their books of magic, they had a reward which more than reconciled them to the “jeopardy” in which “every hour” they stood.
2. Light, Fire and Prayer: The Preacher’s First Prerequisites
William M. Taylor, The Ministry of the Word (1876), chapter II, “The Preparation of the Preacher”. Assigned excerpt. The interpretations are the author’s.
Having glanced at the nature and design of the work to which the preacher has consecrated himself, we are now ready to inquire what are the prerequisites to an efficient ministry. And here, I take for granted that the preacher is himself a sincere and earnest Christian, and that he will constantly seek the co-operation with him of the Spirit of God. These are first principles with us; and, if I do not dwell upon them so fully as upon others which I shall presently name, do not suppose that I hold them to be less important. On the contrary, they are of the greatest moment. They are paramount and indispensable. But then, they are already recognized as such by you, for you are not here, I am persuaded, without having felt how essential these things are to the life and power of your ministry. At all events, if you have not that conviction, the kindest thing I can say to you is, “Go no farther until you get it.”
It is only light that can enlighten. It is only fire that can kindle flame. Hence if we would illuminate others, we must have light in ourselves; and if we would kindle the flame of piety in the hearts of others, we must take the “live coal” with which we do so, from the burning “altar” of our own spirit. Even the heathen poet could say, “Si vis me flere dolendum est primum ipsi tibi.” If we be ourselves uninterested, how can we expect to interest others? if we be ourselves insincere, how can we hope to bring others to the faith? if we be ourselves cold, passionless, and dull, how can we expect to rouse others to enthusiasm?
But, even personal sincerity will not avail without the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, and so the connection between prayer in the closet and power in the pulpit is of the closest sort. He preacheth best who prayeth best. Prayer is to the minister what the minstrel’s music was to Elisha, it prepares his soul for the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him, and where He is, there is power. Hence, the minister who neglects prayer, does, in his sermon, but lay Gehazi-like a cold staff upon the face of the dead; and there is no quickening result. It is only when, in the fullness of our love for souls, and in the boldness of our faith in God, we, as it were, stretch ourselves over them, and wrestle with Him on their behalf, that we become to them the conductors of new life. Ezekiel’s prophesying produced a shaking among the bones, and an external readjustment of them each to each, but it was the breath of the Lord in answer to his prayer that gave them life. When, therefore, God pours out upon the minister the spirit of prayer, that is the prophecy of a coming revival in his church. These are things most surely believed among us, and I have mentioned them now only that I may prevent them from being consigned to what Coleridge has called “the dormitory of the soul,” and may keep them from lying bed-ridden there “side by side with the most exploded errors.”
But I do not dwell longer upon them now; neither do I enlarge upon the necessity of that literary and theological training which it is the proper business of college and seminary to furnish. I would only say, that in the interests of your future usefulness, you will make a fatal mistake if you neglect to improve to the fullest possible extent the advantages which as students you here enjoy. Sometimes the temptation may suggest itself to you, that as your main business in after-life will be that of preaching, you may safely put your present class duties aside for the purpose of devoting yourselves to preaching engagements. But such “raw haste” will be indeed “half-sister to delay.” What you gain in the matter of practice will be more than lost in that of efficiency. Of course, I do not object to your fulfilling those appointments which may come in your way, provided your doing so does not abstract your attention from the work which you come here to perform. Give your first care to the discharge of the seminary duties. Fill up to the brim the ordinary channel of your student-work, and then let the overflow, if there be any, go to other engagements. This will be the true economy in the end.
3. Christ Crucified: The Message Entrusted to the Preacher
William M. Taylor, The Ministry of the Word (1876), chapter IV, “The Theme and Range of the Pulpit”. Assigned excerpt. The interpretations are the author’s.
The special work which as ministers we have to do, is the preaching of the Gospel. We have been “allowed of God,” like Paul, “to be put in trust with the Gospel;” and to us also, is committed “the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” It is of the highest importance, therefore, that we should rightly understand the theme which we have to treat, and the range which it commands.
The Gospel is a message of good news. It takes for granted that men are sinners, under sentence, and carrying in themselves a nature that is prone to evil, and averse to good; and it brings to them an assurance that they may be forgiven and renewed, through faith in Jesus Christ. Thus the Lord himself said to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And again in connection with the introduction to Him of the Greeks at Jerusalem, He said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
Similarly, Paul defines the Gospel to be the setting forth of Christ Jesus by God, “to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare at this time His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth.” So also, in describing the substance of his preaching to the Corinthians he says: “I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.” And if one should ask what he means by the phrase, “Christ died for our sins,” he is answered by this declaration made elsewhere, “God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” So important did the great apostle deem this truth, that he says to the Corinthians, “We preach Christ crucified;” and affirms that when he went to them at first, “he determined not to know anything among them, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” While to the Galatians he says, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Many more passages might be quoted to the like effect, all going to show that the central interest of the Gospel is in a person, namely, Jesus Christ; in a certain fact about that person, namely, that He was crucified; and in the relation of that fact on the one hand to God, and on the other hand to men, so that human sinners believing in Jesus, may be righteously forgiven, and renewed in the spirit of their minds. This, then, is the message with which we are entrusted, and which it is alike our privilege and our duty to proclaim to men.
But if we have rightly described it, then it must be evident at a glance, that if we would proclaim it intelligibly, we must have much to say both about the nature of Christ’s person, and the character of His death. To call upon men constantly to “come to Christ,” or to repeat perpetually the words of Paul to the jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” without at the same time telling them who Jesus is, and what it is to come to Him, and believe on Him, is the merest mockery. It is using the name of Christ as if it were some cabalistic charm, and reducing the Gospel message to a mere empty formula. If, therefore, we would be effective preachers, we must be ready to give an answer to him that asks us, “Who is Jesus, that I may believe on Him? and what was there in His dying that has any relation to me?”
4. Clearness in Arrangement: Bringing Every Hearer to the Gate
William M. Taylor, The Ministry of the Word (1876), chapter V, “The Qualities of Effective Preaching—in the Sermon”. Assigned excerpt. The interpretations are the author’s.
But I pass now to another quality of effectiveness in a sermon which is of not less importance than those already mentioned. I mean clearness in arrangement. In every discourse there must be method in order to movement, and one portion should succeed another in such a way as to carry forward the hearer gently yet inexorably to the conclusion. Arguments are like soldiers, they must be massed and marshalled in such a way as to overcome all opposition. Resting upon a broad base, they must be made to bring all their force to bear upon the main purpose which the preacher has in view. Like as in a pyramid, the figure rises, narrowing as it ascends, until it terminates in the apex; so a discourse should become, step by step, more elevated, increasing in intensity as it rises, until it kindles into one burning point, and that point should be made to touch the soul of every hearer. Or as in archery, the marksman draws back the string on which he has fixed his arrow, in order that the full strength of the bow may go into the flight of the weapon, so the preacher should be all the while gathering energy for the truth which he designs at last to send quivering home to the heart of every hearer.
To this method of unity Jay has very seriously objected, affirming his preference for textual division; but it seems to me that it is not impossible to combine the two. And though it be true as he suggests, that “in preaching it should be remembered what diversities of persons and cases there are before us at every service, and how unlikely these diversities are to be reached by the very same thing,” yet, it is not to be forgotten that in every good sermon which follows the plan of unity, the first part of the discourse gathers the hearers up and brings them together to the very point which is put before them at the close, so that each is made to feel that he has a personal responsibility in reference to it. I have seen a shepherd gathering his flock upon the Highland hills. He sent his trusty dogs far away out upon the mountain-side, and they, running round and round in ever-narrowing circles, brought the bleating multitude together, until each one in it was compelled to face the entrance into the fold. So in a sermon, the earlier portions should be employed in encircling the audience, until at length, by the converging force of its ever-increasing pressure, the discourse brings each hearer up to the “strait gate,” and compels him to face the question, “Shall I enter in?”
The principles on which such an arrangement is to be made are set forth with sufficient fullness in the books on homiletics. Only let it never be forgotten that arrangement is essential to effect. It contributes to perspicuity. It helps the memory of the hearer to recall the various stages of your argument. It satisfies his judgment and carries him on without either effort or fatigue to a conclusion, which he feels to be a result, and not simply a cessation of speaking on your part. When George Stephenson, the famous engineer, was beaten in argument by Buckland, and a few days afterwards Sir William Follett instructed by him, thoroughly vanquished his antagonist, he is reported to have said, that “of all the powers above and under the earth, there seems to be no power so great as the gift of the gab.” But I suspect that the burly engineer had mistaken the marshalling of arguments for the command of words. The great lawyer knew how to arrange his materials, and in that, rather than in his readiness of utterance, was the secret of his success. The nine digits may be so placed as to mean less than a unit, and, again, they may be put into such order as shall mean a great deal. So it is with words and arguments, and he is the most effective sermonizer who makes every phrase, and illustration, and proof tell with all possible force.
5. Earnestness: Seeing the Hearer’s Danger
William M. Taylor, The Ministry of the Word (1876), chapter VI, “The Qualities of an Effective Sermon—in the Preacher”. Assigned excerpt. The interpretations are the author’s.
But another element of earnestness is a vivid realization of the position of our hearers. Let a man have the firm belief that he is dealing with immortal souls; that unless these souls embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and live in obedience to His laws, they must perish everlastingly; and that he is set to persuade them to choose that “good part which cannot be taken away” from them, and he cannot help being earnest in his appeals to them. When one reads in the biography of that great and good man after whom this lectureship is named, that his six sermons on “Intemperance” were preached in order that he might save some of the members of his congregation whom he most tenderly loved, from the horrible hell of the drunkard, we have at once the explanation of their scorching earnestness and of their irresistible power.
In the same way we account for the fiery logic of the Epistle to the Galatians. The apostle saw that the truth of the Gospel was endangered, and that those beloved ones over whose conversion he had rejoiced were in the greatest peril, and so he sat down, and with his own hand he wrote to them, in large letters, that epistle wherein “the arrows of his thoughts” are “headed and winged with flame.” Here is the explanation of its passionate energy, its scathing invective, its rapid movement, its parental tenderness, and its condensed power. He saw them in danger, and he was in haste to rescue them. His one great aim was to open their eyes to their real position, and to bring them back to the security that is in Christ. I do not say that he was not in earnest in all his epistles, but we cannot read that letter without feeling that he was peculiarly moved when he penned it, and as a consequence it peculiarly affects us.
Now, from the difference between that and his other writings, we may learn much regarding the earnestness of which we are in search. Especially we discover that the perception of the circumstances of those to whom we speak, will give us such concern for their welfare that we shall lose sight of all things else in the effort to secure their salvation. There is no mistaking the earnestness of him who runs from the burning dwelling to cry “Fire! fire!” He sees the evil; he knows that if means be not taken promptly to extinguish the flames the house must be destroyed; and so he does not take it leisurely, but rushes on along the nearest way to the engine-house. And it is the same in the pulpit. When the salvation of souls or the benefit of men in some special direction is the uppermost object in the preacher’s ambition, earnestness will come unsought; but without that it can never be attained.
A Summer or two ago, a clergyman of the Church of England, who was taking a holiday in Switzerland, came, in one of the mountain passes of that land, to a place of considerable danger, and as he was threading his way with care, he heard a piercing shriek, which, at length, he found proceeded from a lady, who was down on the side of the precipice in a position of awful peril, and who was crying for assistance. Taking a hasty survey of the situation, he went by what seemed to him the best way to her relief, and after making great efforts, he succeeded in bringing her with him to a place of safety. The next day he went with a friend to show him the spot, but though he tried very hard, he found that he could not get anywhere near it. Would you know the reason of this difference? In the former instance there was a life to be saved; in the latter there was only a display to be made.
Let not the lesson be lost upon us. We shall always do most, my young brethren, when we are directly seeking to save souls; but when we are working only for display, we shall inevitably fail. If you keep your eye on the end to be gained, you will be sure to be earnest; but when you attempt to show how you have done it, or how you can do it, the earnestness will evaporate. Think, then, ever as you enter the pulpit on the position and necessities of your hearers. See in them a company of fellow immortals, each of whom is needing your help in the great struggle of life, and in your eagerness to assist them, all thoughts of self will die out of your soul. Your hearts will be filled with yearning affection for them, and that itself will be a power over them, for as one has said: “If mountains can be moved by faith, Is there less power in love?” All your words will be made to converge toward the great result on which your heart is fixed; and your ministry, as a whole, will grow in interest under your eyes, as you watch week by week for the effects of your labors.