The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-01 00:00:00

MR. SPURGEON ON OPEN-AIR
PREACHING.

On Monday evening the members and friends of the Open.
Air Mission held their quarterly meeting and took tea
together In the schoolroom under the Metropolitan
Tabernacle, and after the ordinary prayer meeting which is
always held in the Tabernacle on Monday evenings,

The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon delivered an address on
open-air preaching. After observing that his words
must be brief, for he was in great pain of body, he
said there was one thing which they who were engaged
in preaching the Gospel must alwa7s take care of—
namely. that they kept themselves by God's grace
right with God. If they were to touch the hearts
of their fellow-men, if they were to be used by God
as his instruments they must be right with
God. To be right with God they must be
holy men. Unless they were holy men they might
be,great'speakers, bet tKey would never have the
blessings of God on their work. He did not believe
that a man could go and preach to his neighbours in a
street, and have the blessfirg of God on his preaching
if he had a shop and did not keep good weights.
(Hear, hear.) If God did not make them holy they
had better shut up and keep quiet till he did.
Another essential point was that they should be
humble. A verson:saki to him the other day.thet he
prayed for him that he might be humble, "Thank
you," he replied, "I hope you also prayed for
yourself." "Oh, no," said the man, "I'm not
tempted that way." (Laughter.) There was pro-
bably no man so proud as the man who thought
he was humble. Pride was natural to us ever
since the fall and in some form or other it
existed in us all. We only wanted a little bit of
success to get elevated very much, and the reason why
God did not give success to Bonne men was because
they would be off their heads. (Laughter). If they
had a large crowd round them they would tell their
wires and be proud of it, and the Devil would creep in
and say, "What a fine fellow you are!" (Laughter).
Then they must be prayerful. They must pray at
all Aimes, while preaching as well as before preach.
ing, and after preaching. If they did not pray,
the Lord might say, "I am not going to bless
your sermon —you did not ask for it." Then
they must look for the harvest. They must not
be like the man who thought there might be a
harvest, and just walked to the field to wee; but they
must be like the man who knew there was a harvest,
and went with his sickle on his shoulder to cut the
corn, and with his waggons behind him to carry it
away. He believed many a sermon might have good
in it but for the want of faith. The first thing then,
for them as preachers, was to keep themselves right
with God. The nett thing was to keep themselves
right with themselves. It was awkward if they fell
out with themselves, because they could not get away.
(Laughter.) People would ask them sometimes when
they were preaching, "Who sent you out to preach?"
and if they could not give the right answer they must
go back like a dog. He was consulted about so many
things, that it was the burden of his life. Some-
times he tried to imitate the Delphic oracle, and give
an answer that might be taken two ways, A man
wrote to him lately that his master objected to his
preaching, and asked him whether he should go on
with it, and he wrote him this reply, "Dear Brother,
—lf the Lord has opened your mouth the Devil can-
not shut it I but if the Lord has not opened your
month may the Devil shut it." (Laughter.) This
psrson said be felt encouraged by the answer. He
only hoped that his reading of the oracle was the
correct reading. If they felt that they had power to
fulfil their mission—he did not mean if they were edu-
cated, but if they felt they were called of God to
preach—then they should go on preaching. If a man
spoke because he felt that he was delivering God's
message, there was something so decorous and so solemn
about him, that scoffers, unless they were altogether
swine, would respect the pearls that were cast in their
way. If God sent them to preach, He would give
them strength, for He never did send any one without
giving him strength to do the work he was sent to do.
He had heard a great deal about sympathy with
modern doubt. He had no sympathy with it himself.
What they had to nay to people was—" This is
God's word, and you have got to believe it;" and they
might tell them that if they would not believe it they
would be cast into hell, whatever Canon this or Canon
the other might say. Perhaps they would say they
could not speak so positively. Then they could not
do much good. Martin Luther was strong because he
was dogmatic, and if they wanted to be strong they
must be dogmatic too. They should preach what
they believed. "I believed; therefore have I
spoken." If he did not believe he would be honest
enough to change his profession. He would not
be so wicked and so dishonest as to go on preaching
that which he doubted the truth of, The last thing
he had to say to them was that they should not only
keep right with God and right with themselves, but
that they should keep right with the people. They
must love those whom they taught. They must love
them and honour them too. They must honour the
man that had had his hair cropped and had only just
come out of gaol. "Well," said a young man, draw-
ing on his lavender gloves, "I would not mind—haw,
haw addressing a congregation in —haw— Willis's
Rooms, but—haw—to go down and address people in
Whitechapel—haw—it would beridiculons."(Laughter.)
And probably it wouiu be ridieulous, because he would
not be respectful to his audience. It would not do'for
them to fe I that they were superior persons, and
ought not to go out to preach in the open air, and say,
"I don't mind filling up a vacancy for Dr. So-and-So,
but Ido not like preaching in tne street." He had
known servants say, "We do not like to do this or
that," and the employer had been obliged to say to
them, "Would you not like a superior place ? "
(Laughter.) No, they must keep themselves
friendly with the people, or they would never
do much good. He once saw a friend of his stand-
ing up to the knees in water fishing, and ho said
to him, "If I were fishing I should be on the bank,"
but his friend said, "It is better to be down among
the fishes, you catch more." And so it was with
preachers ; if they wanted to win souls they must go
amongst them. When Gibraltar was besieged it
might have been captured, but that the defonders
threw red hot shot into the attacking vessels. And so
if they wanted to succeed they must fire red hot shot.
They must feel that they would die if they did not
succeed. It must not be a matter of indifference to
them whether those they preached to were saved, but
they must feel that they must be saved. In con-
clusion he exhorted them to preach away, for in open
air preaching they were following the example of their
Muster. .