Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-12-22
The Foolishness Of Preaching.

There is one achievement to which
the human mind has never vet been
adequate-0ne fact that has hitherto
baffied all its power. 1t has never been
able to climb to the throne of Jehovah,
and find out God. 1t has never yet
been able to discover a way of deliv-
erance from sin. 1t was a part of
Gods wise plan to give the world am
pie time and a fair field in which to
make the grand experiment; and so,
for four thousand years, men essayed
the hopeless task.
And when the experiment had been
fairly made, and signally failed, and
the fullness of time had come, God
appears from behind the impenetrable
cloud Of darkness, revealing himself
in the person of Jesus Christ, and
opening to man way of deliverance
from sin. The plan for mans recov-
cry is presented to us in the Gospel,
which offers salvation to man through
crucified Saviour. The agency for
publishing the Gospel to the world is
the living ministry of the word.
tits by the simple preaching of the
word, that which is termed here, "the
,foolishness of preaching" not foolish
preaching. Men mistake when they
charge upon God the foolish vagaries
of many of his professed ministers
God is responsible for the Gospel, and
not for the fOllies of his sO-called min
| listers.
But this simple method of preach
ing, which to the world looks so in
adequate and so foolish, is Gods chos-
en- method of saving the world. And
this with reason. A guide-post may
| be so wIeathed with roses as to con-
ceal from your view the very infor-
nation which it is to impart. A path
may be so covered and overgrown with
shrubbery and with flowers as to hide
/ from your vision the very way in
which you would walk and so may
Christ be concealed from your vision
/ by the flowers that are wreathed
around his cross. So it pleased God,
and it pleases him still, to save men
by the simple, single, yet all-potent
method of preaching the word of life.
So much for the agents and so much
for the method; but what is the SUBJ
jeet matter which these chosen minis
ters of his are to preach in order to
accomplish their work?
Christ crucified, Christ on the cross,
an 'expiatory sacrifice, bearing in his
own person the sin OF the world /;
Christ dying because of our sin, dying
instead of the sinner; Christ mighty
| Saviour, able to sdUe unto the utter
most all them that come unto God by
him; Christ complete Saviour, at
once delivering from the guilt, the con-
deDlndtion, and the POtCer Of sin /;
Christ, all in all, centre and circum-
ference, the sum and substance; Christ
Jesus the worlds Saviour. That is
the subject which his ministers are to
present again and again, letting it
run like silver thread through all
their discourses, holding up to men in
all time, Jesus Christ crucified for
them. This is Gods plan, and in the
eyes of the world it is foolishness, and
yet is it not the very cOnsummatiOn
of wisdom?
1t was because Paul preached Jesus
and the resurrection, and Christ cru
cified-not as a martyr but as a divine
| Saviour-that the Greeks dispised it.
And yet this Gospel, so published and
so inadequate, weak and scandaliZed
in the eyes Of many, was to others the
wisdom and power of God.
And this leads me to speak of its
efficiency. In this plan which God
had chosen, there is really depth of
wisdom unfathomable, a height of
philosophy unattainable, and a COM
pass of power immeasurable. No 9TH
er system doubtless could God have
chosen that would have been so adapt
ed to the end contemplated, and so
efficient to its working upon the hearts
of men. Look at its adaptation to
win and to conquer mems hearts,
| What a sublime exhibition of the
character of God does the preaching
of Christ crucified present to men!-
The world was perishing for want of a
knowledge of God; they did not know
God, and he chose this method of re-
vealing himself to their astonished
vision through his crueified son. And
let me say to you, my friends, not
otherwise could the world know God,
or does the world know God than
through his erucified son. No man
hath seen God at any time, and you
only know God in truth as you see
him in Christ crucified.
In the cross of Christ, do we behold
the attributes of Diety blended in
beautiful harmony, awakening in the
mind admiring wonder, and filling
the world with blessed hope.
Here the whole Diety is seen,
Nor dares a creature guess
Which Of the glories brightest shone,
The justice or the grace"
Behold there the mingled justice
and mercy of God. Justice shining
more brightly than if every sin had
been punished, visited on the head of
the offender without mercy, and mer-
cy more gloriously shown than every
sin had been pardoned and every sim
ner received to the bosom of God,
without any execution at all. See
there the love of God as it is nowhere
else beheld. When the Jews saw the
Saviour standing at the grave of Laza-
rus, and mingled his tears with those
that fell from the eyes of the weeping
sisters, they said: Behold, how he
loved him!" And so may the world
look on in admiration and behold the
gift of Christ crucified, and in it ex-
claim: Behold how God loved US ~
"Greater love hath no man than this,
that man lay down his life for his
friends, Ye are my friends, If gre do |
whatsoever l command you;) but God |
commendetb his love toward us In |
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ |
died for u.s." And in Christ you see |
the wisdom of God as nowhere else
wisdom higher than that which map |
ped out the heavens, and appointed |
the stars their spheTes-pOwer of God |
greater than that which broOded over |
chaotic darkness, and called forth a |
world of beauty. Here, power such |
as is nowhere seen in the universe of |
God, is beheld on the cross of Christ. |
What an exhibition, too, OF the terri
bic nature and fatal consequences of
sin do t0e hare in Christ cTlscifed !!
Why has the Lamb of God become a
sacrificial victim? Who can look at
that sin and not shrink back with
horror from that accused sin that can
visit such vengenee on an innocent
head? My friends, is your wrath and
indignation excited against Judas,
who betrayed Christ against the
priests who accused him; against the
rabbi that Knocked and scOffed at him;
against the poisonous lips that reviled
him; the cruel hands that scourged
him. and the peUured wretches thSt
pierced and crucified him? How,
then, must you look with horror and
detestatIon at the sin that lies conceal
ed in your bosOmI Our sin was the
Judas that betrayed him, and it was
Dur lips that reviled him, and our