The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-12-11

is it 10 preach Christi You may preaef
| learnedly and eloquenlly, but not necessary!
Him. You may preach sound doctrine, ina
cannot be reprOved, but what Is the sounoes
doctrine, ii Christ be not in it! systems o
theology. which have been wrongnI0uI oy tne
most Careful and proftund reflection, upoI
scriptural trnths, and which are entirely lesitt
mate In their r. sults, do not necessarily pteacl
| Christ to tue hearer : for doSmatic teacnlng
| let it be remarked, is raiher the neoge, anC
sometimes a thorny one, 10 guard ana lnclose 10 81.
the "failh once delivered to the saints" thar
the living truth itself, which alone can nourisf
our souls unto eternal life. Apreacher, for In
stance. may discourse upon the cardina
doctrine of justification by faith, and ye
do it in such a way as to leave Chr's
out altogether, because he fastens om
thoughts upon process-upon scneme
rather Than upon the person anc ,c
work of our adorable Redeemer Himself
I ~ saw nothing against dogma, nor join in the
hue and cry which is raised against 1t nova
days, but merely say, let il keep It's own place
and not presume to stand In our :ord's room,
or offer Itself to US instead OF Him.
Dogma is essential to Christian truth, because
it grows out OF the very constitution OF the
human inieleet, itself, which is necessitateo
to ruminate upon and distinguish from
one another, so as to harmoniZe them, the
various aspects of the truth, which have been
prv sented to it. But when. instead OF being
the form into which truth is cast, or The
verbal channel whereby 1t Is transmitted
from one age to another. the dogmatic ele'
merlt asserts for itselfan Independent value,
why then it becomes. as 1t were. only sound
ing brass and tinkling cymbal.a And even
when the preacher is able to avoid tnis snare
of delivering the RESULTS Of the mere logic 81
faculty instead Of Christ Jesus the Lord, y
and makes it his special effort to proclaim
personal Saviour, and one who alive forever
more, even in such an effort, ana however
honestly made, there Will be more or less OF
a liability io'proclaim a partial Cntst,
and partial salvation, and not o Tnole
Christ and whole salvation:
Now in this connection. look at my text:
1--WE preach Chs!st Jesus the LORD,
that is, Christ Jesus in His cul-
mination-the head over all things
to the glory Of God the Father" and ''the
great Firs;-5orn of many hrethren;" and TINS
includes all ard every portion OF His work
which has been glorified In that elimination.
We cannot, indeed, az any one time, IN any
ene sermon, preach our Lord IN bis 1ulness,
but 1t ought to be our effort, In our preaching
as whole, to prophecy according to the
proportion of faith," and to preach Him from
Gabiie.'s annunciaiion to the clouds upon
Olivet which shut Him out of our sight, and
to that future spoken of by His apostles, when
He shall come again in great pomp and ms1es'
ty to Judge the quick and dead,
You sometimes hear men spoken OF as taltli-
fal preachers of Christ, and termed such par
eroeRence, because they dwell almost excl!l-
sIveIy upon Christ cruciaed." But surely
Christ was not only crHcifed, but He was also
incarna,e, and obedient to the Law for man,
and resurgent and ascendant as well ns cru
cited; and these acts Of His were as much
paris of His redeeming work as were His
crucifxiOn and death; and, however fervently
nofh fhcnt q nn0l
the needs and consciences Of sinners, we must
not do iJ 10 the exclusion o! other works; Tor,
II we do, Just here our preaching OF Christ will
be narrow and defective.
The cross and the precious sacrifice thereon
will undoubtedly be most attractive in
the eyes of perishing world. Indeed, Jesus
has predicted this In the words, "And l, II
be lifed up, will draw all men unto Me-" For
when men are bowed down under sense OF
sin, and when they ask themselves, Where
with shall come before the Lord, and bow
myself before the high Goo" what less could
YOU expect than to see them fasten their
eyes with the intensest gaze upon the Lamb
Of God, slain 10 take away the Sins OF tue
world 2s' And so again, when men do not
thus feel the burden Of Fin, nor the great love
OF God towards them In giving His. Son 70, die,
but, on the contrary, permit tne softoWs ana
trials OF lif9 10 come betweenit themselves and
Him. and 80 ECLIPSE His love, what ask, In
such a case, is more caleulsted TO move and
melt them than to let them hear or Che love
Uf Him who loved them 10 the death and 10
The grave? Yea, If We would preach Christ,
we mush preach over and over again OF hu-
man ain and It's alonement, only taking care
TO do ,tt as the apostle did when he said that
he was determined to know nothing among
them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
You will mark the apostles expression, my
brethren. rUt Jesus Christ crucifed, but
"Jesus Christ and Him cruclfed." Indeed
partial preaching Of Christ, even though 1t
dweils~ upon the cross. caunot but result in
partial and defective views OF the "gfeat sa!-
vaiion." Slight, for example, the Incarnation,
as being The union Of the divine and
human, and how apt, Is the entire
Office cf Jesus TO be lowered 10 the
standard Of kicodema., who saw 10 Chri.t
only the Instructor, not the Mediator. RABBI,
We know atihon teacher @ come 1rss.ison ifom
and lis siSn!aca uce- fur US In the future, and
our Thoughts OF human Immortality become
little letter than heathenisb, and only on
par with those Of Cicero and Socrates. When
we forget that Christ is risen and sllve for.
evermOre in Heaven, and in the body which
he had on earth, the next thing is 10 think
of our own immortality as bojiless, and to
think thns, cot only without d!smay, out even even
with satisfaction; and such surely have need
that 8 risen as well as q cruc1fed Christ
should be preached unto them. Again, We
preach "Cnrist Jesus the Lord" when we
preach any one, or all of those instrumentali-
ties which He has appointed for the adminis-
tration of His redemption. We preach Him
when we preach of the Roly Ghott who takes
Of Him and shows Him unto Us, and without
whose indwelling we are none OF HIS We
preach Christ when we preach Of Bis Church,
which lie Bis .'body, and The fulness OF Him
that illeth all In ALL" We preach Him when
we preach the one baptism for the remission
of sins, aud the daily renewal by the Holy
Ghost. We preach HIN, when we preach
of the Holy Communion whereby we re-
ceive His most precious body and blood,
aud whereby he dwells In. US and We IN Him.
Yea, my brethren, We preach Christ, when We
plead for the poor, for the hospital. Tor the
nome, for the church school, Tor Ltne
sick and for the cast-away. and all because the
blessed life which was first In Him rms over
into them, as the waters Of o full cup runs
down It's sides and blesses all II touches. But
just ss a man may preach justification by faith
as q mere scheme, which shall have no Jesus
In II. but only subtle logic; aud just as an
other may preach Gods sovereignty, so as 10
be void Of the tenderness of Christ, and Cf The
Fathers lG1 ;, aRd Of the consultations OF the
Comforter, so suaquestionably Others may
preach the church. and ssacrarnents, and ordi-
nances as if they stood by themselves, whe! e.
as IL IL only as Jesus Christ the Lord Is In
them that they can aid to build US up to ever
lasting life. Yea, we may rely upon 1t, that
any doctrine, any rite, any sacrament which
does not have It's roots running up into Him,
and so drawing down His lie into Ia, Is not Of
God bl,t of the world Yea, here, as every