The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-04-21
For the Central Presbyterian.
PREACHING.
BY REV. H. H. HALVES.

b1 REV. Ii. IL. HALVES.
The chief object of preaching is to
bring sinners to Jesus Christ, and then
stablish and build them up in Christian
life. There is no objection to learning,
nor good language, nor beautiful thoughts,
nor excellent oratory. He is blessed who
is master in these. They can be him
ORANGES only when being wrongly
used-destroy the implicitly Of the Cos
pei so that the unlearned cannot under
stand it, or when they lead thought away
from, rather than to Jesus Christ. What
is the grandest discourse ever uttered
worth, if it does not bring Christ and sim
ners nearer together, or build up Chris.
tan faith and hope? 1t serves for the
tune as an e''tertalpsn'e1at-then is gone.
The preacher is made popular, perhaps,
and gets great name, but what good
has he done more than any one else who
entertains the thoughts and feelings of
men IN some other way? Now it is i'm
possible, no doubt, that we should not
wish to please those to whom we preach.
That Is, we do not wish our hearers to
crltlclse our preaching as dry and dull.
And 1T may be that this desire often leads
to style of preaching which either misses
the mark because the aim is too high, or
which degenerates into sermon-skeIetozs
with very gaudy dresses, but no Resh.-
That was really magnificent effort-a
splendid discourse very feast of
thought-that discourse of a minister
who was appointed to preach some years
since IN one of our country churches
But the grave old father in Israel" who
aH 10 fol L,
pray twice in that prayer: go
Lord wilt thou teach Thy servant so to
preach that the people may understand
what he means" STILL it was one of the
most charming sermons ever preached in
that church-for those able to follow the
flight of thought. But not many could
DO IT. Some of the sheep felt that the
food had been put up too high for them.
30 there were very beautiful thoughts.
uttered IN excellent language-accom-
panied by good gestures-presented in a
great attempt at oratory-when a student
in one of the Summaries. preached on
1.-The Creation" But the criticism of
the presiding Professor was: Young
man you cannot beat Moses" Never
was an idea better than that of the great
preacher to the Gentiles: "In the church
| had rather speak FIVE words with nv
understanding - that is, SO as TO be in
telligible to others) chat by nv voice 7
might teach others also, than ten tbon-
sand words IN an unknown tongue. -
This IS the true idea of preachingl No
one can improve upon Paul. The min
lister simply has message to deliver and
explain SO that not some, but all to
whom he is sent can understand His
duty, from beginning to end is to deliver
and explain this one message in all its
parts, IN this way. And he should re-
member that He who sends the message
is no respecter of persons-sayinp TO The
learned Sit we here in a good place -
but to the unlearned, "Stand We wonder"
EoelY soul rs a diamond n, the si0ht of
coal His message and messenger are
not sent to one, more than to another
The rich and poor meet together the
Lord is the maker of them ali &" Give
words" so spoken as to teach some pncrl.
tured soul the way Of life, are more truly
the preaching ordained of God. than ten
thousand sermons which cater to intel
leSctual pleasure only. And woe unto
the seeker for fine sermonsl Woe unto
the seeker for big discoursesl Gods
blessing will not follow his work. He
wastes the day in which he should be
saving souls.
What then? Are we to preach moth
ing, but the simple gospel? If that saves
souls, and nothing else does so,-that is
the thing to preach, that alone. as given
by revelation from God. Does the fear
ever come that people will get tired Of
the same old story? This is tie offspring
OF Uan'ty IN the preacher. He wants to
=. drGto, wants to get praise to himself
Tor ms ot0n sermon8I IF God has sent
only one gospel to be preached unto the
end OF the world,--no man can do higher
duty than stick to that. If he repeats it
a thousand times to one congregation
then fears that he is getting into a rut''
by not varying his theme, let him look