The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-03-02
THE TRUE PREACHER

Fcon.iuued from fourth page.I
even it, ecclesiastical. mechanical ar
yans,.rnents. 1t strained toward the last.
but il did hold him.
He xas rash enough 20 believe IN the
broad basis of fraternity OF spirit and
az heart. and IL did not shock him TO sit
on the pIatform with ordinary Presbyte-
Ran or Baptist or Methods, preachers
He did not worry about apostolic sue
cess;on. He believed in that wider, truer
church universal. His soul was truly
+ great soul, and for that reason he was iu-
carahle Of small thoughts, small leal
ousies of man with man, of church
against church. of ecclesiastical machine
against those who are outside OF the ma
chine. For that reason small men never
; liked him. Small men. whose souls felt
secure simply within forms, never agreed
with his policies or his principles or with
/ bis methods of enforcing his thought or
( his life work.
THE TRULY GREAT SOUL
/ Great souls are never capable of small
/ thoughts. You remember when Jenny
! Lind gave an entertainment in Leipsic.
! On one occasion Mendelssohn was pres
/ ent, and they were given great ovation.
The great crowd Numbered its applause
and continued until Mendelssohn said TO
Jenny Lind that she must go forth and
say something to the people. She said
she would if he would go and make the
speech. So arm in arm these two great
haF sta l.
the tempest of applause which greeted
their appearance had subsidized, Mendels-
sohn in the most graceful way paid the
highest and most delicate compliment to
the great singer and proposed that the
cheers of all Leipsic should be given 10
her. Then, while the building echoed
with one of Memberships songs, they
went back to the room behind the ros-
trum. There was no jealousy between
two such souls. a great many small
musicians that play the second fiddle,
that just know how TO scrape little, are
mighty in jealousy, but great souls are
never jealous.
So of this preacher. Small thoughts
were impossible to him. He saw the good
in all churches, and he saw good outside
all churches. He was high priest of
the race. He saw good even in these low,
evangelical churches that, from the high
church point Of view, are rery low. Phil
lips Brooks even held old fashioned re-
vivals in Trinity church. He preached
about church outside the church, and
the most eloquent, most powerful pres
entation of that church outside l ever
heard from mortal man came from his
great heart. He was the bishop Of this
great church universal
Third-Not alone to his catholicity.
but also because of his prophetic power,
his success is due.
The true preacher Of God is a prophet,
not priest. It was his peculiar func-
ton to prophesy. l do not mean to predict
future events. The work Of the prophet
of old was to give neto vie,cs of God and
Of truth. The Aaronic priesthood ended
with the Christ, and from the Christ
went forth the line of those who should
prophesy, and who in his name should
unfold new views of God and of truth
New theology? Yes, his theology was
not only newt it was the nerest theology.
And to get from him sermon was to
get from Gods own life new breath,
new revelation, new view of truth.
HE FoREsAw THE BETTER TIME.
He was prophet in the true and high
sense of the word, and therefore he was
progressive. He did not stand still or
bow down to dognas. He would not |
limit himself to ecclesiastical conclusions |
of councils or great men in the past.
With his great heart fixed upon the |
spiritual realities of truth, he pressed |
forward, onward ever, from day to day,
never pausing in that upward march to- |
ward the summit of truth, toward the
full revelation of God. If you want to
know what preacher in the Goth CEN
fury will preach, study the life of such
man.
Fourth-His success rested on another
thing-his tremendous edrnestness. No
body went to sleep while he preached.
His intensity Of soul was such that it |
swept him along outside of himself. The
human tongue could not utter what his
heart felt fast enough.
have sat before him and watched the |
play of divine passion cross his face,
flushed with the tumult Of great thoughts
struggling for utterancel Words could |
not be born fast enough. and through
those great eyes, as through the windows
of his soul, could see the beating of
angels wings against the prison bars of
languages!
He was IN dead earnest, and only that
KIND OF men can move the world. Martin
Luther was a man of tremendous ear
nestness lgnatius Loyela, who led the
Church of Rome against Luther, was a
man of tremendous earnestness. and such
was his power even on Catholicism that
Jesuitism at last absorbed Romanism it
self. Savonarola swept Florence with
reslstless power because of that mag
netic, indefinable power that displayed
itself in his earnestness. Beecher was
man of power, an epoch shaping man,
man who made and unmade theologies,
because of that divine spark of charac-
ter. Earnest men in politics, in religion,
in history, are the men who make his
tory. In man like Blaine, who could
impress himself upon his generation and
have so enthusiastic a following throuob