The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-12-10

1t is a very good test in selecting
pulplt themes to discuss those great
! issues that find a response in vour ou-r
personal experience. Do not be afraid
OF learning and reverent investigatfo,
isehslon that cannot stand the =
cum hght is not worth having, -
you may study many things It
winch You need not preach. oh
"hat Will make the fibre of T. ood
/ our Lord taught only vital - .ctica1
questions that could be ..diately
| translated into life. Whe he Was
asked the question: Are there few
mat he saved" his answer was so
starchlnS that some might think it
! lacked IN courtesy for he said to the
! questioner: Strive to enter in ont
| Of your own faith and depth of a Clear
acceptance with Him speak to the
7 people
Bishop Keener spoke wisely when
1 speak of Bishop Andrews he said :
| He never lost right of the Christian
! IN the minister, he never substituted
! the perfunctory official duty for his
own personal acceptance with his Lord
i and the study of His Word" You may
STUDY the Scriptures to find texts, may
read it vicariously and not to get food
! Tor your soul man may be talking
! 20 otherS and starve his own soul. one
| or the Judges, YOU Will recall went out
and shook himself and twist not that
the Lord had departed from him
strength gone and he did not know it
The awful peril-a minister repeats
the forms and repeats the terms-but
back of it no response in our own
| personal deep life-strength gone and
the man did not know it, 1 once
| called to see good man who was very
sick and as / left, he said, 'I'll be bet
/ ter tomorrow" but as we left the sick
/ chamber the doctor said: He will
| not live until midnight" 1t was be-
numbing approach of death he felt
and he thought it was life. | have
/ looked into the face of death and in
most cases the physical effects of
coming death are delightful When
pestilence walked in our Southern
cities in the 1873 yellow fever scourge
| everybody thought / was passing away
/ Men about me died. thinking they were
getting well. Thought it was life, it
was the benumbing of the senses that
| precede death. 1t is possible in the
spiritual world-a man may have the
physical palsy of death upon him
when he supposed it is health.
You should go on to perfection
What are the possibilities of grace!
The great doctrine of perfect love has
been misunderstood and misnter-
preted by shallow people and pervert-
| ed. There is need of a movement
for re-emphasis of the doctrine of
higher spiritual life that comes from
hungering for deeper conservation
Some of US have become antagonistic
to the perversions until we have
| ceased to try to live 1T. Let US strive
| to do everything possible to a poor
/ human heart Let US not be satisfied
with anything less than the highest
| attainments. The demand of the
! church is for a more consecrated min
| istry.. Give us men of God-Wesley
said "If I had one hundred men who
/ feared nothing but sin, and cared for
I q
gates of hell and build up the King
! dom of God" If we were wholly CIV
! en- to the work 1 believe we could
swing the planet into light until there
would be daybreak everywhere.
Preach love that can cruelty the
spirit Of controversy. Try to make
! every day some advance in your spir-
| itual life, sound some other depth and
rise to some other height. Speaking to
| preachers, Bishop Marvin said: II
! thank God l am a man and not an
/ angel" No power is comparabl to
| the power locked up in a human life to
reach men. No angel has plummet
/ that can reach the depths of human
sorrow and no angel can rise to the
! height of redeeming love. Gods most
! potential agency to save men Is man.
A great man has said, "God never
saves a man except by way of man"
/ Those verses Of Francis Ridley Hav-
/ ergal, Father, take my Hand" and my
/ feet, my voice, all mans power, eX-
presses the feeling of longing for per-
| feet conservation. If we could have
| that in us we could call down the fires
/ from heaven and see new heaven and
/ a new earth. Give US devOut, tOiling,
| self denying pastors and Gods cause
will prosper to the ends of the earth::
You cannot preach the gospel and
| do several things. You must say,
This one thing 1 do" l have seen
men preach the gospel for awhile and
| then turn aside. Sometimes they mar
| rvs a wife encumbered with an estate
/ and they quit preaching to take care
! of it. After failure they say they have
| a renewed call. Or they want to go
/ into secular business and get sore
! throat A preacher that dabbles in
/ other things than his call to preach is
! apt to get a sore throat! A preacher
| who tries to do something else usually
| fails at that and also fails as preach
| err 1T takes all the time we have and
/ the cultivation of all our ability to
succeed at preaching and we preach
ers cannot do other things.
Re students of the Word and those
hooks that will help you to teach its
truths Preachers that do not study
! the Word and books that give light
are like the man who said, Z never
! think Of what | am tC preach until
omen the Bible in the pulpit. Then l
! open my mouth and let God put
words into it," Usually wind IS all
that a man gets from such preaching
In the old country there is picture
| Of an old pastor who has departed and
the people standing about him sorrow
| full and weeping because OF the fact
| that pulpit was vacant Is it not pos
| sible that a pulpit may be vacant with
a man standing in it? I>had gifted
| friend who, referring to a preacher
who did not feed his flock but thun-
| dered all the time against vices. He
said. "The preacher would one time
/ denounce gambling. another horse
racing then desecration of the Sab
hath, then theatre-;yoing, then dane
! inc. then other particular sins. and
when he had finished the list he would
! eo back over again numbering
| spainst them 1 didn't do any Of
! those things and I hungered for little
! rocnal Drea ching He represented a
| 800 class Don't compromise with
evil don't condone worldliness, but
don+ fail to feed the foock. They
! oad food for their souls and cannot
grow grow on mere denuneiation Of this or
that sin. Think of the mighty expul-
| Of 91foCtlOn