The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1910-07-08
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BX
DR.. MALCOLM M'LEOD.
Theme: The Holy Ministry.

and West Fifty-eighth street, tho
minister, the Rev. DR.. Malcolm Me-
Leod, preached on THE Holy Minis
try" The text was from Ephesians,
3:S: Unto me who am less than the
least of all saints is this grace given.
hat I should preach among the Gen
tiles the unsearchable riches Of
Christ" Among other things no
said:
There is no work equal in range OF
richness to the great work of the
holy ministry. The New Testament
gives to it a peerless, imperishable
place. "It is the best calling, but
the worst trade in the world" wrote
Matthew Henry. DR.. Cuyler once
said that no royal throne vas loftier
than the pulpit of Jesus Christ.
When DR.. Carey was laboring in In
dia, his son Felix had accepted the
Office of Ambassador to the King of
Burmah, Carey said one day to a
friend: Felix had lapsed into an
Ambassador" Meaning that to for
sake the lofty vocation of the minis
ter for even the highest earthly court
was a descent. The man who is
preaching Christ is handling fabulous
treasure-unsearchable riches, our
text says. He should be a man Of
native gifts and commanding equip
ment.
Not a few there are who believe
that the gravest danger threatening
the cause of organized Christianity
to-day in America is the decline of
the pulpit. Because when the pull
pit declines, the channel of inspir-
alton is clogged and the fertilizing
river dries up. God has intrusted
His heavenly manifestoto human lips,
The history of the church is en-
veloped in a blaze of pulpit glory.
Singers, we are told, are to be
pitied because posterity cannot hear
them. Their art is fragile and ephe-
neral. Not so the preachers! He is
in alliance with the heights. The
truth he utters links him with the
eternal. 1t was Henry Ward Beecher,
a preacher, who dealt slavery some
of those death blows from which it
never rallied. 1t was Thomas Chal,
mers, a preacher, who made his week.
ly discourses one Of the controlling
forces of Scotland. 1t was Jonathan
Edwards, a preacher, who made his
pulpit a seat Of the mighty. 1t was
John Wesley, a preacher, who started
a new era of political economy
man, by the way, who, according to
Carlyle, has welded more influence
in the world than any Of his three
great contemporaries-William Pitt,
the Duke of Wellington or Napoleon
Bonaparte. Some religions rely upon
the sword; some upon the state;
some upon ancestor worship; some
upon symbolism; but the Christian
religion, from the beginning, has re-
lied upon tongues inflamed by a burn
ing coal from off Gods altar.
Never at any time has prophecy
ceased. Our old professor at Prince
ton used to say to US, Young meu,
never belittle your calling" Other
parts of worship have changed. The
sacrifice has changed; the ritual has
changed; the litanies, the liturgiest
but the function of the pulpit all
through the circle of the centuries
has remained virtually the same.
The world outgrows it's priests, but
not its prophets. "It has pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them which believe"
Who the true preacher is:
1. He is a man clad in the garb of
humility.
2. He is a man characterized by
the gift of grace.
3. He is a man with a message.
May we pause and see what that
implies?
l.. A man, first of all, clad in the
garb of humility. There is nothing
more winsome about Paul than his
great human heart. If ever there
lived a man who had the right to
boast a bit, it was he. But mark his
.modesty: Unto me who am less than
the least" Me, a vessel of grace.
The wonder of it dazed him. He
felt himself a pigmy before the
mountainous conception. Unto me
who am less than the least" Less
than the least" A comparative SUI
perlative! You say that is strange
Is it possible? Is it good English?
No, it is not; it is not good English;
and it is impossible. There cannot
be anything less than the least. 1t is
the language of the heart, not the
head. This is how he felt. He
would like a place-if only such a
place could be-below the lowest. :
] One hardly needs to add in passing
that this is not the temper of the
age. 1t is not Gods bounty to-day
that awakens u awe. People say.
why has this trouble come upon
me?" They do not say, why has
this blessing been conferred?" We
do not marvel at the mercies any
more. We do not stand in trembling
bewilderment before them. We
rather expect them. We almost MUIR
muir if we do not receive them. To-
day it is our troubles that stir us with
the wine of wonder. Why has this
affection come? Why this calamity?
Paul had more than his share of i'll
fortune, but it never disturbed him.
He never said "Why?" to his trials.
1t was the manifold goodness of God
that evoked his surprise. No mar
was ever more humble than the great
apostle, and yet again one is almost
tempted to doubt if ever man was
boastful. His letters are full
of the personal pronoun. In this one
chapter alone he uses "I' and me"
twelve times. But it was a splendid,
magnanimous boastfulness. His one
aim was to use himself and his eX-
perience and his art and his culture
as a pedestal for the massive figure
of the mighty Christ.
And you are not surprised. |
know you are not. Has it not always
been So? Have not all the immortal
prophets of truth been men of self
abasement? In his eighty-eighth
veal John Wesley said, 81 am still at
school," And at almost the same 6
Gladstone remarked, Il carry my
satchel yet" Instance Luther. In
studying Luther the first thing that
arrests us is the bashfulness with
which he shrank from his work. He
said n day to the superior who was
urging him to preach. mo, no; it is
not a little thing to speak before
in the place of God" What was
that but the natural recoil of a great
soul from a responsible task? why
did Jesus choose Judas?" Jospeh
Parker was once asked. II do not
know" replied the doctor, "but l
have a harder question, why did
He choose me?" This it was that
puzzled Paul. Why did He choose
me? ME" he exclaims, who am
less than the least" Why me?
Of course you know the word "hu-
h. ol--~~l &C. ,,oorJr~ Tn