The Penn's Grove record., 1910-07-01
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. MALCOLM M'LEoo.
Theme: The Holy Ministry

New York City.-In the Collegiate
Church of st. Nicholas, Fifth avenue
and West ~Fifty-eighth street, the
minister, the Rev. DR.. Malcolm Nc
Leod, preached on 1.-THE Holy Minis
try" The text was from Ephesians,
3:8: unto me who am less than the
least of all saints is this grace given,
that l should preach among the Gen.
tiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ" Among other things he
said:
There is no work equal in range or
richness to the great work of the
holy ministry. The New Testament
gives to it a peerless, imperishable
place. sit is the best calling, but
the worst trade in the world" wrote
Matthew Henry. DR.. Cuyler once
said that no royal throne was 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
&h1 -r1a;4 pNoo,cn nhan tho mil
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.
There are Paul and Tertullian, and
Chrysostom and Basil, and Savon-
arola and Luther, and Latimer and
Calvin, and Knox and Wyclif. and
Hooker and Jeremy Taylor and Bax-
ter, and Tillotson and Fenelon, and
Mason and Massillon, and Robert
South and Robert Hall, and Ed Iry-
ing and Newman, and Stanley and
Claiming, and Bushnell and Spur
geon, and Brooks and Matthew Simp-
son. What a list of immortals one
can cite. These are the mountains,
and there are millions of noble hills
besides. And what a gracious light
they caught and threw! And when
the altar fires burned low, it was be-
cause the prophets were dead.
Singers, We are told, are to be
pitied because posterity cannot hear
them. Their art is fragile and ephe-
neral. Not so the preacher! 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 n of the controlling
forces of Scotland. It 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 OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 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 tho beginning, has re-
lied upon tongues in0amed 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 men
never belittle your calling" Other
parts of worship have changed. The
sacrifice has changed; the ritual has
changed; the litanies, the liturgies;
but the function of the pulpit all
through the circle of the centuries
has remained virtually the same
The world outgrows its priests, but
not its prophets. st has pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them which believe.
Who the true preacher is:
/. He is a man clad in the garb o.
humility.
2. He is a man characterized b!
the gift of grace.
8. He is a man with a message.
May we pause and see what thai
implies?
/. A man. first of all, clad in the
garb OF humility. There is notnlns
more winsome about Paul than hi:
great human heart. II aver there
lived a man who had the right u
boast a bit, it was he. But mark nj:
modesty: Unto me who am less thar
the least" Me, a vessel OF grace
The wonder of it dazed him. -
felt himself a pigmy before tht
mountainous conception. Unto nj
who am less than the least. Les
than the least" A comparative su'
perlative, You say that is strange
Is it possible? Is 1t good Englisn'
No, it is not; it is not good English
and it is impossible. There canno'
be anything less than the least. 1t i!
the language of the heart, not TN
head. This is how he felt. III
would like a place-if only SUCH {
place could be-below the lowest
One hardly needs to add in passlnt
that this is not the temper OF tht
age. 1t is not Gods bounty to-dal
that awakens u awe. People say
why has this trouble come upoI
me?" They do not say, Why ma:
this blessing been conferred! W.
do not marvel at the mercles am
more. We do not stand in trembllns
bewilderment before them. W.
rather expect them. We almost muir
mur if we do not receive them. 10
day it is our troubles that stir US VIII
the wine of wonder. Why a thl!
afiiction come? Why this calamity
Paul had more than his share OF II
: fortune, but it never disturbed him
He never said "Why?" to his trials
1t was the manifold goodness OF Coo
that evoked his surprise. No maj
was eve more humble than the grea
apostle, and yet again one is almos
tempted to doubt if ever man wa
more boastful. His letters are full
of the personal pronoun. In this on
chapter alone he uses 81 and me
twelve times. But it was a splendid
magnanimous boastfulness. HIS ont
aim was to use himself and his ex
perience and his art and his culture
as a pedestal for the massive figure
ST the mighty Christ.
And you are not surprised.
know you arc not. Has it not Away!
Y A. -. >. >-.En