Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-02-27

member of the British parliament, was
recently in this country in attendance
upon the Ecumenical Conference of the
Methodists in which body he was a
leading figure.
One of the great New York dailies
reports him as having made in that city
a most important utterance before the
weekly preachers meeting of the me-
tropoIis at one of their Monday morn
ing meetings. He is quoted as say
ing:
I'm England, l am glad to say,
it is not yet necessary to advertise
special music and a picked qHar-
tette in order to induce Methodists y
to come to church. preacher
there does not subordinate himself
to counter attractions. L have seen
more Of such sacrifice in America
and in Canada than like to see.
think such sacrifices should cease.
Methodism was born in a pulpit.
When the pulpit declines, the whole
fabric declines And the pulpit
does decline when it is overshadow-
ed, as it too often is
These are weighty words to which
both preachers and churches will do
we'll to give heed. Preaching can not
er of christianity in the land.
i...s DR.. p. 7. Forsyth has said quite tru-
ly that preaching is the most distinc-
tive institution of christianity" In 50
far as we know the ancient religions
among pagan nations there was moth
ing in them corresponding to preaching
and no religious teacher like the preach
ers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Among the religions of present-day
heathenism little is known of any
thing like preaching. Hindoo1sm can
not be said to have 1t at all. Moham-
mechanism and Buddhism have had their
missions, but they were not at all ike
preaching. More recently the work OF
christian missionaries has provoked the
Buddhist to attempt some sort of effort
to initiate preaching, but it is poor
and powerless mimickry. The sacred
books of Mohammedanism and Buddhism
g furnish no adequate basis for preach
ing. Let any one, who is interested in
the subject, examine the Koran, for ex-
ample, and he will perceive instantly
that it is utterly impossible for a Mo-
hammedan propaganda to use 1T as the
christian minister uses the Bible.
When Paul went forth into the Gen
tile world of the first century preach
ing the gospel of Christ his method was
as strange to his hearers as the matter
which he proclaimed. TO the cultured
Athenians he seemed no more than a
'babbler" setting forth "strange gods.
(Acts xvii:1S). From Athens he went
to Corinth, where he founded a church,
not by the methods of a Greek orator,
and far less by the performances of
heather priest. Subsequently he re-
called to the Corinthian christians what
his method had been when he appeared
first among them, saying, My speech
and my preaching were not with en-
NP icHnr hut n
stration of the Spirit and of power
that your faith should not stand In the
wisdom of men, but in the power or
God" Il Corinthians liza and 81. In
the same epistIe he gives us to under
stand the unique place which preaching
occupies in the christian programme:
For after that in the wisdom Of God
the world by wisdom knew not God, il
pleased God by the fooliShness or
preaching to save those that believe
Il Corinthians i:2D. In his letter to
the Romans he emphasizes even more
strongly the authority and indispensa-
bleness of the preacher to the chris
tian system: For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved How then shall they call ON
Him in whom they have not believed?
and how shall they believe in Him or
whom they have not heard? and how
shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they
be sent? (Romans x:13 and lad.
The last question in this series or
conclusive interrogatives brings into
view another feature of the case of the
christian preacher; he is A SENT MAN
Of John the Baptist it is recorded that
he was a man sent from God, ana
such is the high call of every true
preacher of the gospel Very forcibly
it has been said recently by a great
British theologian, The christian
preacher is not the successor OF the
Greek orator. but of the Hebrew proph-
ct The orator comes with but an in
SEPARATION, the prophet comes with rev.
elation $500. The orator, speaking gen
orally. has for his business to make
real and urgent the present world and
it's crises; the preacher shows forth
world unseen and the whole crisis OF
the two worlds. The only business or
the apostolic preacher is to make men
practically realize a world unseen and
spiritual; he has to rouse them, not
against a common enemy, but against
tn cir common selves; not against natur-
al obstacles but against spiritual foes;
and he has TO call out not natural re-
sources, but supernatural aids. The
note of the peracher is the gospel of a
Saviour. The orator stirS men to rally, !
the preacher. invites them to be re-
deemed Demosthenes fires his audi
ence to attack Phillip straightway; Paul
stirs them to die and rise with Christ
The orator at most may urge men to
love their brothers; the preacher be-
seeches them first to be reconciled to |
.heir Father. With preaching christians
ity stands or falls because it is the de-
claration of a gospel
If these fundamental principles. de-
clared by st. Paul in the first century
and expressed and expanded by this
abba British theolo2ian in the twentieth