Year: 1879

Last evening at the Open-Air-Mission
the Rev. G.. II. Spurgeon delivered an
address on Opcn-air preaching. He said
there was one thing which they who
were engaged in preaching the Gospel
must always take care oi-that they kept
themselves by Gods grace right with
God. He did not believe that a man
could go and preach to his neighbors in
street and have the blessing of God
on his preaching il he had shop and
did not keep good weights. Ii God did
not make them holy they had better
shut up and keep quiet till he did.
Another essential point was that they
should be humble. A person said TO
him the other day that he prayed for
him that he might be humble, THANK
YOU" he replied, 81 hope you also
praved for yourself "Oh, no. said
the man, "l'm not tempted that way
There was probably no man so
proud as tine man who thought
he was humble. The reason why
tod did not give success 10 some men
was because they would be- OF their
heads. They must look for the harvest.
They must not be like the man who
thought there might be a harvest and
Just walked TO the field 10 see; but they
must be like the man who knew there
was q harvest and went with his sickle
on his shoulder to cut the
corn, and with his wagons behind him
to carry il away. The first thing then,
for thema> preachers, was 10 keep them
selves right with God. The next thing
was 10 keep themselves right with
themselves, because they could not get
away. \ man wrote To- him lately that
his master objected 10 his preaching,an
asked him whether he should 90 or
with il, and he wrote him i'm reply:
Dear Brother Ii the Lord has opened
vuur mouth the Devil cannot shut il;
but II the Lord has not opened your
mouth may the devil shut 10. This per-
son said hc iclt encouraged 10y the an.
swer. lie only hoped that this reading
ot heurucle was the concentrating Ii
they iclt that they had the power To full
IN their missipu-he did not mean ii
they we're educated, but il they iclt they
were called ot God 10 prrach-theu
they should 20 on preaching. Ii
man spoke because he felt
that he WAS delivering Got :
message, there was something so deco
ruu~ AMI 50 solemn about him that scot


T., unless they were altogether swine,


pect thc pearls that were east in their


V. Ii God sent them 10 preach he


uld give them strength, for he never
did send any one without giving him
strength to do the work he was sent 10
do. lie had heard great deal about
sympathy with ,uodcrn doubt. lie had
NO sympathy with il himself. What
they had 20 say 10 people was, "ThiS Is
Gods word, and on have got TO b lieve
H." and they might tell them that if
they did not believe il they woul bed
east into hell, whatever Canon this or
Canon the other might say. Perhaps
they would say they could not speak so
positively. Then they could not do
much good. Martin Luther was strong
before he was dogmatiC, and ii they
wanted % be strong they must be dog
matte too. The last thing he had to say
10 them was that they should not only
keep right with God and right with
themselves, but that they should keep
right with the people. They must love
those whom they taught. They must
love them and honor them too. They
must honor the man that had his
hair cropped and had only just come
out of Jail. "Well, said Young man.
drawing of his lavender gloves, Il
would not mind---haw, haw--- address,
ing a congregation in---haw--Willis's
Rooms, but---haw---it would be ridicu-
lous." And probably il would be ride
ulous because he would not be respect
iul TO his audience. They must keep
themselves friendly with the people, or
they would never do much good. He
once saw friend standing up to the
knees in water fishing, aud he said to
HIM, III were fishing | should be on
I the bank but his friend said, at is
, better 10 be down among the fish, you
catch more" And so it was with
preachers; if they wanted 10 win souls
they must 90 among them. When
Gibraltar was beseiged il might have
been captured, but that the defenders
threw red hot shot into the attacking
vessels. And so ii they wanted to sue
ceed they must fire red hot shot. They
must feel that they would die if they
| did not succeed. Ii must not be a mat
| ter of difference TO them whether those
| they preached to were saved, but they
must feel that they must be saved. In
4 conclusion he exhorted them to preach
away, for in Open-air preaching they


were following the example OF their
Master.