Biblical Preaching

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 23, 1872

Biblical Preaching.

THE following is the substance of some remarks made by Prof. J. M. Hoppin at the last meeting of the General Association of Connecticut, in New Haven:

“I may say that as one who is striving to teach others how to preach, I sincerely desire to come at the true secret of successful preaching, and to learn from every source. I should be willing to cast every theory of my own to the winds, however I might cherish it, did I think it was not the true and apostolic method of preaching, did I think it would not be followed with Christ’s blessing.

“I believe in the Biblical method of preaching above any other; and I believe we must return to that, essentially, before any great power or effectiveness will be gained. ‘The pulpit has lost, or is losing its power,’ is now the cry. If this is not true, it is of no consequence—if it is true, the reason of this loss of effectiveness comes from the fact that the true source of power has been neglected, and false methods have been adopted ending in barrenness and death. I need not tell an audience like this, that in the history of the church the reformation of the people has always followed the reformation of preaching; and the reformation of preaching has always sprung from a return to the Word of God as the source both of the subject-matter and the inspiration. So it was in all reformed countries in the reformation of the sixteenth century, and so it always will be.

“And so it is with us now. We also may go away from the Bible while professing as Protestants to make it our main source of truth. We may become preachers of man’s word instead of God’s word. We may substitute systems and doctrines of our own in the place of the actual teachings of Christ; or we may preach and we may worship the Bible in such a narrow way, that we shall become ministers of the letter that killeth instead of the spirit that makes alive.

“I believe that the Biblical method is the true one because it is the historical method. The sermon, as we now call it, had once no place in preaching. Preaching was once a simple answer to the question, ‘Tell us, friends and brethren, what you know about Christ—about the facts of his life—about what he said and taught—about his death and what it imported.’ It was then a laying open or exposition of the documents relating to that life and death—of the histories and the letters after the first eye-witnesses had passed away; and this continued to be mainly the method of preaching through the earliest ages down until philosophy and rhetoric usurped the place of Biblical truth.

I believe it is the true mode, because in such preaching there is the spiritually instructing and renewing element, which makes it the real bread of life. One may adulterate this bread of life by theological and metaphysical preaching, as well as by sensational preaching. I know very well that religion has its philosophical side. I know very well that metaphysics must enter into instructive preaching. I care not how much thought there is in a sermon, the more thought the better—but to make preaching a matter of thought; to take a theme as a mere topic of thought, and to treat it for that end; to set forth an interesting thought, and to build up a noble argument and there to leave it; this is, after all, the exhibition of human genius and intellectual prowess; and I care not who does this, if this is all, there is no word of God in it to feed the soul.

“I suggest that every one who intends to be, or who is, a preacher, should make a life-work of the systematic and comprehensive study of the Scriptures. Here is the foundation, certainly next to the preparation of the heart. I think there is a great want here. I am afraid that ministers depend too much upon reading and general studies,—very good and important in themselves—but the study of the Scriptures is their great work. And to study the Scriptures only as a necessity—to study a text and its context merely to make a sermon out of it, is not enough; for what made the great preachers of old? It was that they were mighty in the Scriptures—they had studied the Bible comprehensively, as a daily work, as their life-work.