p. 3 | A Sacred Ministry by W. F. Martin

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Dec 25, 1913

A Sacred Ministry

By W. F. Martin

Preaching

A Sacred Ministry

W. F. MARTIN

“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean

lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people.” Isa. 6: 1-9.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. 28: 18-20.

“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” 1 Tim. 1: 12.

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Acts 13: 2.

I have quoted these scriptures at length to illustrate the thought that God calls men to the ministry, to the preaching of the gospel. God has chosen through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Again, in enumerating the gifts that make up the perfect church, he places at the head of the list, “First apostles.” The word apostle signifies one sent forth. From the scriptures which we have quoted we see that such ones are sent forth for a specific purpose. That purpose is to preach the gospel. According to this, men are chosen of God for this specific work. We have direct reasons for wishing to impress the foregoing. It has been said that this is a hard time for the preacher. The habit of churchgoing has not been maintained. It has not kept pace with our rapidly increasing population. Worse than all this, the church itself has suffered a decline in its conception of preaching. In many instances its members fail to see the call of God in it. All of this has to an extent chilled the ardor of the preacher. There are certain other forces that work against the preacher. There is a multitude of books, magazines, newspapers, clubs, etc. These all meet the intellectual desires of the people. Competition is very strong. The preacher is no longer the chief person of the town. There is also a great flood of religious literature,—books, tracts, weeklies, and magazines.

Then there are other branches of religious work to which the minds of young men have been directed. They have been told that they can enter one of these and be engaged in the Lord’s work as verily as is the minister. We have sometimes been led to wonder if at all times an entirely unselfish motive has prompted the choosing of another vocation rather than that of the ministry.

In the work of the ministry one is called to suffer. From this the heart naturally shrinks. This is strictly a commercial age. Everything is weighed in the monetary scales. Naturally the young man who thinks he can be engaged in the work of God and have a settled home and a good income while practising medicine, will choose this rather than what seems a life of toil and itinerancy, with small pay.

The greatest Prophet was a preacher. He taught with authority. There was always in his teaching the predominating element of personality. The personal method was his way of teaching. It is the strong conviction of the writer of these lines that the gospel must be spread chiefly through personality rather than through literature or institutions. “From lip to lip and heart to heart the truth must be passed on, the divine life in one soul to be as a torch with which to kindle it in another.”

At the very beginning of Christ’s work, he gathered disciples, taught them and impressed his personality upon them. “He opened his mouth, and taught them.” His was the oral method. He did not have a single written word. He was training his men to be preachers. When they left his school, they went forth and taught as he had taught. Those with whom they came in contact knew these disciples had been with Jesus. He stamped his personality on them. He sent them forth to preach. They were to be witnesses, his messengers. In the early history of the church the apostles considered their chief work to be preaching. They asked for the appointment of deacons that they might give themselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer. The record of this is found in Acts 6. Notice the proposal came from the apostles, and it pleased the multitude. The church desires able ministers whose lives are given to prayer and the preaching of the word. Others than the ministers can serve tables. Paul says, “Christ sent me . . . to preach the gospel.” The angel of the Lord said to Peter, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” When the call to the ministry is spoken of, preaching is made emphatic.

The Christian church began in preaching. The first great work of the apostles was done by preaching. Even the outpouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost was that each one present might hear in his own tongue the preaching of the gospel. The gospel was not written until after it had been preached. The apostle Paul was preeminently a preacher. His epistles were written to churches that had been gathered out by his skilful preaching. Preaching has been called “God’s word through a man.” “Speak, Lord,” said the young prophet, “for thy servant heareth.” The apostles said, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” Coming to times since the first era of the church, we find that preaching has been the great factor in the promulgation

tion of the gospel. Witness Morrison in China, Moffat in South Africa, Eliot among the Indians of America. We shall not speak of those in our own denomination who have been mighty men on the rostrum. It is true that other agencies have come in to help, but none of them will or can take the place of the preacher. The eras of great spiritual revivals have come from preachers who had messages from God. Such men have not always used correct language nor strictly formal decorum in the pulpit. They have had the creative thought and passionate speech that come from a burdened soul. They felt the woe upon them if they preached not the gospel. This responsibility has made men fearless and mighty. This fire burning in the souls of men is never understood until it is spoken. It is the accent of conviction that arrests and holds the attention. It is the tone of conviction that opens up the avenue to indifferent and hostile minds. A man who knows the message must speak it. Right here is where preaching is lifted above rhetoric, diction, and elocution. It rises into a higher sphere. Here again is the personal element. It is Christ speaking through his messenger. “Ye are my witnesses.”

It has been well said: “The source of genuine religious eloquence lies much deeper and higher than in the study and appropriation of rhetorical figures and other artificial human methods—in the deep glow, in the enthusiasm of the heart for the divine truth and beauty of the gospel, which the Spirit of God produces in the speaker when he becomes fully absorbed in the truth; and when this unfolds itself in his address, then also the Spirit of God cooperates, impressing and touching the hearts of the hearers. In this self-abandonment to the holy unction from above lie the inmost source of true religious eloquence and the secret of its fruitful operation.”

The work of preaching is incomparable. It is standing in Christ’s stead persuading men to be reconciled to God. The church will be wise in giving itself to the careful training of the ministry. No amount of attention to music, ritual, or learned lectures on secular subjects will answer or permanently draw a congregation. What is wanted is gospel preaching. Coupled with its hardships, preaching has its ineffable pleasures. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” No truer words were ever spoken. What can compare with the joy of hearing the burdened soul say, “I will arise and go to my Father”?

No fruitage of toil is so sure as using the Christian, God-given graces of the pulpit to make men doers of the word.

Again, the church needs not only more but better preachers. Men are needed who look not upon preaching merely as a profession, but who are filled with the living Word,—men who regard preaching as the highest and most difficult art, and, having this high conception, hold themselves to it, determined to attain efficiency.

No preacher can permanently succeed who does not make Christ the center of every discourse. The preacher must have a sense of a message from God. He stands before men, not to enforce his own ideas, but God’s; to teach men the way of salvation. He is an ambassador sent of God. “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” The sermon is not so much to be something as it is to do something. It is not to attract attention to itself, but to the Saviour.

The story is told of a great artist that when he had finished the painting of the Last Supper, he asked a friend to see it. As the painter withdrew the cloth, the friend said, “How wonderful the cup in the hand of Christ!” The painter impulsively drew the brush across the cup, saying, “Nothing shall hide the face of Christ.”

Again, remember they took knowledge of the disciples that they had been with Jesus. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” A preacher who fails to lift up the Saviour and make him more to be desired than all else, has missed the mark. When he gets his message from any other source than the Bible, he is giving the people a stone for the bread they need. This is a hard time for the preacher, and yet it is the time of opportunity. God is calling for men—men who know the times, men who will be satisfied with nothing short of perfection—to stand on the wall and watch for the breaking of the day. Let us strive for the ideal as expressed by Luther: “There is no more precious treasure nor nobler thing upon earth and in this life than a true and faithful preacher. The spiritual preacher increaseth the kingdom of God, guardeth men against death, putteth a stop to sin, consoleth every man according to his condition, traineth young people excellently. In short, he createth a new world and buildeth a house that shall not pass away.” “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

College Place, Wash.