p. 194 | Hammering Cold Iron

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 6, 1870

Hammering Cold Iron.

“That preacher uses a big hammer—a very big hammer,” said a quaintly speaking man, as he came out of a chapel in B—, where the word of God had been proclaimed with power and blessing; and his conception was not far from correct.

The man who wields the word of God handles a hammer, and a heavy one too; a hammer which has broken idols, and broken hearts; which has smitten tyrants, and shattered prison doors; which has dashed nations in pieces, and molded and shaped the destinies of the human race.

But God’s word is more than a hammer, and “hammering” is not always preaching the gospel. The word of God is as a fire, and as a hammer. Not a hammer first, and then a fire,—a hammer to crush, and a fire to consume,—but a fire first, and then a hammer,—a fire to soften and subdue; and then a hammer to break, and mould, and fashion, the mass which has already yielded to the influence of the fire.

Good blacksmiths do not waste many blows on cold iron; they first heat, and then hammer; and the man who, when preaching God’s word, uses all hammer and no fire, will have a noisy, weary, fruitless task. Cold iron can neither be wrought nor welded; hot iron yields to the force of the blacksmith’s sturdy stroke.

Preacher of the gospel, with your theories, and opinions, and your doctrines, and disputations, do you wonder that your labors are so tedious and unprofitable? Perhaps you hammer cold iron too much. That may be the reason why your blows recoil with such a clatter. That may be the reason why there is so little unity and fellowship among your hearers. You may preach truth, but is it the whole truth? You may have the hammer, but have you not forgotten the fire?

Change your plan. Try the warming, heating, melting, burning power of God’s truth. Heat first, then hammer; soften, then weld; melt, then mold. And as you use more fire, you will need less hammer, and every blow you strike will help to fashion things aright. The stubborn iron yields to the fire and the hammer, and even the flinty rock, calcined by intense heat, crumbles to sand beneath the hammer’s stroke. Let us follow the divine plan, first the fire, then the hammer, that we may be blessed in our work, and our labors crowned with success.

“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Jer. 23: 28, 29.—The Christian.