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Preach Christ

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 37, No. 14.

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Preach Christ.

A YOUNG man had been preaching in the presence of a venerable divine, and after he had done, he went to the old minister, and said:
“What do you think of my sermon?”
“A very poor sermon, indeed,” said he.
“A poor sermon?” said the young man; “it took me a long time to study it.”
“Ay, no doubt of it.”
“Why, did you not think my explanation of the text a very good one?”
“Oh! yes,” said the old preacher, “very good, indeed.”
“Well, then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Didn’t you think the metaphors were appropriate and the arguments conclusive?”
“Yes; they were very good so far as that goes; but still it was a very poor sermon.”
“Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?”
“Because,” said he, “there was no Christ in it.”
“Well,” said the young man, “Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always; we must preach what is in the text.”
So the old man said:
“Don’t you know, young man, that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet, in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?”
“Yes,” said the young man.
“Ah!” said the old divine, “and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of Scripture, that is, Christ. And, my dear brother, your business is, when you get a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ and then preach a sermon running along the road to the great metropolis—Christ. And,” said he, “I have not yet found a text that has not a road to Christ in it. If I should, I would make one. I would go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savor of Christ in it.”