Manner of Preaching by Dr. Wayland

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 23, 1873

Manner of Preaching.

By Dr. Wayland

THE manner in which the message of the gospel should be communicated is apparent, if we consider the nature of the message and the persons to whom it is addressed. Here is a company of human beings about to enter an eternity in which there can be no change. This short and uncertain life is their only period of probation. The decree must soon go forth, “He that is holy, let him be holy still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” All are sinners against God, and deserving his condemnation. In infinite love, he has provided, through the atonement of his Son, a way of pardon and reconciliation, the benefits of which he offers freely to all who will repent and believe. He has sent this man to make known this good news to this people, and to plead with them to accept of it. If they reject it, they sink under the condemnation of the law which they have broken; if they accept it, they rise to glory and everlasting life. Most of this audience are unreconciled to God, liable at every moment to plunge into a lost eternity. Others profess to have embraced the message of salvation; but they are liable to self-deception, and, in a world abounding in temptations, may be seduced into apostasy. Such is the message, and such the condition of the people, whom a minister addresses every time he rises in the pulpit. Was not the question of the apostle appropriate, “Who is sufficient for these things?”

But it is to be observed that this audience is of a very miscellaneous character. They are of every age, from the child in the Sabbath-school to its venerable grandparent. There are assembled men and women of every variety of cultivation. A small portion of the audience may be persons of educated and disciplined minds; the greater part belong to the middle walks of life; some are poor; many are young persons, just entering upon the realities of the world, or, if more advanced, are men of active business, of strong common sense, though destitute of the advantages of literary culture. Great as may be these differences, in one respect they are all on a level. All are tending to the same judgment-seat, and all must hear the announcement, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,” or, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;” and their final condition depends upon the reception which they give to the message of salvation.

Such being the audience, and such the occasion of his address, it is obvious that the first requisite in the manner of the minister’s communication is, that he be thoroughly understood by every one of his hearers who is of sufficient capacity to comprehend his message.

1. His words must be such as all his audience, of ordinary capacity, can understand. The message of salvation was first communicated to men, by the Son of God, in such language that the common people heard him gladly. The gospel may be understood by little children, else what is the use of Sabbath-schools? Janeway’s “Token for Children” relates many cases of conversion in quite young persons. The daughter of President Edwards gave unequivocal evidences of piety, I think, at the age of four years. In a very interesting revival with which I was acquainted, one of the most interesting converts was an intelligent young person, of eight years of age, who has lately finished her course with joy. We all believe that Sabbath-school teachers should labor for the immediate conversion of their pupils; but this, of course, supposes it possible that they can make themselves understood. It may be said that these teachers are young persons and imperfectly educated, and it cannot be expected that learned men can render their weighty thoughts comprehensible to children and ignorant men and women. Then, I say, if the effect of learning is to keep men from being understood by the common people, the less we have of it the better. The use of learning is to make these truths perfectly plain; and he who renders it the means of making them obscure, deserves to be esteemed a smatterer and a sham. We may be pretty sure that his learning is little, and his common sense less.

Whatever may be said to the contrary, I can hardly conceive that a minister can use the language of the Scriptures in the pulpit too freely, provided he use it appropriately and reverently. Let a man read the sermons of Leighton, and Baxter, or Jay, or Payson, if he would learn how greatly familiarity with the language of the Scriptures adds to the power of him who addresses his fellow-men on the subject of their salvation.

I remember, nevertheless, that John Foster, a very high authority, attributes the aversion of men of taste to revealed religion, in part, at least, to the irreverent, and frequently ludicrous manner, in which the Scriptures are quoted in the pulpit. There may be, no doubt, a foundation for the censure of the great essayist; though it must be a very slight one, for the preachers whom he condemns, and the persons whom he supposes to be injured by them, do not often come in contact. Be this, however, as it may, the effect of the essay has been, I think, upon the whole, decidedly mischievous. It has led many preachers to suppose that it was out of taste, or indicative of a want of education, or, in fact, decidedly rustic, to quote frequently from the Scriptures. It has led to the belief that the language of the pulpit must have nothing to distinguish it from that of any secular composition, and that a popular article in a review may well serve as a model for the style of a sermon. Hence the style of the pulpit is becoming secular; and frequently, after the reading of the text, you will not hear a scriptural expression until the final amen, which has not yet been dispensed with. The same paper has not very unfrequently been put to triple duty. It first appears as a sermon, then as a platform address, or as a lecture before some literary society, and then as an article for some popular magazine, to which it may easily be adapted by cutting off the text and omitting a few sentences of the closing paragraph.—Dr. Wayland.