p. 122 | Preach the Word

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 25, 1886

Preach the Word

Such was the preaching on the occasion of which we write; for says the scripture: "So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." This is the only kind of preaching that is strictly genuine. The Bible is God's word to the people. The minister is to take that word, and, by the aid of the Spirit of God, to put it into the minds and hearts of the people, and it can be done only by reading in the book in the law of God distinctly, and giving the sense, and causing them to understand the reading. It cannot be done by taking a single verse, or sentence, or perhaps a single word, from the Bible, and then talking about something else for thirty or forty minutes. In other words, it cannot be done as D. L. Moody says that some men do: Take the text from the Bible, and go all over Christendom for the sermon. Under the solemn charge "before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick [living] and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom," the command of God is, "Preach the word." 2 Tim. 4:1, 2. Again: "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 word of man is chaff; the word of God is wheat. Give the people the word of God—the wheat—and they will have bread; they will have that upon which they can feed. Give them the words of man, and they have chaff indeed.