LECTURE XII. THE COST OF

PREACHING

Ex. 27: 20. "And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure olive oil, beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually."

LUKE 8:46. "Jesus said, Some one did touch me; for I perceived that power had gone forth from me."

R

LECTURE XII

THE COST OF PREACHING

"THE wrong notion about sermons has led to a great deal of the bad talk which is running about now among both laymen and clergymen about the excessive amount of preaching. 'How is it possible,' they say, 'that any man should bring forth two strong, good sermons every week? It is impossible. Let us have only one sermon every Sunday; and if the people will insist on coming twice to the church, let us cheat them with a little poor music, and a few remarks and call it Vesper service, or let us tell a few stories to the Sunday School and call it Children's Church; but let us not preach twice to men and women; it is impossible.' It is impossible if by a sermon you intend a finished oration. It is as impossible to produce that twice as it is undesirable to produce it once a week. But that a man who lives with God, whose delight is to study God's words in the Bible, in the world, in history, in human nature, who is thinking about Christ and man and salvation every day, that he should not

be able to talk about these things of his heart, seriously, lovingly, thoughtfully, simply, for two half hours every week, is inconceivable, and I do not believe it. Cast off the haunting incubus of the notion of great sermons. Care not for your sermon, but for your truth, and for your people; and subjects will spring up on every side of you, and the chances to preach upon them will be all too few." (PHILLIPS BROOKS, "Yale Lectures," page 152.)

This may seem easy advice from a man with nature so gifted and training so large and rich, but it helps to put before us the cost of preaching. There are certain difficulties to preaching; they lie in the way of all success and must be overcome. The first is suggested by the quotation, viz. the false idea of the sermon.

The sermon may partake of the elements of the highest literary art, but it is not to be regarded as a work of art. It is an instrument for service and not a work for intellectual and æsthetic delight. Mr. Aldrich, when editor of the Atlantic, returned the poem of a certain young contributor with the word, "If you had not written many others as good, I would accept this." It was a broad hint to write less and so better. We

must not compare the sermon with any form of literature, though we are to make the sermon as good as we can.

The mental and physical indolence of many men stand in the way of success. One of our Indian ministers in his examination for licensure was asked "What is original sin?" And he answered that he did not know what other people's was, but he knew that his own was laziness. Many a man has reached the dead line long before he was fifty. If a minister fails of the industry and persistence to grow, he has already begun to die. The only lazy line is the dead line.

Dr. Tucker quotes the saying of a keen critic that the two besetting sins of the pulpit are laziness and lying. By lying he means all unreality of life and speech; and by laziness "the disposition or the willingness to do the lesser in the place of the greater duty." Our profession is no exception to the law that success is only to be gained by the hardest kind of work. Mr. Gilder describes Mr. Cleveland as a fisherman. He was always at And that is what the

it; he never gave up. fisher of men must do.

Men who do not lack energy and industry sometimes fail of the best work through undisciplined powers. They have never been