LECTURE XIV

POSITIVE PREACHING

WE must be impressed with the positiveness of the Apostolic teaching. It is the key of all the addresses, the note of all New Testament writings. They were certain of one thing: that Jesus was the Messiah, the realization of Jewish history and hope, that God had spoken through him, that his death upon the Cross brought forgiveness, that he triumphed over the grave, that he was the living Lord, the giver of new life to

men.

They held these truths as facts, in a simple, untheological way, they were slowly shaped into the great creedal forms by Greek thought and Roman law, - but they were unmistakable verities to the early preachers. They believed them with all their hearts, they gave their lives to them, they staked their all upon them, they went everywhere preaching them, and they spoke in a way to convince men of their authority. They are so certain of the truths, they are so bound together as one thing in their minds and lives,

that they call it "The Word," and their enemies call it "The Way."

With what accent of certitude do they speak!

"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified" (Acts 2:26).

"This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we are all witnesses " (Acts 2: 32).

"Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins" (Acts 13: 18).

"Justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).

"Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (I Cor. 3:11).

"Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world hath been crucified unto me and I unto the world" (Gal. 6: 14). 6:14).

"Walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).

"I know him, whom I have believed, and . I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day" (II Tim. 1: 12).

"We did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty' (II Peter 1: 16).

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (I John 1:3).

"Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (I John 3:16).

"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we know him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life" (I John 5: 20).

These men had a message. That was the characteristic of their speaking. They were certain of their message, and they always spoke with the accent of conviction. They left men in no doubt as to their conviction and as to the meaning and claim of their message.

1. This positiveness is the mark of all great, effective preaching. A Leo the Tenth may keep up the splendid shell of the Church when the heart of its faith is eaten out and the priests' quips may elevate the mass.

But

a Savonarola comes with a faith as strong as life itself and lays bare the hollow mockeries of religion and calls men to the realities of the Gospel. Luther forces the thought of men through all ecclesiastical machinery to a living person and makes faith in that person the soul of religion. In an age that had become cool of head and cool of heart, sceptical of religion and sceptical of virtue, above all sceptical of itself, John Wesley believed in a Christ, able to save unto the uttermost, and he preached this mighty Saviour with a conviction and a passion that laid its redeeming power on men in the uttermost depths of sin. And in the time of the questioning spirit, born of the new sciences and the philosophies that come from them, when there seemed no certainty in religion and no foundation of morals beyond the variable word of human experience, men like Phillips Brooks have proclaimed the Gospel with an essentialness and inevitableness that awakened the sense of sonship and won men with the glory of the spiritual life.

2. What is the source of positive preaching? It comes from personal experience. "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." "I know in whom I have believed." "That which we have heard, that which we

have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life." A man who really prays does not long remain without proof of the power of prayer. He may not answer the philosophical questions that men may ask concerning it, but he knows that he is a better man for his prayer, and that his own faith impels him to ask for others the spiritual blessings he himself receives. That experience helps him to speak with the accent of certainty. He no more doubts prayer than he does his own being. He could not live without it. And so he speaks of the truth of prayer with the positiveness of experience.

And it is the same way with any other religious truth. Cold, selfish hearts that have been broken into tenderness and repentance by the sacrifice of Christ do not doubt the power of the Cross. Men who have given way to their evil passions, who have felt the failure of sin and the shame of it, and then have turned to Christ and felt a hatred of sin and a new power to conquer it, have little trouble with the critical questions concerning the person of Jesus. Such questions cannot be understood save in the light of human need. And the sinner may know the power of the Redeemer.