Part 19 (1/2)

”Faith without works is dead.” Everybody who has read the Bible understands that.

But this paper is on ”The Young Man and the Pulpit”--an attempt to give him an idea of how the people he is going to preach to look at this matter, how they regard him, and, above all else, what the people to whom his life work is devoted really need and really want above everything else in this world.

Don't preach woe, punishment, and all mournfulness to the people all the time. Where you find sin, go ahead and denounce it mercilessly; but do it crisply, cuttingly, not dully and innocuously. Speak to kill. Do not forget that the Master told the people of His day that they ”were a generation of vipers.”

But that was not the burden of His appeal. He knew that there were other things in the world and human nature besides sin. Mostly He spoke of ”things lovely and of good report.” Remember that His coming was announced as a bringing of ”good tidings of great joy.”

The Sermon on the Mount is the perfection of thought, feeling, and expression. Make it your example. You will recall that it begins: ”Blessed are the poor in spirit.” It is full of ”blessed” and blessings, of consolations and encouragements and loving promises of beautiful certainties. ”Ye are the light of the world,” He said. The Sermon on the Mount radiates sense and kindness and prayer.

The One understood that most glorious truth of all truths--that there is some good in each of us, and that if that good only could be recognized and encouraged it would overcome the bad in us. You will remember the saying: ”A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”

So don't be an orator of melancholy. There is enough sadness in the world without your adding to it by either visage, conduct, or sermon.

Besides, it is not what you are directed to do. The people would be very glad if you could say with Isaiah that

”The Lord hath anointed me to preach _good tidings_ unto the meek; ...

he hath sent me _to proclaim liberty_ to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim _the acceptable year_ of the Lord ... to _comfort_ all that mourn ... to give unto them _beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness_.”

That is the kind of talk that will cheer the people, and it is the kind of talk that will do the people good. There is nothing ”blue”

about that. And it is what the Book bids you tell the people. The people want it, too, and need it--they _need_ ”beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”

Ah! yes, indeed, that is worth while. Your pews will never be empty if such be the fruit of your lips and the ripeness of your spirit. The people want to hear about something better than they know or have known.

”How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.”

n.o.body likes a scold. Of course, when it is necessary to scold, go ahead and scold. But don't make scolding a practise. Your congregation will not stand being abused; they will not stand it unless they actually need it, and then they will stand it. Unconsciously they will know that the stripes you lay upon them are medicine after all, and for their healing.

But ordinarily everybody has such a hard time that they would like to hear about ”a good time coming.” Ordinarily everybody is so tired that they would like to hear something like this: ”Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

The religion which you preach owes its vitality to the glorious hopefulness of it. The people want to know that if they do well here joy awaits them hereafter, and here, too, if possible. They want to hear about the ”Father's house” that has ”many mansions,” and about Him who has ”gone to prepare a place” for them.

They demand happiness in some form, if only in talk. If they do not get it in the a.s.surances of religion, who can blame them if they say: ”Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die.” For sure enough they _do_ die to-morrow, so far as their world goes.

If you do not believe that religion means happiness, quit the pulpit and raise potatoes. Potatoes feed the body at least. But unfaithful words or speech of needless despair feed nothing at all. It is ”east wind.” Put beauty, hope, joy, into your preaching, therefore. Make your listeners thrill with gladness that they are Christians. Even the men of the world have wisdom enough to make things profane as attractive as possible.

Note, for example, that most successful books are hopeful books that tell of the beautiful things of human life and character. Especially is this true of novels, the most widely read of all books of transient modern literature. The hero always wins--virtue always triumphs. There are remarkable exceptions no doubt--but they are exceptions. Now and then there are remarkable novels which scourge with the whips of the Furies, as indeed most of Savonarola's sermons flagellated.

With all your faith and the fervor of it, be full of thought. Merely to believe burningly is not enough. n.o.body will listen to you declaim the confession and then declaim it over and over again and nothing more. Even pious monotony palls. Bread is the staff of life; and yet too much bread eaten at one time will kill. Food, taken in excess, becomes poison.

I have emphasized the necessity for faith because it will always be the very soul of your influence over your audience. It is the power behind your ideas. Faith is the dynamics of truth. But do not forget that you have got to _have_ ideas. You have got to _have_ truth.

In every word you utter you must be a teacher.

After all, teaching is the only oratory. Luke says of the Master that ”he _taught_ the people.” In reporting the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew says that ”he opened his mouth and _taught_ them.” Time and again I have heard hard-headed business men and st.u.r.dy farmers say of a particularly instructive sermon: ”I like to hear that preacher; I always _learn_ something from him.”

And let your discourse be full of ”sweet reasonableness.” Peter tells you ”to be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason for the hope that is within you,” although Peter himself seldom gave a reason for anything.

You cannot do this without study. ”After you have shot off a gun you have got to load it before you can shoot it off again,” said a wise old preacher who retained the hold of his youth upon his congregations. Never cease to renew yourself from every possible source of thought and knowledge.

Books, society, solitude, the woods, the crowded streets--all things in this varied universe have in them replenis.h.i.+ngs for your mind.