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CHAPTER ' VIII

''PREACH THE WORD''

One of the latest injunctions of the aged Paul, just before

his martyrdom, was that to Timo thy, which constitutes tl1e
text of my address, ''Preach the Word.''
Thirty years of
Christian experience, fifteen years of aPostolic survey, and
th e inspiration of the Holy Ghost, all spoke in those words.
It was a command frolll heaven itself, no t to Timothy only,
but to all who fill the 0 ffice of evan ,gelists or preachers in
th ,e Ne'W Test.ament Church,
The order' thus SUCcinctly
given, is a condensation of ,all that Paul had said to 'Timothy
or to the Church on the subject ojf preaching .
The sound or h,ealthy doctrine on which he lays so much
S'treSS, and the avoi dan c,e 0 f fables and t.he world's wi,s1dom,
,ar e 'both included in this curt command. There has been a
tend en cy from the very beginning to conorm the doctrine
of Christ to the , philosop,hy of man, to fuse the two together,
and to show that all religion,s ha ve the . same Divin e element
at th eir roots. T :hi.s was seen in gnosticis ,mt in the Alexiandrian school of Clement and Origen, and in a score of
heresies that .sprang up within the later Church.
The distinctive ,character of Christianity has displeased
the philo ,sophic min d,, and . men h,ave sought : to explain aw'aY
many of its f eatu res f rom the standpoint of the 'human cot1sciousness and by an appeal to the teachings of nature. These
efforts have certain marks in commo n. They diminish the
heinousness of sin, they exaggerate the p,owers of man,, a11d
they suggest a unif :ormi.ty of destiny. Sin i,s a d efect, perhaps
a disease ,. The defect can be supplied, the dise,ase can be
cured by human applications, the Divine help being valuable
as encouragement to the human effort. High civilization and
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100

''Preach the Wor d''

101

moral ref orm are what man needs, an d t.hes .e can be obtained
by the use of general principles common to our race, of which
Christianity is only one of the for .ms.
It is natural and inevitable ti1at, with this teaching, the
written Wo rd of Go d-should be ne,gl ected, if n ot ign ored. No
one can s,tudy that Word and then ttse it for so broad and
indiscriminati ng a purpose.
No one can study that Word
an1d the -n be contented with ,a s11perficial po1ish of society, and
a universal brotherhood founded upon such a scheme. Paul
s,aw this tende ncy in his own day, and he warns t,he. C.hurch
earnestly against it. ''Beware,'' is l1is, language ''Beware
lest an,y man spoil you through phil,osophy and vain deceit,
after the tradjti ,on of men., after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ'' ( Col. 2 :8) . The evil prin ciple is ever
at work. Hu .man , nature is ever the same. The Church is
a]ways subject to the same ,efforts of human nature witl1in
itself to .remove tl1e f,oundations of grace and substitute the
inventions of pride. Whether i't ap pear in the form of hierarchical assumption, or in the chara cter of rational inquir ,y
and scientific r~search ., the evil principle hides, mutilates, or
C'ontr ,ad:icts the Ho ,Jy Scripture. The [Scriptures, as they are,
with th eir Divin e claim and their uncompromising , teachings,
it cann 1ot endure , and the ap,peal to 1 .S ,cripture it 1counts las . ,a
m,ark of credulity and an exhibition of i,g11.orance.
One of the sa dd est sights in the Church of Christ is the
yiel,ding to this spirit of prid .e on the part . of the ordained
preachers of the Wo rd. Many modern Timothys usiie the
pulpit for dis,course .s on art an d literature ; ,others take the
opportttnity for the display of r'hetoric and oratory; o,tl1ers
procJ,aim an ethics of ,expediency ; while Sti11 othe1s seek only
to tickle the ears of an audience that desires to be amused.
In all this you look in vain for the Go,spel. Plato or Aristotle, and , in some cases Lt1.cian, , could have said it a11~
Churches are filled by a pp ealing to carnal desires and aesthetic
t,astes. Bri11iant oratory, scientific music, s en,sational topics
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The Fundamentals

102

and f as'hionable pew holders, are the baits to lure people into
the churcl1es1 and a church is called p rosperous as these
wretched d evices succe ed. The preacher deligl1ts to get him~
.self int ,o the 11ewspap er an d he accom modates his preach ing
to the newspaper level. Sucl1 churches will, o,f course, have
worldly-mi nde,d. 0 fficers an.d a. worldly~minded membership,
while godly sou ls either flee from ' them, or else 1nrourn in
secret, if the.y are not tl1emselv es chilled by the lack of Gospel
heat.
It is directly again st all this that the holy apostle utters
his clarion cry down throug h the ages, ''Preach the Wo,rd.,''
What is the Woi'rd? It i.s n.ot man's philo sophy n,or man's
rhetoric. It is the Divine revelation. It . is called ' the Word
of God,I be cause it is not of m.an. As God's , it has both
authority and povver--g ut ho rity to demand attention, and
power to convert and save tl1e soul. It is not to be pounded
in ma11's n1,orta1.., n.o r run into man' ,s .mould. It is not to be
twi sted and fitt ed to n1an's preconceived ideas. It is not to
be filtered thro -ugh man's strainer, nor mixed with man's
conc eits. It is. God's and as (;-od''s l et 11,0 .n1an d.a.re add t0
it, or take from it, or alt,er it in any way. The Lor d Jesus
stands b,y His cross, where He offered up tl1e sacii--fice for si,n, ,and points b.ac.kward to the- 01d T,estan1ent,
and forward to the New, as alike the Word of God.
0 t11e forme ,r He cries, ''S earch the Scriptttres'';
o!
the latter He tell s }Iis apost'les that the Paraclete
would come a11d teach them all things, and tl1ey shou ld bear
witness. Thi s Old and N ew Testament is one reve.lation of
God one Bible one uner1ing rule of faith. Goc;Ih.as not
given us a doubtful and deceitful light for 0 ur path. He has
not ,given tts a bundle of t.ruth and fabJe tied up together~
He has not left us to our weak and ,discordant reason, and
thus made revelation sup,erfluous. He has given His people a
'"s,ure word df pro ,phec.y'' as the only reasonab ]e guide ,for
. ou r wealc reason and our sinful natures; and on this sure
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''Preach the Word''

103

Word is His Church built. The doctrines ,of grace have

. neithe ,r h11man origin no,r human support . They are altogether Divine, and are r ec,eived only by th e soul th ,at becomes.
partaker of' the Divine natute. To go:, there ore, to human
philosophy or to man's inne1 consciousness for their confirmation 01 exp ,lanation, is to go to the sentenced criminal
to understand tl1e exce,llences of criminal law. Tl1e error

of e,r ,ro rs is the see~ing fo r th e truths of religion from ma ,n.

It is, but the adaptatio ,n ,of religion to , the carnal heart. It
is the essence 0 , pride and 1..ebellion ag ,ainst God. Thousands
of tomes have , been Written by men who called themselves
Christia .n s,cholars and Chri sti,an p,hilosophers, wl1ich are but
volumes of Conf ,t1,.sing n1etap,hysics and . specious rationalizing
,from the basis of natural exper ien c,e, ,and ,vl1ich hav e under. mined fai th in the Wo ,rd o.f' God, and utterly perve rted the
Gospel of Christ. Stud ents of Christian theology waste
pr ecious time in studying the works of these conceited thin 'kers, whose nam es are lauded ,as. those of giants in the Church,
while the y are ,corrupting the pulpit and secu larizin ,g the pew.
, It is a favo1ite cl1arg,e of the advocat es 0 f this lo,o senes \s
that we are worshipping a Boal{. ''Bibl iolatry' '' is the formi 1dable word . that they cast at us. But we worship no book.
We do wo,rsh .ip, God who sent the Book, and it is no t.rue
worship, of 1G,od th,at sligl1ts th e Bool<:whi1ch H,e give,s. I
W'e honor God, we shall l1onor tl1e W 01d He has , sent, and
we .shall be jealous f'or that Word, that not one jot or one
tittle of it be disturbed by the vagaries of dreamers or the
impio u.s hands of boas,tin,g critics. It i,s the Word of Goel,
an1d,1as s,uch, we shall not allow, f or a moment, the specula- .
tions, imaginings, and guesses of men,, ever S0 lea1ne,d, to
weigh a feat 'her's weight against it. They have been convicted over and over again of grossest fallacies in their hot
end.ea,vor to detract from the influ ence of the ho1y Word,
and their criticisms have returned upon th emselves to thei1
conf usion. What gros .s absttr dities l1av.e been p,r omulga.ted
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104

by the se learned enemies of R,evelation ! Myth, roman,ce, the

fiction of poetry, ,a patchwork of tra ditions, contradictory records, pious fraud, these are some of the labels -that the strutting pride of man has affixed to the books of the Bible, while
not one of his sneei:s ha s been sustained in the light , of
honest criticism. No scientific truth has been found op-posed, and no historic truth mi sstated, in all the sacred writings,! f r0m Moses to John. The most microscopic investigatio11shave been made by the mo st eager and learn ,ed enemies,
0 the truth in order to, find some inaccuracy, but not one has,
been discovered, except those necessaril.y res ,ulting from the
process of transcrip tion, an,d th ose imaginar ,y ones whic'h are
perf e,ct,ly re solv,able by ordinary common s,en,se. Apply thes,e
tes ,ts to the Veda,s, the Avesta, or the Koran, and the c,on,tra ,st
is ove,rwhe1m1ng. These fairly bristle with -error and f1alse-
hood, , but the Bible comes o~t fro,m t,he crucibl,e W'itho~ ,t spot,
as the pur ,e Word of God. Men just . a,s learned a,s the
inimical critic ,s, and jus ,t as thorou ,gh ,i:n their iriv,esltigation,
men known and revered in the world of let.ter'S,1h,ave accep,ted
the Bible , the whole Bible, as, the inerrant truth 0 f God,,. I'f
the verdict of the inimical critic s ,can, be tl1us set aside in an
equally learned Court, the 1 esult shows that their learning
goes for nothing in th e matter.

But far above all this te stimony to the letter is the wit1

ness of millions who have found the joy unutterable , ,and the
peac e which pas ,se.th all understanding in the sacred Volume,
and who , are drawn to it as a child is drawn t,o its father,
They
without ques ,tion regarding l1is worth and authority.
never suppo se ( and the position is a right one) that the
fountain that refreshes their soul is defective or corrupt, but
they value its every drop as a gift of the Divine gr,ace. They
go constantly to its bles sed waters and always derive strength
from the dra,u,gh,t. To s,ucl1 the ca1plng critics are as u11wo,rthy 0 regard as tho se, who wou .l,d argue against the: sunshine. The knowledge of the heart is a ,prof ound,er thinr.
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''Preach the Word''

105

than the k.nowled,ge of the head, and, in the Spirit--led disciple, can correct and rebuke the errors of the latter. Now,
it is this holy Word, thus spo tless and thus powerful for
right ie,ousness .and comfort, that t.he Christian preacher is
to pr ,each. The preacher is a procl'ainier, a herald, no t a col
legie prof ie,ssor or an or(ginator of theories. H e has the Word
g.iven .h,,i.m,. and that he , is to proclaim. He isl not to draw
from the wells of human philosophy, but from the stream th,at
flows dir,ectly from the throne 0 God. He is to tell the
peo,ple what God has s.ai.d. He is to hide 'himsetf behind
his message, and to receive it equally with those he addresses.
Nor i.s tlie pre acher ]the mouthpiece of a Church t 0 issite
ecclesiastical decrees a1id fitlminate ec,clesiastical cenSt.Wes.
This is as far from preaching the Word as the other. As ,a
herald of Chr ,ist, while tl1,ere is nothing bef ore him but human
hear ,ts and consciences to appeal to there is nothing , behind
him but the revealed W or d 0 f God to utter and enforce.
All Church commands laid upon him as to his preaching are . .
as nothing except as they are conformed to that Wor d. He
is responsible as a herald to God and not to the Churcl1t
He is God's herald and not tl1e Church' ,s. The same rea ,son
that f o,rb,ids him .f ro,m making th,e pe.ople' 's, approbation the
guide to his preaching wi.11 forbid him from m.a'king Church
authori .ty the guide . He will be happy to please both peo.ple
and a11thorities, but he cannot make that pleasing a criterion
or standard. His duty is above all that. His allegiance is
higher.
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IN

THUS

LIMITING

WORDJ THE , PREACHER

BUT ENLARGING

IT.

T 0 THE PREACHING

HIMSELF

IS

NOT

CIRCUMSCRIBING

HIS

OF GOD'S

POWER,

By the j:ealous use of that Word alone

he will accomplish f'ar more for the kingdom of Christ and

the salvation of men than by mixing human expedients with
the Word.
H u man expedients are very specious ,and attractive, and, alas! many p,r eachers betake themselve .s to them.
They think they will ~tt ract th.e m.ultit .ude and fill up the pews

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106

The Fundamen,tals

and prOduce a larger rental; and so they may, but these are
not the objects for which the Lord sent out His heralds.
Success is not to be reckoned by full houses and popular
applause, but by convicted and converted hearts, and b)f the ,
strengthening of the faith and piety of God's people. A
holier life, a more pronounced separation from the world,
a stainless integrity in business pursuits, a Christly devotion
to the interests of others, a moie thorough knowledge of the
Word these are the true signs of success which the preacher
may justly seek, even though he wear ho1nespttn and his
people meet in a barn. These are the glorious results which
tl1e conse crated soul wil,l p ray 0 1, and in th em .h,le will rej'<?ice with a pure ,r, holier joy tha ,n that wl1ich c,omes fr otn .
numbers, wealth, or popular admiration
.
,
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IF

THE

PREACHER

PREACHES

THE

WORD ONLY,

THEN

BE

-to f olloW!
him in his reading and expounding to study over the Scrip
ture lesson at, ho,me, and to p1ay its blesse d truths into their
souls. A people will, in this way, become mighty in the
Script~tres; and he who is n1ighty in the Scriptures is a mighty
power for Christ and salvati ,on, and i:n l1i,s, own sottl ,vi,l,l ha"e
. a full experience of the power of Divine truth, deriving it
directly from its source, and proving how the entrance of
God's Word giveth light.
WILL

TEAC:fI HIS

J?EOPL,E TO HANDLE

WORD

THE

S'TILL AGAIN,

IF THE

PREACHER

HE W'ILL . HIMSELF ' BE A DILIGE~TT

THE )VORD ONLY,.

PREACH
STUDENT

OF

THE

\V0 RD..
1

He will bathe in God's revelation and be permeated by it]

and so be proof against all the shafts of ignorance and conceit. He will become familiar with every detail of the sacred
history, chronology, ethnology, geography, prophecy, precept,
and doctrine., and will take nothing at second hand. He
will not go t,o P ope or Council, nor to Calvin or. Schleiermacher, to kn,ow what to preach, but his de]igI1t will be in
. the law of the Lord, and in I-Iis law will he meditate day and .
night ,.
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''Preach .the W .ord"'

It is a lamenta rb,Ie fact, that in too many of our seminaries

where preachers are prepared for their work, the _Word of
God is, not taught, but in its st ea,d the philosophic schemes [
of so-called ''fathers'' and great divines, ar e given as the
basis of doctrinal belief. It is t'rue, th,at the se sche,m es are
brought to the Scripture for support, and texts are quoted in
their defence. It is tru .e also tha,t ,S0 me. of tl1ese sch emes
are consoi:iant with Scripture more or less. But, with thes ,e
admissions , the mistake still exi ,sts, that the Word of God
plays a secondary part in the instruction. It is not ta .ught ;
It is e-ven
that is, it is n.ot made th ,e authoritative text-book.
sometimes introduc ed as a, .subje ct f,or critici sm,, land men
like Reuss and Robertson Smith are brought in as the cri tical
guides o,r, at least, helpers ,. As if a school of the prophets
was intended to examine tl1e credentia ls ,of God's Word, , and
not tor take it humbly and grateft1lly for personal t1se and for
use before the people.
Some th~ological schools nlight without exaggeration be
called ''schools for turning beli ever ,s into doubters. '' The
excuse, that men wh,o ar ,e going to be prea ,chers sh,ould know
all that is said against the credibility, genuineness ., and auth1enticity of the Scriptures, is a flimsy one. If th .at were
the object, tl1ese objections woul d b e consr'idered only b1y way
of parenth ,esis, and the overwhelming evidence of the Scriptures would b e the main current of tho,ught; but this is not
the way it is ,cl.one,. On the c,ontrary, the obj ,ections are ,
magnified, and their a,uthors are commended to the stud ents
f o,r their perusal, and the hint is of ten thrown out that con-
servat ,ive views 0 f the inspiration of God's Word a1e antiquated, o,bsolete, and ma rks of ignorance. We have ~hus,
in the very places where, most of all, 'Ye should expect to
see the profound ,est rev ,erence for God's Word, , and its faithul study for the understan ding 0 f the Divine will, the machinery for un dermining the doctrin ,e of Scripture inspiration ,
and author ,ity, on whi ,ch all Chris ,tian truth rests, an,d that,
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The Fundamentals

too, in the young minds which are being prepared to become

Christ's preachers to a sinful and dying world. It is a most
painful thought, and it becomes the Church of Jesus Christ
to arise to a sense of the evil, and to correct it before the
whole Church is poisoned by this insidious influence.
We wish our young Timothys to go out to their work with
the one controlling desire to put God's Word before the people
and to avoid questions and strifes of words which do not
minister to godly edifying, knowing that the power to con~
vert and edify is not the wisdom of man, but the power of
God.
In these days when so much is made of science, let them
leave science alone. All the knowledge of the material world,
which science deals in, has nothing to do with the soul's
salvation. That is in a different sphere altogether. While it
is in accordance with propriety that a p~eacher should have
a general acquaintance with life and things about him, which
would include the main principles of natural science (which
is simply to say that he ought to be an educated man), yet
it is not through material science that he is to teach heavenly
truths, nor is he to waste his time on protoplasm, bathybius,
and natural selection, into which and like sbjects Satan
would gladly draw him, that he may not present the subjects of sin and the cross of Christ. If a preacher illustrate
Scripture doctrine from facts in the natural world, it is well.
He follows the Master's example. But if he puts the natural
world in its scientific aspects forward as the text of his
discourse, he is using a Bible of a very weak and uncertain
sort, and of which he knows very little, and he is making the
Word of God subordinate to his own inferences and guesses
from nature. Science and religion are too often spoken of
as if they occupied the same plane. Both those who say
they are antagonistic, and those who say they are at one,
equally talk of the two as on a level. You might as well
talk of bread-baking and religion as if they were co-ordinates.

109

''Preach tlie Word'' .

Of Course there is a. connection between science and religion.

1

So the1~eis between bread-baking and religi on. The scientiiic

man ought to be religiou :s. So ought the bread~baker~ Science
can furnish examples of God ,s wo nders in natu re. So ca11
bread-baking.
But such c,onnec tio~s cannot put the subjects
on the .same . levre].,
Sc.ience is m,er,ely the study of matte r, an ex amination
into natural sequence ,s; b,ttt what has that to do witl~ man's
imm.01tal soul, and the W or d of God to that soul ? Who , .
dares to bring the latter down to the level of the f orme .r?
What has the: a.nalysis of any body and its division into
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen to do with my eternal relation
t.o God as a responsible and sinf ul being?
Why mingle
things so utterly diverse ? And yet this babble abo ut science
and r,eligion (wh ere science is always ever put fir,st) is heard
ad naus.eam from those who are commissioned to preach the
Word. Is this Paul's . w.ay? Is this .John's way? Is this
Christ's way ? Then why should it be the way o,f our modern
Timothys ?' Science at its utmost reach can never touch the
sphere of the soul's pressing wants. All its truths together
can make no impr ession on a guilty conscience needing the
Divine p,ardon. Nature is as dumb as any of its own stones
in the matter of the soul's salva tion. Then why meddle with
it in the p ulpit? Why bow to it. a.s a tea cher? Why be
guilty of the blasphemy of putting it on a level with the Word
of God?
It is as preachers depart from that Word that their
preaching becomes barren and fruitless. The Divine Spirit
'Will only accompany the Divine Word. His , mighty power
will act only in His own way and by His own means. The
Wprd is supernatural, a.nd woe to the preacher who leaves
the supernatural for the natural; who sets aside the sword
of the Spirit to use in its stead a blade o,f his own tempering!
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