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Copies of this little book have been sent to several thousand 
 Clergymen of different denominations. Several thousands are 
 yet unsupplied, and the present edition being exhausted, the 
 writer of this would esteem it a great favor if the reader of 
 this copy would, in a few lines addressed to the undersigned, 
 express his views as to the value of this effort thus to bring' 
 the vital subject of "Preaching Christ" to the prayerful 
 consideration of Ministers of every name. The character of 
 such responses would be likely much to influence, if not 
 determine, the question of further, efort in this behalf. 
 Please address J. W. M., care of B^ton Young Men's 
 Christian Association. 
 
THE WORK 
 
 OP 
 
 PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OP THE DIOCESE OF OHIO, AT ITS FORTY- 
 
 SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION, IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, 
 
 *" % ^ 
 
 AKRON, ON THE 3D OF*JUNE, 1863. 
 
 BY CHARLES 
 
 , D. D., D. C. L., 
 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 
 
 770 BROADWAY, 
 1864. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, 
 
 BY CHARLES PETTIT HoIL^AINE, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 EDWAKD 0. JENKINS, 
 
 printer antJ .Stereotgper, 
 No. 20 NORTH WILLIAM ST. 
 
CHARGE 
 
 To THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF OHIO : 
 
 BRETHREN, It is a long time since I addressed 
 you in the form of a Charge. Various have been 
 the causes ; the chief of them, as you well know, 
 having been connected with the state of my health. 
 Addressing you again in that mode, and with exclu- 
 sive reference to matters peculiar to our office as 
 Ministers of Christ, realizing how near my time is 
 to lay it down, I choose a subject with which a 
 Bishop may well desire to close his ministry ; which 
 indeed all our work should be identified with, and 
 which, I am thankful to say, has been obtaining, ever 
 since mine began, a deeper and stronger possession 
 of my mind, my affections, and my ministry I mean 
 the work of preaching Christ, according to the Scrip- 
 tures, and the example of the Apostles. 
 
 " Go preach the Gospel," were the words of our 
 
 (3) 
 
4 THE WORK OF PKEACHING CHRIST. 
 
 Lord to his Apostles, which conveyed to them and 
 to us the whole weight and substance of the com- 
 mission of his Ministers and Ambassadors. It was 
 the unquestioning obedience of a simple and unhesi- 
 tating faith to that one command, animated by an 
 unquenchable love to its divine Author and to the 
 souls he died to save, enlightened by the teaching 
 and made mighty by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
 that constituted all the vigour and efficacy of the 
 ministry of the Apostles. It was thus that their 
 weapons of warfare became " mighty through God," 
 and achieved those stupendous victories of the truth 
 over " the spirit that ruleth in the children of diso- 
 bedience," which the weaker faith and more timid 
 obedience of the Church in later days have so poorly 
 imitated. And, as in the beginning, so also in all 
 times of the Christian dispensation, it has pleased 
 God that sinners shall be brought " into captivity to 
 the obedience of Christ" and made partakers of his 
 salvation, by the obedience of his ministers to that 
 one original charge and co'mmand "preach the 
 Gospel" Faith by hearing ; Gospel faith, by hear- 
 ing Gospel truth ; and such hearing, by the preach- 
 ing of the word of God, is His standing rule accord- 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 5 
 
 ing to which He bestows His Spirit for the convic- 
 tion, conversion, and sanctification of men. 
 
 But it is manifest from the Scriptures that the 
 Apostles identified the Gospel with Christ ; so that, 
 in their view and practice, to preach the Gospel was 
 neither more nor less than to preach Christ. The 
 record which, in a few words, describes their minis- 
 try is that, " daily in the temple and in every house, 
 they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." 
 St. Paul to the Romans defines the whole Gospel by 
 saying that it is " concerning Jesus Christ."* The 
 employment of his two years 7 imprisonment at Rome 
 was all comprehended in " teaching those things 
 which concern the Lord Jesus." And his whole 
 ministry was given unto him, he testifies, that he 
 " might preach the unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 As he could say, " For me to live is Christ ;" so for 
 him to preach was Christ. To him Christ and the 
 Gospel were one. 
 
 But we must here note the chief feature in their 
 preaching of Christ. They omitted nothing pertain- 
 ing to him ; but there was one thing on which, more 
 than anything else, they very particularly and em- 
 
 * Rom. i. 3. 
 
6 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHEIST. 
 
 phatically dwelled. They took great pains to set 
 forth the Lord Jesus in all that he was and is, in 
 person and office, as once on earth and now in 
 heaven, his preexistent glory with the Father,. his 
 incarnation and humiliation in our nature, his death, 
 resurrection, and intercession ; all his love, all his 
 promises, all his commandments ; so that there was 
 no part of the whole counsel of God " concerning 
 His Son Jesus Christ," which they kept back. But 
 manifestly there was one event in his history, one 
 work amidst all his works, which stood in their view 
 as the great event and work, around which they 
 gathered the force of their testimony, as its central 
 light and power to which they made all that went 
 before it look forward for consummation, and all 
 that succeeded look back as to its foundation, and 
 on the faithful declaration of which, with its imme- 
 diate connections, they very especially rested the 
 faithfulness of their work as preachers of the Gos- 
 pel. No doubt you anticipate me. Such passages 
 of the Apostles arise to your minds, as, " we preach 
 Christ crucified /" " I determined not to know any- 
 thing among you (while declaring unto you the testi- 
 mony of God) save Jesus Christ and him crucified /" 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 7 
 
 " God forbid that I should glory save in the cross 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" " For the preaching of 
 the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto 
 us which are saved it is the power of God." They 
 preached Christ but as Christ crucified. They 
 said continually, like John the Baptist, " Behold the 
 Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
 world/ 7 but it was the " Lamb slain" Christ in his 
 death bearing " our sins in his own body on the 
 tree," that they pointed to. They rejoiced in every- 
 thing pertaining to their Lord, from his birth at 
 Bethlehem to his present glory at .the Father's right 
 hand ; but the one thing in which they rejoiced so 
 supremely, that everything else was lost in compari- 
 son, was his cross. Of the two sacraments ordained 
 of Christ for his Church, that which alone goes with 
 the believer to be renewed and repeated all along 
 the way of his earthly life, has for its great object 
 to " show the Lord's death until he come." It was 
 a great lesson which the Lord thus taught us as to 
 how we must preach him. His Apostles therefore 
 became in speech, what that sacrament is in sym- 
 bol ; constantly showing the Lord's death as the 
 sinner's life. Thus, when they spoke of the Chris- 
 
8 THE WOKK OF PEEACHING CHEIST. 
 
 tian's race for " the prize of the high calling of God 
 in Christ Jesus" and when they exhorted us while 
 in that contest to be always " looking unto Jesus" 
 the special aspect in which they presented him, was 
 as enduring the cross. And I need not here say 
 that their sense of the supreme importance in their 
 ministry of the death of Christ was because they 
 beheld therein the one only and the one all-sufficient 
 sacrifice and propitiation, the vicarious atonement, 
 for the sins of the whole world ; that great work of 
 God wherein he laid in Zion, for a sure foundation, 
 the precious cornerstone, on which the sinner be- 
 lieving shall not be confounded. It is all contained 
 in one verse " Christ hath once suffered for sins, 
 the just for the unjust to bring us to God."* And 
 again, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
 the law, being made a curse for us."t 
 
 Thus, brethren, we have our lesson and example. 
 In the way the Apostles preached the Gospel we must 
 try to preach it. As they preached Christ, so must 
 we. God forbid that we should glory in anything 
 else as ministers of the word. Preachers of Christ, 
 according to the mind of Christ ah, how all hon- 
 
 , * 1 Pet. iii. 18. t Gal - "* 13 - 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 9 
 
 ors, all satisfaction in our work will perish but that ! 
 When our stewardship is to be accounted for, and 
 we are just departing, and the veil, half drawn aside, 
 discloses what we are to meet and what to be for- 
 ever, how then shall we care for praise of learning 
 or praise of speech or any vapors of men's applause ! 
 But then, to have " the testimony of our conscience 
 that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with 
 enticing words of man's wisdom/ 7 we have made it 
 our life-business and our heart-pleasure to " teach 
 and preach Jesus Christ/ 7 as they did whom he 
 gave to be our examples, having ourselves first learn- 
 ed his preciousness to our own souls ; oh, what con- 
 solation and thankfulness with which to die. 
 
 Evidently then, my brethren, it is a most serious 
 question to be always studying, how we may so 
 proclaim the truth committed to us in Holy Scrip- 
 ture, that in the sense of the Apostles it may be said 
 of us in our whole ministry that " we preach Christ 
 crucified. 77 To this we devote this address. It is 
 a great question indeed. Many are the failures 
 many the egregious failures. Sometimes it seems as 
 if the preacher could preach just as he does if 
 Christ and his work were a mere incident in reli- 
 1* 
 
10 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 gion, a name, and little more answering now and 
 then as a convenience to a sentence ; introduced 
 occasionally, because, under some texts, not easily 
 avoided, but never as the root and foundation out 
 of which our whole ministry proceeds. But what 
 awful condemnation to be thus essentially defective 
 at the very heart of the great work committed to us ! 
 Nothing can in the least atone for its absence. You 
 might as well attempt to turn night into day, by 
 lighting a candle as a substitute for the sun. Our 
 ministry is all darkness, emptiness, and impotence ; 
 all condemnation to us, all delusion to those who 
 hear us, all dishonor to the grace of God, whatever 
 the breath of man may say of it, except as it is 
 .pervaded, illumined, filled with the testimony of 
 Christ as once the sacrifice for sin, crucified and 
 slain ; now the glorified and ever-living intercessor 
 for all that come unto God by him. 
 
 There are many ways of approaching more or less 
 to that attainment without ever reaching it. Some 
 of the most common we will endeavor to state : 
 
 It is very possible to preach a great deal of import- 
 ant religious truth, and so that there shall be no ad- 
 mixture of important error in doctrine or precept 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 11 
 
 yea, truth having an important relation to Christ and 
 his office, and yet not to preach Christ. The defect 
 will be not in the presence of what should not be 
 there, but in the absence of what should be, of that 
 which is necessary to give all the truth delivered, the 
 character of " truth as in Jesus" Such absence, when 
 nevertheless all is true, may be more destructive to 
 the Gospel character of the preaching, than even the 
 introduction of some positive error. The preaching 
 may be very earnest. It may contain much that is 
 affecting and deeply impressive strong emotions 
 may be stirred in the hearers. The earnest enquiry 
 may be excited what must we do ? And yet, the 
 preaching may wholly fail in giving any such dis- 
 tinct answer to that question, as will turn the atten- 
 tion of the enquirer to Christ as all his refuge. We 
 may say a great deal about and around the Gospel 
 and never preach the Gospel. Religious truths are 
 not the Gospel, except in proportion as, like John 
 the Baptist, they point to the Lamb of God. For 
 example suppose you preach on the vanity of the 
 world ; the uncertainty of life ; the awfulness of 
 death unprepared for ; the tremendous events of the 
 judgment-day ; the little profit of gaining the whole 
 
12 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 world and losing the soul ; suppose you enlarge on 
 the necessity and blessedness of a religious life, and 
 the happiness of the saved*. Does it follow that 
 you have preached the Gospel, or any part of it ? 
 If deep impressions are made, and serious enquiries 
 excited, does it follow that Christ is preached ? 
 Such topics unquestionably belong most legitimately 
 to our ministry ; they are important parts of the 
 truth given us to enforce ; but they are entirely 
 subordinate and preliminary. They are not the 
 distinctive seed of the word from which God has 
 ordained that newness of life shall spring. They 
 are rather the plough and the harrow to open and 
 stir the ground, that it may receive the seed of life. 
 You may spend all your time in such work not 
 omitting to sprinkle your discourses with the oft- 
 repeated name of Christ and with much Gospel 
 language ; and just because there is no pervading 
 exhibition of Christ, in his work of Justification by 
 his righteousness and of Sanctification by his Spirit, 
 given so pointedly and plainly that whosoever will 
 may understand, you may never attain to the honor, 
 in the sight of God, of teaching and preaching Jesus 
 Christ, whatever the estimate of those who have not 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 13 
 
 learned to. discriminate between truth that is re- 
 ligious, and truth that is not only religious, but dis- 
 tinctively gospel- truth ; who know not the difference 
 between such preaching as makes the hearer feel 
 some spiritual want, and that which tells him what 
 he wants and where and how he is to find it. The 
 hearer who has learned Christ, as his lesson of heart 
 and life, of hope and peace, and knows nothing as 
 precious to his soul, but as it leads him to Jesus, on 
 the cross of sacrifice and on the throne of inter- 
 cession, Jesus in his invitations and promises, Jesus 
 in his grace to help, his righteousness to clothe, and 
 his power to sanctify, will feel that in all that minis- 
 try " one tiling is needful" and that one thing, the 
 very thing on which all its character hinges, 
 CHRIST. 
 
 But let us advance a little further. You may 
 preach with faithfulness and plainness the strictness 
 and holiness of the law, how it enters with its re- 
 quirements into all the thoughts and affections of 
 the heart, pronouncing condemnation on the sinner, 
 and bringing us all in guilty before God. There 
 may be no shrinking from the fullest exposition of 
 the Scriptures concerning the end of the impenitent. 
 
14 TEffe WORK OF PEEACHING CHRIST. 
 
 Still more : the office of Christ as the onjy Saviour, 
 and his merits as the only plea, may be introduced 
 not unfrequently, and yet may there be a great 
 lack of such distinct setting forth of Christ such 
 holding up of Christ crucified, as Moses lifted up 
 the serpent in the wilderness before the dying 
 Israelites for all to see and live such presentation 
 of God's great remedy for every man's necessities, 
 as belongs to the consistency, simplicity and fullness 
 of the work committed to the minister of the Gos- 
 pel. While speaking much of duty, the grace to 
 enable us to do it may not be proportionably pre- 
 sented. While the penalties of sin may be kept in 
 full view, the fullness and tenderness and earnestness 
 of the invitations and promises of Christ to the 
 sinner turning unto God, may be very dimly ex- 
 hibited. That great lesson, which we have need to 
 be always studying, may have been but little learned, 
 how to preach the law as showing our need of the 
 righteousness of Christ, and how to preach the Gos- 
 pel as establishing and honouring the law ; the one 
 to convince of sin and condemnation, the other as 
 providing a deliverance so complete that to the 
 believer there is no condemnation ; the one as tak* 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 15 
 
 ing away all pleas derived from ourselves, the other 
 as furnishing a most perfect and prevailing plea in 
 the mediation of Christ ; the law. as giving the rule 
 of life, the Gospel as giving the power of life, yea, 
 life from death, in Jesus Christ ; the law to humble 
 us under a consciousness of an utter beggary before 
 God ; the Gospel as directing us to him in whom 
 it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell. 
 Again. It may be that doctrine immediately con- 
 cerning the Lord Jesus, and bringing his person and 
 office into view, may be much introduced. We may 
 take opportunity to speak of his infinite dignity of 
 being ; the mystery of his incarnation ; the humili- 
 ation and love and grace of his coming in our na- 
 ture ; his tenderness and compassion, and power to 
 save ; the perfectness of his example and the depth 
 of his sufferings. Indeed, everything revealed 
 concerning him may at times be found in our teach- 
 ing, without error, and in each particular, as it 
 stands by itself, without serious defect. But there 
 may be still an important deficiency. The propor- 
 tion of truth may not be kept. There is a propor- 
 tion of parts in the whole body of gospel truth just 
 as there is the same in our own bodies. We must 
 
16 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 omit none of the parts, but put each in its right 
 relation to all the rest. To fail in this, so that 
 wliilo we embrace all we deform- all, by a dispropor- 
 tionate exaltation of some, and depression of others, 
 may be just as destructive of the gospel character 
 of our ministry, just as confusing and misleading, as 
 if we omitted some truths, and p*erverted others. 
 For example, you may preach Christ in various as- 
 pects ; but Christ crucified, the great sacrifice of 
 propitiation, though not omitted, may not have that 
 high-place, that central place, that all-controlling 
 place, that place of the head-stone of the corner, 
 which is necessary to its right adjustment to all 
 parts of the system of faith. You may preach the 
 Incarnation of Christ in all its truth as a separate 
 event, and yet in great error as regards its relation 
 to other events, making it so unduly prominent that 
 his death shall be made to appear comparatively 
 subordinate and unessential the means exalted 
 above the end the preparation of the body of 
 Christ for sacrifice, being made of more importance 
 and more effective in our salvation than his offering 
 of that body on the cross. But the great Sacrament 
 which we carry with us all the way of our journey, 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 17 
 
 as our great confession, and joy and glory, is to 
 show, as oft as we eat that bread and drink that 
 cup, not the lord's birth, but " the Lord's death until 
 he come." 
 
 You may preach all of Christ's work as well as 
 person, and all in due proportion of parts, and yet 
 some other vital truth essentially connected may be 
 so disproportionately presented as to create in the 
 whole a most important defect. You have exhibited 
 the foundation which God hath laid in Zion. The 
 question remains, how the sinner is to avail himself 
 of that foundation. He is to build thereon. But 
 How ? The Apostle answers, " He that believeth on 
 him shall not be confounded." We build by faith. 
 We cannot preach Christ without preaching on that 
 by which we become partakers of Christ. Evi- 
 dently confusion, indistinctness, feebleness, defici- 
 ency there, must produce the same effect throughout 
 the whole Gospel. If faith, in its nature, office, effi- 
 cacy and distinctive operation and fruits, be kept in 
 a place so obscure, so subordinate, or taught so con- 
 fusedly that either it is wholly out of sight or hid in 
 a crowd of other things ; placed in the outer court 
 of the temple instead of immediately by the altar 
 
18 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 of sacrifice, as the one instrumental grace by which 
 the sinner partakes of the " Lamb of God ;" if the 
 works which are its fruits be so confounded with 
 itself that the grace by which we are " rooted and 
 grounded " in Christ, is made of no more influence 
 in our participation of him than the several works 
 of righteousness which grow out of its life, and fol- 
 low upon the participation of Christ through its 
 agency, then is the relative adjustment of truth most 
 seriously spoiled and deformed. 
 
 Lastly, under this head of our inquiry ; it may be 
 fchat occasionally in a discourse, now and then, the 
 setting forth of Christ is satisfactory in point of 
 doctrine and the proportion of truth. But it may be 
 only occasionally thus, when the text so obliges, ac- 
 cording to rhetorical propriety, that we cannot avoid 
 it. But such texts may not be chosen very often. 
 Passing from subject to subject, the preacher comes, 
 from time to time, to one which necessarily leads to 
 the manifestation of Christ, in some leading feature 
 of his grace and salvation, and then all may be well 
 done and calculated to enlighten a mind hungering 
 for the truth. But, meanwhile, you may hear many a 
 discourse which contains scarcely more of anything 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHEIST. 19 
 
 distinctive of the Gospel, or pertaining to Christ, ex- 
 cept perhaps his name sometimes introduced, than if 
 it were some other religion than Christ's of which the 
 preacher is the minister. And in the general course 
 of his work we may look in vain after that evident 
 fondness of heart for views which most intimately 
 and directly look unto Jesus ; that habitual feeding 
 of the flock in pastures watered by the river that 
 proceec(eth out of the throne of God and the Lamb ; 
 that strong tendency, when subjects not directly tes- 
 tifying of Christ must be handled, to keep them as 
 near to him as possible, and to return from them as 
 soon as possible to others of a nearer neighborhood 
 to the cross ; that desire to illuminate all subjects 
 with light from " the face of Jesus Christ/ 7 which 
 proves the preacher's determination " to know noth- 
 ing among men, but Jesus Christ and him crucified." 
 We miss that habitualness of the testimony of 
 Christ, that special love for all the region round 
 about Gethsemane and Calvary, the atonement and 
 the intercession, and the great gifts of the Spirit 
 purchased thereby ; we miss that constant tracing 
 of all spiritual life and consolation, in its every influ- 
 ence and fruit, to Christ as the life, and that careful 
 
20 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 binding of all spiritual affections and duties upon 
 him for support and strength, as the vine-dresser 
 trains his vine upon its trellis, which appears so re- 
 markably in the teaching of the Apostles. 
 
 We have thus endeavored to indicate some of the 
 paths by which, without delivering anything untrue, 
 and while delivering much important truth, we may 
 come short of the duty under consideration. We 
 proceed to consider how we may fulfill it. What is 
 it to preach Christ ? 
 
 We have a great example in our Lord's own teach- 
 ing. When, after his resurrection, he met the two 
 disciples on the way to Emmaus, and found them in 
 such darkness and doubt concerning himself, it is 
 written that, " beginning at Moses, and all the pro- 
 phets, he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, 
 the things concerning himself :" the things concern- 
 ing Himself. Our office as Christian ministers, ex- 
 pounding the Scriptures, is to bring forth all their 
 teaching concerning that glorious One, Himself. St. 
 Paul therefore said that he was " separated unto the 
 Gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ."* 
 To teach sinners to know Christ, and to " count all 
 
 * Rom. i. 1-3. 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 21 
 
 things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
 of Him," looking to the power of the Holy Ghost 
 to communicate, through the truth which we give 
 only in the letter, that spiritual and saving knowl- 
 edge which only God giveth, is the general expres- 
 sion of our duty. 
 
 But in the Gospel " concerning our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," that is, in the circle of doctrines and duties 
 and promises and blessings which constitute the 
 message of great salvation in. him, there is, as we 
 have already Mated, a system of parts mutually re- 
 lated and dependent, all in perfect harmony, none 
 so obscure or remote as to be of no importance to 
 the right representation of the whole. That system, 
 like that of our sun, has a centre, by which all the 
 parts are held in place, from which all their light 
 and life proceed, and around which all revclve. 
 You cannot exhibit the system of truth and duty 
 till you have made known that central light and 
 power ; nor can you make known that power in all 
 its truth, without exhibiting those surrounding and 
 dependent parts of doctrine and precept. That cen- 
 tral sun of light and life is Christ. All of gospel 
 truth and duty, of consolation and strength, abides 
 
22 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 in Christ derives from Christ, and glorifies Christ 
 and must be so presented or it is divorced from 
 its only life and loses its gospel character. He is 
 the True Vine, and all parts of gospel truth are 
 branches in him. Let such truth be presented with- 
 out that connection, then its character as truth may 
 remain, but its character for " truth as in Jesus " is 
 lost. Its vitality is gone. Fruit of life in Christ 
 Jesus, it cannot produce. It is just as true and 
 important concerning truth as concerning men, that 
 " the branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide 
 in the vine." 
 
 Xow what is the best mode of setting forth this 
 system of grace? Where shall we begin? Shall 
 we first take up the elements of religion (the out- 
 sides of the circle ; reasoning upward from gen- 
 eral truths to the more particular ; explaining and 
 enforcing ordinances and institutions of the Church) 
 as our road of approach to the Head and Life of the 
 Church ; confining attention to means of grace be- 
 fore we have directed our hearers to the grace itself 
 in the great fountain head ; and thus gradually, and 
 after a long process of preparatory work, arriving 
 at last at the person and mission and sacrifice of 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 23 
 
 Christ ? But we must remember who they are whom 
 we are thus keeping so long in the cold and in the 
 dark. They are sinners under the condemnation of 
 the law of God. They are dying sinners. How brief 
 the time of some of them to learn, you know not. 
 You have no time to spend on preliminaries before 
 you have introduced them to the great salvation. 
 What they have most need to know is, He who came 
 to seek and to save the lost how they may find him, 
 and what are the terms of his salvation. Begin at 
 once with Christ " Behold the Lamb of God " is 
 the voice. There is no light till that light appears. The 
 icy-bondage of the sinner's heart yields not till that 
 sun is risen. Astronomers, when they teach the solar 
 system, begin with the sun. Thence, to tha related 
 and independent orbits, is easy. So the apostles 
 taught. See how, when they had the whole system 
 of the Gospel, as distinguished from that of the law, 
 to teach the Jews the whole outward and visible 
 of the Christian Church, as well as all the inward 
 and spiritual of the Christian life, all so new and 
 strange and unpalatable to a people so unprepared, 
 so entangled with traditionary aversions and deep- 
 seated perversions, see how they leaped over all pre- 
 
24 THE WORK OF PEEACHING CHRIST. 
 
 liminaries and began at once with Christ and him 
 crucified, the sacrifice of his death, " and the power 
 of his resurrection." At once they broke ground 
 and set up the banner of their ministry there. Just 
 at the point where the pride of the sinner would 
 most revolt, and the wisdom of man was most at 
 fault, and the ignorance of Jew and Gentile was 
 most complete, where the Jew saw only a stumbling 
 block and the Greek only foolishness, there they 
 opened their message. " I delivered unto ym, first 
 of all (said St. Paul), that which I also received, 
 how that Christ died for our sins according to the 
 Scriptures."* They could not wait to root out pre- 
 judice, plant first principles, approach the en- 
 trenched power " that ruleth in the children of dis- 
 obedience," by the strategy of man's wisdom, when 
 they knew that Christ was the great " power of God 
 unto salvation." At once to open the windows and 
 let in the sun was their way of giving light to them 
 that sat in darkness. At once to show the amazing 
 love of God to sinners in not sparing His own Son, 
 but delivering him up for us all, was their way to 
 draw the sinner's heart to God. Human device 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 3. 
 
THE WOKK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 25 
 
 would have said, as it has often said, in substance, 
 Make philosophy prepare the way. Clothe your 
 teaching in robes of man's wisdom. Keep back the 
 offence of the* cross till you have first conciliated the 
 respect of your hearers by a show of human learning 
 and reasoning. And when your master must be 
 preached directly, don't begin at his death. Speak of 
 his life, its benevolence, its beauty. Compare his 
 moral precepts with those of heathen sages. Christ 
 as the example and the teacher, is your great theme. 
 " No (said St. Paul), lest the cross should be of none 
 effect," " that your faith should not stand in the 
 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God.' 7 They 
 
 
 remembered the words of* their Lord, " I, if I be 
 
 lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Lifted 
 up in the cross he had now been. Lifted up as 
 Christ crucified for us, in the sight of the whole 
 world, by the ministry of the Gospel he was next to 
 be. Such was God's argument with sinful men. 
 
 They believed and therefore preached. God gave 
 the increase, and wonderful was the harvest. 
 
 Thus, dear brethren, we have our lesson. We 
 must begin as well as end with Christ, and always 
 abide in him, for the life and power of our ministry, 
 2 
 
26 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 just as for the peace and joy of our own souls. But 
 having thus begun, what remains ? It is the revealed 
 office of the Holy Gliost, as the Sanctifier and the 
 Comforter, to glorify Christ. " He shall glorify 
 me/ 7 said the Lord. But how ? " He shall take of 
 mine, and show it unto you." It is our office also, 
 under the power of the Holy Ghost, to glorify Christ 
 in all his person and relations to us, and by the same 
 method, namely, to take of what pertains to him and 
 slioiv it unto men. Whatever pertains to him, we 
 are to show. We must *' expound in all the Scrip- 
 tures the things concerning himself." Of those 
 things we will attempt a brief sketch and outline, 
 but it must be only the merest outline, and that- very 
 imperfect. 
 
 We must preach Christ in regard to the glory of 
 the Godhead which lie had with the Father before 
 the world was. We cannot exhibit the death of the 
 cross to which he became obedient, without consid- 
 ering the infinite majesty of the throne from which 
 he descended. We must ke.ep the connection which 
 the apostle has given- us between the glory of our 
 Lord before he came in the flesh, and his humilia- 
 tion in the flesh. You remember that " he became 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 27 
 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" is 
 introduced by " being in the form of God, he thought 
 it not robbery to be equal with God"* 
 
 In the same connection is the Incarnation and 
 Birth of our Lord. Very near are the mysteries of 
 Bethlehem to those of Calvary. We cannot tell 
 how Jesus bore our sins, without telling how he 
 took our nature. To show that he could stand in 
 man's place under the law, we must show that he 
 was made very man. Hence, in the apostle's ac- 
 count, between the form of God from alt eternity 
 and the obedience unto death, the connecting event 
 is, " he was made in the likeness of man." We must 
 take care that in a just zeal for his divinity we do 
 not impair or put in a place of comparative unim- 
 portance his humanity. The one is as essential to the 
 Gospel as the other the perfect man as the perfect 
 God. Our confession glories as much in the Word 
 " made flesh," as in the truth that the same Word 
 " was God.' 7 In beholding and showing the great 
 salvation, we are to consider as of equal necessity 
 thereto " the Man, Christ Jesus," and that he was, and 
 is, " Jehovah our Righteousness." In the earliest 
 
 * Phil. ii. 6-8. 
 
28 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 ages of Satan's attack upon the integrity of the 
 gospel, the heresies did not more assail the essential 
 divinity than the real humanity of Christ ; knowing 
 that if he were not perfect man, the sacrifice for 
 man's sins were as unavailing as if he had been only 
 man. The assaults of these present times are indi- 
 cative, we think, of the same strategy. How care- 
 fully and minutely do the Scriptures exhibit our 
 Lord as man in all that is of man, while at the same 
 time we are made to behold his glory, " as of the 
 only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 
 " In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, 
 made of a woman," that in all time and to all eter- 
 nity he might be " made unto us of God," through 
 his death, " wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi- 
 cation and redemption." 
 
 In setting forth our Lord's atoning death, we 
 must keep in full view his perfect life that suffer- 
 ing life between the cradle and the cross, in which 
 his obedience to the law, completed by the endur- 
 ance of its curse for us, was all wrought out. He 
 was the Lamb without spot, that he might be the 
 sacrifice all-sufficient. It was his meetness as the 
 purchase-price of our redemption, and at the same 
 
THE WORK OF 
 
 time the pattern of the mind wWi!2i3sLke- irt'us to 
 make us meet to be partakers of "that redemption. 
 Christ our example of holiness is a' most important 
 part of the setting forth of Christ as our foundation 
 of hope. There was one hour in his life for which he 
 came into this world ;* but every hour while he was 
 in this world, as leading to that, exhibited the mind 
 that was in Christ Jesus, and which must be also in 
 us. In preaching Christ crucified, let us take care 
 that we avoid the mistake, not unfrequently made, of 
 terminating our representation almost entirely with 
 the crucifixion as if the slaying of the sacrifice 
 completed the oblation of the sacrifice ; forgetting 
 the office of the High Priest to enter within the veil 
 with the blood of srJrinkling, carrying the sacrifice 
 before the mercy-seat, there to appear in the pres- 
 ence of God for us, and thus to " obtain eternal re- 
 demption for us." " Christ crucified ;? is not merely 
 Christ on the cross, but Christ also " on the right 
 hand of the throne of God," as having " endured the 
 cross." ThaJ throne is called " the throne of the 
 Lamb," and the redeemed in heaven are represented 
 as praising " the Lamb that was slain" The 
 
 * John xii. 23, and xvii. 1. 
 
30 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 preaching of Christ crucified goes necessarily into 
 all that Christ did and obtained for us after, and in 
 consequence of^ his crucifixion. The Resurrection, 
 Ascension, and Exaltation to head-ship over all 
 things, are great themes, vitally associated with 
 what immediately preceded them, forming the essen- 
 tial connection between what was finished " once for 
 all " when Jesus died, and what is yet to be finished 
 " for all that come unto God by him/ 7 now that he 
 " ever liveth." We must preach Christ in his ever 
 living intercession Christ the High Priest above 
 with the incense and Hie blood, or we leave incom- 
 plete the view of Christ crucified. When he cried 
 "It is finished" and " gave up the ghost," it was the 
 slaying of the sacrifice ; it wSs the suffering of the 
 Lamb of God for us ; it was the being " made a 
 curse for us," that was then finished. " There re- 
 inaineth no more sacrifice for sin ;" but there does 
 remain the perpetual oblation of the one finished 
 sacrifice. Our hope stops not at the cross, but " en- 
 tereth to that within the veil whither iesus our fore- 
 runner is also, for us, entered, made a High Priest 
 after the order of Melchizedek." Thither, there- 
 fore, our ministry must also enter. Too often does 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 31 
 
 
 
 what otherwise is well as gospel preaching come 
 short of that mark. Our preaching follows Christ 
 in his resurrection, and perhaps in his ascension ; 
 but do we sufficiently place before the faith of the 
 sinner, for his prayers and his hopes to rest on, for 
 his consolation and peace to drink of when he strives 
 to come unto God, Jesus as now the glorious Inter- 
 cessor showing in his hands tire print of the nails 
 of the crucifixion, and bearing in his heart all the 
 necessities of every believer ? When we exhort to 
 the running the race with patience "looking unto 
 Jesus" do we sufficiently direct the eye of the hearer 
 to Jesus, the glorified, in his present office and work 
 for us ? Remember, that when the apostle said, 
 " He is able to save to the uttermost," he added, as 
 the essential evidence, "seeing he ever liveth to 
 make intercession for us" 
 
 I must not pass from this immediate neighborhood 
 of the great sacrifice, without a few words about its 
 nature. To speak of it as a sacrifice for sin in such 
 general terms only as leave room for the most un- 
 real, figurative and accommodated sense, is to come 
 far short of our duty and of what the special ten- 
 dency of error in these days demands. When we 
 
32 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 
 
 administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we 
 " show the Lord's death" Let us take care that when 
 we show the same in words, we do not come short of 
 the teaching of the Sacrament. Our church inter- 
 prets that teaching with studied precision, in her 
 communion office, in reference to errors prevalent 
 when that office was framed. She calls the sacrifice " a 
 full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satis- 
 faction for the sins of the whole world." She teaches 
 us to pray for remission of sins through faith in the 
 Mood of Christ. We must imitate that precision 
 in reference to errors now propagated. Besides the 
 perfectness and sufficiency of the sacrifice, in opposi- 
 tion to those who would add to it, we must insist 
 strongly and pointedly on its strictly propitiatory 
 and vicarious nature, in opposition to those who 
 would destroy it. Under such strong texts as 
 " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the 
 law, being made a curse for us ;"* " He hath made 
 him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,"t we must 
 teach Christ as standing literally in our stead under 
 the condemnation of our sins ; all our guilt laid upon 
 him ; he, the condemned one for us, that we might 
 
 * Gal. iii. 13. f 2 Cor - v - 21. 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 33 
 
 be accounted the righteous in him. I see not how 
 we can come short of such a sacrifice and yet preach 
 Christ crucified, according to the Scriptures.* 
 
 Closely allied to our Lord's priesthood, offering 
 the perpetual oblation of his sacrifice, is his office as 
 the great Prophet and Teacher of his Church. " In 
 him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowl- 
 edge." He is "made unto us of God, wisdom" as 
 well as " righteousness." Christ crucified is Christ 
 the Light as well as the Life. To his invitation, 
 " Come unto me and I will give you rest," is joined 
 the precept, " learn of me" The g^eat subject of 
 saving learning is Christ himself, and he is the only 
 effectual teacher of that learning. They that have 
 " learned Christ," so as truly to know him, are de- 
 clared to have " been taught by him the truth as in 
 Jesus." Whatever our advantages of human teach- 
 ing, even of the truest exposition of God's inspired 
 
 * The strictly ntbxtitutionary character of Christ's sacrifice for 
 our sins I consider of the most vital importance to be clearly 
 taught, if we would satisfy the language of Scripture, or do our 
 duty to God and man. " He wms made sin for us ;" by which I 
 understand that he stood for us under tke law, by imputation of 
 our sins, bearing all our sins, and as perfectly identified and 
 charged with the^i as it was possible for one "who knew no 
 sin" in himself to be. 
 
 2* 
 
34 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 word, all is powerless spiritually to enlighten us in 
 the knowledge of God and of Christ, till he who 
 speaks as never man spake shall add to it the teaching 
 of his Spirit, so that we shall learn, not merely by the 
 Scriptures, but in them from and of Him. Christ 
 as " the truth " as well as " the way" " the wisdom " 
 as well as " the righteousness of God/ 7 - the living 
 11 Word " as well as the ever-living Priest and Inter- 
 cessor, must be showed in our ministry, if we preach 
 Christ crucified, not merely as once on the cross, 
 but as now in his glory. 
 
 But Christ crucified is not only " the righteous- 
 ness of God " and " the wisdom of God," but " the 
 power of God unto salvation. 7 ' "Him hath God 
 exalted to be a Prince" that he may be a Saviour, 
 <{ mighty to save." " Unto the Son, He saith, Thy 
 throne, God, is forever and ever, a sceptre of 
 righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." 
 Christ as King, in a glorious sovereignty over all 
 things in heaven and earth, we must declare. It is 
 the crowning aspect of Qjbrist, the crucified. It is 
 " the THRONE of the* Lamb that was slain" before 
 which the multitudes without number, of the saved 
 in heaven are represented as ascribing " power and 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 35 
 
 riches and strength and glory and honour and bless- 
 ing." By his death he purchased, as Mediator, a 
 glorious kingdom of redemption. At his ascension, 
 he went to receive it. There now he reigns over 
 all his people in earth and heaven, and over all else, 
 for his people. When he shall come again, it will 
 be in the gWry of that kingdom. It was a grand 
 introduction to that precious invitation, " Come unto 
 me all ye that labor and are heavy laden," and that 
 attending precept, " take my yoke and learn of me," 
 when he sai8 (in the verse nexc before), " AU things 
 are delivered unto me of my Father"* 
 
 It was when he was in the humiliation and suffer- 
 ings of the cross that, as the great King, he 
 stretched forth the sceptre of his power to the mal- 
 efactor at his side, and gave him repentance and 
 remission of sins, and opened nnto him the kingdom 
 of heaven. And now that, having endured the cross, 
 he is set down at the right hand of the throne of 
 God, to reign forever and ever, he hath all power 
 to make good all his promises to those who receive 
 him and to punish with everlasting destruction those 
 who reject him. There is no part of our Te Deum 
 
 *Mat. xi. 27. 
 
86 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 that more animates the worship of my heart than 
 these two sentences, " Thou art the King of Glory, 
 O Christ ! " " When thou hadst overcome the sharp- 
 ness of death, thou didst open the t kingdom of 
 heaven to all believers." It is as King of Saints 
 that he freely receives every sinner who seeks his 
 salvation, writing the law of his kifigdom in his 
 heart, giving him victory over the enemies of his 
 soul, making him triumphant in death, and finally 
 saying unto him from his throne, " Enter thou into 
 the joy of thy Lord." It is as Christ crucified and 
 glorified and " King of Saints " that he utters that 
 promise of royal authority and power, " To him that 
 overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, 
 even as I also overcame and am set down with my 
 Father in His throne." * 
 
 Here then is another aspect in which we must lift 
 up the Lord Jesus in our ministry. We fnust not 
 let it be forgotten that, in all the tenderness of his 
 invitations and promises, he speaks " as one that hath 
 authority," not only to make them good, but to 
 punish their rejection. The invitations of his grace 
 are the commandments of his throne, to be answered 
 * Rev. iii. 21. 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 37 
 
 for at his bar. Hence, the preaching of Christ 
 crucified ceases not till it has exhibited " the judg- 
 ment-seat of Christ." It must be noted that, when 
 the Apostle says, " Knowing the terror of the Lord 
 we persuade men," he is speaking of the terror of 
 our Lord Jesus in his day of judgment.* That day 
 is called " the great day of the wrath of the Lamb"\ 
 Why the wrath of the Lamb ? Why but to keep 
 still in view the great sacrifice of atonement ; to 
 teach that Christ on the throne of judgment is 
 Christ that was crucified ; that the chief question of 
 that day will be, whether we have accepted or neg- 
 lected the great salvation purchased by his blood ; 
 and the chief terror of that day will be the ven- 
 geance of that blood upon its rejection ? While we 
 love to speak of the blessedness of "the saints in 
 light" as "joint heirs with Christ," we can not dis- 
 charge our whole duty as preachers of Christ, unless 
 we speak of the heritage of those who " receive his 
 grace in vain." We have a most impressive exam- 
 ple in St. Paul, who, knowing nothing in his ministry 
 " but Jesus Christ and him crucified," pictured so sol- 
 emnly that day when, coming " to be glorified in his 
 * 2 Cor. v. 10, 11. f Rev. yi. 17. 
 
38 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 saints and to be admired in all them that believe," 
 the Lord Jesus " shall be revealed from heaven, in 
 flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not 
 the gospel, and who shall be punished with everlast- 
 ing destruction from the presence of the Lord and 
 from the glory of his power."* 
 
 But the preaching of Christ as the crucified ex- 
 tends through all the inheritance of his people for- 
 ever and ever. It deserves your particular remark 
 how carefully, in many places, the Scriptures, in 
 speaking of the actual condition of the redeemed in 
 heaven, and its connection with the Lord Jesus as 
 its author, source, and substance, so speak of it as 
 to keep not only Christ on the throne, but Christ 
 crucified, Christ the sacrifice, in most conspicuous 
 view. This is especially seen wherever he is spoken 
 of in his glory as " the Lamb" which of course 
 means the Lamb of sacrifice the antitype of the 
 paschal lamb and of the daily sacrifice of the law ; 
 the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, " He is led as 
 a lamb to the slaughter/ 7 " wounded for our trans- 
 gressions. Thus the multitude which no man can 
 number, who stand in white raiment and with palms 
 *2Thess. i. 7-10. 
 
THE WOKK OF PREACHING CHKIST. 39 
 
 of victory before the throne, are represented as 
 " before tJie Lamb" and their adoration is in ascrib- 
 ing " salvation to the Lamb" and notice is carefully 
 drawn to their having " washed their robes in the 
 blood of the Lamb" and all that high communion 
 and blessedness is called " the marriage-supper of 
 the Lamb" and in all that dwelling-place " the Lamb 
 is the light thereof" and he that " feeds them and 
 leads them to living fountains of water " is " the 
 Lamb which is in the midst of the throne," and " the' 
 river of the water of life," representing their whole 
 felicity, proceeds "out of the throne of the Lamb" 
 and the book of citizenship of the New Jerusalem, 
 in which are written the names of all that are to 
 inhabit there, is " the book of life of the Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world" * Most 
 evidently the intent of all this is to carry adoring 
 thoughts of the sacrifice of the cross into our every 
 thought of heavenly happiness, and to represent the 
 heir of that felicity as never forgetting that great 
 price ; never seeing the Lord in his glory without 
 seeing him as once " crucified and slain ; " never 
 ascending any height of " the heavenly places," or 
 * Rev. xiii. 8 and xx. 12, 14. 
 
40 THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 drinking at any stream of their blessedness, without 
 seeing in Christ not only " the Author and the Fin- 
 isher/ 7 but all in him as " the Lamb slain" as he 
 that "liveth and was dead" Christ the propiti- 
 ation, Christ crucified. Atonement by sacrifice is 
 written all over the heritage of the righteous. It is 
 the chorus of every song of the saints in light. All 
 heaven echoes with," Unto him that washed us from 
 our sins in his own Hood" So must it be in all 
 our preaching concerning the happiness* of the 
 saved Christ the purchaser and dispenser, but the 
 glory of his cross never separated from the glory of 
 his throne. When we " shall see him as he is," we 
 shall not cease to think of him as he was. 
 
 Here a word "about our representations of what 
 is the happiness of the redeemed in heaven what 
 constitutes it. There is a chilling effect of many 
 books and sermons on that subject so much gener- 
 ality, so little about what the Scriptures place so 
 above all ; so much made of the subordinate and 
 accessory features, the pastures and the flowers of 
 the heavenly land, and so little of the Sun that 
 gives them all their beauty and life ; as if you 
 should speak of the garden of Eden, and make 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 41 
 
 more of what God planted than of the presence 
 and communion of God therein not remembering 
 what Paradise in all its beauty became to man when 
 that communion was withdrawn. Christ is carefully 
 to be preached, as being, himself, in his glory 
 and communion, the heaven of his people ; as well 
 as, in his humiliation and sacrifice, its purchase- 
 price. How striking is the testimony of the Scrip- 
 tures to this point. Has Jesus gone away to pre- 
 pare a place for us in his Father's house? His 
 promise is, "I will come again, and receive you 
 unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." 
 Does he pray his Father in behalf of the happiness 
 of his people, the prayer is, " that they may be with 
 me where I am and behold my glory." While it 
 doth not appear what we shall be " as sons of God " 
 and " joint Mrs with Christ," does St. John speak 
 of one thing that we do know. It is that " we shall 
 be like and see^im as he is." Does Jesus promise to 
 them that overcome, that they " shall eat of the hid- 
 den manna " ? That .manna is himself. " I am that 
 bread of life." Is heaven described as a glorious 
 city of habitation ? " The Larnb is the temple " and 
 " the light thereof." Hath it a river of water of 
 
42 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 life, and on either side the tree of life ? All that 
 river comes forth from " the throne of the Lamb." 
 Christ is " the Finisher of our faith " in this, that he 
 is, in himself, the consummation of our hope ; his 
 presence, his communion, his everlasting love be- 
 ing the prize of our high calling, and the goal of 
 our race. We come to him now, and he is our 
 peace. We go to be with him forever, and he is our 
 glory. Ask the way to heaven ; we say, Christ. 
 Ask where heaven is ; we say, where Christ is. 
 Ask what heaven is ; we answer, what Christ is. 
 Thus preach we Christ crucified, whenever we speak 
 according to the Scriptures of what constitutes the 
 life eternal of the sinner " redeemed by the blood of 
 the Lamb." 
 
 But we must take good heed, that we do not so 
 speak of our Lord in his heavenly pJtar and glory 
 as not to give due place to his ever present personal 
 ministry, in and to, his Church oifl^barth. The im- 
 pression is too prevalent that here in our duties and 
 wants and prayers we have only a Saviour and 
 helper afar off. 
 
 The precious assurance of the Scriptures is, that 
 we have a Saviour so near to every one of us, that 
 
THE WORK OF PREAC 
 
 he is "a very present help" so prefeatliiiat- noth- 
 ing can separate us from him ; that nothing but un- 
 belief ever intervenes between our wants and his 
 fullness, neither space nor time, nor unworthiness nor 
 weakness so present that he is ever at the door, 
 waiting to be received, or beneath our weakness 
 ready to be leaned on. No presence is so "very 
 present" as that of Christ, in the power of his Spirit 
 to every heart that seeks him enlightening, guid- 
 ing, comforting, upholding, drawing sinners to him- 
 self, making himself known to them, giving efficacy 
 to means of grace ; whatever the instruments, He 
 the only power. " I am the good shepherd." All is 
 comprehended in that declaration. As the good 
 shepherd, he is the present shepherd, so present to 
 each of the flock that he "calleth every one by 
 name ad leadeth him out." Oh, what a help and 
 comfort it is when we get a full comprehension and 
 an abiding impression of that presence. How it 
 strengthens t^e Minister of the Gospel! How it 
 lifts up the heart of the Christian ! 
 
 In this connection, the faithful preaching of Christ 
 will keep in great prominence, that aspect of him- 
 self which he taught with such emphasis, when he 
 
44 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 spake of himself as " the living bread the bread of 
 God" of whom the manna in the wilderness was the 
 type and the bread of our Eucharist is the Sacra- 
 ment ; Christ the present daily life of his people 
 they abiding in him by faith, he in them by his 
 Spirit ; all their life as children of God now all 
 their hopes of life forever, depending on that habit- 
 ual communion the vine and the branches. The 
 more we ourselves enjoy of that abiding, the better 
 shall we know how to teach it. Nowhere does 
 mere book-knowledge of what is given us to preach 
 assist us less. 
 
 When we speak of Christ as " the life" fulfilling 
 the type of the manna, let us take care that we set 
 in clear view, not only our dependence, but His 
 freeness. It was one prominent aspect of that 
 " spiritual meat" of which " all our fathers" of the 
 Church in the wilderness ate, that all classes and 
 conditions of people partook of it alike, and all with 
 equal and perfect freeness. It lay ,11 around the 
 camp, as accessible to one as another. Moses, nor 
 Aaron, nor*any priest or ruler had any privilege at 
 that table which the humblest Israelite had not. 
 The priesthood had no office of intervention between 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 45 
 
 the hungry and that bread. Whosoever will, let 
 Kim take and eat, was the proclamation. Let us 
 take good heed that what we cannot deny in the 
 type be not narrowed or concealed in the antitype. 
 Our text is, " Him that cometh to me, I will in 
 no wise cast out" * And I do not know a text that 
 contains more of the essence of the preaching of 
 Christ in the richness and.freeness of his salvation. 
 Oh, let us take care that our ministry shall keep 
 full in the sight of men that open way, that free 
 access, that directness of coming, not to some mere 
 symbolical representation, but to the very present 
 Christ, in all his tenderness of love and power to 
 save. Ordinances, ministers, are sadly out of place, 
 no matter how divinely appointed for certain uses, 
 when instead of mere helps in coming to Christ, 
 they are made, in any sense, conditions or terms 
 of approach, so that the sinner gets to Christ only 
 or, in any degree, by them. The light of the sun 
 is not more free to every man that cometh into the 
 world, than is the salvation of Jesus to every be- 
 lieving sinner. It is our business to be continu- 
 ally showing that precious truth ; coming by faith, 
 
 * John vi. 37. 
 
46 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHUIST. 
 
 all the condition ; Christ, the full and perfect sal- 
 vation of all that come. 
 
 But in the range of gospel truth, there are sub- 
 jects of instruction, which though not directly con- 
 cerning his person and office, are so connected with 
 all right appreciation of his saving grace that we 
 cannot keep them out of view, without affecting 
 most injuriously our whole ministry. Be it remem- 
 bered that while the cross with its immediate neigh- 
 borhood is the metropolis of Christianity all the 
 region round about is Holy Land, more or less 
 holy according to the nearness to that " city of our 
 God ;"" a land of milk and honey/ 7 " of brooks and 
 fountains of water/ 7 intersected in all directions 
 with highways by which pilgrims to Zion approach 
 the desire of their hearts. It is the office of the 
 gospel preacher to map out that land ; to trace 
 those converging roads to set up the way-marks to 
 the city of Refuge. Christ is not fully preached 
 when any truth which teaches the sinner's need of 
 such a Saviour illustrating his preciousness by 
 showing our ruin and beggary through sin dwelling 
 in us and bringing condemnation upon us, is kept in 
 obscurity. The wisdom of " the scribe, instructed 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 47 
 
 unto the kingdom of God, to bring out of his treas- 
 ure things new and old," is found in his omitting 
 nothing connected with the Gospel, however remote 
 from the great central truths and duties ; and in his 
 giving to each its portion in due season, as well as its 
 place in due relation. 
 
 For example : Christ is " our righteousness" unto 
 justification to every one that believeth, so that in 
 him there is no condemnation.* But we shall preach 
 him in vain, in that light, unless we show the sin- 
 ner's absolute need of such righteousness. We must 
 seek, under the power of the Holy Ghost, so to con- 
 vince him of sin that he shall see himself to be under 
 the condemnation of God's law, without excuse and 
 without hope, till he flees to that refuge. Blessed 
 is he whose ministry the Spirit employs to teach 
 that lesson of ruin and beggary. It is the threshold 
 of the way of life. The text-book in that teaching 
 is the law God's will, however, and wherever ex- 
 pressed. Preached in a spiritual application to the 
 secrets of the heart, not only as the rule of obedi- 
 ence but as the condition of peace with God to 
 every one that is not in Christ Jesus, and on the 
 
 * Romans viii. 1. 
 
48 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 perfect keeping of which all his hope depends.; 
 preached in view of the salvation of Jesus as only 
 increasing the condemnation so long as it is salva- 
 tion neglected ; it is the instrument of the Holy 
 Ghost to strip the sinner of self-reliance and self- 
 justification, to humble him before God under a 
 a sense of guilt and ruin, and as a " schoolmaster 
 to lead him to Christ that he may be justified by 
 faith." He that would preach a full justification in 
 Christ, without works, must preach entire condemna- 
 tion under the law, by works. By the law is 
 the knowledge of sin and hence the knowledge in 
 part of Christ. Clear, unequivocal statements of 
 the divine law ; the full exhibition of the text, 
 " Cursed is every one that continueth not in all 
 things written in the book of the law to do them" 
 (that continueth not in all things from first to 
 last of life), thus carrying the sword of the Spirit 
 into the discerning of the thoughts and intents of 
 the heart, is the special basis of and preparation for 
 all saving knowledge of Christ. The way of the 
 Lord is prepared by that fore-runner. How many 
 more consciences would cry out for relief under the 
 load of sin ; how much oftener would the careless 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 49 
 
 heart be awakened to seek mercy through Christ, 
 were there only a more searching comparison of all 
 that is in man with all the holiness of the will of 
 God. 
 
 Again : Christ is " made unto us sanctification."* 
 But how can we do justice to so cardinal a truth of 
 God's grace, unless we do ample justice to that 
 other great truth of man's nature out of which arises 
 all the need of a sanctifier the entire " corruption 
 the nature of every man that is naturally engendered 
 of the offspring of Adam ?" t The beginning of sanc- 
 tification is to be born again of the Holy Ghost. 
 According to men's views of the extent to which 
 by nature they are corrupt and alienated from God, 
 will be their views of the spiritual nature, necessity 
 and extent of that great change. Hence to preach 
 Christ in sanctification, we must preach man in his 
 natural corruption. The " carnal mind" is " en- 
 mity against God and is not subject to the law of 
 God neither indeed can 50." ;f Let us faithfully ex- 
 pound those words of St. Paul. We need no 
 stronger declaration as the basis of the whole 
 superstructure of the need of an entire inward regen- 
 * 1 Cor. i. 30. f Article IX. \ Rom. viii. 7 
 
 3 
 
50 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 eration, making the sinner a new creature in Christ 
 Jesus new in heart, new in life and hope. That 
 this preaching of the necessity of such new creature 
 is eminently the preaching of Christ, we have a 
 striking testimony in these words of the Epistle of 
 the Ephesians (chap. iv. 20-24), " Ye have not so 
 learned Christ ; if so be ye have heard him and 
 been taught by him the truth as in Jesus ; that ye 
 put off the old man which is corrupt according to 
 the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of 
 your mind and that ye put on the new man which 
 after God is created in righteousness and true 
 holiness. 77 
 
 But how shall we speak of so great spiritual 
 transformation without speaking with equal stress 
 of Him who produces it ? What sanctification is to 
 salvation, such is the right teaching of the power 
 and office of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, the Spirit 
 of Christ, and all comprehending gift of God. What 
 is there in the Christian life, from first to last, that 
 is not the work of the Holy Ghost ? Is the sinner 
 convinced of sin, Jesus sent the Spirit to do that 
 work. Is he quickened from spiritual death ? "It 
 is the Spirit that quicTceneth" Is he born agaii ? 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 51 
 
 He is " born of the Spirit" Is he spiritually minded ? 
 It is because he " minds the things of the Spirit. 
 Is he a " follower of God," as a dear child ? It is be- 
 couse he is "led by the Spirit of God" Hath he 
 an internal evidence of that sonship ? It is because 
 the Spirit beareth witness with his spirit. Is the 
 love of God " shed abroad in our hearts ?" It is " by 
 the Holy Ghost given unto us" Do we learn how 
 to pray as we ought ? It is because " the Spirit help- 
 cth our infirmities" Are we Comforted with the 
 consolation of Christ? The Spirit is "the Comforter" 
 Are we strengthened in our duty ? It is " by the Spirit 
 in the inner man" Do we grow in the knowledge 
 of Christ ? Jesus said of the Holy Ghost : "He shall 
 take of mine and show it unto you" And beside 
 the spiritual resurrection and sanctification, will 
 these vile bodies also rise ; will they also be sancti- 
 fied and made glorious according to the glory of our 
 risen Lord ? It is written that " He shall quicken 
 your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in 
 you"* 
 
 Rightly to honor the Holy Ghost as He is thus 
 revealed in His own inspired word, how important 
 
 * Rom. viii. 11. 
 
52 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 to the faithfulness, the fruitfulness of our ministry. 
 We may so come short of it we may so contradict 
 it, that while bearing a very reputable character 
 before men, we may all the while be " grieving the 
 Holy Ghost," yea, even " resisting the Holy Ghost." 
 How much barrenness in the work of the ministry, 
 in making not church-members, but spiritually en- 
 lightened and spiritually-minded followers of Christ, 
 may be ascribed to deficiency negativeness at 
 least, in this great Apartment of our teaching ! In 
 no part of his work does a minister more need to be 
 taught of God or to sit humbly at the feet of Jesus 
 to learn of him ; nowhere does a decline of spiritu- 
 ality of mind so soon show itself as here. In no 
 part of our work do we depend more upon a decided, 
 habitual, personal experience in our own souls of 
 God's gracious operation. It is here that great de- 
 partures from the truth which go on to carry away 
 eventually whole communities of professing Chris- 
 tians into manifold and essential errors, almost 
 always secretly or overtly begin ; as it is the final 
 construction of a system from which the personal 
 office of the Holy Ghost is virtually if not professedly 
 excluded, in which they culminate. The Scriptural 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 53 
 
 description of a spiritual mind is, that it " minds 
 the things of the Spirit." It is equally the te^t of 
 a spiritual and evangelical ministry. That which 
 specially tries our spiritual discernment and skill in 
 rightly dividing the word of truth is the right ad- 
 justment of means of grace in their relation to the 
 power of grace, of instruments of blessing to the hand 
 that employs them and that gives them all their effica- 
 cy. The Spirit hath His instruments. His grace hath 
 its means. His great instrument in our sanctification, 
 is His own revealed Truth, by which he testifies of 
 and glorifies the Lord Jesus in our eyes. Sacra- 
 ments are that same essential truth, taught under 
 other signs, and sealed with a special impressiveness. 
 The preaching of that same truth by an ordained 
 Ministry, is the great instrumentality of the Spirit. 
 The point of caution is, while giving all due place ' 
 to the instrument that we keep it exclusively in the 
 place of a mere instrument of no avail in itself; 
 that we treat it as we treat the glass by which we 
 seek to see some distant star not as an object to be 
 looked at but only as a help to look immeasurably 
 beyond and above it ; that as the glass is nothing 
 without the light, so the means of grace are nothing 
 
54: THE WORK OF PEEACHING CHRIST. 
 
 without " the Spirit of grace ;" that all the power is 
 of the Holy Ghost, and that power not deposited in 
 the means, as we put bread into the hand of a dis- 
 tributor, so that whosoever receives the latter re- 
 ceives the bread ; that power never divorced from the 
 personal ministry of the Spirit, but applied directly 
 by Himself to each heart that receives His grace ; 
 He " dividing to every man severally as He will." 
 To speak of an ordinance, a sacrament, any means 
 of grace, even the Holy Scriptures of truth, as if 
 they were in any sense i\Q power unto salvation, or 
 as if they contained, whatever its original source, 
 the grace by which we live unto God, thus leading 
 men to look to them, instead of only, by their help, 
 to Christ and His Spirit, is to "do despite to the 
 Spirit of grace." 
 
 The whole truth in this connection is found where 
 the Apostle says : " Who is Paul and who is Apollos, 
 but Ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord 
 gave to every man."* Instead of Paul and Apollos, 
 read any ordinance or means of grace. What are 
 they but ministrations of man by help of which ye 
 believe, even as the Lord giveth to every man. 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 5. 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 55 
 
 There is a text which the full and explicit preach- 
 ing of Christ will be always directly or indirectly, 
 consciously or unconsciously, illustrating. It is 
 those verses in the second chapter of the Epistle to 
 the Ephesians, "By grace are ye saved, through 
 faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God : 
 Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we 
 are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works." Salvation all of grace only ; in its 
 origin in the love of God ; in its purchase by the 
 blood of Christ ; in the first quickening of the sin- 
 ner from the death of sin ; in all the renewal of his 
 nature ; in his acceptance through Christ, to the 
 peace of God ; in his whole ability to live as a child 
 of God ; and in his final admission to the glory of 
 God all of grace only wonderful grace ; but 
 through faith alone and that faith itself a gift of 
 grace ; our works in every degree and aspect wholly 
 excluded from the work of saving us, though neces- 
 sarily included as fruits of the grace that does save 
 us we being created anew in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works and not in any degree by good works 
 first God's workmanship making us new creatures, 
 then our working as so created " unto good works 
 
56 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 which God hath ordained that we should walk in 
 them." "We preach such works, first, as absolutely 
 excluded from having any part in procuring our Jus- 
 tification before God ; secondly, as essential fruits 
 and evidences of our having obtained such Justi- 
 fication. We preach the office of Faith as so vital 
 that only by it are we united to Christ, as living 
 stones built upon the living head of the corner ; and 
 the necessity of good works as so absolute, that only 
 in them can we walk as God hath ordained and have 
 evidence that we are true believers in Jesus ; and 
 at the same time botli faith and works deriving all 
 being from the Spirit of God and all value and effi- 
 cacy to salvation from the Righteousness of Christ. 
 Here let me add some few miscellaneous ob- 
 servations. We are bound to instruct the believer 
 in all the privileges and consolations that are in 
 Christ that his joy may be full. But we must lay 
 equal stress on all his obligations, that Christ may 
 be glorified. Out of the same wounds of the cross 
 come privilege and duty, promise and commandment, 
 the consolation of faith and the duty of obedience ; 
 and the same preaching that leads to the one must 
 alike insist on the other, and on both as necessary 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 57 
 
 to our having that rest which Jesus promises. It is 
 a great matter so to preach the precepts of Christ 
 as to lead men to embrace his promises ; and so the 
 promises as to draw the disobedient to the love of 
 his precepts. In all our work we have two great 
 sources of persuasion, according to the example of 
 St. Paul, namely, " We beseech you by the mercies 
 of God," and again, " Knowing the terror of the 
 Lord, we persuade men ;" the love of God in Christ 
 as a Saviour, and the wrath of God in Christ as 
 Judge of quick and dead ; a cloud of light and a 
 cloud of darkness, each proceeding from the cross as 
 accepted or rejected. We must do all in tenderness, 
 but all in faithfulness. The whole counsel of God 
 embraces the fearful penalty of unpardoned sin as 
 well as the glorious inheritance of the reconciled in 
 Christ. The faithful preacher of Christ keeps back 
 none of it. While he delights in the loving aspects 
 of his grace, he is not ashamed of the severities of 
 his justice. He does not indeed denounce or judge. 
 It is not for him to command or condemn. His work 
 is always to entreat and persuade ; tenderly, lovingly, 
 patiently, in the mind of Christ. But persuasion 
 has the alarming truths to use as well as the encour- 
 3* 
 
58 THE WORK OP PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 -aging. That, " God is a consuming fire" out of 
 Christ, is as much an argument of persuasion and 
 tenderness, as that in Christ, " God is Love." We 
 read of " the goodness and severity of God"* We 
 must exhibit both. They interpret and enforce one 
 another. But how to balance aright judgment and 
 mercy, invitation and warning, precepts of obe- 
 dience, and promises of consolation, the tender 
 "Come unto me and 1 will give you rest" with the 
 stern "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire " the 
 darkness and the light the loving voice from the 
 Mercy-seat and the dreadful sentence from the Judg- 
 ment-seat all under the duty of teaching and 
 preaching Jesus Christ, is not learned from books 
 only, is not given by specific rule, comes chiefly out 
 of the state of the heart, under the general light 
 of the Scriptures, and by a careful endeavor to learn 
 of, and be like, him of whom it is beautifully written 
 that he hath " the tongue of the learned to know 
 how to speak a word in season to him that is 
 weary."t 
 
 Prom all that has now been said, it appears how 
 mistaken is the idea that by confining our preach- 
 
 * Rom. xi. 22. f Isaiah 1. 4. 
 
THE WOKK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 59 
 
 ing to Christ and him crucified we have a very nar- 
 row range of truth to expatiate in. In reality, we 
 have the whole vast range of natural and revealed 
 religion. A wider field no preacher can find who 
 does not seek it beyond the confines of religious 
 truth. The difference between the man who con- 
 fines himself to the preaching of Christ and him who 
 does not, need not be that the latter embraces any 
 portion of divine truth of doctrine or duty, of his- 
 tory or prophecy or precept which enters not into 
 the range of the former. It may be wholly a differ- 
 ence in the mode of presenting precisely the same 
 truth a difference in the bearings ; in the relations 
 assigned to every part ; in the cardinal points to 
 which all is adjusted ; in the polarity, so to speak, 
 which governs such manifestation of truth as de- 
 serves the name and praise of the preaching of 
 Christ. You may take truth from the immediate 
 neighborhood of the cross, or from the farthest 
 boundaries of the domain of Christianity, and when 
 its just relation to Christ and his redemption is ex- 
 hibited Christ is preached. Thus there is no reason 
 why, in the most faithful ministry, there may not be 
 abundant variety of topic and of instruction. The 
 
60 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 sermon may be always shining in the light of our 
 glorious Lord, while receiving it either by direct 
 looking unto him, or indirectly from secondary ob- 
 jects which, as satellites of the sun, revolve around 
 him and shine in his glory. The sermon, in all its 
 spirit and tendency, may say, " Behold the Lamb of 
 God" and yet the view may be as changing as the 
 positions from which it is taken, the circumstances 
 which influence it, the lights and shadows of the 
 several conditions and necessities of the minds be- 
 fore which it is placed. In general we may say 
 that, as no subject is legitimate in the preaching of 
 a minister of Christ that does not admit of being 
 presented in some important relation to Christ ; so 
 no sermon is evangelical that does not truly exhibit 
 such relation, giving him the same position to the 
 whole discourse that he holds in the Scriptures to 
 the whole body of truth therein. As some subjects 
 have a much nearer and more vital relation to him 
 than others, they will be much the most frequent 
 and engrossing in the preaching of a faithful Chris- 
 tian minister. The great truths, the great facts, the 
 great duties and privileges and interests and conso- 
 lations which proceed the most directly from the 
 
THE WORK OF PEE ACHING CHRIST. 61 
 
 person and office the death and intercession of 
 Christ and the worfc of the Holy Spirit as well as 
 those which lead the most immediately thereto, will 
 be so habitually the subjects of his preaching, that 
 the more remote and indirect will be only occa- 
 sional, exceptions to the standing rule and habit. 
 And which of these classes of subjects his mind and 
 heart most delight in, and ^hich draw forth the 
 deepest earnestness and the strongest emotions of 
 his soul, will not be doubtful. 
 
 We have now exhibited as much of our great and 
 wide subject as we could with any propriety occupy 
 your time with. You will, of course, understand 
 that we have not attempted to embrace the whole 
 field. What has been attempted, we are deeply 
 conscious is most imperfect and inadequate. Still, 
 we have not withheld our best endeavors, where 
 even St. Paul exclaimed, " Who is sufficient for these 
 things!" We conclude with a brief view of the 
 state of mind and spirit which qualifies a minister 
 to be a faithful preacher of Christ. 
 
 1. A spirit of Faith. I mean Faith not merely 
 in such of its exercises as make the minister a 
 living Christian, and a growing, vigorous Christian ; 
 
62 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 but in that special exercise which enables him to 
 go on patiently, persistently, l^>efully, immovably, 
 preaching the Gospel as we have seen the Apostles 
 preached it, in like simplicity and spirituality with 
 as little of the devices and ^mixtures and dilutions 
 and subterfuges of man's wisdom, no matter what the 
 obstacles or what the apparent fruitlessness believ- 
 ing it is God's own way, to which alone His blessing 
 is promised and which He ivill bless as his own 
 "wisdom and power unto salvation." It was pre- 
 cisely with such meaning that St. Paul, just after 
 he had pronounced, "We preach not ourselves, 
 but Christ Jesus the Lord " and just after he had 
 adverted to the fact that such preaching failed to 
 open the eyes of many that heard saying " If our Gos- 
 pel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the 
 god of this world had blinded the minds of them 
 which believe not."* It was in full view of all 
 whom their preaching did not succeed in convincing, 
 but only made the more hardened and hopeless, that 
 tie said, " We believe and therefore speak" t meaning 
 not only that they believed what they spoke, but that 
 they believed it was just what God commanded 
 
 * 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. f v - 18 - 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 63 
 
 them to speak. And no rejection of it by man could 
 shake that confidence or lead them to speak any 
 thing else or in any other way. Well they knew 
 what a "stumbling-block to the Jew/' and what 
 utter "foolishness to the Greek/ 7 was their testimony 
 concerning Christ crucified ; but not a word would 
 they change " We 'believe and therefore speak" 
 It was this lesson of faith that Paul gave to Timothy. 
 He warned him of a time of apostacy approaching 
 "The time will come when they will not endure 
 sound doctrine and they shall turn away their ears 
 from the truth and be turned unto fables. 77 * How 
 then was Timothy to do in such times? What 
 " sound doctrine" meant in the mind of St. Paul, we 
 well know all that way . of justification by the 
 righteousness of Christ imputed and of sanctification 
 by the Spirit of God imparted to the believer ; that 
 whole way of life of which the vicarious propitiation 
 by the sacrifice of Christ was the central power and 
 life. It was all that doctrine which men would not 
 endure. And what was Timothy to do ? Conclude 
 that he, and other preachers of Christ, had taken 
 the wrong method because thus unsuccessful ? that 
 
 * 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4. 
 
64 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 they must find out some other sort of preaching be- 
 cause that was so rejected ? Since men would not 
 endure sound doctrine, must he try to get them into 
 the church, or if in the church already, to make 
 them satisfied to stay there, by giving them unsound 
 doctrine ? If the truth caused them to turn away 
 from it, must he turn away from it also and give 
 them something else to correct the evil? What 
 said the faith of an Apostle ? No compromise 
 no accommodation only so much more earnestly 
 and continually that same rejected doctrine. Hear 
 Paul's remedy! "I charge thee before God and 
 the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the quick and 
 the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach 
 the word (the same offensive word), be instant in 
 season, out of season reprove, rebuke, exhort, with 
 all long suffering and doctrine."* The more the 
 truth is turned away from, so much the more 
 proclaim it. God will see to the issue. "So 
 we preach, not as pleasing men, but God, which 
 trieth the heart." Such is the faith of which we 
 are speaking, as of such importance in our ministry. 
 The times which St. Paul predicted, and which 
 
 * 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 
 
THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 65 
 
 began before Timothy had ended his labors, are yet 
 in being. We all know how they have been ex- 
 hibited since the beginning of this century ; in this 
 country, under the name of Unitarianism, and on the 
 continent of Europe, under that of Rationalism. And 
 we have heard with amazement and grief how they 
 have appeared of late in the venerable Church of 
 England, among some of her clergy, in her high 
 places of college and pulpit teaching, and how even 
 a Bishop takes the lead ; and how while it is mani- 
 fest that he cannot endure the sound doctrine of the 
 Scriptures, and therefore labors to destroy their au- 
 thority, he dares, with a dishonesty most astonishing, 
 and an effrontery unexampled, to persist in holding 
 the office of a Bishop in the Church of Christ 
 against the remonstrance of all his peers, and to 
 the great disgust of right-minded people. The case 
 is singular. There were Bishops of the Romish 
 Church who under the reign of infidelity in France 
 during the Revolution, renounced the faith ; but they 
 renounced also their office in the Church. We have 
 a more primitive example. Judas Iscariot, when he 
 had betrayed his Lord, having been "guide to them 
 that took Jesus/ 7 had too much conscience left to 
 
66 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 continue in his " apostleship." "His Bishopric" an- 
 other took. 
 
 But perhaps we have adverted with more point 
 to the case of this English Bishop than his import- 
 ance deserved. We were speaking of the new as- 
 pect of affairs among certain of the Church of Eng- 
 land. True, the most prominent manifestation is in 
 attacks on the Inspiration of the Scriptures. But 
 let not any suppose the ultimate or inspiring object 
 to be there. The citadel of truth and life can not 
 be reached till that outwork is reduced. Atonement 
 is the final object. .Atonement for sin by the pre- 
 cious blood of Christ, with all the precious doctrines 
 of salvation which reside therein, as branches in the 
 vine, and which are dead and only fit to be cast 
 away as rubbish the moment such atonement is 
 taken away ; That is the doctrine they cannot en- 
 dure. That is the truth from which they turn away, 
 but which they know is safe so long as the Scrip- 
 tures are the final Rule of Faith. Meanwhile they 
 would counsel us to give up the old way of preach- 
 ing Christ, as no doubt the best way for the old 
 times, but unfit for these times when through mature 
 growth of man's wisdom such doctrine is counted, just 
 
^NIVERSITY) 
 
 THE WORK OF PEE4gHI^ CHRg^- ^^67 
 
 indeed as it'was by similar min^sHh^lKeJilii* times, 
 "foolishness" They would have us lay aside creeds 
 and confessions, in order that they who cannot en- 
 dure the doctrine of Apostles and Prophets may be 
 accounted Christians no less than those who believe 
 and love it. They would make the Church so broad 
 that any varieties or oppositions of belief may be 
 embraced in its communion and even in its ministry, 
 thus strangely sacrificing gospel-truth to church- 
 comprehensiveness. 
 
 Now suppose such evil times should visit us in 
 'our church what must we do ? I ask it to illus- 
 trate what I mean by the faith of which I am speak- 
 ing. Must we preach the word, as Paul understood 
 it, any the less ? Shall we suppose that to preach 
 Christ crucified is not as much " the wisdom and 
 power of God," as when apostles set us the example? 
 Or shall we believe as they believed, and therefore 
 continue to speak as they spoke, even though the 
 whole earth should be covered with a flood of apos- 
 tacy, and men everywhere should be turned unto 
 fables? What says a true faith in God? No 
 change, but in more earnestness with the unchanged. 
 " Preach the word " the same word " Instant in 
 
68 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 season, out of season/' "with all long suffering and 
 doctrine." Let patience have her perfect work. Be 
 not faithless but believing God's hand is not 
 shortened that it cannot save by that same word 
 now as in the ancient times. 
 
 These observations are not applicable only to cir- 
 cumstances which may hereafter exist among us. 
 Always, everywhere in our ministry we find those 
 calling themselves Christians, or at least numbered 
 in Christian congregations, to whom what St. Paul 
 meant by " sound doctrine 77 is an aversion. They do 
 not like to hear, they turn away from hearing so 
 much about atonement and justification, and a new 
 heart, and faith, and all the inward work of the Holy 
 Ghost. A less spiritual religion would be far more 
 to their taste and they think if we would preach 
 much less about the great distinctive features of the 
 Gospel and more about mere moral duties that is, 
 less religion and more of something else, many ears, 
 now turned away, would hear. Very likely. And 
 under the influence of such views, the testimony of the 
 pulpit is sometimes grievously deformed. The min- 
 ister seeks to commend himself more to the people's 
 preferences than their consciences ; and hence, of 
 
THE WOKK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 69 
 
 course, not by manifestation of the truth in its sim- 
 plicity, directness, spirituality and completeness. 
 He enlarges the list of communicants by reducing the 
 spiritual qualifications for the communion. He makes 
 the narrow gate wider ; invites a condition of mind 
 which the Lord invites not. The middle wall of 
 partition between the church and the world is broken 
 down, the more to please the world, the more to en- 
 large the church. Such compliances we have no 
 right to make. They spring out of unbelief. They 
 poison the life of the church. If men will not en- 
 dure sound doctrine we cannot help it, we have no 
 unsound to give. If the ground will not receive the 
 good seed given us to sow, we cannot mend the mat- 
 ter by sowing bad seed. To the end of the world, 
 come what may, that seed and that only must we 
 sow, " God (that giveth the seed) giveth the in- 
 crease," and will give it. Our strength is to believe. 
 But to preach Christ is not only " a work of faith/' 
 it is " a labor of love." I will not say that no man 
 can do it in a certain sense, that is, with doctrinal 
 correctness, without the love of Christ in his heart ; 
 for St. Paul speaks of some in his day who preached 
 Christ, "even of envy and strife, not sincerely/' 
 
70 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 from selfish and evil motives. I will not prolong this 
 discourse in enlarging on the elementary truth that 
 without a personal experience of the preciousness of 
 Christ to our own souls, by each one's individual par- 
 ticipation in the hope that rests on his justifying 
 righteousness, and is witnessed by the sanctifying 
 power of His Spirit dwelling in us, we cannot preach 
 Christ, according to his will, in his mind, in the ten- 
 derness and earnestness and patience and godly wis- 
 dom which alone become our office, however correct 
 our teaching in a mere doctrinal aspect. What I wish, 
 in these concluding words to insist on is, the import- 
 ance of a very earnest, tender and overcoming love, to 
 give spirituality to our theology, and the mind of 
 Christ to our teachings concerning him. Two preach- 
 ers, alike in accurate and full statement of all that 
 is revealed concerning our blessed Lord and his 
 salvation, may be very different in the spiritual 
 power of their ministry, and the difference will not 
 depend so much on the superiority of talent or of 
 eloquence, or even of diligence in one over the other, 
 as on their comparison in point of love. He will 
 preach best who loves most. His preaching will go 
 most to the heart, and will be attended with most 
 
THE WOEK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 71 
 
 of " the demonstration of the Spirit/' who, in all he 
 says and does, is most constrained by the love of 
 Christ, dictating, animating, sanctifying, with the ten- 
 derness and patient earnestness of his Masters 7 mind, 
 his whole discourse. Oh, brethren, that we were 
 more earnest to grow in this grace ! What ought 
 we to value in personal attainment, compared with 
 it ? If your ministry fail in spiritual efficacy, inquire 
 into the cause by searching the state of your hearts 
 in regard to the love of Christ therein, to what 
 extent the aim, the zeal, the topics, the temper of 
 your work, and the whole character of your personal 
 example are under the dominion of that love. 
 
 But I have already occupied too much of your 
 time, and yet I feel that I have come very far short 
 of the height and breadth of what I have sought to 
 exhibit. " We have this treasure in earthen vessels, 
 that the excellency of the gower may be of God and 
 not of us. 7 ' Blessed be God, that in our weakness we 
 have His power to lean on. I humbly pray that 
 power of God to bless to you, dear brethren, what in 
 so much weakness and imperfectness and unworthi- 
 ness I have now addressed to you. Nothing in this 
 world could I rejoice in so much as to be instrumental, 
 
72 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 
 
 under God's grace, in promoting the spiritual excel- 
 lency and efficacy of your work and your personal 
 growth in the faith and love of Christ. The time 
 is at hand when nothing else will seem of the small- 
 est value. I commend you to God and the word of 
 His grace which is able to build you up and make 
 you good stewards of the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ. " The God of peace who brought again 
 from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd 
 of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant, make you perfect in every good work 
 to do his will, working in you that which is well 
 pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom 
 be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Amen. 
 
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