SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15269, 5 April 1913, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE GOSPEL IN THE PULPIT. | Br EEV. ■'THOMAS WBITEtAW. MX, : fOK , |i Is not the Gospel always in the pulpit? >fc SJ may bo asked. The answer vt, it oartainly .|| ought to be. Fifty years ago almost uni- |w rereally, or, at least, pretty generally, it J 8 was. But during tho last quarter of a cen- « tury a considerable change has coma over y the British pulpit in respect to its attitude i towards the Gospel First, ita reaotiOD,. «K || apparently, against what some considered (~ an over insistence on evangelical doctrine, I > it took to substituting what was called ethi. i eal preaching, as it the etrongest ethical - 3 force in the world waa not "The grace of. M « God which bringeth salvation." Next, - m when ethical preaching inevitably degenejs , p ated into teaching salvation by work 3 and It merit, instead of through faith and grace fc it {»•«•» the pulpit) gradually lost. sighY of. ti the sublime spiritual realities of tho King- I dom of God, and began to tJunk its mission '. ma was to cot up that Kingddin on earth an'! g in time only, instead of also and hereafter in Heaven. As a discourses jjj ' on politics and social reform, science and 1 philosophy, literature and higher criticism, became tho vogue, as if those were the best § § instruments for establishing God's Kingdom amongst men, which they are not, but , I only the truth as it is in .feus is. Than presently, aa it is in this day, the pulpit has in many instances (not in all, it must be thankfully acknowledged) betaken itself to concerts, sensational lectures,; and ovcr ntagio lanterns, in the hope of securing : ; ? hearers, which it Manifestly has a difficulty fl in doing. And no wonder! Earnest Oliruri;lans leave pulpits whioh resort to devices: and oven neoplo of the unscriptual world are not permanently attracted "by them, knowmtf well that pulpits of that descnp-/ ,: J tton are not tlio genuine article, .But now, why shotild the Gospol b* in tho pulpit r j I. 1. Because Christ put it there. ' r '.4!llj| The pulpit, it should be raniombered, is not of .man'a but. of Ghmfa When- He ascended ■■ high, ; He' : eorna to : bo apokles'nnd prophets, teachers, and eeangelista for the work of-ftSl the ministry for tho edifying of Hia the Church, and to these He gave a commandment to "go unto all the world. £ and preach, the;Gospol to ©very; creature," —not to speculate, philosophise, or tiieoriifsffiS lse,. bat to preach, to talk in simple bo as to be nndorstanded by people of small and little learning, not about thesMg discoveries of science, the systems of phi-{||l|« losophers, the beauties of literature, or even the ereedsof thcologians"*and fir less about: ,•;. the :j" myths/' u" legends," "errors".pf the Bible, but about the ;Graas3|§ll Mystery of Godliness, Godmanifest..in ; -tne€ll§|s flesh, surely the most sensatkmal: event has, yet in the historyof. the Or of tho universe. " * "^^P"B Paul;; the most imperial intellect iMiwWmm I ever entered a pnlpit, understood I 'his specific business vrasto " jaSoaeh Christ and Him; crucified,.: and that- ;: tlje|sli|» : business; of aH,who should come after hiatW#»«; asrhinifiters of Ghrist was, "as be-'told :; friend Timothy, to "pieach chaSj^^l -One may, therefore, tie- excused denng how; any person could propose to enter a pulpit as an for Christ except for the purpose of doing what Christ said should be done, publish- | ,|ng tho, good news of salvation; and still ihora for marvelling how any person -al* V; ready in a pulpit can justify himself for " putting Christ's Gespei out of tha pufpic t and taking the world'a gospel into U—au f t excellent and valuable gospel the workr* & may bo in ita own time and place, but as- . •:, suredly not entitled to supplant Christ's > | Gospel m a .Christian pulpit! h The Gospel should be in the pulpit- ' V 9 . 2. Baeauso it is what tho world neeck i" \ do not say wants or likes, because tho wond ',- does not always know its deepest nc-otb, • and commonly dislikes what it most ' ?$* ' >\ quires. , - ' % Ic may need all tho tilings alrccdy nw }>. tioned as included in the world's gospol - ,^i for-its temporal and material comfort, and ■ sj the Gospol does not frown on a diligent [" pursuit of these. Only, it does not say-tI»V--B-l-p theso are 'absolutely essential things, os tiia " : greatest things, or the hrsi things,■/«■;■ that msn_ might not be able to occomplirh th?i? destiny and servo their generation by t"«* -- -. will or God without these ■■things; but i% does say that the things which are and eternal are indispensable to man's h&y-. ■■ \ plness hereafter, and contribute more <■ all other things to his welffare lioro. Hence the supreme folly, as well as tho extreme culpability, of Christian ministers t departing from the -simplicity of/ the Gos^ pel, whether to display their own loarnmsr -' . \; or to gratify tho intellectual tastes of their - fj So lonjr as the world .is a lost ", p ( world,'in danger of perishing, _ss CiirisS • ■ declared it to bo, it is criminal in the last ,• . |! ~ degree to withhold from it tie bread and ;,; {;' water of life, the glad tidings of salvation | though, the r incarnation, death, and rcsur- Xi i rection of the Soniof God. •■"■'.*■' ' f\ '. "' - ■■}■ lIL ; :>^ll| The Gospel shoidd be in the pulpit— s ;| 3. JBooauso it has been the chief instro- -'•' ment in bringing both the Church and ili* t ,;| world to their respective states of advanw- , & ment. Any one conversant with the | tory..of the Church knows that what ass sustained it through tho couturios and ex-tended-it through tho earth has been, nndor God, not the preaching of science or.philosophy, literature or art, either anci. 1 *- } or modern, but the preaching of the storyi|M;kS of the Cross. It was not tho world's Gospoi,.'but Christ's, that" converted 2000. persona., on tho-dav of Pentecost. Not a single re--vival of religion has taken place in iho_ Church or tho world that had. not its mo.' • tivo power, under tho Spirit,. m the «tory of Him who, though be knew no sin, «gfc ; made sin for us. When the,.preaching - politics or social science, literature, poctty, or higher criticism pauses men to cry o^-^pl ■ " What must I do to be saved? .»*'w".g'Qm[ timo enough to substitute them for Uw . i Gospel, which is the power of God «n!3Sg|§| salvation to everyone that behevetb. . i eohversions are not: taking place tf'] \. churches of tho land, as is undeniable, msj- ; not tho reason be the absence pit of that old but over new evangel? AiiJ, , • of course, what is true, of tho Church .< home is true of it also It is only .- the story of tho Crucified that wdl maitt tho cast away their superstit) " and tuVti to serve the living God. ai diffusion of Western civilisation may cam» i idolators to forsake their , divinities; only the reception of Ch~ • Himself'will transform them into chiia. - of God. .',.,,. i - It is hardly necessary to add that *«»- Gospel has been boiioye r factor in civilising humanity. When ChwE|-: eamo, a new era of bopo anc; progr." « 'opened for mankind, and ever . ) •vvorldhas been advancing toward j tnc goWN] ■ a <w when : wars . ! sbttll^ceftse } reign,■'.and' Chrisl's kingdom ahall cover tt* :. . ifwilfe