In the construction and delivery of sermons there is a superior and successful way, as well as a poor and inefficient way. Of course every young man in the ministry has an earnest desire to become successful and efficient in the desk. Most of our young evangelists today have had an acceptable training in our colleges, which gives them a certain advantage over those who were deprived of such training in years past. But whatever our past opportunities, we should all be alert to adopt every valuable suggestion and legitimate method calculated to improve our public presentations.
It takes prayerful meditation and real intellectual effort to create a worth-while sermon. I have known men to pride themselves on the fact that they could decide upon a text as they entered the rostrum, and deliver a discourse extemporaneously. Doubtless the preacher got more satisfaction than anyone else from such a sermon. It is true that some men are able to express some excellent thoughts in a rambling way without careful, systematic preparation. And a few hearers, whose minds have not been trained to logical, consecutive thinking, may derive about as much benefit from such a talk as from a well-prepared discourse. But others may not only obtain little benefit, but may receive positive harm from an aimless, haphazard talk. They are likely to lose respect, not only for the speaker who entertains such low ideals of his mission, but for the ministry as a whole.
Some of the best known and most successful ministers of the past have been very careful in the preparation of their sermons. Among the recognized examples of careful preparation might be named Charles G. Finney, Alexander Maclaren, Andrew Murray, and A. T. Pierson. Perhaps as an outstanding constructor of logical, constructive, soul-winning sermons, Mr. Finney had no superior. Having been trained for the legal profession, in which he was practicing when he was converted at the age of twenty-nine, he turned all the powers of his keen intellect into the channel of a clear, forceful presentation of the gospel. His discourses show the careful preparation of a lawyer's brief in their mastery of the subject, their irresistible logic, and their compelling climax.
At the same time they are intensely spiritual, and are often filled with simple, practical illustrations which make them highly interesting. God blessed his efforts wonderfully in preaching to large groups of lawyers, and his preaching of the perpetual obligation of the moral law could hardly be surpassed.
He thus describes his method in dealing with lawyers:
"I shaped my lectures from evening to evening, with the design to convince the lawyers that, if the Bible was not true, there was no hope for them. I endeavored to show that they could not infer that God would forgive them because He was good, for His goodness might prevent His forgiving them. It might not on the whole be wise and good to pardon such a world of sinners as we know ourselves to be; that left without the Bible to throw light upon that question, it was impossible for human reason to come to the conclusion that sinners could be saved. Admitting that God was infinitely benevolent, we could not infer from that, that any sinner could be forgiven; but must infer from it, on the contrary, that impenitent sinners could not be forgiven. I endeavored to clear the way so as to shut them up to the Bible as revealing the only rational way in which they could expect salvation...
"I continued to press this point upon their attention, until I felt that they were effectually shut up to Christ, and the revelations made in the gospel, as their only hope. But as yet, I had not presented Christ, but left them shut up under the law, condemned by their own consciences, and sentenced to eternal death. This, as I expected, effectually prepared the way for a cordial reception of the blessed gospel. When I came to bring out the gospel as revealing the only possible or conceivable way of salvation for sinners, they gave way, as they had done under a former course of lectures, in former years. They began to break down, and a large proportion of them were hopefully converted."—"Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney," pp. 436, 437.
While we might not all agree in the exact method followed by Mr. Finney, we cannot deny that God greatly blessed his ministry, for it was estimated that some hundreds of thousands of people were converted in the revivals of which he was, under God, the chief promoter. It is evident that the principle upon which he worked was correct, for careful examination shows that the preaching of the truths represented by Sinai and Calvary has formed the basis of all the genuine revivals of religion since the Reformation.
(To be continued)
