Evangelism's greatest hour has struck. The church's supreme opportunity is here. "This is your hour," declared the Master as He faced the murderous mob in the garden. It was ; but it was also His hour. Everything in His life had been shaping toward that supreme hour. Many times before, His enemies had sought to take Him, but "His hour had not yet come." Now it had arrived. But it was not of His hour that He was speaking when' He addressed the leaders of the nation that had rejected Him. It was their hour, but His hour and their hour synchronized. To them it was an hour of judgment ; to Him, an hour of glory. The momentary eclipse of the cross only made more glorious His triumph over the power of darkness. A few weeks later the infant church, baptized by His Spirit, marched forth in conquest under the commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach."
World evangelism challenged those first Christian preachers. The Spirit of God, withdrawn from the Jewish nation, came in Pentecostal power on the early church. The prophetic clock was tolling a birth hour in the life of humanity. It was a pivotal point of history.
Another such hour has struck—an hour when the power of darkness is gripping not one nation only, but a world. But it is an hour of glory for the church. And like the apostles', ours is a program of world evangelism. In such an hour we have been called to preach, and to preach the demonstration of the Spirit. The church was built by preaching. Jesus came preaching. He sent the apostles forth preaching. It was Spirit-filled preaching in the sixteenth century that moved the world for God, and led the church back to Christ.
A preacher does more than speak about God, he speaks for God. His work is not merely to inform, but to transform. That is the great difference between a sermon and a lecture. A real sermon is made and delivered in the Holy Ghost. The preacher must be more than one who possesses the message ; he must be possessed by the message. It was this prophetic element in their preaching that accounted for the apostolic power. "We preach Christ," the apostles cried. They were not merely lecturing about Him; they were preaching Him. And more; they were preaching "Christ crucified," for the mighty facts of His death and resurrection became the background of the spiritual unction so real in their ministry. Only as Christ possesses men can they become truly dynamic. To quote Beecher.: "The preacher in some degree is a reproduction of the truth in personal form." If that is true—and we add to that the fact that this message is the greatest men have ever been called to proclaim—then the heralds of the advent message should be among the greatest preachers of all time. We should be satisfied with nothing less than that.
In "Counsels to Teachers" we read, "When the laborer stands before the people to hold forth the words of life, there is heard in his voice the echo of the voice of Christ."—Page 509. What a responsibility ! Do our congregations always hear the voice of Christ in our sermons ? "I am the voice of one crying," declared the Baptist, as he challenged the multitudes in the wilderness. He was indeed the voice of One.
Preacher to Be an Echo of Christ
To be the echo of His pleading voice—the voice of the Saviour of men—is indeed a sobering privilege. The Master's voice was authoritative, but not authoritarian ; sympathetic, but not sentimental. "Never man spake as this Man," declared the temple officers who were sent to arrest Him.
Viewed as an excuse for dereliction of duty, their answer seems almost humorous ; but it was true. They came to arrest Him; He arrested them. They came to stop Him; He stopped them. It was not mere information He was giving. Rather He was giving Himself, for He was the embodiment of the truth He taught. No wonder men listened. No wonder they were gripped and held. What flowed from Him in parable and precept is still the wonder of the world. We read :
"He [the Saviour] knew how to speak a word in season to him that is weary ; for grace was poured upon His lips that He might convey to men in the most attractive way the treasures of truth. . . . His tender compassion fell with a touch of healing upon weary and troubled hearts. . . . Had it not been for the sweet, sympathetic spirit that shone out in every look and word, He 'would not have attracted the large congregations He did."—"The Desire of Ages," p. 254.
Is there not something strangely challenging in these descriptive words ? On the same page we are told that the Saviour's "love expressed in look and tone, drew to Him all who were not hardened in unbelief." He held His hearers by His love more than by His arguments.
Not only what He said, but how He said it, made Him the greatest teacher of all time. And we are to be the echo of His voice. As heralds of the advent message, we are to win many in the same way that He did. There may be sad and weary hearts all around us whose spirits have been broken, whose hopes have been blasted, who do not respond to His love, simply because they have not heard the echo of His voice as we have spoken to them.
If we would woo and win men for Christ, we must have the sympathetic voice of love. "Let the pathos of your voice, its deep feeling, make its impression on hearts."—"Counsels to Teachers," pp. 253, 254. "Use what language you will," says Emerson, "you will never say anything but what you are." "God . . . called me by His grace," declares the great apostle, "to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen." Gal. I 15, 16. Only as His grace is revealed in us, can we truly preach Him. Only a crucified life can preach a crucified Christ.
Evangelism is lifting men out of the sea of sin and establishing them upon the Rock of Ages. To preach the unsearchable riches of Christ in such a way as to cause men to see the fellowship of the mystery of God—that is evangelism. Ours is the task of taking men's ears and turning them into eyes. Such a work calls for everything there is in us. As a spiritual surgeon, the preacher is called to the -delicate work of removing the cataracts of sin from eyes blinded by the god of this world. To do that, one must be more than a mere lecturer on political issues. He must be more than a mere informant in the realms of religion. The evangelist of the advent message must be a specialist in his field. To be a voice for God in this birth hour of humanity is truly a high calling, and it corresponds largely with the position of a prophet of the old dispensation who was known as "the man of the Spirit," "the messenger of Jehovah," "the man of God," or "the interpreter."
Surely this is an hour when men need Spirit-guided interpreters—men who can do more than deliver a series of lectures about the truth. It is an hour that calls for larger thinking and clearer perceptions. Certain subjects, such as capital and labor, which were important half a century ago, may have little meaning for today, unless we can see that the scene has enlarged. The actors have emerged from the local factory or community, and the issue is now assuming the proportions of a gigantic world struggle.
National and international problems take on entirely new aspects under the quickly changing kaleidoscope of present events, and we must be swift to discern trends and interpret their meaning. To preach, for 'instance, on such great themes as Judaism or the Papacy, but under the guise of orthodoxy, to pose as one who "stands by the old landmarks"—merely delivering a "lecture" in the same way, using perhaps the same phraseology and even the same advertising as might have suited the case a quarter of a century ago—not only reveals an unpardonable ignorance of current history, but it is also the evidence that such a one is not truly an interpreter. "We are to keep abreast of the times, bearing a clear, intelligent testimony guided by the unction of the Holy Spirit."—Mrs. E. G. White, Manuscript 31, igo6. In the same counsel we are told that the "teachers of truth are to grapple with great themes," and "not to occupy precious time in talking of trifling subjects."
This is the hour of darkness for the world. It is the hour of opportunity for the church—an hour when the advent messengers, baptized with the Spirit of God, are to arise and shine with a glory unknown perhaps since apostolic days. "This is your hour." And the need of the hour is not primarily for evangelistic methods, but for evangelistic men—men with an evangelistic concept and evangelistic confidence ; men with evangelistic courage and evangelistic consecration. Only such men can contribute to the evangelistic conquest.
R. A. A.
