"They . . . Went Every Where Preaching

The rapid expansion of the apostolic church can be readily understood when one looks over its roster of preachers. Any conference, no matter how poor in ma­terial resources, would grow in numbers with such preachers as Peter, Stephen, Philip, Apol­los, Barnabas and Paul in its ranks. It was be­cause these men were mighty preachers of the Word that "a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord." On one occasion "Philip was found at Azotus : and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea." If you will study a map of Pales­tine, you will realize how much territory this preaching itinerary took in. You will then un­derstand why the churches multiplied, and why whole towns and regions as "Lydda and Saron . . . turned to the Lord." Their aston­ishing success in adding converts to the church can only be explained in that they "went everywhere preaching the word."

Had the apostolic church been content to tie up its preachers in supervising the sewing cir­cles and financial drives of their day, the book of Acts would never have been written. All such works of mercy had to be done in their day, as in ours, but the chief business of the apostolic ministry was to preach the Word and raise up churches. It was their steadfast ad­herence to this ideal and objective which In­spiration described as a church that "went forth conquering, and to conquer."

When this divinely appointed objective was lost sight of, and men began to look upon ec­clesiastical rank as the goal of the Christian ministry ; when preachers began vying with each other for position and supremacy ; when the church machinery became so involved that it was necessary to conduct long, tedious coun­cils to untangle the differences and misunder^­standings; when men forsook the preaching of the gospel to become guardians of vested reli­gious interests and divergent religious views, it was then that the church's spiritual condition deteriorated from white to red, to black, and, finally, to a fearful pale. The decline of the apostolic preaching ideal led to the rise of sacerdotalism, with its subsequent mumblings of the mass, religious chants, processionals, and rituals. The fearful result of this exchange of ideals led to a spiritual midnight of the world's history.

As ministers of the Lord, living in an age when we expect His imminent return, we need to restore the apostolic preaching ideal. We need to do this if we ever expect to raise up new companies of believers or add converts to those already organized. We need to do this if we expect to hold those already in the church. In fact, we need to restore this ideal if we ex­pect to survive as a conference, or as preach­ers, if we expect to remain preachers. The hour is here, my brethren, when the Sabbath morn­ing service should be the most anticipated serv­ice of the week. The time is here when the Sunday evening evangelistic service should draw men of all persuasions to hear an exposi­tion of God's Holy Word. It is for us to re­move the stigma attached to a preaching serv­ice in which the minister spends fifteen minutes making some soul-drying announcements, and then struggles through another thirty minutes with a series of notes prepared the night be­fore.

 It is not difficult for me to un­derstand why some men have risen among us who feel that the ritual should have a more prominent part in our Sabbath morning wor­ship hour. They would have us, take up the good part of the service chanting, humming, singing responses to all phases of the service, with the subsequent standing and bowing. Al­though the formal service has its place, and when rightly used is a means of grace, yet the extreme demands of its exponents may be an indication that the preaching ideal among us has declined. Let it be understood that when the supplementary phases of the Sabbath morn­ing service begin encroaching upon the time allotted to the exposition of the Holy Scrip­tures, and sincere yet mistaken men begin urg­ing this or that ritual in the service, it is largely because the preaching quality has de­clined. Can you imagine any such encroach­ments in the order of service with a Whitefield, Wesley, Spurgeon, or Finney as the preacher?

There is nothing in the church's order of service that can take the place of preaching. There is no power under heaven equal to the power of a Spirit-inspired sermon. Anthems, hymns, responsive readings, and prayers all have their place ; but all of them put together cannot take the place of the exposition of God's Word by a man whose life and mind have been energized by the Spirit of God. Therefore, it is not for us to enter into con­tention with those who would urge encroach­ments upon the divinely appointed preaching hour, but rather it is for us to take stock of ourselves and improve the quality of our preaching. When that is done men will be so impressed to improve their lives in harmony with the counsels, warnings, and appeals em­anating from the pulpit that they will have little disposition left to criticize the pulpit.

Above all things, it is expected that a preacher should know how to preach well. It is very easy to dismiss the whole matter by saying that "people should come to church to hear God and not man." That is very true. But many times the human instrument will so bun­gle His message that He is not heard. Our people are patient with our mistakes and short­comings, but they soon tire under our inability to preach. And why not? Would not we tire of the pretense of one claiming to be a carpen­ter who knew not how to put a house together?

Our people come to church on Sabbath to be strengthened for the trials and problems of the coming week. They desire to have their faith grounded in the teachings and doctrines of the Bible. They expect their children to be in­structed and admonished in such a winning, yet forceful way, that they will remain true to the message the remaining days of their lives. They would rather have a man with no degree attached to his name who can preach, than a man with two degrees who cannot preach. Though they respect experience and acknowledge its value, they would rather hear a man who can truly preach than listen to one who leans so heavily upon his notes of yester­day that he has lost the gift of presenting the truth in ways which lift and inspire.

What then can we do to restore the preaching ideal? What personal prepara­tion must ministers, both young and old, con­stantly engage in if they are to win and hold people to the truth?

There are many things which could be men­tioned, but with your permission I shall call at­tention to one prerequisite to the type of preaching that will win and hold people. That prerequisite is the prayerful and diligent study of the Bible. Concerning this I read:

"There is no need for weakness in the ministry. The message of truth that we bear is all-powerful. But many ministers do not put their minds to the task of studying the deep things of God. If these would have power in their service, obtaining an ex­perience that will enable them to help others, they must overcome their indolent habits of thought. . . My message to ministers, young and old, is this : Guard jealously your hours of prayer, Bible study, and self-examination. Set aside a portion of each day for a study of the Scriptures and communion with God. Thus you will obtain spiritual strength, and will grow in favor with God."---Gospel Workers, pp. 98-100.

Because we are nearly all mentally lazy we do not put the time and effort into our Bible study that we should. The average human being, whoever he is, shrinks from the task which requires close and continuous attention, and which lays a tax upon his mind. We as ministers are not lazier than other men, but laziness is more disastrous in our cause than in any other. Our sins in this respect are found out by the public every time we open our mouth^-s, and our shame is shouted from the housetops.

Therefore, if any minister among us is af­flicted unduly with germs of mental laziness, let him watch and pray, for no other man in God's work has better opportunities to waste his time. Most men go to work under bosses who hold a watch in their hands. The work­man who does not appear promptly is repri­manded and docked. The minister should also realize that he works under One who holds a watch in His hand. But both watch and Over­seer are invisible, and therefore are readily forgotten.

A minister can be intellectually lazy, and still. be so busy running errands, talking with people, and spending time inspecting the wheels and mending the belts of church machinery that he feels he is earning his salary. All this requires little mental effort, and that is why many men prefer to do it. If a man is to remain a preacher, he cannot fill up his days with the odds and ends of church administration, but must set himself to do honest and straightfor­ward thinking on spiritual themes.

The minister in his study should work as hard as the man digging ditches, or the hod carrier lifting mortar, or the farmer in the harvest field, or the mother in ordering of her household and in rearing of her children.Unless we are willing to work as hard, we have no right to stand in the pulpit on the Sabbath day, and, as a representative of Christ, tell His people how they ought to live. We need first to learn to live ourselves.