The Power of the Word

During the Christian centuries the Christian ministry has been subjected to the persistent temptation to substi­tute other things in place of the Word of God in its preaching. This temptation to make the Word subordinate to other things is as strong now as it was at any former time, if not stronger.

It is of momentous importance for us to rec­ognize that the Christian pulpit and the Chris­tian church have never been such powerful forces for good in the world, and have never advanced so energetically and successfully the great purposes of God, as when they have kept most closely to the function of expounding and proclaiming the majestic truths of the Word of God. When Christianity has been at its best it has always been marked by powerful Biblical preaching. It was so marked at its beginning. The apostles were Bible preachers. The Word of God was central in all their labors. And, as a significant result, the truth of the gospel was carried into all the world.

Then other things crowded the Bible from its place of centrality in preaching, and the great apostasy followed. The result was a millennium and more of darkness and the grossest super­stition—and the loss of millions of souls.

It was a revival of Biblical preaching which brought about the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers preached the Bible. To them it mat­tered little what the pope said, and less what the ante- and post-Nicene fathers said. But it mattered much what the Bible said. Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin presented the ablest, soundest, clearest expositions of the Bible that had been known for a thousand years. The other Reformers worked in the same way.

The Reformation waned only as the Bible was again pushed aside. It recovered its power only as the Bible was restored to its rightful place.

It was Bible preaching that characterized and gave power to the Second Advent Movement when it began, and that spread it with such impressive force around the world. It is Bible preaching that has enlarged our movement, built our churches and institutions, and re­sulted in our success. It is Bible preaching, en­ergized by the divine Spirit, that will culminate in the triumph of the threefold message and the glorious appearing of our Saviour.

Having mingled with our ministry for more than a half century, I have not failed to ob­serve that some have gained a conviction that the scope of the pulpit is too narrow. If this means that the Bible alone in preaching is not sufficient to do what God has designed it to do, and something needs to be added to it, or substituted for it, then such a conviction is filled with positive danger. If it means that preachers ought to give up preaching the old doctrines of the message forthrightly from the Bible, and turn the pulpit into a kind of pop­ular platform, from which everything interest­ing in science, exciting in politics, beautiful in art, spectacular in current events, theatrical in presentation, and even amusing in light liter­ature ought to be freely dispensed, then I have no hesitation in saying that our mission in the world is headed for disaster and ruin.

I do not mean to decry the use of anything that can be properly used to make plain the Word of God. I do mean most positively to dis­courage anything, of whatever nature, that takes the place of the Word of God.

The Bible is old, but it has not grown feeble and weak. Its power grows as the years go by. Kingdoms perish, but it remains. Its words are spirit and life. How different that is from every human product! Milton's Paradise Lost is po­etry. Shakespeare's writings are drama and trag­edy. Cicero's writings are eloquence. But Christ's Word is LIFE. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).

Let me show you the difference between preaching centered in the Word of God and preaching that manipulates all things to center in the preacher. Some years ago I attended a meeting conducted by a well-known evangelist among us who had achieved an outstanding reputation, and whom many of our younger workers were consulting for suggestions to im­prove their own ministry. Some were even copy­ing this man's methods of presentation and manner of working. I had been out of the country for five years in mission work. Reports of a varied nature had come to me concerning this worker, who was looked upon as a success­ful winner of souls; and his methods which were certainly innovations among us, were the subject of much discussion, some of it approv­ing and some of it otherwise.

Eager to get a firsthand acquaintance with this man and his work, I attended one of his meetings. His specially built tabernacle was well lighted and decorated. On the platform were papier-mâché beasts, with horns, multiple heads, wings, and cruel-looking claws and feet, horrible and fantastic things, which neverthe­less drew all eyes and created much conversa­tion. On the rafters above the platform were many lights, and at each side of the platform two spotlights centered on the preacher.

On the singing of a theme song the preacher entered, and certainly attracted attention. Everything had apparently been done with that in mind. He was dressed in spotless white—white tie, white socks, white shoes, and the Bible he carried was bound in white. A woman back of me exclaimed breathlessly to her companion, "Isn't he a honeyt"—which was the effect ap­parently intended. And I had to agree. He was indeed "a honey." His words were little no­ticed, but no one could remove his eyes from the speaker. I neglected to listen, but I cer­tainly looked. It was an impressive perform­ance, and held me spellbound. When I returned to my hotel room and endeavored to recall what he may have read from the Bible, for the life of me I could not remember whether he had opened that beautiful white Bible at all. The lasting impression that stayed in my mind was the man, not the Word.

As I traveled about the country for some months after that I ran into a considerable number of white suits and spotlights. They broke out like an epidemic everywhere. And the epidemic ran its course, as epidemics do, and then subsided.

I mention this experience only because I de­sire to contrast it with another that took place a little more than a third of a century ago. For a number of years I had been hearing reports about the ministry of a great British expositor, G. Campbell Morgan, pastor of London's West­minster Chapel. The things I heard about this man greatly intrigued me. In his younger days he had been rejected for ordination because of the poor quality of his preaching. It was considered that he would be unable ever to qualify for or measure up to the requirements of a preacher. He had been unable to obtain a formal theological or seminary training. Not­withstanding this, he gained a great following, was finally ordained, and as pastor of the world-famous Westminster Chapel in London his ex­pository skill drew enormous crowds for a third of a century. He became known in the English-speaking world as "the prince of expositors."

Among the things I learned about this man that impressed me favorably was that he was the father of four sons, all of whom followed in their father's steps and entered the Christian ministry. You can readily understand that when I learned Dr. Morgan was coming to New York to carry on a two weeks' series of studies, I was delighted. At the first meeting, which was on Monday night, there were twenty-five hundred people present.

The pastor of the church and Dr. Morgan came in quietly and seated themselves. I sub­jected the famous preacher to a close scrutiny. I never saw a more unprepossessing man in the pulpit. He was tall, lanky, awkward; his cloth­ing was plain; and there was not a conspicuous thing on or about him.

He walked to the pulpit, opened the Bible, and in a pleasing voice, but entirely without any dramatic effect, read the Scripture passage, and immediately began to explain it. After­ward I was glad I had taken occasion to exam­ine him before he began speaking, for I never saw him again during that whole hour. I could not get my mind on anything else but the ut­terly absorbing and entrancing meanings he was bringing out of the treasure house of the Word of God. It became one of the most thrilling hours of my life. I had never before known anything like it. And it was repeated nightly for two whole weeks.