Preaching under the impact of the Holy Spirit is the greatest power known among men. Nothing is so important to the church as kindled, consecrated personalities; men with spiritual perception, who not only understand the times but understand people, and who can enter into their problems, share their joys, their griefs, their victories; but most of all, men who know God and, having caught a new dimension of His love, can interpret Him to their own generation. To enable tearful eyes to read majestic meanings in disappointments, and at the same time to arrest the long thoughts of youth and turn them from the glittering camouflage of life to the reality of truth, beauty, and character —this is the task of a preacher.
Preaching was never easy, and woe to the man who tries to make it so. Of our Lord it was said, "His word was with power." The authoritative note in our Lord's preaching did not come from books of sermons written by other men but from years of thoughtful meditation, and hours, even whole nights, of prayer before He uttered His messages. Authority comes from conviction. The preacher himself must be fully persuaded if he would persuade men. Only one who knows can make other men know.
"What shall I preach?" asked John Wesley. Bohler's reply is arresting. "Preach faith until you have faith and then because you have it, you will preach faith." At first glance this answer appears as an exhortation to hypocrisy. It is not. On the contrary it reveals a deep insight into the human heart, something which Wesley himself discovered just one month later. When his heart caught on fire, his word was with power. And what miracles of grace accompanied his message!
Before that night in Aldersgate, London, "Wesley had no intellectual difficulty in respect to the faith he was preaching; none at all apparently." But he could not preach with power until his theology became an inward personal experience.
Fellowship With the Father
Present-day preaching faces this dilemma, that the pulpit is too often vexed by misgivings and lack of certainty, and the consequence is that the gospel becomes an apology instead of an apostolate. To deal with the vital questions of life one must know not only the answers but the Answerer Himself.
Eloquence, charm, homiletic artistry, while all good in themselves, can never atone for the lack or loss of that vital inward experience we call spiritual reality. All great preachers have been possessed by that reality. Bushnell one night leaped out of bed, caught up in a great joy, crying, "I have found it. I have found the gospel!" He had passed beyond partial glimpses and doubts and had come into the clear sense of a divine nearness. He had changed from mere belief to active faith, from the acceptance of just a proposition to a fellowship with the Father and the Friend of sinners.
An understanding of the importance of the preacher and his preaching led the Columbia Union executive committee and the Washington Missionary College Department of Religion to inaugurate something new in Adventism—a lectureship on preaching. This was held from May 12 to 16. It was to be a study of expository rather than evangelistic preaching. H. M. S. Richards, an alumnus of the college class of 1919, was chosen to deliver this first of an annual series of lectures to be known as the H. M. S. Richards Lectureship or Preaching. This gathering of ministers from the field and students from the Washington Missionary College and the Seminary promises to be one of the most effectual means of lifting the standards of Adventist preaching in this area. What was presented during those nine seventy-five-minute lectures will appear in published form and will be available to our preachers the world around. No man is better known to our Adventist workers than our beloved Brother Richards. A man of great convictions and deep spiritual insight, he has given more than forty years to the preaching of the gospel of Christ in the setting of the Advent message. Some declare that no single voice in our generation has been heard by as many people during the past three decades as the well-known voice of the Voice of Prophecy program. And yet with all the demands of radio and evangelistic sermons this preacher takes time to live with great books, needy people, and best of all, with God.
We are happy to feature his lectureship in this issue of THE MINISTRY. We wish every preacher in the denomination could have shared in the excellent material given during those intensive days. But it will be made available to you within the next few months. Watch for further announcements. The probable title of the book will be Feed My Sheep.
"I regret that I cannot turn the clock back twenty years," said Brother Richards as he came to the close of his lectures. "But that being impossible, I pray that what I have endeavored to say will inspire you young men to do exploits for God."
Others of us can express the same regret. We live in the greatest hour of history. And the greatest preachers in the Advent cause have yet to be heard. No generation ever faced such high responsibility or so wonderful an opportunity.
