Every great day in the church has been a day of great preaching. Many things combine to make a preacher, but most of all he must have a sense of the supernatural, a sense of vocation, coupled with clear vision. Preaching is never easy, and woe to the man who tries to make it so. Real preaching costs something.
A few years ago King George V was about to speak from London. Millions in this country had tuned in listening for his voice. All at once one of the leading cables snapped in the New York studio. Harold Vivien, a junior mechanic, sensed the urgency of the situation and sprang forward. Grasping the ends of the broken cable, he held them as the full current of 250 volts passed through his body. Convulsed from head to foot, he suffered considerable pain, but did not relax his grasp until the king had concluded his message. He became the living link that made transmission possible. What an impressive symbol of the preacher in action! Grasping God's throne with one hand and taking hold of the people with the other, he permits the living word to come through unimpaired. Nor can we preach with power until our own personality is vitalized and vibrant with the voice of the king.
As children we sang:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
But nobody wonders today. Even tiny tots talk glibly about spacemen and spaceships. This thought is strikingly expressed in Mary Margaret Milbrath's poem "Child of the Age," which was quoted in the Watchman Examiner, from the Wall Street Journal.
His mind's a flying saucery,
His room's a satelloid,
His words are from a glossary
An Einstein would avoid.
He's quite adept in rocketry.
He knows the names of stars.
He's forsworn Davy Crockettry
To plan a trip to Mars.
He boldly deals in distancy.
Fine spacemanship's his mark,
With just one inconsistency—
He's frightened of the dark.
Significantly enough, man's experiments in outer .space have only added to the fear that grips much of the thinking of our scientifically conscious generation. Only the everlasting gospel can banish this fear from human hearts.
As preachers, we must learn how to proclaim God's message in the setting of this scientific age. We must bring men face to face with the reality of the living God.
Luther preached at the beginning of the age of discovery, the Wesleys at the beginning of the age of reform. The founders of the Advent message preached when industry was expanding. We preach when our knowledge of the universe itself is expanding.
Tremendous issues are before the world, issues that evangelists of other decades never dreamed of facing. To bring people from the market place into the holy place, and then at last into the "heavenly places in Christ Jesus," requires that we ourselves have such a vision. To do that we must center our gaze on horizons rather than local landscapes.
Every subject we present must be related to eternity past and eternity to come. As we contemplate the nature of God and the Trinity, the nature of man and the destruction of sin, and creationism, especially in the light of modern science, we will be led to give a new emphasis to these themes.
The Greek word thronos occurs 50 times in the Revelation, 13 times referring to the throne of Satan, and 37 times to the throne of God. This book reveals a battle between thrones. The last scenes are ushered in by the Judge of all the earth descending in majesty and power, crowned with many diadems. When David conquered the king of Ammon he took his crown. When the Prince of Wales emerged conqueror at the Battle of Cressy in 1346 he took the three-feathered crown of the king of Bohemia. Since then, by royal decree, this has been the emblem of England's crown prince. When Christ emerged from the greatest battle of all He stripped the glory from the prince of evil and, rising triumphant, carried in His hand the keys of the grim jailer. His sevenfold kingship is arresting: He is King of the Jews—racial; King of Israel—national; King of righteousness—spiritual; King of the ages—historical: King of saints—ecclesiastical; King of glory—supernal; and King of heaven—celestial.
Eschatology takes on new meaning when we study it in the light of the conquering Christ. The peoples of this sophisticated scientific age so soon to be arraigned before the conquering King of eternity, need to know Him as Saviour and Lord. This calls for clear thinking and powerful preaching.
R. A. A.
