As fundamentalists Seventh-day Adventist ministers can cultivate no greater nor more rewarding pulpit grace than to become expert in the handling of God's Word. What greater or more rewarding honor can be given a pulpit speaker than to have it said that he divides the Word with great acceptability.
Never must it be said of our faithful preachers, as a devout little lady from a contemporary church said of her esteemed pastor, "He reads the text; he leaves the text; and he never goes back to it." Ours must be the presentation that leaves the hearer with a deeper knowledge of the Word of Life and a greater grasp of the plan of salvation and the abiding Christ, else we fan the air, and fail to lead the flock by quiet waters and in green pastures of God's own preparing. It is imperative that we ever make the Scriptures the very keystone of our preaching, "line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little."
Consider the pioneers of our message, what mighty men-of-the-Book they were. And how breathtaking was the fruitage of their preaching and labors. They knew the Bible and from it they hurled the lightnings of God's warnings and reproofs, made known the pathos of His pleadings to wayward sinners, and drew expository lessons from the great passages of the Holy Oracles. Have these giants ever been matched in effective preaching and in fruitful handling of God's Word? They drew little from philosophical writers, from deep scientific sources, or from theologians of the day, which sometimes becloud and confuse the doctrines of the Bible. No, they preached the Word with power and simplicity. Take the veteran of tabernacle preaching, Elder J. N. Loughborough. People who hung on his word at camp meeting seasons were often heard to say, "He knows his subject as no man living in our denomination." And he would preach on Christ's second coming, a subject he loved and thoroughly believed, and which he had perhaps presented to the listening Conference public a thousand times. Yes, he knew the Book.
Versatile Preaching
Versatility in preaching from the Bible is a great asset. Sometimes when a minister leaves his charge, some from his flock are heard to remark, "He was not so versatile as we wished he had been. He harped too much on the same things." Why do we do it when there is such a wealth of material in the Scriptures to choose from, and a veritable mountain of subjects from which to select our homilies? It must never be said of us that we are indolent preachers, never tapping the resources of Holy Writ. We should not weary in reviewing the great doctrines in Sabbath preaching. Some of our listeners are only half posted on great fundamental truths, and may be in grave danger of being shaken out of the message. Search out great chapters, such as Isaiah 1, 55, and 58, and present them verse by verse in an expository way. There is room for this in every faithful minister's repertoire of sermons. Also study James 2, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 13, and many others. Develop gripping series of studies on the twelve tribes of Israel and the sanctuary in type and antitype, experiences of ancient Israel as applying to our times, the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, the seven walks of Ephesians, practical Christianity with the apostle James, Peter and the Second Advent, the seven churches, seven trumpets, seven seals. To present a carefully prepared series builds attendance as few other procedures will.
Remembering that we are counseled to "mine the Word of God as for hidden treasure," our efforts in fortifying ourselves in the Bible should be relentless and tireless. Guided reading brings soul-satisfying results, far ahead of simply bulk reading, although the latter has its place. We must learn to become familiar with dependable Bible commentaries, placing our own denominational one at the head of the list. Search for those hidden shades of meaning that can so enlighten one's preaching, and, to use a rather hackneyed but clear terminology in ministerial parlance, "put meat on the bone." A great backdrop of valuable material presented with any subject not only sheds light on the topic but makes for colorful preaching. And how the pulpits do need more colorful preaching these days! Adventist preachers have an almost inexhaustible resource of background material as found in the Spirit of Prophecy books. There is nothing quite like them. And drawing from them copiously is bound to give our preaching weight, depth, and scope if we but search for those hidden gems in connection with our presentations of the precious Word of God.
Prophetic Preaching
Ancient and secular history often are called the "handmaiden of prophetic preaching." How imperative it is that God's pulpit speakers strengthen their hand by a profound mastery of all lines of history, so they can move freely among those great passages and presentations that lose their message unless presented in the light of fulfilled or fulfilling Bible prophecy. It is refreshing to find in God's servants who preach, a real familiarity with history and historical works, a mastery of important dates without seeming shallow and superficial, with a real knowledge of authors of world note. It is an honor to have read and studied Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire two or three times, with salient passages heavily underscored. Such a minister will have backgrounds that are sure to make him an authority on the great prophecies of the Bible, which are the backbone of our message. Let us never forget that in being a people of prophecy, we should be superb handlers of Bible prophecy.
Background Knowledge
The Bible abounds with sublime poetry —the songs of Moses, the psalms of David, and the poetic flight of the brilliant prophet Isaiah, and the superlative languages of the entire book of Job. Why not steep oneself in the many beautiful passages of literature of our times, remembering that the English language has the most exalted literature in all the world? Not only does the reading and the study of great poetry improve one's diction but it can lend strength and verve to a sermon if rightly used and not abused. If we preach on good King Hezekiah's life, our sermon will be intensely strengthened and garnished if we read Lord Byron's great little poem "The Destruction of Sennacherib," resulting from Hezekiah's faith in his God. But we have to be conversant with such passages in literature in order to find and use them. If we speak on "The Rainbow Around the Throne" in Revelation 4, using Words-worth's verses on "My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky" will greatly enhance the subject of the sermon. Once they said to Talmadge, who was the most eloquent preacher living, "How do you feed your great eloquence? What are your sources?" "Gentlemen," was his reply, "I steep my soul in reading great literature that the Bible would approve of." A notable answer, and worthy of real consideration by every minister wishing to improve his diction. Of course, none of this must be overdone, but be judiciously and reasonably used.
One has paraphrased a great Bible passage thuswise: 'Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might preach as a dying man to dying men." Preaching is solemn and serious business, and we should not forget it. In a great cathedral of Europe there is a statute of an angel right below the pulpit, with a tablet and a pen upraised as if recording every word of the messenger of God that day. If this were visible each time we preached, what dividers of the Word we would become!
