“The Four Methods of Preaching.
“He beheld,” he said, “such a one as Lazarus lying in the cave, locked in the sleep of death; now how shall he be raised? how shall he be brought back to life? Who will roll away for us the stone from this sepulchre? First came one, who went down to the cave with blankets, and salt, to rub with the fomentations of duty, to appeal to the will, to say to the sleeping man, that he could if he would; chafing and rubbing the cold and inert limbs, he thinks to call back the vital warmth; and then retiring, and standing some distance apart, he says to the other spectators, ‘Do you not see him stir? Are there no signs of life? Is he not moving?’ No, he lies very still, there is no motion. How could it be otherwise? how could a sense of moral duty be felt by the man there?—for the man was dead!
“The first man gave up in despair. And then came the second. ‘I thought you would never do it,’ he said; ‘but if you look at me, you will see a thing. No,’ he said, ‘your treatment has been too gentle.’ And he went down into the cave with a scourge. Said he, ‘The man only wants severe treatment to be brought back to life. I warrant me I will make him feel,’ he said. And he laid on in quick succession the fervid blows, the sharp threatenings of law and judgment, and future danger and doom; and then he retired to some distance. ‘Is he not waking?’ he said. ‘Do you not see the corpse stir?’ No! A corpse he was before the man began to lay on his lashes, and a corpse he continued still;—for the man was dead!
“‘Ah,’ said another, advancing, ‘but I have wonderful power. You, with your rubbing, and your smiting, what can you do? but I have it, for I have two things.’ And he advanced, and he fixed an electric battery, and disposed it so that it touched the dead man, and then, from a flute which he held, he drew forth such sweet sounds that they charmed the ears which were listening; and whether it was the battery, or whether it was the music, so it was, that effect seemed to be produced. ‘Behold,’ said he, ‘what the refinements of education and cultivation will do!’ And, indeed, so it was, for the hair of the dead man seemed to rise, and his eye-balls seemed to start and dilate; and see! he rises, starts up, and takes a stride down the cave. Ah, but it is all over; it was nothing but the electricity in the battery; and he sank back again flat on the floor of the cave;—for the man was dead!
“And then, when all were filled with despair, there came One, and stood by the entrance of the cave; but He was the Lord and Giver of life, and standing there, He said, ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon this slain one, that he may live. Christ hath given thee life. Awake, thou that sleepest.’ And the man arose; he shook off his grave-clothes; what he needed had come to him now—life! Life is the only cure for death. Not the prescriptions of duty, not the threats of punishment and damnation, not the arts and the refinements of education, but new, spiritual, Divine life.”
The same manner appears in the way in which he traces the story of a soul seeking Christ, under the idea of the Wise Men following the leading star in