PREACHING THE MAIN FACTOR IN MISSIONARY WORK.
REV. GEORGE R. LEAVITT.
It is a fact of history that the preaching of the Word has been the great missionary agency. The Bible is a missionary book. The great figure in the Old Testament history was the preacher of righteousness—Enoch, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, the great line of prophets—they were missionary preachers. In the beginning of Christianity, the great figure was the preacher—John the Baptist, the Apostles, our blessed Lord Himself. The salient feature in the New Testament may be said to be a succession of great missionary sermons which are expositions of the Gospel. In the history of the Christian Church the great figure has been the preacher. The Church of God is the body of Jesus Christ. As such she is the eye and ear, she is the hands and feet of the Lord, but especially she is the voice of the Lord. Doth not wisdom cry in all time? Did not the Spirit when sent forth lift the voice declaring the great Gospel message? And when the Church has had that possession of the Spirit, has it not been especially her inspiration to cry out with the Gospel message? The great figure in this Association work in the past has been the teacher. We have had a gifted line of men and women in this work, and to them all honor be given. It would be impossible for us to give them the honor which is their due; but in the future the great figure is to be the missionary preacher, the man who can reach masses of men with the Gospel message. We are lifting this race, and what has been true in the past will be true in the future.
Perhaps I can not better exhibit this subject in the little space allowed me than in noticing some of the traits which should characterize the missionary preacher, and while the truth is general and applicable to all parties, I trust that we may be under the direction of the Spirit and take to heart these great traits we shall be looking for in the preacher of the future in the South.
The missionary preacher is a man who, to be effective, should be a man of spiritual morality, a man of irreproachable character. I presume the colored man has been maligned in the South, as his character has so often been brought out among us. One of our enthusiastic teachers was asked, "How many Uncle Toms do you find in the South?" And she replied, "About as many as there are in the North." A truth was there that we ourselves may very well take.
There are three ways in which the Gospel is published. One is in the book, one is by the voice, and the third by the life. The voice lies between the book and the life, and the life is the great publication of the message, and unless we have a voice of a man who is spiritually qualified by a holy life, we have not a competent Gospel preacher. In speaking of this matter of morality, we should have something more in view than natural morals—there is a spiritual morality. We want the higher. A man who has in himself the Spirit of God, produces this type of morality. We can not canvass this subject by the motives of worldliness. It takes two crosses to save the world—the cross of Christ and the cross of the believer. A ministerial brother said, in speaking of certain ones, that they had undergone a deplorable religious transformation, that at one time they held the Gospel of regeneration, but they had come to love the Gospel of recreation. Ah, what a transformation has come over too many of our churches and the community in loving this form of worldliness!
It is a matter of great satisfaction that our schools in the South are doing such efficient work in this direction, as reports indicate, and as private information shows. I quite lately had information from General Armstrong touching this point of high morality that is developed in the school. The young men and young women, he said, compare well with the young men and young women in our Northern schools. This is a matter of great satisfaction, because the preacher of the future is to come out of these schools.
The second essential in the missionary preacher, if he is to be successful, is a mind which is spiritually illuminated, a man who is intelligent in the truth. I presume the great characteristic of the old-time preacher in the South is his ignorance, and if we should select one point at which a change needs to take place, it is at this point of instruction. He needs to be intelligent.
Now, to these things ought to be added training in all branches of knowledge, just as widely as possible, but we must fix our attention especially upon one source of knowledge, namely, the Word of God. The missionary preacher needs to be a man established in the Scriptures. John the Baptist grew in grace. Our blessed Lord Himself grew in grace. The man who is to be effective as a preacher in elevating the world is a man who grows in grace. What is grace? It is the undeserved favor of God exhibited in the plan of salvation for the redemption of man. And the first truths of that grace say simply, but how grandly, "grow in grace;" we are to be "ministers of grace;" to be "masters of grace." The minister in the South is to be a master of grace. Do you know how far it is away? It seems but a step, but oh, what a work when we begin to comprehend the great things of God! Do you know the height, depth and length of the great salvation of the love of God? Ezekiel tells us of the depth of the stream when he first came to it, that to his apprehension the water came up to his foot, but, as he advanced, it came to the ankle, and the knee and the loin, and then it was water to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. Oh, my brethren, we need to understand these great things of God, so that we may become masters of grace, for if we do not, the missionary preacher that comes up under our influence will not be thoroughly qualified for his duties.
Then there is another quality; the missionary preacher, to be effective as a missionary, must be, not only a "shining," but like John also a "burning light." Then nothing shall be concealed. What does the Scripture say in that psalm? "There is nothing hid from the light?" No; "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof." We want a Gospel preacher among those people who has a Gospel heat from which nothing can be hid. How many things we can say of this fuel! We have spoken of the Word of God. The Word of God is the light, and it is the fuel for a fire. Our blessed Saviour when He was on the way to Emmaus with the Disciples enkindled their hearts, not by his personal presence; but when he opened the Scriptures, then they testified, "Did not our hearts burn within us?" That was what took place at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit did not bring the fuel that day, but they had been gathering it as they spoke of Christ, and as they came together to offer prayers, the Holy Spirit came, and the Word was a fire in their bones; then fire came and kindled them, and then came that wonderful effect.
Sir James Herschel tells us in a little story, in fragments of his biography, how after his telescopes became famous they were distributed quite widely through Europe, and when he published his great discovery, he began to receive complaints. Men said to him, in angry letters, "We do not see what you see." In his response to them he said: "Perhaps you do not take the care in your observations that I do," and he spoke of one particular thing that is carefully noted. "Do you take care," he said, "of the matter of temperature? The instrument with which I examine the stars must be of the temperature of the stars as nearly as may be, and when I observe on a winter night I place my glass on the lawn at Greenwich, and let it stand there until the instrument comes to be of the temperature of the air. But beyond that," he said, "not only must my instrument be of the right temperature, but I must be. Oftentimes," he said, "I have been out in the winter air for two hours before I would open my glass, because I must come to be of the same temperature as the instrument itself." What a spiritual truth there is here! God's Word the instrument, and the temperature that of the heavens. But we must be of the temperature of that Bible and that heavens! Oh, for the heat of the Gospel to be in the minister of Christ wherever he stands, and then there will be nothing hid from its searching power.
I think this subject is often presented in a way to confuse it. We speak of heat in a way not to comprehend precisely what we want; and let me touch upon the point which shows what I mean. When the Saviour was at the well with the woman, it was the love in His heart from which she could not be hid. What a lesson Peter learned that day when our Saviour, in His great interview by the sea, asked him: "Lovest thou me?" and said, "Feed my sheep and my lambs." There was a lesson burned into his heart of the personal love of Christ.
I heard Mr. Sankey sing last week "The Ninety and Nine," and he prefaced it by saying that the old hymn was worn out. I was sorry to hear him say that, but there was one accent he gave in singing which was very affecting. When one expostulates with the shepherd that he has ninety and nine with him, he cries out: "It is my sheep." I fancy when Peter came to Pentecost and saw those great crowds before him there was one element of preparation he needed, and the Saviour had taught him how to feed his sheep and feed his lambs, and it lived so in his heart that nothing could be hid from it.
I am speaking too long on this matter. But it is a great subject. This Association has a glorious opportunity. There is no cause that comes to us that touches our inspiration and consecration like this society, and the opportunity is such as, in my judgment, the Christian Church never had.
Now, we say this, we cannot do this work by any other form of service but by preaching the Gospel, with at least these elements in it I have mentioned. We speak of the hand work for Christ, but we want the net work for Christ. When I was in Japan, I saw all over the bay, in the night, little boats of fishermen. The men were in the boats two and two, one holding a torch. They were busily engaged the night through. I asked one, "Is this your mode of fishing?" and I was shown a great seine net that lay upon the shore, and I was told, "This is here especially for day fishing." When I stood before the young men in the school at Kioto I referred to this. I said "It seems to me in Japan you are doing the night fishing now; it is fishing in the night with a torch, but, young men, there is a morning coming when the great net is to be cast, your hands are to be upon it, and you are to have the privilege of a great cast for God." It has come this year, and those young men went out preachers of righteousness, clothed with power to reach the masses of men, and they have drawn in hundreds, and there is hope of the thousands, and that is what we want in this work, men who can go to those Southern fields, to those five millions of whom we have heard, and cast the great seine net of the Gospel; and they are coming.