I have little to say after the recitation of this passage of pregnant and solemn counsel. That little shall be given to a supreme aspect of the whole subject; I mean, Spiritual Power in Preaching. Who that knows the Lord, and contemplates the preacher's work, does not long for Spiritual Power? By that longing he means no ambitious wish to be remarkable, nor any unwholesome craving to be a leader in scenes of religious excitement. He means the deep desire to be an effectual messenger of his Master; to be the living channel of the Holy Spirit's energy in His converting, sanctifying, strengthening, perfecting work. He knows that it is possible to be truly orthodox, and yet not to be this; to be eloquent, to be impressive, to be impassioned, and yet not to be this; to be unimpeachably truthful, reasonable, intellectually convincing, and yet all the while not to be this. How shall he be a vehicle of spiritual power?
THE OPEN SECRET.
The Scriptural answer is very simple, but it goes deep. If a man would have spiritual power with men, and prevail, he must be real with his Lord. What he says, he must first know, he must first live. As regards Him who is at once his Master and his Gospel, he must indeed "know whom he has"If a man believed," [2 Tim. i. 10.] and, in calm but entire simplicity, "submit himself under His hands." Granted a true creed, and a humble faith in its Subject, he must, in quiet reality, "yield himself unto God," if he would be used by Him. Observe the Apostle's phrase; "Yield yourselves," παραστήσατε ἑαυτούς: not, "yield to God" (though that is implied), but, "yield yourselves, hand yourselves over, to God," as you would hand over a tool, a weapon [Rom. vi. 13.]. And another aspect of the same thing appears in the same Apostle's later words: purge himself of these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified (to), and meet for, the Master's use," ἡγιασμένον εὔχρηστον τῷ Δεσπότῃ. [2 Tim. ii. 21.]
The deepest secret of spiritual power, in God's sense of the phrase, lies there. Let the man be watchful over his Scriptural creed, and let him discipline his life, and let him toil in his study, and among his people. None of these things can be spared; they are all vital. But the central secret, which they as it were enclose and protect, lies in the words Surrender in faith. And the Christian man's heart must be its own inquisitor, before God, in the inquiry after the point, or points, where you, where I, need to make that surrender for ourselves.
In the void thus left, in the chasm thus cut deep into our ambitions, into our self-love, the mighty Spirit in His tranquil fulness will spring up. And then, whether we know it or not, we Ministers of the Word shall assuredly be vehicles of spiritual power, to our Lord's praise.
FAREWELL.
So let me close these fragmentary words spoken "to my younger Brethren." May God's mercy be upon the writer. Upon the readers, whom he loves in the Lord, may grace and peace come every hour and day, in secret, in society, in holy ministration of Word and Ordinance. And in due time, when they are no longer juniors but, if the Lord will, veterans and leaders in the work, may they in turn pass on the message to those who follow, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
"Christianity is so great and surprising in its nature that, in preaching it to others, I have no encouragement but in the belief of a continued divine operation. It is no difficult thing to change a man's opinions. It is no difficult thing to attach a man to my person and notions. It is no difficult thing to convert a proud man to spiritual pride, or a passionate man to passionate zeal for some religious party. But to bring a man to love God, to love the law of God while it condemns him, to loathe himself before God, to tread the earth under his feet, to hunger and thirst after God in Christ, and after the mind that was in Christ, this is impossible. But God has said it shall be done; and bids me go forth and preach, that by me, as His instrument, He may effect these great ends; and therefore I go."
Cecil.