PREACHING.1

THE term preaching expresses the precise object proposed by a "Theological Seminary." As all the rivers run into the sea, and as all the planets revolve around the sun, so all the studies of the seminary are designed to bear upon preaching. The Theological Seminary is not an institution designed for the training of scholars, orators, authors, or even theologians in the technical sense, but its design is the training of preachers. Whatever else it may accomplish, it should not fail in this. Scholarship is indispensable, eloquence is of great value, and a competent knowledge of theology is essential as the foundation of all, and therefore the teaching of theology in its various branches is the specific work of the seminary; but these are not the end, they are only means to a higher end. That higher end is preaching the gospel of Christ. What, then, we desire to impress upon the minds of those committed to our instruction, is, first and foremost, that they are to be preachers; failing in this, they fail in their life-work.

What is Preaching? The term, from the Latin prædico, to declare or proclaim, means primarily the public utterance of one's sentiments upon any subject of

1 An address delivered at the opening of the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary, Sept. 12, 1876.

general interest. In the modern, Christian, and strictly definite use of the term, it means, speaking on a religious subject drawn from a passage of Scripture. The preacher is a teacher of religious truth, but a teacher of religious truth under special relations and with a special purpose. As to the special relations, he is connected with the Church of Christ. He receives from the church the right to go forth and preach the word of life publicly and authoritatively. This is the divine plan, the rule of the Head of the Church. Any departure from this rule is unwarranted, and has no promise of the divine presence and blessing. Isolated from the body of Christ, the work of the preacher is sporadic, fragmentary, and its results evanescent. He should always be like his Master, "a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." The preacher is, therefore, in an important sense, an organ of the church. He does not go forth independently as an individual, but as an accredited ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving his commission from him through the instrumentality that he has appointed.

The function of preaching is also connected with others. The preacher is also a pastor. He administers the sacraments; is the spiritual counsellor of the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made him overseer; visits the sick; and performs various other services, both in seasons of joy and sorrow, for those to whom he ministers. "He gave some pastors and teachers." Not only is the function of preaching exercised in connection with these duties, but it is more or less modified by them; hence the divine command, "Feed the flock." Preaching will therefore be more or less affected, and

properly so, by the condition of those to whom it is addressed: they will mutually act and re-act upon one another. Whatever may be the case with men of special endowments, who give themselves to preaching alone, it is beyond controversy that Christ's work of gathering in souls into his kingdom is carried forward by men who exercise the function of preaching in connection with other duties. The history of the church justifies the divine method. Thus has the number of them that are saved been gathered into the fold of Christ, and the body of Christ been preserved and edified. "Wisdom is justified of her children." We do not enlarge on this subject, simply because time will not permit its importance cannot be over-estimated. The word of divine truth is best spoken on the sabbath by one who has been mingling during the week, or as opportunity has afforded, with those whom he addresses, and with whose temptations, doubts, fears, afflictions, trials, piety, labors of love, zeal for the Lord's cause, he is familiar. Thus he is enabled to speak from the heart to the heart: thus he becomes one with the people, and is made to feel that his words are not alone, but are aided by many other influences in moving the people whom he addresses, and assisting them in their progress heavenward.

The preacher is not only a religious teacher, but he is a religious teacher under a special aspect. His aim is not, like that of the ordinary teacher, simply instruction, but first and especially action: the truth must be brought to bear upon men so as to move them. His object is not merely to proclaim the truth, but to enforce it practically. He aims, not merely to lodge it in the

bead, but to make it an impelling power in the life. He must strive to bring it to bear so that men may not only know, but do, the will of their Father in heaven. Nor is this work one that is outward only, but one that is also inward. The preacher is addressing imperfect men, - men that are not yet fit for heaven, but in the preparation for which his words may be, and ought to be, a powerful instrumentality. There will be before him those who have not yet entered on a Christian life, who have not turned from the world to God, who have not forsaken a life of sin for one of holiness. He must not only aim to show them the danger in which they are, not only must he set clearly before them their lost condition, but he must strive to move them, induce them to flee from the wrath to come; in other words, seek to be the Spirit's agent in their conversion. This is the chief end of preaching, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." This gives a peculiar cast to the method of presenting truth. The word of life must take the mould which the speaker's aim, the object designed, will give it. Here is an object worthy of an angel. Nay, did not the Archangel himself, the Son of God, come down to this world. to seek and to save that which was lost? What thought could possibly be better calculated to rouse all the powers of the soul into intensest action, than the thought that the work we have on hand is no less than to turn men from darkness unto light, and from Satan unto God?

But besides this, even the converted whom we address are yet imperfectly sanctified; they are too ready to be satisfied with present attainments; they are too ready

to say,

I have already attained, and am already perfect. They must be aroused, reminded of the necessity of still striving to enter in at the strait gate, of pressing toward the mark. Here, again, the word is an impelling power, and must be shaped to that end. There are

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remaining sins that must be put away: this requires action internal and painful. Crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts." "Mortify the deeds of the body." Mortify your members that are on the earth." There are graces to cultivate, and lofty and noble courses of life to pursue. To induce to such courses, to lift men up out of their littleness, and their petty meannesses, and their longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt, into a higher life, to inspire them with nobler and still more elevated aims-this is the end of preaching, and this is the use which the preacher must make of religious truth; edifying, building up as the word means, building up men, edifying the body of Christ. Such is the work of the ministry.

This is a work, one would think, great enough and noble enough to satisfy the aspirations of the loftiest intellect; and so it has proved. From the times of the apostles till the present, it has allured many of the purest and greatest of the sons of men, who have found in it a field sufficient for the satisfaction of their holiest emotions, and the employment of their noblest powers. There is no field which so calls out, develops, and exercises all the highest and best elements of our nature as preaching and its associated duties. A moment's reflection must convince any one of the truth of this. Tell me what power of the mind, what good and gracious emotion of the heart, lies dormant in him who exercises