^ There is an expression in Titus ii. 10 analogous to this glorifying of the Word — " adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." It is only too possible for us to disgrace the gospel ; but it is in our power also, by every smallest action we do, to illustrate it, to set it off^ to put its beauty in the true light before the eyes of men. The gospel comes into the world, like everything else, to be judged on its merits ; that is, by the effects which it produces in the lives of tliose who receive it. We are its witnesses ; its character, in the general mind, is as good as our character ; it is as lovely as we are lovely, as strong as we are strong, as glorious as we are glorious, and no more. Let us seek to bear it a truer and worthier witness than we have yet done. To adorn it is a calling far higher than most of us have aimed at ; but if it conies into our prayers, if its swift diffusion and powerful operation are near our hearts in the sight of God, grace will be given us to do this also.^
H Lull had no idea that Christianity was not a complete and sufficient religion. He did not study other religions with the purpose of providing from them ideals which Christianity was supposed to lack. . Nor did he propose to reduce out of all religions a common fund of general principles more or less to be found in all and regard these as the ultimate religion. He studied other religions to find out how better to reach the hearts of their adherents with the gospel, itself perfect and complete, lacking nothing, needing nothing from any other doctrine. With him there was a difference between Christianity and other religions not in degree only, but in kind. It possesses what they lack
^ J. Denney.
2 THESSALONIANS iii. i 71
which is desirable. It lacks what they possess which is unworthy. It alone satisfies. It alone is life. They are systems of society or politics, religions of books, methods, organizations. It and it alone is life, eternal life. Lull studied other religions, not to discover what they have to give to Christianity, for they have nothing, but to find how he might give to those who follow them the true life, which is life, and which no man shall ever find until he finds it in Christ.^
3. What strikes a reader of the Acts of the Apostles is the wisdom shown in the preaching of the Word, and the important and prime place given to preaching. Beyond all question both in the service and in the ministry of Apostolic Christianity the Word had the first place as being the most efficient and best acknowledged agent in the conversion of sinners and edification of believers. If early Christian practice has any force as prece- dent for subsequent times, the preaching of the gospel is the most prominent and urgent duty of the Church. The practical emphasis laid by early Christians on the place of preaching should be to us an incentive and an inspiration. Why this perpetual insisting on the Word ? Why this conveying of it as of seed even upon the wings of the wind of persecution by dispersed martyrs ? Why this tracing of the growth of disciple- ship and of the Kingdom of God to the Word almost without a mention of the sacramental observances and indulgences ? Why this great charter of Jesus to His folk to preach the gospel to every creature, unless the preaching of the cross is the one great, solemn, and constant call of the Lord ? It may be replied that the novelty of Christianity required the accentuation of preaching because her hope of progress depended on her missionary activity ; but our answer is that when a Church ceases to be missionary in spirit or in practice she thereupon ceases to be a Church.
^ I sometimes think that a verse in one of the Psalms carries the whole pith of homiletics — " While I was musing the fire burned, then spake I with my tongue." Patient meditation, resulting in kindled emotion and the flashing up of truth into warmth and light, and then — and not till then — the rush of speech " moved by the Holy Ghost " — these are the processes which will make sermons live things with hands and feet, as Luther's words were said to be. " Then spake I," not " Then sate ^ S. M. Zwemer, Maymund Lull, xvii.
72 PRAYER AND PROGRESS
I down at my desk and wrote it all down to be majestically read out of manuscript in a leather case." May I add another text, which contains as complete a description of the contents of preaching as the Psalm does of its genesis ? " Whom we preach " — there is the evangelistic element, which is foundation of all, and is proclamation with the loud voice, the curt force, the plain speech of a herald; and there is, too, the theme, namely, the Person, not a set of doctrines, but, on the other hand, a Person whom we can know only by doctrines, and whom, if we know, we shall surely have some doctrine concerning. " Warning every man" — there is the ethical side of preaching; "and teaching every man " — there is the educational aspect of the Christian ministry. These three must never be separated, and he is the best minister of Jesus Christ who keeps the proportion between them most clearly in his mind, and braids all the strands together in his ministry into a " threefold cord, not quickly broken," ^