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I am somewhat pleased when I occasionally hear of a brother’s being locked up by the police, for it does him good, and it does the people good also. It is a fine sight to see the minister of the gospel marched off by the servant of the law! It excites sympathy for him, and the next step is sympathy for his message.
In the street, a man must keep himself alive, and use many illustrations and anecdotes, and sprinkle a quaint remark here and there.
In quiet country crowds there is much force in an eloquent silence, now and then interjected; it gives people time to breathe, and also to reflect. Do not, however, attempt this in a London street; you must go ahead, or someone else may run off with your congregation.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR OPEN-AIR PREACHERS A good voice. Naturalness of manner. Self-possession. A good knowledge of Scripture and of common things. Ability to adapt himself to any congregation. Good illustrative powers. Zeal, prudence, and common sense. A large, loving heart. Sincere belief in all he says. Entire dependence on the Holy Spirit for success. A close walk with God by prayer. A consistent walk before men by a holy life.
Brethren, you and I must, as preachers, be always earnest in reference to our pulpit work.
Now, in order that we may be acceptable, we must be earnest when actually engaged in preaching.
The world also will suffer as well as the church if we are not fervent. We cannot expect a gospel devoid of earnestness to have any mighty effect upon the unconverted around us. One of the excuses most soporific to the conscience of an ungodly generation is that of half-heartedness in the preacher.
Whitefield preached, and never dare to be lethargic again. Winter says of him that “sometimes he exceedingly wept, and was frequently so overcome, that for a few seconds you would suspect he never would recover; and when he did, nature required some little time to compose herself. I hardly ever knew him go through a sermon without weeping more or less. His voice was often interrupted by his affections; and I have heard him say in the pulpit, ‘You blame me for weeping; but how can I help it, when you will not weep for yourselves, although your own immortal souls are on the verge of destruction,
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Earnestness in the pulpit must be real. It is not to be mimicked. We have seen it counterfeited, but every person with a grain of sense could detect the imposition.
But our zeal while in the act of preaching must be followed up by intense solicitude as to the after results; for if it be not so we shall have cause to question our sincerity.
“a poor country parson, fighting against the devil in his parish, has nobler ideas than Alexander the Great ever had”;
Earnestness may be, and too often is, diminished by neglect of study.
Zeal may, on the other hand, be damped by our studies.
The fire of our earnestness must burn upon the hearth of faith in the truths which we preach, and faith in their power to bless mankind when the Spirit applies them to the heart. He who declares what may or what may not be true, and what he considers upon the whole to be as good as any other form of teaching, will of necessity make a very feeble preacher.
Feed the flame, my brother, feed it frequently; feed it with holy thought and contemplation, especially with thought about your work, your motives in pursuing it, the design of it, the helps that are waiting for you, and the grand results of it if the Lord be with you.
Above all, feed the flame with intimate fellowship with Christ.
Fan the flame as well as feed it. Fan it with much supplication. We cannot be too urgent with one another upon this point: no language can be too vehement with which to implore ministers to pray.
Stir the fire also by frequent attempts at fresh service. Shake yourself out of routine by breaking away from the familiar fields of service and reclaiming virgin soil.
Never say “it is enough,” nor accept the policy of “rest and be thankful.” Do all you possibly can, and then do a little more.
Far more weighty is the advice, keep close to God, and keep close to your fellow men whom you are seeking to bless. Abide under the shadow of the Almighty, dwell where Jesus manifests himself, and live in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Whitefield mentions a lad who was so vividly conscious of the presence of God that he would generally walk the roads with his hat off.
Get into close quarters with those who are in an anxious state. Watch their difficulties, their throes and pangs of conscience. It will help to make you earnest when you see their eagerness to find peace.
If you have to labour in a large town I should recommend you to familiarize yourself, wherever your place of worship may be, with the poverty, ignorance, and drunkenness of the place.
Death-beds are grand schools for us. They are intended to act as tonics to brace us to our work.
Let us endure every cross, and despise all shame, for the joy which Jesus sets before us of winning men for him.
Consider the great evil which will certainly come upon us and upon our hearers if we be negligent in our work.
HAVING often said in this room that a minister ought to have one blind eye and one deaf ear, I have excited the curiosity of several brethren, who have requested an explanation; for it appears to them, as it does also to me, that the keener eyes and ears we have the better.
“Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.” The margin says, “Give not thy heart to all words that are spoken”—do not take them to heart or let them weigh with you, do not notice them, or act as if you heard them. You cannot stop people’s tongues, and therefore the best thing is to stop your own ears and never mind what is spoken.
It is the part of the generous to treat passionate words as if they had never been uttered. When a man is in an angry mood it is wise to walk away from him, and leave off strife before it be meddled with; and if we are compelled to hear hasty language, we must endeavour to obliterate it from the memory, and say with David, “But I, as a deaf man, heard not. I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.”
“You are lord of your tongue, but I am also master of my ears”—you
If deacons cannot be trusted they ought not to be deacons at all, but if they are worthy of their office they are worthy of our confidence.
the preacher must speak if the church does not properly provide for him; but to be constantly bringing before the people requests for an increase of income is not wise. When a minister is poorly remunerated, and he feels that he is worth more, and that the church could give him more, he ought kindly, boldly, and firmly to communicate with the deacons first,
The blind eye and the deaf ear will come in exceedingly well in connection with the gossips of the place.
I heartily wish that by any process we could put down gossip, but I suppose that it will never be done so long as the human race continues what it is,
Mayow in his Plain Preaching
Avoid with your whole soul that spirit of suspicion which sours some men’s lives, and to all things from which you might harshly draw an unkind inference turn a blind eye and a deaf ear. Suspicion makes a man a torment to himself and a spy towards others.
It would be better to be deceived a hundred times than to live a life of suspicion.
No one ought to be made an offender for a word; but, when suspicion rules, even silence becomes a crime.
Solomon says “a whisper separateth chief friends” (Prov. xvi. 28).
Gossip
Learn to disbelieve those who have no faith in their brethren.
Need I say a word or two about the wisdom of never hearing what was not meant for you. The eavesdropper is a mean person,
“Never listen at the door or window, for besides that it contains in it a danger and a snare, it is also invading my neighbour’s privacy, and a-laying that open, which he therefore encloses that it might not be open.”
To opinions and remarks about yourself turn also as a general rule the blind eye and the deaf ear. Public men must expect public criticism, and as the public cannot be regarded as infallible, public men may expect to be criticized in a way which is neither fair nor pleasant.
In the case of false reports against yourself, for the most part use the deaf ear. Unfortunately liars are not yet extinct, and, like Richard Baxter and John Bunyan, you may be accused of crimes which your soul abhors.
Some ministers have been broken in spirit, driven from their position, and even injured in character by taking notice of village scandal.
Is not this a sufficient explanation of my declaration that I have one blind eye and one deaf ear, and that they are the best eye and ear I have?
THE grand object of the Christian ministry is the glory of God. Whether souls are converted or not, if Jesus Christ be faithfully preached, the minister has not laboured in vain, for he is a sweet savour unto God as well in them that perish as in them that are saved. Yet, as a rule, God has sent us to preach in order that through the gospel of Jesus Christ the sons of men may be reconciled to Him.
Here and there a preacher of righteousness, like Noah, may labour on and bring none beyond his own family circle into the ark of salvation; and another, like Jeremiah, may weep in vain over an impenitent nation; but, for the most part, the work of preaching is intended to save the hearers. It is ours to sow even in stony places, where no fruit rewards our toil; but still we are bound to look for a harvest, and mourn if it does not appear in due time.
If any one note is dropped from the divine harmony of truth the music may be sadly marred. Your people may fall into grave spiritual diseases through the lack of a certain form of spiritual nutriment, which can only be supplied by the doctrines which you withhold.
Preach the whole counsel of God
Our great object of glorifying God is, however, to be mainly achieved by the winning of souls. We must see souls born unto God. If we do not, our cry should be that of Rachel “Give me children, or I die.”
