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Preach the Gospel
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, August 5, 1855, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; yea woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel."1 Corinthians 9:16.
The greatest man of Apostolic times was the apostle Paul.
He was always great in everything. If you consider him as a sinner, he was exceeding
sinful; if you regard him as a persecutor, he was exceeding mad against the
Christians, and persecuted them even unto strange cities, if you take him as a convert,
his conversion was the most notable one of which we read, worked by miraculous power, and
by the direct voice of Jesus speaking from heaven"Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me?"If we take him simply as a Christian, he was an extraordinary one,
loving his Master more than others, and seeking more than others to exemplify the grace of
God in his life. But if you take him as an apostle, and as a preacher of the Word, he
stands out pre-eminent as the prince of preachers, and a preacher to kingsfor he
preached before Agrippa, he preached before Nero Caesarhe stood before emperors and
kings for Christ's name's sake. It was the characteristic of Paul, that whatever he did,
he did with all his heart. He was one of the men who could not allow one half of his frame
to be exercised, while the other half was indolent but, when he set to work, the whole of
his energiesevery nerve, every sinewwere strained in the work to be done, be
it bad work or be it good. Paul, therefore, could speak from experience concerning his
ministry; because he was the chief of ministers. There is no nonsense in what he speaks;
it is all from the depth of his soul. And we may be sure that when he wrote this, he wrote
it with a strong unpalsied hand"Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to
glory of, for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel."
Now, these words of Paul, I trust, are applicable to many ministers in the present day; to
all those who are especially called, who are directed by the inward impulse of the Holy
Spirit to occupy the position of gospel ministers. In trying to consider this verse, we
shall have three inquiries this morning:First, What is it to preach the gospel?
Secondly, Why is it that a minister has nothing to glorify of? And thirdly, What
is that necessity and that woe, of which it is written, "Necessity is laid upon me,
yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel?"
I. The first enquiry is, WHAT IS IT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL? There are a variety of opinions
concerning this question, and possibly amongst my own audiencethough I believe we
are very uniform in our doctrinal sentimentsthere might be found two or three very
ready answers to this question: What is it to preach the gospel? I shall therefore attempt
to answer it myself according to my own judgment, if God will help me; and if it does not
happen to be the correct answer, you are at liberty to supply a better to yourselves at
home.
1. The first answer I shall give to the question is this: To preach the gospel is to
state every doctrine contained in God's Word, and to give every truth its proper
prominence. Men may preach a part of the gospel; they may only preach one single
doctrine of it; and I would not say that a man did not preach the gospel at all if he did
but maintain the doctrine of justification by faith"By grace are ye saved
through faith." I should put him down for a gospel minister, but not for one who
preached the whole gospel. No man can be said to preach the whole gospel of God if he
leaves it out, knowingly and intentionally, one single truth of the blessed God. This
remark of mine must be a very cutting one, and ought to strike into the consciences of
many who make it almost a matter of principle to keen back certain truths from the people,
because they are afraid of them. In conversation, a week or two ago, with an eminent
professor, he said to me, "Sir, we know that we ought not to preach the doctrine of
election, because it is not calculated to convert sinners." "But," said I
to him, "who is the men that dares to find fault with the truth of God? You admit,
with me, that it is a truth, and yet you say it must not be preached. I dare not have said
that thing. I should reckon it supreme arrogance to have ventured to say that a doctrine
ought not to be preached when the all-wise God has seen fit to reveal it. Besides, is the
whole gospel intended to convert sinners? There are some truths which God blesses to the
conversion of sinners; but are there not other portions which were intended for the
comfort of the saint? and ought not these to be a subject of gospel ministry as well as
the others? And shall I look at one and disregard the other? No: if God says, 'Comfort ye,
comfort ye, my people' if election comforts God's people, then must I preach it." But
I am not quite so sure, that after all, that doctrine is not calculated to convert
sinners. For the great Jonathan Edwardes tells us, that in the greatest excitement of one
of his revivals, he preached the sovereignty of God in the salvation or condemnation of
man, and showed that God was infinitely just if he sent men to hell! that he was
infinitely merciful if he saved any; and that it was all of his own free grace, and he
said, "I found no doctrine caused more thought nothing entered more deeply into the
heart than the proclamation of that truth." The same might be said of other
doctrines. There are certain truths in God's word which are condemned to silence; they,
forsooth, are not to be uttered, because, according to the theories of certain persons,
looking at these doctrines, they are not calculated to promote certain ends. But is it for
me to judge God's truth? Am I to put his words in the scale, and say, "This is good,
and that is evil?' Am I to take God's Bible, and sever it and say, "this is husk, and
this is wheat?" Am I to cast away any one truth, and say, "I dare not preach
it?" No: God forbid. Whatsoever is written in God's Word is written for our
instruction: and the whole of it is profitable, either for reproof, or for consolation, or
for edification in righteousness. No truth of God's Word ought to be withheld, but every
portion of it preached in its own proper order.
Some men purposely confine themselves to four or five topics continually. Should you step
into their chapel, you would naturally expect to hear them preaching, either from this,
"Not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God," or else, "Elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." You know that the moment you step
in you are sure to hear nothing but election and high doctrine that day. Such men err
also, quite as much as others, if they give too great prominence to one truth to the
neglect of the others. Whatsoever is here to be preached, "all it whatever name you
please, write it high, write it lowthe Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the
Bible, is the standard of the true Christian. Alas! alas! many make an iron ring of their
doctrines, and he who dares to step beyond that narrow circle, is not reckoned orthodox.
God bless heretics, then! God send us more of them! Many make theology into a kind of
treadwheel, consisting of five doctrines, which are everlastingly rotated; for they never
go on to anything else. There ought to be every truth preached. And if God has written in
his word that "he that believeth not is condemned already," that is as
much to be preached as the truth that "there is no condemnation to them that are in
Jesus Christ." If I find it written, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself," that man's condemnation is his own fault, I am to preach that as well as
the next clause, "In me is thy help found." We ought, each of us who are
entrusted with the ministry, to seek to preach all truth. I know it may be impossible to
tell you all of it. That high hill of truth hath mists upon its summit. No mortal eye can
see its pinnacle; nor hath the foot of man ever trodden it. But yet let us paint the mist,
if we cannot paint the summit. Let us depict the difficulty itself if we cannot unravel
it. Let us not hide anything, but if the mountain of truth be cloudy at the top, let us
say, "Clouds and darkness are around him," Let us not deny it; and let us not
think of cutting down the mountain to our own standard, because we cannot see its summit
or cannot reach its pinnacle. He who would preach the gospel must preach all the gospel.
He who would have it said he is a faithful minister, must not keep back any part of
revelation.
2. Again, am I asked what it is to preach the gospel? I answer to preach the gospel is
to exalt Jesus Christ. Perhaps this is the best answer that I could give. I am very
sorry to see very often how little the gospel is understood even by some of the best
Christians. Some time ago there was a young woman under great distress of soul; she came
to a very pious Christian man, who said "My dear girl, you must go home and
pray." Well I thought within myself, that is not the Bible way at all. It never says,
"Go home and pray." The poor girl went home; she did pray, and she still
continued in distress. Said he, "You must wait, you must read the Scriptures and
study them." That is not the Bible way; that is not exalting Christ; find a great
many preachers are preaching that kind of doctrine. They tell a poor convinced sinner,
"You must go home and pray, and read the Scriptures; you must attend the
ministry;" and so on. Works, works, worksinstead of "By grace are ye saved
through faith," If a penitent should come and ask me, "What must I do to be
saved?" I would say, "Christ must save youbelieve on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ." I would neither direct to prayer, nor reading of the Scriptures nor
attending God's house; but simply direct to faith, naked faith on God's gospel. Not that I
despise prayerthat must come after faith. Not that I speak a word against the
searching of the Scripturesthat is an infallible mark of God's children. Not that I
find fault with attendance on God's wordGod forbid! I love to see people there. But
none of those things are the way of salvation. It is nowhere written"He that
attendeth chapel shall be saved," or, "He that readeth the Bible shall be
saved." Nor do I read"He that prayeth and is baptised shall be
saved;" but, "He that believeth,"he that has a naked faith on the
"Man Christ Jesus,"on his Godhead, on his manhood, is delivered from sin.
To preach that faith alone saves, is to preach God's truth. Nor will I for one moment
concede to any man the name of a gospel minister, if he preaches anything as the plan of
salvation except faith in Jesus Christ, faith, faith, nothing but faith in his name. But
we are, most of us, very much muddled in our ideas. We get so much work stored into our
brain, such an idea of merit and of doing, wrought into our hearts, that it is almost
impossible for us to preach justification by faith clearly and fully; and when we do, our
people won't receive it. We tell them, "Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved." But they have a notion that faith is something so
wonderful, so mysterious, that it is quite impossible that without doing something else
they can ever get it. Now, that faith which unites to the Lamb is an instantaneous gift of
God, and he who believes on the Lord Jesus is that moment saved, without anything else
whatsoever. Ah! my friends, do we not want more exalting Christ in our preaching, and more
exalting Christ in our living? Poor Mary said, "They have taken away my Lord and I
know not where they have laid him," And she might say so now-a-days if she could rise
from the grave. Oh! to have a Christ-exalting ministry! Oh! to have preaching that
magnifies Christ in his person, that extols his divinity, that loves his humanity; to have
preaching that shows him as prophet, priest, and king to his people! to have preaching
whereby the spirit manifests the Son of God unto his children: to have preaching that
says, "Look unto him and be ye saved all the ends of the earth,"Calvary
preaching, Calvary theology, Calvary books, Calvary sermons! These are the things we want,
and in proportion as we have Calvary exalted and Christ magnified, the gospel is preached
in our midst.
3. The third answer to the question is: to preach the gospel is to give every class of
character his due. "You are only to preach to God's dear people, if you go into
that pulpit," said a deacon once to a minister. Said the minister, "Have you
marked them all on the back, that I may know them?" What is the good of this large
chapel if I am only to preach to God's dear people? They are few enough. God's dear people
might be held in the vestry. We have many more here besides God's dear people, and how am
I to be sure, if I am told to preach only to God's dear people, that somebody else wont
take it to himself? At another time some one might say, "Now, be sure you preach to
sinners. If you do not preach to sinners this morning, you won't preach the gospel. We
shall only hear you once; and we shall be sure you are not right if you do not happen to
preach to sinner this particular morning, in this particular sermon." What nonsense,
my friends! There are times when the children must be fed, and there are times when the
sinner must be warned. There are different times for different objects. If a man is
preaching to God's saints if it so happen that little is said to sinners, is he to be
blamed for it, provided that at another time when he is not comforting the saints, he
directs his attention specially to the ungodly? I heard a good remark from an intelligent
friend of mine the other day. A person was finding fault with "Dr. Hawker's Morning
and Evening Portions" because they were not calculated to convert sinners. He said to
the gentleman, "Did you ever read; 'Grote's History of Greece?'"
"Yes." Well, that is a shocking book, is it not? for it is not calculated to
convert sinners. "Yes, but," said the other, "'Grote's History of Greece'
was never meant to convert sinners." "No," said my friend, "and if you
had read the preface to 'Dr. Hawker's Morning and Evening Portion,' you would see that it
was never meant to convert sinners, but to feed God's people, and if it answers its end
the man has been wise, though he has not aimed at some other end." Every class of
person is to have his due. He who preaches solely to saints at all times does not preach
the gospel; he who preaches solely and only to the sinner; and never to the saint, does
not preach the whole of the gospel. We have amalgamation here. We have the saint who is
full of assurance and strong; we have the saint who is weak and low in faith; we have the
young convert; we have the man halting between two opinions; we have the moral man; we
have the sinner; we have the reprobate; we have the outcast. Let each have a word. Let
each have a portion of meat in due season; not at every season, but in due season.
He who omits one class of character does not know how to preach the entire gospel. What!
Am I to be put into the pulpit and to be told that I am to confine myself to certain
truths only, to comfort God's saints? I will not have it so. God gives men hearts to love
their fellow-creatures, and are they to have no development for that heart? If I love the
ungodly am I to have no means of speaking to them? May I not tell them of judgment to
come, of righteousness, and of their sin? God forbid I should so stultify my nature and so
brutalize myself, as to have a tearless eye when I consider the loss of my fellow
creatures, and to stand and say "Ye are dead, I have nothing to say to you!" and
to preach in effect if not in words that most damnable heresy, that if men are to be bayed
they will be savedthat if they are not to be saved they will not be saved; that
necessarily, they must sit still and do nothing whatever; and that it matters not whether
they live in sin or in righteousnesssome strong fate has bound them down with
adamantine chains; and their destiny is so certain that they may live on in sin. I believe
their destiny is certainthat as elect, they will be saved, and if not elect they are
damned for ever. But I do not believe the heresy that follows as an inference that
therefore men are irresponsible and may sit still. That is a heresy against which I have
ever protested, as being a doctrine of the devil and not of God at all. We believe in
destiny; we believe in predestination; we believe in election and non-election: but,
notwithstanding that, we believe that we must preach to men, He Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and ye shall be saved," but believe not on him and ye are damned.
4. I had thought of giving one more answer to this question, but time fails me. The answer
would have been somewhat like thisthat to preach the gospel is not to preach certain
truths about the gospel, not to preach about the people, but to preach to
the people. To preach the gospel is not to talk about what the gospel is, but to preach it
into the heart, not by your own might, but by the influence of the Holy Ghostnot to
stand and talk as if we were speaking to the angel Gabriel, and telling him certain
things, but to speak as man to man and pour our heart in to our fellow's heart. This I
take it, is to preach the gospel, and not to mumble some dry manuscript over on Sunday
morning or Sunday evening. To preach the gospel is not to send a curate to do your duty
for you; it is not to put on your fine gown and then stand and give out some lofty
speculation. To preach the gospel is not, with the hands of a bishop, to turn over some
beautiful specimen of prayer, and then to go down again and leave it to some humbler
person to speak. Nay; to preach the gospel is to proclaim with trumpet tongue and flaming
zeal the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus, so that men may hear, and understanding, may
turn to God with full purpose of heart. This is to preach the gospel.
II. The second question isHow IS IT THAT MINISTERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GLORY?
"For though I preach the gospel I have nothing to glorify it." There are some
weeds that will grow anywhere; and one of them is Pride. Pride will grow on a rock as well
as in a garden. Pride will grow in the heart of a shoe-black as well as in the heart of an
alderman. Pride will grow in the heart of a servant girl and equally as well in the heart
of her mistress. And pride will grow in the pulpit. It is a weed that is dreadfully
rampant. It wants cutting down every week, or else we should stand up to our knees in it.
This pulpit is a shocking bad soil for pride. It grows terribly; and I scarcely know
whether you ever find a preacher of the gospel who will not confess that he has the
greatest temptation to pride. I suppose that even those ministers of whom nothing is said,
but that they are very good people, and who have a City church, with some six people
attending it, have a temptation to pride. But whether that is so or not, I am quite sure
wherever there is a large assembly, and wherever a great deal of noise and stir is made
concerning any man there is a great danger of pride. And, mark you, the more proud a man
is the greater will be his fall at last. If people will hold a minister up in their hands
and do not keep hold of him, but let him go, what a fall he will have, poor fellow, when
it is all over. It has been so with many. Many men have been held up by the arms of men,
they have been held up by the arms of praise, and not of prayer; these arms
have become weak, and down they have fallen. I say there is temptation to pride in the
pulpit; but there is no ground for it in the pulpit; there is no soil for pride to grow
on; but it will grow without any. "I have nothing to glorify of." But,
notwithstanding, there often comes in some reason why we should glory, not real, but
apparent to our ownselves.
1. Now, how is it that a true minister feels he has "nothing to glorify of."
First, because he is very conscious of his own imperfections. I think no man will
ever form a more just opinion of himself than he who is called constantly and incessantly
to preach. Some man once thought he could preach, and on being allowed to enter the
pulpit, he found his words did not come quite so freely as he expected, and in the utmost
trepidation and fear, he leaned over the front of the pulpit and said "My friends, if
you would come up here, it would take the conceit out of you all, I verily believe it would
out of a great many, could they once try themselves whether they could preach. It would
take their critical conceit out of them, and make them think that after all it was not
such easy work. He who preaches best feels that he preaches worst. He who has set up some
lofty model in his own mind of what eloquence should be, and what earnest appeal ought to
be, will know how much he falls below it. He, best of all, can reprove himself when he
knows his own deficiency. I do not believe when a man does a thing well, that therefore he
will glory in it. On the other hand, I think that he will be the best judge of his own
imperfections, and will see them most clearly. He knows what he ought to be: other
men do not. They stare, and gaze, and think it is wonderful, when he thinks it is
wonderfully absurd and retires wondering that he has not done better. Every true minister
will feel that he is deficient. He will compare himself with such men as Whitfield, with
such preachers as those of puritanical times, and he will say, "What am I? Like a
dwarf beside a giant, an ant-hill by the side of the mountain." When he retires to
rest on Sabbath-night, he will toss from side to side on his bed, because he feels that he
has missed the mark, that he has not had that earnestness, that solemnity, that death-like
intenseness of purpose which became his position. He will accuse himself of not having
dwelt enough on this point, or for having shunned the other, or not having been explicit
enough on some certain subject, or expanded another too much. He will see his own faults,
for God always chastises his own children at night-time when they have done something
wrong. We need not others to reprove us; God himself takes us in hand, The most highly
honored before God will often feel himself dishonored in his own esteem.
2. Again, another means of causing us to cease from all glory is the fact that God reminds
us that all our gifts are borrowed. And strikingly have I this morning been reminded of
that great truththat all our gifts are borrowed, by reading in a newspaper to
the following effect:
"Last week, the quiet neighborhood of New Town was much disturbed by an occurrence
which has thrown a gloom over the entire neighborhood. A gentleman of considerable
attainment, who has won an honorable degree at the university has for some months been
deranged. He had kept an academy for young gentlemen, but his insanity had obliged him to
desist from his occupation, and he has for some time lived alone in a house in the
neighborhood. The landlord obtained a warrant of ejectment; and it being found necessary
to handcuff him, he was, by sad mismanagement, compelled to remain on the steps, exposed
to the gaze of a great crowd, until at last a vehicle arrived, which conveyed him to the
asylum. One of his pupils (says the paper) is Mr. Spurgeon."
The man from whom I learned whatever of human learning I have, has now become a raving
lunatic in the Asylum! When I saw that, I felt I could bend my knee with humble gratitude
and thank my God that not yet had my reason reeled, not yet had those powers departed. Oh!
how thankful we ought to be that our talents are preserved to us, and that our mind is not
gone! Nothing came nearer and closer to me than that. There was one who had taken all
pains with mea man of genius and of ability; and yet there he is! how fallen! how
fallen! How speedily does human nature come from its high estate and sink below the level
of the brutes? Bless God my friends, for your talents! thank him for your reason! thank
him for your intellect! Simple as it may be, it is enough for you, and if you lost it you
would soon mark the difference. Take heed to yourself lest in aught you say. "This is
Babylon that I have builded;" for, remember, both trowel and mortar must come from
him. The life, the voice, the talent, the imagination, the eloquenceall are the gift
of God; and he who has the greatest gifts must feel that unto God belong the shield of the
mighty, for he has given might to his people, and strength unto his servants.
3. One more answer to this question. Another means whereby God preserves his ministers
from glorying is this: He makes them feel their constant dependance upon the Holy
Ghost. Some do not feel it, I confess. Some will venture to preach without the Spirit
of God, or without entreating it. But I think that no man, who is really commissioned from
on high, will ever venture to do so, but he will feel that he needs the Spirit. Once,
while preaching in Scotland, the Spirit of God was pleased to desert me, I could not speak
as usually I have done. I was obliged to tell the people that the chariot wheels were
taken off; and that the chariot dragged very heavily along. I have felt the benefit of
that ever since. It humbled me bitterly, for I could have crept into a nut-shell, and I
would have hidden myself in any obscure corner of the earth. I felt as if I should speak
no more in the name of the Lord, and then the thought came "Oh! thou art an
ungrateful creature: hath not God spoken by thee hundreds of times? And this once, when he
would not do so wilt thou upbraid him for it? Nay, rather thank him, that a hundred times
he hath stood by thee; and, if once he hath forsaken thee, admire his goodness, that thus
he would keep thee humble." Some may imagine that want of study brought me into that
condition, but I can honestly affirm, that it was not so. I think that I am bound to give
myself unto reading, and not tempt the Spirit by unthought-of effusions. Usually, I deem
it a duty to seek a sermon of my Master and implore him to impress it on my mind, but on
that occasion, I think I had even prepared more carefully then than I ordinarily do, so
that unpreparedness was not the reason. The simple fact was this"The wind
bloweth where it listeth;" and winds do not always blow hurricanes. Sometimes the
winds themselves are still. And, therefore, if I rest on the Spirit, I cannot expect I
should always feel its power alike. What could I do without the celestial influence, for
to that I owe everything. By this thought God humbles his servants. God will teach us how
much we want it. He will not let us think we are doing anything ourselves. "Nay, says
he, "thou shalt have none of the glory. I will take thee down. Art thou thinking 'I
am doing this?' I will show thee what thou art without me "Out goes Samson. He
attacks the Philistines. He fancies he can slay them; but they are on him. His eyes are
out. His glory is gone, because he trusted not in his God, but rested in himself. Every
minister will be made to feel his dependence upon the Spirit; and then will he, with
emphasis, say, as Paul did, "If I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glorify
of."
III. Now comes the third question, with which we are to finish WHAT IS THAT NECESSITY
WHICH IS LAID UPON US TO PREACH THY GOSPEL?
1. First, a very great part of that necessity springs from the call itself: If a
man be truly called of God to the ministry, I will defy him to withhold himself from it. A
man who has really within him the inspiration of the Holy Ghost calling him to preach
cannot help it. He must preach. As fire within the bones, so will that influence be until
it blazes forth Friends may check him, foes criticise him, despisers sneer at him, the man
is indomitable; he must preach if he has the call of heaven. All earth might forsake him;
but he would preach to the barren mountain-tops. If he has the call of heaven, if he has
no congregation, he would preach to the rippling waterfalls, and let the brooks hear his
voice. He could not be silent. He would become a voice crying in the wilderness,
"Prepare ye the way of the Lord." I no more believe it possible to stop
ministers, than to stop the stars of heaven. I think it no more possible to make a man
cease from preaching, if he is really called, than to stop some mighty cataract, by
seeking, with an infant's cup, to drink its waters. The man has been moved of heaven, who
shall stop him? He has been touched of God, who shall impede him? With an eagle's wing he
must fly; who shall chain him to the earth? With seraph's voice he must speak, who shall
stop his lips? Is not his word like a fire within me? Must I not speak if God has placed
it there? And when a man does speak as the Spirit gives him utterance, he will feel a holy
joy akin to heaven; and when it is over he wishes to be at his work again, and longs to be
once more preaching. I do not think young men are called of God to any great work who
preach once a week, and think they have done their duty. I think if God has called a man,
he will impel him to be more or less constantly at it, and he will feel that he must
preach among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ.
2. But another thing will make us preach: we shall feel that woe is unto us if we preach
not the gospel; and that is the sad destitution of this poor fallen world. Oh,
minister of the gospel! stand for one moment and bethink thyself of thy poor fellow
creatures! See them like a stream, rushing to eternityten thousand to their endless
home each solemn moment fly! See the termination of that stream, that tremendous cataract
which dashes streams of souls into the pit! Oh, minister, bethink thyself that men are
being damned each hour by thousands, and that each time thy pulse beats another soul lifts
up its eyes in hell, being in torments; bethink thyself how men are speeding on their way
to destruction, how "the love of many waxeth cold" and "iniquity doth
abound." I say, is there not a necessity laid upon thee? Is it not woe unto thee if
thou preachest not the gospel? Take thy walk one evening through the streets of London
when the dusk has gathered, and darkness veils the people. Mark you not yon profligate
hurrying on to her accursed work? See you not thousands and tens of thousands annually
ruined? Up from the hospital and the asylum there comes a voice, "Woe is unto you if
ye preach not the gospel." Go to that huge place built around with massive walls,
enter the dungeons, and see the thieves who have for years spent their lives in sin. Wend
your way sometimes to that sad square of Newgate, and see the murderer hanged. A voice
shall come from each house of correction, from each prison, from each gallows, saying,
"Woe is unto thee if thou preachest not the gospel." Go thou to the thousand
death-beds, and mark how men are perishing in ignorance, not knowing the ways of God. See
their terror as they approach their Judge, never having known what it was to be saved, not
even knowing the way; and as you see them quivering before their Maker, hear a voice,
"Minister, woe is unto thee if thou preachest not the gospel." Or take another
course. Travel round this great metropolis, and stop at the door of some place where there
is heard the tinkling of bells, chanting and music, but where the whore of Babylon hath
her sway, and lies are preached for truth; and when thou comest home and thinkest of
Popery and Puseyism, let a voice come to thee, "Minister woe is unto thee if thou
preachest not the gospel." Or step into the hall of the infidel where he blasphemes
thy Maker's name; or sit in the theater where plays, libidinous and loose are acted, and
from all these haunts of vice there comes the voice, "Minister, woe is unto thee if
thou preachest not the gospel." And take thy last solemn walk down to the chambers of
the lost; let the abyss of hell be visited, and stand thou and hear
"The sullen groans, the hollow moans,
And shrieks of tortured ghosts."
Put thine ear at hell's gate, and for a
little while list to the commingled screams and shrieks of agony and fell despair that
shall lend thine ear; and as thou comest from that sad place with that doleful music still
affrighting thee, thou wilt hear the voice, "Minister! minister! woe is unto thee if
thou preaches not the gospel." Only let us have these things before our eyes, and we
must preach. Stop preaching! Stop preaching! Let the sun stop shining, and we will
preach in darkness. Let the waves stop their ebb and flow, and still our voice shall
preach the gospel, let the world stop its revolutions, let the planets stay their motion;
we will still preach the gospel. Until the fiery center of this earth shall burst through
the thick ribs of her brazen mountains, we shall still preach the gospel; till the
universal conflagration shall dissolve the earth, and matter shall be swept away, these
lips, or the lips of some others called of God, shall still thunder forth the voice of
Jehovah. We cannot help it. "Necessity is laid upon us, yea woe is unto us if we
preach not the gospel.
Now, my dear hearers, one word with you. There are some persons in this audience who are
verily guilty in the sight of God because they do not preach the gospel. I cannot
think out of the fifteen hundred or two thousand persons now present, within the reach of
my voice, there are none who are qualified to preach the gospel besides myself. I have not
so bad an opinion of you as to conceive myself to be superior in intellect to one half of
you, or even in the power of preaching God's Word: and even supposing I should be, I
cannot believe that I have such a congregation that there are not among you many who have
gifts and talents that qualify you to preach the Word. Among the Scotch Baptists it is the
custom to call upon all the brethren to exhort on the Sabbath morning; they have no
regular minister to preach on that occasion, but every man preaches who likes to get up
and speak. That is all very well, only, I fear, many unqualified brethren would be the
greatest speakers, since it is a known fact, that men who have little to say will often
keep on the longest; and if I were chairman, I should say, "Brother, it is written,
'Speak to edification.' I am sure you would not edify yourself and your wife, you had
better go and try that first, and if you cannot succeed, don't waste our precious
time."
But still I say, I cannot conceive but what there are some here this morning who are
flowers "wasting their sweetness in the desert air, "gems of purest ray
serene," lying in the dark caverns of ocean's oblivion. This is a very serious
question. If there be any talent in the Church at Park Street, let it be developed. If
there be any preachers in my congregation let them preach. Many ministers make it a point
to check young men in this respect. There is my hand, such as it is, to help any one of
you if you think you can tell to sinners round what a dear Savior you have found. I would
like to find scores of preachers among you; would to God that all the Lord's servants were
prophets. There are some here who ought to be prophets, only they are half
afraidwell, we must devise some scheme of getting rid of their bashfulness. I cannot
bear to think that while the devil sets all his servants to work there should be one
servant of Jesus Christ asleep. Young man, go home and examine thyself, see what thy
abilities are, and if thou findest that thou hast ability, then try in some poor humble
room to tell to a dozen poor people what they must do to be saved. You need not aspire to
become absolutely and solely dependent upon the ministry, but if it should please God,
even desire it. He that desireth a bishopric desireth a good thing. At any rate seek in
some way to be preaching the gospel of God. I have preached this sermon especially,
because I want to commence a movement from this place which shall reach others. I want to
find some in my church, if it be possible, who will preach the gospel. And mark you, if
you have talent and power, woe is unto you if you preach not the gospel.
But oh! my friends, if it is woe unto us if we preach not the gospel, what is the woe unto
you if ye hear and receive not the gospel? May God give us both to escape from that woe!
May the gospel of God be unto us the savor of life unto life, and not of death unto death.
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