Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1911 — Bible Teaching as a Function of the Preacher [ARTICLE]

Bible Teaching as a Function of the Preacher

«gfA»ITH the normal man, sin VokW apart, the problem of natmi ural development would be the simplest possible. The truth of the Bible would drop into the mind of the .living man eager to receive it, and lead him right, on and np to his chief end, in completeness of life in God. Probably much of the ablest of purely intellectual preaching of the day makes fatal failure in assuming that it has to deal with the normal man in this wise, and that ita end can be attained by mere natural development. But practically the Bible preacher as teacher has to do, not with the normal man, but with man the sinner. That entirely changes the problem. Sin means obedience lost, conforming to environment lost, life lost, God lost. It means disorder and wreck in the soul, in the life, in society. The aim of Instruction must be to bring man back to obedjence and life; to bring about the moral and spiritual renovation and reconstruction of the sinner, and to save hfan from sin. While, therefore, the preacher is not to lose sight of the natural development of what la normal in man, he must, in presenting the teachings of God’s word, aim supremely at the supernatural transformation of his hearers. The natural is to be barely the point of departure in reaching out toward the supernatural; the development merely an attendant upon the transformation. With the nature all right nature would alone be needed for development, but with the nature perverted, something more and essentially different, becomes necessary. For Real Effectiveness. Now, the effectiveness of Bible teaching, in preaching to men as sinners, must always depend upon certain principles—too often neglected or forgotten—but that should be clearly defined and firmly grasped. If it be asked. What are these principles, it may be readily shown that they naturally connect themselves (1) with the teacher himself as regards the preparation for .this task; (2) with those who are taught, as having to do with their condition and needs; (3) with the Bible remedy for sin, as furnished in the redemption by Christ or (4) with the Holy Spirit, who appears as the author of the regenerated life. These points decide the line of thought to be followed in the present discussion, and suggest the principles upon which effectiveness in Bible teaching to sinners must depend. First Principle—Let the preacher as teacher, first of all, grasp the situation, and master the needs of man as a lost sinner, and let those needs overmaster his own soul. Bultable Teachings. Second Principle—Having hlmgeif mastered the situation, let the preacher as teacher, in the prosecution of his aim of seeking and winning the lost, press home with absolute conviction the Bible teachings suited mod intended to rouse the sinner to his lost and hopeless condition in sin. Third Principle—Let the preacher, when the why has been thus prepared, lay all stress upon the Bible doctrines concerning the remedy—salvation by the cross, pressing the sinner always to immediate decision for Christ Fourth Prinicple—Let the preacher as teacher of truth for salvation, while seeking the most perfect adapts-, tion of means to that end, not neglect the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and his saving work. And so the outcome! of the whole process of the preacher’s instruction of the sinful man is not a natural evolutlon into the Christian life, bat an Instruction into it by a supernatural transformation.—Dr. D. 8. Gregory, in Homiletic Review.