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Letter No. 4.
EXT to the presence and power of
of the Divine Spirit in revivals,
there is no phase of the subject of
greater importance than that of
revival preaching. On the char
acter of the preaching depends,
very largely, the results of the
meeting, not only in the numbers
influenced but, what is of greater
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importance still, the genuineness and perma
nency of the work accomplished.
Uppermost in the mind of every revival
preacher—and indeed, of every preacher—•
should be three soul-searching questions. They
have reference to who he is—where he is—
and what he is there for. Who is he? He is
God’s messenger of salvation. Like Paul, he
is “an ambassador for Christ.” He is the
watchman whom God has placed on Zion’s
walls, to warn the sinner of the coming sword.
Where is he? In the temple of the Most
High God. Like Moses of old, he is stand
ing between God, whom he represents, and
lost sinners; dead in sin, and God under the just
condemnation of God’s violated law. He is
God’s guide-board standing at the cross roads
to point men to the only source of refuge.
Earth has no more solemn place than the
pulpit. Man can occupy no more solemn or
responsible position, than when, as a minister
of Jesus Christ and herald of the cross, he
stands up before the people to make known
the way of salvation through Christ’s atoning
blood.
What is he there for? He is there to
“preach the Word.” To reprove, rebuke, ex
hort, with all long-suffering and doctrine. It
is for this that God has called him —and if
God has not called him he had better not be
there at all. He is placed there by God himself
as his human agency to “turn men from sin,
and from the power of Satan unto God.”
Matter and Manner.
The revival preacher should pay special at
tention to both the matter and manner of his
preaching. This can not be too strongly em
phasized. God has not left him to his own
choice in this matter. The terms of the great
commission, the example of Christ and His
apostles, the precepts of Scripture, and the
sublimity of the message itself, all combine to
furnish the plainest and most unequivocal in
struction on this subject.
As to the matter of revival preaching, there
can possibly be no mistake. If the New Testa
ment is of any authority in this matter, then
repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ as a per
sonal Saviour, and obedience to His commands,
should constitute the burden of revival preach
ing. When John, the heaven-sent messenger,
came to proclaim the advent of the gospel
era, the first note that ehoed along the shores
of the Jordan, was repentance. When Christ
stood before the proud and haughty, self-right
eous Pharisees, he put the issue squarely be
fore them, “Repent or perish.” When, at the
great revival in Jerusalem Peter stood up be
fore the people, and under the power of the
Holy Spirit declared the way of life, his theme
was repentance. When Paul stood in the pres
ence of that great school of Greek philosophy
at Athens, unmoved by the glare and glitter of
idolatry, he published the same gospel call to
repentance. And so it was in every place and
under every circumstance —repentance from
sin, faith in Christ as the only Saviour,
sin, and obedience as the evidence of that re
pentance, and salvation by faith, was the bur
den of New Testament preaching.
In thus presenting the gospel message let
the great central thought, around which every
other thought shall cluster, be, “Christ and
Him crucified.” As Paul puts it, “Christ in
REVIVAL MEETINGS- -Revival Preaching
By H. P. FITCH.
The Golden Age for February 13, 1913.
you the hope of glory, whom we preach warn
ing every man, teaching every man, in all wis
dom, that we may present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus.” Man a lost sinner, Christ a
mighty Savir, and a free salvation on the gos
pel terms of repentance and faith in the cru
cified Christ, and soul obedience of the saved
to Christ’s commandments, afford a theme the
grandest that ever filled a human heart, or
tuned an angel’s voice.
Nor is the manner of revival preaching of
much less importance than the subject matter.
Indeed, this as well as the foregoing applies to
all preaching, and should receive the most care
ful consideration of both evangelist and pas
tor.
First —It should be natural. Let the preach
er be himself; and, if he would honor his Mas
ter, never try to ape or imitate anyone else.
If lhere is a man who should receive the sever
est condemnation of every truth loving person,
it is the man who will act a lie in the pulpit,
by trying to make himself some one else than
whom the Lord has made him. God has not
seen fit to confer the same gifts or variety of
talent on all of His servants. He has made
but one Sam Jones or D. L. Moody, or C. H.
Spurgeon. To attempt to imitate any other
man is to make one’s self ridiculous and to
court failure.
Second —It should be plain and pointed. Ex
pediency, as an inducement for keeping back
any truth necessary to the sinner’s salvation,
should never be entertained by the minister
of God. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy
voice like a trumpet, and show mv people their
transgressions, and the house of Jacob their
sins,” was God’s command by Isaiah, and it is
just as necessary now as it was in the days of
that old prophetic preacher. No preacher can
be faithful to his high trust, or stand clear of
the blood of all men, who fails to declare “the
whole counsel of God.”
Third —It should be earnest. The highest
tribute that can be paid to the ambassador of
Jesus Christ is that he is in earnest. He may
not be learned. He may not present a pleasing
personal appearance in the pulpit; but if he
is in earnest —if there is manifest in every
word, and in tone and manner, the fact that
the love of Christ and souls is filling all his
heart, the Holy Spirit will honor the preacher
by impressing the truth upon the hearts and
consciences of the hearers.
Fourth —It should be instructive, as well as
emotional. The gospel deals with both the in
tellect and the heart; hence the preacher who
would do good work in saving souls must
preach to both. Simple religious intellectual
ism never has and never can save a soul and
yet the intellect must comprehend the divine
truths of the gospel before the sinner can intel
ligently believe and receive them. Hence the
preacher should seek to make the way of sal
vation “so plain that the wayfaring man,
though a fool, may not err therein.” A mis
take here may result in the loss of a soul.
Fisth —It should be tender. When Peter
stood before that congregation of wicked Jews
whose hands were red with the blood of the
murdered Christ, he hurled against them the
heaviest shots and sharpst arrows of gospel
truth; but when those same sinners became
penitent, and cried out, “Men and brethren,
what shall we do.” his whole soul went out to
them in tender, loving svmpathv, and with a,
nathos born of his great love for Christ and
lost sinners, he tells them of salvation through
the Christ whom they themselves had slain.
Such must be the attitude of the revival
preacher of today. He deals larsrelv with souls
convicted of sin. and for whom Satan is mak
ing a life and death struggle. Surely, if there
be any tenderness in his nature, it should he
manifested when he is dealing with poor, peni
tent, sin-sick souls seeking salvation through
Christ.
Finally—Anything like a flippant, bombastic,
boastful or sensational style of preaching
should bo avoided at all times, and especially
in revival meetings. Buffoonery should never
have a place in the pulpit. The preacher
should regard his calling too high to indulge
in anything of that kind; but rather with an
earnest, truthful, fender, loving spirit, hold up
Christ as the sinner’s only refuge, intent on the
one great purpose of his soul, to convince peo
ple of sin, and to bring them to Christ, the
sinner’s only Saviour.
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THE WILL OF A KNIGHTLY MAN.
One of the knightliest Christian men who
ever lived in the South, was Col. W. L. L.
Bowen, of Jewell, Ga.
A graduate of Carson and Newman College,
at Jefferson City, in his native Tennessee; a
Confederate soldier, as brave as ever faced the
carnage of battle, and one of the most faith
ful citizens of the Kingdom of God, who ever
blessed a Church with his loyal devotion, Col.
Bowen was the veritable inspiration of the
ideal little manufacturing town where he
lived the greater part of the time since the
war.
The Editor of The Golden Age never had a
truer friend than this great and good man,
and treasures the confidence which Col. Bowen’s
philanthropic will revealed.
Mr. D. A. Jewell, the great-hearted brother
in-law of Col. Bowen, writes to President
Jackson, of Bessie Tift College, as follows:
“Prof. C. 11. S. Jackson, President,
“Forsyth, Ga.
“Dear Sir and Brother: lam enclosing you
certificates of stock for $5,000, as per will of
Col. W. L. L. Bowen. He wills as follows:
SI,OOO to Mercer University, Macon, Ga.; SI,OOO
to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
Louisville, Ky.; the interest of said sums to
be used to aid needy ministerial students to
get an education; SI,OOO to Bessie Tift, For
syth, Ga.; SI,OOO to Carson and Newman Col
lege, Jefferson City, Tenn.; the interest of
which to be used to aid poor, worthy girls to
get an education; SI,OOO to Southern Baptist
S. S. Board, Nashville, Tenn.; the interest of
which to be used for the distribution of Bibles
to the poor who have none.
“The principal of each donation to remain in
tact and be perpetuated under the name of
‘Bowen Fund.’ President C. H. S. Jackson and
W. D. Upshaw, financial secretary of Monroe
College, shall be entrusted with the proper dis
tribution and placement of aforesaid dona
tions.
“Very truly,
“D. A. JEWELL,
“Executor of Will of Col. W. L. L. Bowen.”
How wise the man who leaves to his chil
dren the legacy that he loved God and human
ity, proving it by his gifts while he lived, and
by his bequests after he is gone.
4* 4* 4*
THE TRIAL OF JOHN BARLEYCORN.
Dr. Geo. W. Garner, the cultured and popu
lar pastor of the Baptist Church at Eatonton,
Ga., in renewing his subscription to The Golden
Age. speaks the following cheering words:
“The Golden Age gets better and better all
the time. I like your manly stand for Chris
tian citizenship and everything that makes for
civic righteousness. lam glad we have one pa
per of wide circulation in Georgia that camps
on the trail of John Barleycorn in every issue.
May The Golden Age family be greatly en
larged during the year 1913.
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