Preach the Gospel

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 15.

Preach the Gospel.

PREACH the gospel! To do it, what a work—the greatest, noblest work of man! The sermons must be full of thought—bold, sublime, burning, far-reaching, the greatest of all thought—yet so plain as to bring it within the reach of the untutored intellect.

The dead-level of common-place stirs no heart, moves no soul heavenward, and yet it is the highest level that some seem to reach. Their platitudes and repetitions weaken, sicken, disgust. Oh these poverty-stricken, no-thought sermons!

Wendell Phillips once said of a certain clergyman: "He scrupulously kept the Sabbath, never giving the brains of his people any work on that day."

Avoid, too, the "inexpressible masterpiece of sky-painting," flights into regions of doubtful existence, a parade of knowing everything that is knowable. One poor hearer tried hard to understand the sermon, but gave up, exclaiming, "It must be great, but I can't understand it."

Preach the gospel, we say; preach it on the level to reach, elevate and save humanity, for whom it was designed.—Christian Standard.