p. 12 | IMITATE CHRIST by Prof. James Strong, LL.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 7, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 39.

IMITATE CHRIST.

By Prof. James Strong, LL.D.

WHAT, then, is it to be "a good preacher" in the highest sense of that talismatic phrase? This is our most anxious study, our most strenuous endeavor. First of all, midmost of all, last of all, let me sum up the answer in a word: It is to be as nearly as possible like Jesus Christ himself. He was the model preacher; and he is the one great pattern in this as in every other department and particular of Christian character and conduct. This is eminently true for private members of his church, and preëminently the rule for his ministers.

We must study as well as emulate his example; yea, we must minutely and diligently scrutinize and analyze his whole career and behavior, in its every point and method, in order that we may fully understand and appreciate, and thus be prepared thoroughly and successfully to imitate them, so far as they are applicable to our own position and circumstances; and we should never forget that they are apposite, not only in general design, but in almost every particular, to all the varied situations and questions of his followers' lives, in whatever capacity or emergency they are called to act or to suffer. For he is the exemplar man, the masterpiece, and the perfect specimen of humanity itself, the second Adam, who fills even a more federal and universal place in the history and representation of the race than the first Adam did. Especially was he the fulfillment of all types of mediatorship between God and men to which the Christian minister falls heir; and still more particularly he was the one great Ambassador for saving human souls, for whose sake his deportment and words and spirit have been recorded as a guide and encouragement to his deputies for all time.

How did he preach? "Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" his modes and temper and habits in this regard; then go to copy and practice them constantly, exactly, and faithfully, and you cannot fail of achieving, in your measure, his unparalleled results, or his extraordinary popularity. Crowds—especially of the common people, not unmingled, however, with a few of the rich, the learned, and the influential—hung upon his lips and clung to his footsteps, yea, followed him to the cross, to martyrdom, and to glory on high, as well as to virtue, to holiness, and to peace on earth; and as surely as human nature and the wants and woes of mankind are ever essentially the same, so certainly will mortals still flock to hear "the gracious words that proceed out of the mouth" of his humblest imitator and appointee.—Prof. James Strong, LL.D.