The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 54, No. 23
REFUTATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF INSTANTANEOUS SANCTIFICATIONPage 1
Earlier text: REFUTATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF INSTANTANEOUS SANCTIFICATION“‘VETERAN LAYMAN,’ through the Advocate, has been amusing me in several articles to theological students and ministers, but religious humor has its bounds; so I found when reading his article in the Advocate of Sept. 10. He appears like some other laymen I have met, who know all about preaching, but cannot do it. I fear the pew may sometimes meddle too freely with the pulpit. Veteran Layman cannot control the time unless he controls the thoughts and the composition of a sermon. Least of all is a preacher similar to a race-horse, whose genuine qualities are definable by a watch. Politicians, lawyers, doctors, are not bound by arbitrary limitations of time. The ministerial craft is the most oppressed and persecuted of any. A faithful minister, if he takes more than a half hour out of one hundred and sixty-eight, or thirty minutes out of 10,080 minutes of a whole week, is criticised in the nursery, dining-room, and lyceum, till the children and the old almost despise him. ‘He is too tedious.’” Brevity is not the most essential quality in a sermon; it is hardly one of the essential qualities. It is an error to lay so much stress upon it as many hearers and even some ministers do. Certainly a large proportion of the sermons that are preached are too long; but the fault most often is less in the length of time occupied than in the matter and structure of the discourse. It is not a good fit to the time. The shortest sermon may be too long if it has no thoughts; a comparatively long one may be too short, if, while it is well constructed, it does not sufficiently develop its central thought. It is by the rule implied in these words, not by the clock, that sermons should be measured. Rather than ask that they all be short, we should desire that they be compact and complete. A sermon, like every other good work, is made for a purpose. Every one has, or should have, some definite object in view. It may be to enforce or illustrate some truth, to test some article of faith, to instruct, to cheer, to rebuke, to exhort, to awaken. Whatever the object, the discourse ought to be constructed with especial reference to it. Whatever bears upon the object, whatever will help to make the fundamental truth more plain, should be contained in it. Whatever does not conduce to these ends should be left out. It should be long enough to present all the thoughts and illustrations necessary to make its object clear, and impress itself with force upon the hearer; if it is not, the whole purpose of the discourse will be sacrificed to brevity, and it might as well have never been delivered. When the object has been presented with the desirable clearness, it is then time to stop preaching. All elaboration, repetition, exhortation, after that, is worse than useless. It neutralizes the effect of what has been said, and sends the hearers away with vague impressions and confused recollections of high-sounding words, rather than the strong convictions or distinct apprehensions which it ought to give them. A preacher may profitably shorten his sermon by pruning it of trivial thoughts, superfluous words, repetitions, and figures which carry no force of illustration; but he ruins it if he leaves out any important thought in the chain, or if he fails to bring it to its logical conclusion. Hence we are led to pronounce the law to be that the length of the sermon must be determined by its substance. Dean Swift’s celebrated charity sermon: ‘He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord. My hearers, here you have the terms of the loan. If you like the security, down with the dust’—was long enough. Other sermons have been preached, and are preached still, in numbers, in which two hours are occupied with profit and delight to minister and hearers. Often after such a discourse those who are attentive may go away feeling that they could have sat still longer under the preacher’s words, and not been tired. In the face of these instances, every one may recall occasions on which he has found himself wearied before even the normal half hour has expired. A sermon is very apt to be too long if a minister does not thoroughly understand his subject. In that case, it is impossible for him to present it clearly. Speaking without aim, ever striving to reach some point which keeps in advance of him, he is almost certain to continue till he and his hearers are quite tired. A very good discourse is often stretched out unreasonably because the preacher does not have his thoughts well arranged, or because he lacks felicity of expression. Dissatisfied with what he has said, or with the way in which he has said it, he will exhaust himself, the congregation, and the hour, with repetitions and explanations, with new efforts to resolve the confusion into which he must fall, under such circumstances, with the effect of only making matters worse. Another man prides himself upon being an extemporaneous preacher. He relies upon the impulse of the moment. He goes into the pulpit and expresses his thoughts as they occur to him, without definite object or arrangement. He never knows when he is done, because he really has nothing in hand to finish, and is certain to be too long, by the watch and by every other criterion. The remedy for the fault of these classes of preachers is in study; study of the subject of the discourse; of the thoughts to be presented, and their logical order, and of the language in which they are to be uttered. Another class of preachers are full of their subject; they know well what they are to say; but they are fond of presenting their thoughts each in several lights; or they are gifted with a dazzling richness of illustration and imagery. Much may be said in favor of these qualities when they are employed in moderation. It is the excess of them that is objectionable; but even those who have them in excess are not always tedious. They are too often so, however. The remedy for their fault is restraint. The minister who goes into a pulpit with a clear idea of what he is to say, and of the object he is to attain, or the effect he is to produce by saying it; who has carefully arranged his thoughts so that they shall bear with most force upon each other, and in such a way as to develop the central idea most distinctly; who clothes them in appropriate language and avoids unnecessary phrases, will seldom be found too long if he keeps within any reasonable limits. In no case ought he to be forced or tempted to cut short the discussion of a topic before he has finished it, as though it could be measured like cloth, or to omit anything necessary to round it off completely, as though it could be made a thing of lattice work. Sometimes a theme is presented which cannot be properly disposed of in the extreme time allowed for a sermon. It may be treated in two or more discourses, each of which should be a whole, yet in a certain sense connected with the others.—Advocate. It is said that in Philadelphia, more than any other city, funerals have degenerated into fashion and fine art. Until within a year or two, every house in which a death occurred was closed for twelve months, and each window draped with black. Nothing could be more lugubrious than the aspect of the streets. This custom has fallen partially into disuse, but the fashionable undertaker still maintains his absolute sway. The moment that the breath is out of the body, he takes possession of the house, mourners, corpse and all, and orders every detail to suit his inexorable rules. The most agonizing grief must conduct itself in harmony with his pomp of mutes, flowers, plumes, etc. A story is told of a young fellow, a sincere mourner for his father, who had become utterly disgusted by the mockery of woe about him, when the undertaker, while arranging the coffin, applied his handkerchief to his eyes. His assistants at once followed his example. The young man tapped him on the shoulder. “None of that!” he said, sharply, “none of that.” The man of woe instantly put his handkerchief in his pocket, and turned on him, smiling blandly. “Just as you please, Mr. C., just as you please. Some families prefer it, and some do not.” The extent to which fashionable folly has been carried in funerals has lately caused a wholesome reaction in that city. In families of the highest culture, the dead are put out of sight with absolute quiet and simplicity, attended to the grave only by those who loved them best. It would be well if Boston and New York would also follow the dictates of good taste and good feeling in this matter. Among the ignorant poor, the desire to make a parade of a funeral is well-nigh universal. A poor woman died lately of starvation. A subscription was started for the children, and the wealthier neighbors, shocked into kindly feeling, gave liberally. But the whole fund was spent in hacks, candles, high mass, etc. “Who would begrudge a poor soul that had starved to death a decent buryin’?” Doctor Le Moyne, who built a cremation-furnace in Pennsylvania, was, it is said, prompted to do so by his disgust at the vulgar display of fashionable funerals, and his desire to provide a cheap and simple mode of disposing of the dead.—Youth’s Companion. SAYINGS OF MARTIN LUTHER, FOR MINISTERS AND OTHERS.
“There is no sermon that can improve like a gospel sermon.” “He who seeks a comfortable life should not be a teacher of religion.” “Do thou preach, and let God convert souls.” “The gain of souls must animate the preacher, or he is not a true preacher.” “Three things preserve the church,—faithful teaching, diligent prayer, and patient suffering.” “The word of God must be preached in its purity.” “In order that a man may lift up his head toward Heaven, he must find nothing on earth whereon to lean it.” “Be not double-tongued, and have not two hearts.” “A good preacher must be able to compress a sermon into two or three words, and also out of one flower to make a whole meadow.” “Form your judgment not from the opinion of the world, but from the Word.” “The life of a Christian must be a warfare, and ministers of the Word must lead the army.” “I earnestly entreat you to contemplate simple sayings and narratives recorded in the Bible.” “Three properties belong to a good prayer: first, the laying hold upon the promise; second, an anxious feeling concerning what is asked for; third, thankfulness and confession. The prayer also should be diligent, increasing, untiring, ever withstanding suspicion, unbelief, and despair.” “He is the best Christian who has most love; after that, he who has most faith.” “Knowledge without works is like a tree without fruit.” “To stand still is to go back.”—Selected. “A little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts and almonds.” Gen. 43:11. —By the streets of by-and-by one arrives at the house of never. —The Scriptures have lights in them that are not seen by common gazers. —The star that sets may rise again, but the star that falls is forever lost. —A word unspoken is a sword in the scabbard; a word uttered is a sword in another’s hand.—Quarles. —Do not take away from any one opinions that render him happy, if you cannot give him better ones. —Study pure and holy walking, if you would have your confidence firm, and have boldness and joy in God. —The man who when he is alone and without witnesses is the same as when he is in public, is nearly always an honest man. —Engage not hastily, as a party, in a difference between others, but reserve thyself impartial and unengaged, that thou mayest moderate between them. —You can no more exercise your reason if you live in constant dread of ridicule, than you can enjoy your life if you live in constant fear of death. —By doing good with his money, a man, as it were, stamps the image of God upon it, and makes it pass current for the merchandise of Heaven. —Value no man for his opinion, but esteem him according as his life corresponds with the rules of piety and justice; a man’s actions, not his conceptions, render him valuable. The history of the world teaches no lesson with more impressive solemnity than this; that the only safe guide of a great intellect is a pure heart; that evil no sooner takes possession of the heart, than folly commences the conquest of the mind.—C. C. Bonney. CHRISTIAN UNION.
By James White
There is no sentiment in all the New Testament more strongly expressed than that of Christian union. While Christ was with his disciples, their leader and teacher, he secured to them unity and love. And when about to leave them without a visible leader, to go up to his Father, we should expect his great yearning heart of love would go out in petition for them in words expressive of true Christian union. “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.” John 17: 11. “I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” Verses 15-17. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” Verses 20, 21. Accepting the testimony of the apostles as expressing the mind of Christ as breathed forth in earnest petition for the unity of his church, we have in Paul’s epistles to the churches at Rome and at Corinth a more complete idea of the subject: “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 15: 5, 6. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1: 10. Paul exhorts to unity in the high “name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” which means more than kindly feeling toward those who hold opposing views. It reaches almost infinitely beyond the insipid idea of modern times, that the highest type of Christian unity is expressed in the words, “We will differ in love,” and embraces a oneness such as exists between the Father and the Son, expressed by the apostle as being “perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment.” This is the unity taught by the first apostles of Christ. For this they labored, and to this they exhort Christians of each successive generation since they wrote. But, oh, unhappy church of Christ! that she passed under the shades and into the mists of the great apostasy, down into the wilderness of papal corruptions of the word, where she gathered to herself traditions and superstitions, which even the power of the great Reformation did not tear completely off. What a pity that the reformers left off reforming! The Lutherans stopped with Luther; the Calvinists, with Calvin; the Methodists, with Wesley; and so on, bringing to the present century, as represented in nearly all our cities and towns, the various denominations, presenting a grand babel of confusion of creeds, church covenants, articles of faith, and different forms of church organization and government, for which there is not a single apology in all the New Testament. But, thank God, above all this Babylonish chatter the Pauline note of more than eighteen centuries ago rings forth in all its entreating earnestness, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1: 10. Nothing short of the mind of Christ, as seen in the prayer for his church and as expressed in the earnest pleadings of Paul, is the full measure of Christian unity. Christ prays for this. The New Testament pleads for this in plainest terms, and the callings and gifts placed in the Christian church were designed to secure this state of complete unity. “And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Eph. 4: 11-13. Just how this complete state of unity is to be perfected, when it will be reached, and who are to be embraced in it, it is not the design of this article to set forth. But the writer may be allowed to state that one of the happiest hopes that has cheered him on in battling for Bible truth for more than a quarter of a century, has been this, that pure truth that can be read out of the Bible will call forth a people who shall be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ, looking for the coming of the Son of man. Then will the two ends of the Christian age be brought round to meet, when our adorable Redeemer shall come the second time and find his waiting people standing in unity and in power, such as was the crown of glory that adorned the church at his ascension. We hold it to be wrong to differ with others where there are no good reasons to differ. Once an earnest sister asked the writer’s opinion as to the importance of all the church coming to the unity of the faith. Being apprised of the fact that this good woman was dealing in small matters which could be no test of Christian character, we answered, that on all important questions, such as keeping the commandments of God, we thought it very necessary that the church should stand in unity; but in such matters as whether our brethren should plant white beans or striped beans in their gardens we did not regard unity important. Paul, standing at a period when outward circumcision had ceased, meets the mistaken zeal of those who would still urge it upon the church, with these words, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God is something.” Whiting’s translation of 1 Cor. 7: 19. “If thou wilt enter into life,” says the Son of God, “keep the commandments.” In the divine law, and in the gospel of the divine Son, are the tests of Christian character. And it is with an ill grace that those who have been splitting up into petty sects during the nineteenth century over forms of church government, matters of expediency, free and restricted salvation, trinity and unity, whether we may sing any good hymn in church or only the Psalms of David, and other matters which constitute no test of fitness for Heaven, now pounce upon us, and display any amount of religious horror, simply because we regard strict conformity to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus the only true test of Christian character.