_PREACHING_ (iii.).
_Eternal Fulness, overflow to me
Till I, Thy vessel, overflow for Thee;
For sure the streams that make Thy garden grow
Are never fed but by an overflow:
Not till Thy prophets with Thyself run o'er
Are Israel's watercourses full once more._
Again I treat of the sermon. We have looked, my younger Brother and I,
at some main secrets and prescriptions for attractive preaching. What
shall I more say on the subject of the pulpit? In the first place I will
offer a few miscellaneous suggestions, and then come in closing to the
deepest theme of the whole matter--Spiritual Power in Preaching.
NOTES FOR A SERMON-LECTURE.
I address myself to write, soon after delivering to my students, in the
library adjoining my study, a lecture on Preaching. Let me call it
rather, a talk on Sermons, which is a term less grandiose and much more
true; for in fact the discourse has been a most informal series of
remarks and suggestions on topics suggested by a collection of sermons
written for me, and which I now came to give back, annotated, to their
writers. It occurs to me to offer my kind reader a written version of
some of these remarks just made _viv‚ voce_ to my friends. They happen
to touch on a variety of points which are not unimportant in themselves
and also typical of very many more.
For the purposes of the lecture, they have been divided between matters
of form and matters of substance; and I report them, or rather some of
them, in that order.
I. _Remarks on Diction, Style, etc._
(_a_) Take care to "pull the sentences together," to avoid loose and
redundant phrases and words. Why write "_grief and sorrow_," "_fatigued
and tired out_," "_attacks and assaults_"? A subtle intellect may see
distinctions here, but it is too much for me, and, I am sure, for most
plain people in church.
(_b_) Respect the Queen's English. "_The one_ who lives a Christian
life" is scarcely English; say "the man," not "the one." "_Like_ Adam
and Eve walked in Paradise"! This is a serious, though common, piece of
bad grammar. Say, "_Like Adam_, when he walked," but "_As_ Adam
_walked_."
(_c_) Remember that the genius of English eschews a large use of
_connecting words_, particularly in spoken discourse. Not often is a
sentence the better for an "_and_" at the beginning. Many a
"_therefore_" and "_because_" are well away, if you would speak with
freedom and vigour.
AVOID RHETORICAL DICTION.
(_d_) Avoid altogether such touches of expression as characterise verse,
or rhetorical prose. I find in one sermon the sentence, "_Think you_ St
Paul trembled at the prospect?" Please re-write this, and say, "_Do you
think_ St Paul was afraid?" For you certainly would not say, speaking
however gravely, to your friend, "Think you that we shall have a fine
day to-morrow?" Rhetorical phrases rarely give an impression of
practical reality.
(_e_) Do not speak in the pulpit as if you were writing notes for an
edition of the Epistles. What does the labourer (and what do many
hearers more highly educated than he) think when you say, on Rom. v. 1,
that "_weighty manuscript authority gives another reading_"? And what
does he think you mean when you talk about "_SheÙl_"? By the way, when
you quote Scripture in the pulpit, passingly, to a general
congregation, I would advise you to quote not the Revised Version, but
the Authorized, which will surely be "_the_ English Bible" for many long
days yet. Unless you have before you some special difference between the
two Versions, on which you can _stop to speak explicitly_, quote the
familiar (and inimitable) diction of 1611.
PREACH WHAT CAN BE REPORTED.
(_f_) Prepare your sermon, and preach it, so that it shall be _easy to
report_. One sermon here before me would be as hard as possible to
retail at home. It is on Rom. v. 1, and it says some excellent things
upon it. But it brings in holiness of heart where the text speaks only
of acceptance of person, and it mingles the two topics so ingeniously
together that the impression is seriously complicated. Think of the
pious daughter yonder in church, going home to her infirm old mother,
and trying to answer the question, "What did the gentleman preach about
to-night?" Let us do our best to preach sermons which are not only
sound, but portable.
(_g_) Take care to keep the sermon in _tune with the text_. Here is a
manuscript on Psal. v. 12, a verse of exultant joy; but the last
passage of the sermon, the passage which ought to concentrate the whole
message, is full of solemn _warning_. Warn by all means; do not forget
to sound the watchman's trumpet. [Ezek. xxxiii.] But sound it in the
right place.
CUT THE PREFACE SHORT.
(_h_) Here is a sermon sadly spoiled by a _long introduction_. It tells
us much about the circumstances of the inspired writer, but so as to
throw little light on the message of the text. Here is another, on the
wonderfully definite hope of blessedness after death given us in Phil.
i. 21. This also is ruined by its introduction, which truly begins _ab
ovo_, discussing the genesis of man's belief in immortality! That
preface would leave, in the actual delivery of the sermon, about five
minutes for the handling of the precious words, "To depart and to be
with Christ, which is far better." Generally, be shy of much
introduction and preface in the pulpit. I do not mean that we are never
to elucidate connexions and contexts. But, remember limits. Your minutes
are few, ah, so few, for such a Message,--Christ Jesus in His fulness,
for man's need in its depth. Pass quickly through the porch into that
Church.
BE ACCURATE IN STATEMENT.
(_i_) When you refer to _Scripture facts_, be accurate; a slip-shod
habit there may fatally prejudice a not quite friendly hearer who knows
something of the Bible; and it will certainly do no good to _any_
hearer. Here is a sermon on Phil. i. 21, and it speaks of St Paul as
writing to Philippi from his "_dark cell_." But St Luke says that he was
"in his own hired house," [Acts xxviii. 30.] or at worst, "his own hired
rooms." Here again I read of David as returning to "Jerusalem, _the city
of his fathers_." But his fathers had lived and died at Bethlehem; and
Jerusalem was in heathen hands till David himself took it!
2. _Remarks on Points in the Substance of the Sermons._
(_a_) Are you quite sure that the Patriarchs had no anticipation of a
life eternal? Many lecturers, and many editors, now say so. But the
Epistle to the Hebrews says that "they desired a better country, that is
an heavenly" [Heb. xi. 16.]; and that is better evidence for this
purpose than any inferences (or beliefs) of modern "scholarship." True,
the old saints say little explicitly about their hope. But many things
lie deep in a man's faith, and in his experience too, about which, for
various reasons, he may say very little.
REVELATION WAS NOT INTUITION.
(_b_) I do not like this sentence, which says that the later Prophets
had a "_fuller perception_ of" the eternal future than their
predecessors. Not that I blame the phrase in itself; but I dislike its
associations. There runs a strong drift in modern theology, as we all
know, towards the explanation of Scripture by "perception" rather than
by revelation. "The Lord appeared unto me"; "The Lord spake unto me";
say the Prophets, and they appeal occasionally to supernatural
attestation of their assertions. But the modern expository savant, wiser
to be sure than the Prophet, assures us that they arrived at their
messages by observation, by meditation, by development of thought and
character, and practically by nothing different from these things.
Accordingly, their "inspiration" was strictly speaking the same in kind
as that of a Chrysostom, or a Luther, or a Shakespeare. Do not you say
so, or imply that it is so. Do not go for mere company's sake with the
current of naturalistic thought. Sure I am that you are most unlikely,
if you do, to be the instrument of _super_natural _effects_ in your
preaching.
"WHAT IS JUSTIFICATION?"
(_c_) "What is Justification? It is, _the making man just_." Is it
indeed? I should read that sentence with alarm, if I did not know the
writer! Its sentiment is practically Roman Catholic. Moreover, it puts a
meaning on the word in question, contradicted by the common usages of
language; an important consideration when we study a Scriptural
theological term. When I "justify my opinion" I do not _make it right_,
but vindicate it as already right. When the Hebrew judge "justified the
righteous," [Deut. xxv. 1] he did not improve him, but pronounced him
satisfactory to the law. And when God, for Christ's sake, justifies you
who believe in Jesus, He does not in that act make you good; He
pronounces you, for His Son's sake, to be satisfactory to His Law, for
purposes of your personal acceptance.
"WHY DOES FAITH JUSTIFY?"
(_d_) "Why has faith such power to justify? Because, _carried out to its
fullest extent, it implies assimilation_ to its Object." Here again I
should be alarmed, if I did not know the writer's general convictions,
which are sound enough. But this particular sentence again is in full
harmony with Romanist doctrine. And, as a fact, with the Bible open, and
with usages of common language before us, it can easily be exposed as a
confusion of words and thought. Faith, carried out ever so fully, is
just faith still; personal reliance, personal confidence on God in His
Word. That reliance is His appointed (and divinely natural) way for our
reception of Jesus Christ. For our Justification, it receives Christ in
His merits; it does _that_, and that only, and always. For our
Sanctification, it receives Christ in His inward power, by the Holy
Ghost. But faith is just faith, to the end.
(_e_) "We are not _forced_ to receive salvation." Most true. "He
enforceth not the will." But do not forget on the other hand to magnify
the necessity of grace, "preventing grace," [Act. x.] that is to say,
God Himself "working in us _to will_" to receive our salvation. The two
sides of truth are both divine. [Phil. ii. 13.] Do not neglect either,
whether you can harmonize them or not here below.
* * * * *
END OF THE LECTURE.
Such are some specimens of a Saturday morning's talk in our library.
They are taken, just as they come, from notes constructed after the
study of a set of some twenty sermons, written, and then commented upon,
without the slightest thought that any public or permanent use would be
made of the materials thus given. But perhaps the remarks may be in
point to some of my readers all the more because of the unstudied nature
of the materials.
Let me say, before I quite leave this part of my subject, that adverse
criticism was by no means my only work this morning in the lecture-room.
It was my happiness, on the other hand, to commend thankfully many a
clear setting of living truth, and many a sentence of forcible point and
of true beauty, happy omens for future years, in which, if it please
God, "the torch shall be carried on," bright and clear, when we elders
shall be heard no more.[34]
[34] Ungracious as it may seem, I must betray one less pleasant
confidence of such occasions. Sometimes I have had to note in sermon
MSS. a strange neglect of punctuation, and, here and there, a little
aberration from received usages of spelling! No Clergyman ought to think
such matters beneath his notice. His people, some, if not many of them,
will from time to time receive letters or other written messages from
him; these ought to be unmistakably the writing of the educated
gentleman. Is it too much to say also that _the handwriting_ ought to be
clear and easy? It is distressing, certainly to one who has many letters
to read daily, to see how _rare_ such handwriting is now.
"MY CASES OF OLD SERMONS."
But now let me return from this discursive report of a sermon-lecture to
some more central thoughts about the Preaching of the Word. Sacred,
solemn theme! I was made to realize its character in a peculiar way
quite lately, when reading a heart-searching and most instructive essay,
by the Rev. R. Glover, Vicar of St Luke's, West Holloway, entitled, _My
Cases of Old Sermons_.[35] The essay was simply an experienced
preacher's review of many years of pulpit labour, in the light of the
collected and ordered manuscripts which silently represented it. The
writer had much to say, to my great profit, about his methods of
preparation and delivery, and about the pains taken to distribute the
choice of texts widely and impartially over the field of Scripture.
Then he went on to speak of the ascertained spiritual history of some of
those many sermons; the messages to souls which in this or that instance
they had carried; the savour of life unto life, or perhaps, alas, of
death unto death, which had to his knowledge breathed from them. The
impressions left on my mind were, above all others, two; first, the call
to thorough diligence in preparation, if the preacher is to give his
account with joy; and then, the indescribable solemnity and greatness of
the work of a true pastor-preacher.
[35] In _The Churchman_ of August, 1891.
*BE A PREACHER INDEED.
I may seem to reiterate too much, but I _must_ say again, with new
emphasis, to my younger Brother, resolve to be a preacher indeed, by the
grace of God. Do not let secondary things, however good, distort your
attention from that supremely sacred commission, "Preach the Word; be
instant, in season, out of season[36] [2 Tim. iv. 2.]; reprove, rebuke,
exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine. _For_," the Apostle
significantly proceeds, "the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine." Therefore, an age impatient of thorough Scriptural
preaching is the very age in which to seek, in wisdom and courage, to
make much of it. Do not let organization spoil your preaching-work. Do
not let current events spoil it. Do not let elaboration of ritual spoil
it. Do not let organist and choir rule over you, and claim for music the
precious moments called for by the Word.
[36] That is, irrespective of _your own_ convenience.
* * * * *
"THE DIRECTORY."
Let me present to my reader, in this last chapter, an extract from an
old book which however may be new to him. The book is not one which as a
whole I greatly love; how could I? It is that sternly-imposed substitute
for the Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as the Parliamentary
Directory of 1645; the exact title is, _A Directory for the Publique
Worship of God in the Three Kingdomes_.[37] Its associations are
altogether with an unhappy time, in which it was a seriously penal
offence, at least in theory, to use the Prayer Book even at a sick
friend's bedside. Yet great men of God had a hand in the making of the
Directory; and their words are well worth the reading. In particular, I
find in the volume one passage, full of golden wisdom, a precious
message to all Christian preachers. It is the section which I now quote
exactly as it first appeared, and which is entitled
[37] It is printed in W.K. Clay's _Book of Common Prayer Illustrated_.
Parker, 1841.
"OF THE PREACHING OF THE WORD.
*THE DIRECTORY ON PREACHING.
"Preaching of the Word, being the power of God unto Salvation, and one
of the greatest and most excellent Works belonging to the Ministry of
the Gospell, should bee so performed, that the Workman need not bee
ashamed, but may save himself, and those that heare him.
"It is presupposed (according to the Rules for Ordination) that the
Minister of Christ is in some good measure gifted for so weighty a
service, by his skill in the Originall Languages, and in such Arts and
Sciences as are handmaids unto Divinity, by his knowledge in the whole
Body of Theology, but most of all in the holy Scriptures, having his
senses and heart exercised in them above the common sort of Beleevers;
and by the illumination of Gods Spirit, and other gifts of edification,
which (together with reading and studying of the Word) he ought still to
seek by Prayer, and an humble heart, resolving to admit and receive any
truth not yet attained, when ever God shall make it known unto him. All
which hee is to make use of, and improve, in his private preparations,
before hee deliver in publike what he hath provided.
CHOICE OF THE TEXT.
"Ordinarily, the subject of his Sermon is to be some Text of Scripture,
holding forth some principle or head of Religion; or suitable to some
speciall occasion emergent; or hee may goe on in some Chapter, Psalme,
or Booke of the holy Scripture, as hee shall see fit.
"Let the Introduction to his Text be brief and perspicuous, drawn from
the Text itself, or context, or some parallel place, or generall
sentence of Scripture.
"If the Text be long (as in Histories and Parables it sometimes must be)
let him give a briefe summe of it; if short, a Paraphrase thereof, if
need be: In both, looking diligently to the scope of the Text, and
pointing at the chief heads and grounds of Doctrine, which he is to
raise from it.
HOW THE TEXT IS TO BE HANDLED.
"In Analysing and dividing his Text, he is to regard more the order of
matter, then of words; and neither to burden the memory of the hearers
in the beginning with too many members of Division, nor to trouble their
minds with obscure terms of Art.
"In raising Doctrines from the Text, his care ought to bee, First, that
the matter be the truth of God. Secondly, that it be a truth contained
in or grounded on that Text, that the hearers may discern how God
teacheth it from thence. Thirdly, that he chiefly insist upon those
Doctrines which are principally intended, and make most for the
edification of the hearers.
"The Doctrine is to be expressed in plaine termes; or if any thing in it
need explication, is to bee opened, and the consequence also from the
Text cleared. The parallel places of Scripture confirming the Doctrine
are rather to bee plaine and pertinent, then many, and (if need bee)
somewhat insisted upon, and applyed to the purpose in hand.
"The Arguments or Reasons are to bee solid; and, as much as may bee,
convincing. The illustrations, of what kind soever, ought to bee full of
light, and such as may convey the truth into the Hearers heart with
spirituall delight.
"If any doubt, obvious from Scripture, Reason, or Prejudice of the
Hearers, seem to arise, it is very requisite to remove it, by
reconciling the seeming differences, answering the reasons, and
discovering and taking away the causes of prejudice and mistake.
Otherwise, it is not fit to detain the hearers with propounding or
answering vaine or wicked Cavils, which as they are endlesse, so the
propounding and answering of them doth more hinder than promote
edification.
"Hee is not to rest in generall Doctrine, although never so much cleared
and confirmed, but to bring it home to speciall use, by application to
his hearers: Which albeit it prove a worke of great difficulty to
himselfe, requiring much prudence, zeale, and meditation, and to the
naturall and corrupt man will bee very unpleasant; yet hee is to
endeavour to perform it in such a manner that his auditors may feele
the Word of God to be quick and powerfull, and a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart; and that if any unbeleever or
ignorant person bee present, hee may have the secrets of his heart made
manifest, and give glory to God.
HOW THE MESSAGE IS TO BE APPLIED.
"In the Use of Instruction or information in the knowledge of some
truth, which is a consequence from his Doctrine, he may (when
convenient) confirm it by a few firm arguments from the Text in hand,
and other places in Scripture, or from the nature of that Common place
in Divinity, whereof that truth is a branch.
"In Confutation of false Doctrines, he is neither to raise an old
Heresie from the grave, nor to mention a blasphemous opinion
unnecessarily; but if the people be in danger of an errour, he is to
confute it soundly, and endeavour to satisfie their judgements and
consciences against all objections.
"In exhorting to Duties, he is, as he seeth cause, to teach also the
meanes that help to the performance of them.
"In Dehortation, Reprehension, and publique Admonition (which require
speciall wisdome) let him, as there shall be cause, not only discover
the nature and greatnesse of the sin, with the misery attending it, but
also shew the danger his hearers are in to be overtaken and surprised by
it, together with the remedies and best way to avoyd it.
"In applying Comfort, whether generall against all tentations, or
particular against some speciall troubles or terrours, he is carefully
to answer such objections, as a troubled heart and afflicted spirit may
suggest to the contrary.
"It is also sometimes requisite to give some Notes of tryal (which is
very profitable, especially when performed by able and experienced
Ministers, with circumspection and prudence, and the Signes cleerely
grounded on the Holy Scripture) whereby the Hearers may be able to
examine themselves, whether they have attained those Graces, and
performed those duties to which he Exhorteth, or be guilty of the sin
Reprehended, and in danger of the judgments Threatened, or are such to
whom the Consolations propounded doe belong; that accordingly they may
be quickened and excited to Duty, humbled for their Wants and Sins,
affected with their Danger, and strengthened with Comfort, as their
condition upon examination shall require.
"And, as he needeth not alwayes to prosecute every Doctrine which lies
in his Text, so is he wisely to make choice of such Uses, as by his
residence and conversing with his flocke, he findeth most needfull and
seasonable: and, amongst these, such as may most draw their soules to
Christ, the Fountaine of light, holinesse and comfort.
"This method is not prescribed as necessary for every man, or upon every
Text; but only recommended, as being found by experience to be very much
blessed of God, and very helpful for the people's understandings and
memories.
IN WHAT SPIRIT THE PREACHER IS TO WORK.
"But the Servant of Christ, whatever his Method be, is to perform his
whole Ministery;
"1. _Painfully_, not doing the work of the Lord negligently.
"2. _Plainly_, that the meanest may understand, delivering the truth,
not in the entising words of mans wisdome, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power, least the Crosse of Christ should be made of none
effect: abstaining also from an unprofitable use of unknown Tongues,
strange phrases, and cadences of sounds and words, sparingly citing
sentences of Ecclesiasticall, or other humane Writers, ancient or
moderne, be they never so elegant.
"3. _Faithfully_, looking at the honour of Christ, the conversion,
edification and salvation of the people, not at his own gains or glory:
keeping nothing back which may promote those holy ends, giving to every
one his own portion, and bearing indifferent respect unto all, without
neglecting the meanest, or sparing the greatest in their sins.
"4. _Wisely_, framing all his Doctrines, Exhortations, and especially
his Reproofs, in such a manner as may be most likely to prevaile,
shewing all due respect to each mans person and place, and not mixing
his own passion or bitternesse.
"5. _Gravely_, as becometh the Word of God, shunning all such gesture,
voice and expressions as may occasion the corruptions of men to despise
him and his Ministry.
"6. _With loving affection_, that the people may see all coming from his
Godly zeale, and hearty desire to doe them good. And
DOCTRINE AND LIFE.
"7. _As taught of God_, and perswaded in his own heart, that all that he
teacheth, is the truth of Christ; and walking before his flock as an
example to them in it; earnestly, both in private and publique,
recommending his labours to the blessing of God, and watchfully looking
to himselfe and the flock whereof the Lord hath made him overseer. So
shall the Doctrine of truth be preserved uncorrupt, many soules
converted, and built up, and himselfe receive manifold comforts of his
labours even in this life, and afterward the Crown of Glory laid up for
him in the world to come.
"Where there are more Ministers in a Congregation than one, and they of
different guifts, each may more especially apply himselfe to Doctrine or
Exhortation, according to the guift wherein he most excelleth, and as
they agree between themselves."
SPIRITUAL POWER IN PREACHING.
I have little to say after the recitation of this passage of pregnant
and solemn counsel. That little shall be given to a supreme aspect of
the whole subject; I mean, Spiritual Power in Preaching. Who that knows
the Lord, and contemplates the preacher's work, does not long for
Spiritual Power? By that longing he means no ambitious wish to be
remarkable, nor any unwholesome craving to be a leader in scenes of
religious excitement. He means the deep desire to be an effectual
messenger of his Master; to be the living channel of the Holy Spirit's
energy in His converting, sanctifying, strengthening, perfecting work.
He knows that it is possible to be truly orthodox, and yet not to be
this; to be eloquent, to be impressive, to be impassioned, and yet not
to be this; to be unimpeachably truthful, reasonable, intellectually
convincing, and yet all the while not to be this. How shall he be a
vehicle of spiritual power?
THE OPEN SECRET.
The Scriptural answer is very simple, but it goes deep. If a man would
have spiritual power with men, and prevail, he must be real with his
Lord. What he says, he must first know, he must first live. As regards
HIM who is at once his Master and his Gospel, he must indeed "_know_
whom he has believed," [2 Tim. i. 10.] and, in calm but entire
simplicity, "_submit himself_ under His hands." Granted a true creed,
and a humble faith in its Subject, he must, in quiet reality, "yield
himself unto God," if he would be used by Him. Observe the Apostle's
phrase; "Yield yourselves," [Greek: parastÍsate heautous]: not, "yield
to God" (though that is implied), but, "yield _yourselves_, hand
yourselves over, to God," as you would hand over a tool, a weapon [Rom.
vi. 13.]. And another aspect of the same thing appears in the same
Apostle's later words: "_If a man_ _purge himself_ of these, he _shall
be a vessel_ unto honour, sanctified (to), and meet for, the Master's
use," [Greek: hÍgiasmenon euchrÍston tÙ DespotÍ]. [2 Tim. ii. 21.]
The deepest secret of spiritual power, in God's sense of the phrase,
lies there. Let the man be watchful over his Scriptural creed, and let
him discipline his life, and let him toil in his study, and among his
people. None of these things can be spared; they are all vital. But the
central secret, which they as it were enclose and protect, lies in the
words _Surrender in faith_. And the Christian man's heart must be its
own inquisitor, before God, in the inquiry after the point, or points,
where you, where I, need to make that surrender for ourselves.
In the void thus left, in the chasm thus cut deep into our ambitions,
into our self-love, the mighty Spirit in His tranquil fulness will
spring up. And then, whether we know it or not, we Ministers of the Word
shall assuredly be vehicles of spiritual power, to our Lord's praise.
* * * * *
FAREWELL.
So let me close these fragmentary words spoken "to my younger Brethren."
May God's mercy be upon the writer. Upon the readers, whom he loves in
the Lord, may grace and peace come every hour and day, in secret, in
society, in holy ministration of Word and Ordinance. And in due time,
when they are no longer juniors but, if the Lord will, veterans and
leaders in the work, may they in turn pass on the message to those who
follow, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
"CHRISTIANITY is so great and surprising in its nature that, in
preaching it to others, I have no encouragement but in the
belief of a continued divine operation. It is no difficult
thing to change a man's opinions. It is no difficult thing to
attach a man to my person and notions. It is no difficult thing
to convert a proud man to spiritual pride, or a passionate man
to passionate zeal for some religious party. But to bring a man
to love God, to love the law of God while it condemns him, to
loathe himself before God, to tread the earth under his feet,
to hunger and thirst after God in Christ, and after the mind
that was in Christ, this is impossible. But God has said it
shall be done; and bids me go forth and preach, that by me, as
His instrument, He may effect these great ends; and therefore I
go."
CECIL.
FORDINGTON PULPIT:
A PREACHER'S WEEKDAY THOUGHTS,
_Written, in 1878, in the Church of the Author's Baptism, and where he
first Ministered as his Father's Curate._
Many voices yester-even
Made these walls and arches ring
With their high-sung hopes of Heaven,
And the glories of its King;
Now my footfall sounds alone
On the aisle's long path of stone,
Save that yonder from the loft,
With a solemn tone and soft,
Beating on with muffled shock,
Conscience-waking, speaks the clock.
Holy scene, and dear as holy,
Let me ponder thee this hour,
Not in aimless melancholy,
But in quest of Heaven-given power;
Seeking here to win anew
Contrite love and purpose true;
Near the Font whose dew-drops cold
Fell upon my brow of old,
Near the well-remember'd seat
Set beside my Mother's feet;
Near the Table where I bent
At that earliest Sacrament.
Let me, through this narrow door,
Climb the Pulpit's steps once more.
Blessed place! the Master's Word,
Child and man, I hence have heard;
Awful place! for hence, in turn,
I have taught, so slow to learn.
To the silence now to hearken
Here I mount and stand alone,
While the spaces round me darken
And the Church is all my own;
While the sun's last glories fall
From the window of the tower,
Tracing slow their parting hour
On the stones of floor and wall.
Seems a secret Voice to thrill
All the dusky air so still;
Turns a soul-compelling gaze
On me from the sunset haze:
Sure the eternal Shepherd's hand
Beckons me awhile apart,
Bids me in His presence stand
While He looks me through the heart.
Sinful preacher, ask again
In this nearness of thy Lord,
How to HIM has rung thy strain,
When it seem'd to speak His Word.
'Midst thy brethren's listening numbers
Hast thou felt, with heart sincere,
How, in thought that never slumbers,
This great Listener stood more near?--
Listening to His own high Name
Spoken by His creature's breath;
How from out the Heavens He came,
How He pour'd His soul in death,
How He triumph'd o'er the grave,
How He lives on high to save,
How He yet again shall come,
Lord of glory and of doom.
Has He found thy message true?
Truth, and truly spoken too?
Utter'd with a purpose whole,
From a self-forgetful soul,
Bent on nothing save the fame
Of the dear redeeming Name,
And the pardon, life, and bliss
Of the souls He bought for His?
Think!--But ah, from thoughts like these
Hasten, sinner, to thy knees.
_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, La., London and Aylesbury._
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