We showed from the pulpit, fully thirty years ago, that the answer
of Peter to the three thousand on Pentecost, was not the same as the
answer of Ananias, to Saul, of Tarsus, and the answer to Saul was not
the same as the answer of Paul, to the Philippian jailer, and gave the
reason for the difference. But that was not a difference between _then_
and _now_, but difference in view of the difference in the conditions
of persons at the _same time_. The same difference is observed now,
by all intelligent preachers, where they find the difference in the
conditions of persons. If a man is a believer, they do not command him
to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” If he has repented, they do not
command him to repent. Or, if he has been immersed, they do not command
him to be immersed; but to go on and unite with others who have been
immersed into Christ, and observe all things, whatever the Lord has
commanded. But attention to this is no difference between _then_ and
_now_, nor did the preacher, thirty years ago, fail to observe this
difference, any more than now. On the contrary, the preachers then
generally understood this better than the preachers do now.
We noticed the articles in question, carefully, to see the difference
in the condition of things _now_, demanding the different treatment,
but in vain; we did not see it. The plain state of the case is, that
there is no _general difference_, and we now need the _same gospel_,
presented in the _same manner_, as they needed then. Preaching always
did take better effect, when presented in a pleasant manner, than when
presented in an abrupt and repulsive manner. This we knew thirty years
ago, as well as we know it now. All that can be truthfully said about
this, opens the way for no change—no _new departure_. Whatever was
then true in this respect, is true now. A good and acceptable _manner_
in presenting the gospel was appreciated then as much as it is now, and
was of precisely the same value. It was understood then as well as it is
now, that every improvement in manner had its value, and more attention
was given to the _matter_ then, than now. There was then more sound
preaching and teaching, than there is now, and less that was unsound.
We need solid and sound men now, faithful and true, not to preach
something different, but _the same_, not in a different _manner_ from
what we had thirty years ago, but in the _same manner_; not to _undo_
what has been done by the labors of the holy men of the past fifty
years, many of whom have fallen asleep in Jesus, but a few remain to
this present; but to maintain, defend, perpetuate, and transmit it
down through the ages, to the end of time. We want men that will not
demoralize the people, specially our young preachers, by opening the
way for something _new_ and _different_; but maintain the same things,
and be of the same mind, and of the same judgment; not preparing the
way for something _new_, but maintaining and defending the _old_,
_tried_ and _unquestionable_; not getting ready for _change_—_new
departure_—but “preach the word”—“continue in the things they have
learned, and been assured of,” and not demoralize our young preachers
with the idea of being on the wing; on a flight from one thing to
another, in some wonderful career of progress; but exhorting them
to be “rooted and grounded in the truth;” yes, more, in the “_love_
of the truth;” not only to maintain “sound speech that can not be
condemned”—“sound words,” but the very “_form_ of sound words.”