His restrained expression, 'I am not ashamed,' is the stronger for
its very moderation. It witnesses to the fixed purpose of his heart
and attitude of his mind, whilst it suggests that he was well aware
of all the temptations in Rome to being ashamed of it there. Think of
what was arrayed against him--venerable religion, systematised
philosophies, bitter hatred and prejudice, material power and wealth.
These were the brazen armour of Goliath, and this little David went
cheerily down into the valley with five pebble stones in a leathern
wallet, and was quite sure how it was going to end. And it ended as
he expected. His Gospel shook the kingdom of the Roman, and cast it
in another mould.
And there are temptations, plenty of them, for us, dear friends,
to-day, to bate our confidence. The drift of what calls itself
influential opinion is anti-supernatural, and we all are conscious of
the presence of that element all round about us. It tells with
special force upon our younger men, but it affects us all. In this
day, when a large portion of the periodical press, which does the
thinking for most of us, looks askance at these truths, and when, on
the principle that in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is
the king, popular novelists become our theological tutors, and when
every new publishing season brings out a new conclusive destruction
of Christianity, which supersedes last season's equally complete
destruction, it is hard for some of us to keep our flags flying. The
ice round about us will either bring down the temperature, or, if it
stimulates us to put more fuel on the fire, perhaps the fire may melt
it. And so the more we feel ourselves encompassed by these
temptations, the louder is the call to Christian men to cast
themselves back on the central verities, and to draw at first hand
from them the inspiration which shall be their safety. And how is
that to be done? Well, there are many ways by which thoughtful, and
cultivated, students may do it. But may I venture to deal here rather
with ways which all Christian people have open before them? And I am
bold to say that the way to be sure of 'the power of God unto
salvation' is to submit ourselves continually to its cleansing and
renewing influence. This certitude, brethren, may be contributed to
by books of apologetics, and by other sources of investigation and
study which I should be sorry indeed to be supposed in any degree to
depreciate. But the true way to get it is, by deep communion with the
living God, to realise the personality of Jesus Christ as present
with us, our Friend, our Saviour, our Sanctifier by His Holy Spirit.
Why, Paul's Gospel was, I was going to say, altogether--that would be
an exaggeration--but it was to a very large extent simply the
generalisation of his own experience. That is what all of us will
find to be the Gospel that we have to preach. 'We speak that we do
know and testify that we have seen.' And it was because this man
could say so assuredly--because the depths of his own conscience and
the witness within him bore testimony to it--'He loved me and gave
Himself for me,' that he could also say, 'The power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth.' Go down into the depths,
brother and friend; cry to Him out of the depths. Then you will feel
His strong, gentle grip lifting you to the heights, and that will
give power that nothing else will, and you will be able to say, 'I
have heard Him myself, and I know that this is the Christ, the
Saviour of the world.'
But there is yet another source of certitude open to us all, and that
is the history of the centuries. Our modern sceptics, attacking the
truth of Christianity mostly from the physical side, are strangely
blind to the worth of history. It is a limitation of faculty that
besets them in a good many directions, but it does not work anywhere
more fatally than it does in their attitude towards the Gospel. After
all, Jesus Christ spoke the ultimate word when He said, 'By their
fruits ye shall know them.' And it is so, because just as what is
morally wrong cannot be politically right, so what is intellectually
false cannot be morally good. Truth, goodness, beauty, they are but
three names for various aspects of one thing, and if it be that the
difference between B.C. and A.D. has come from a Gospel which is not
the truth of God, then all I can say is, that the richest vintage
that ever the world saw, and the noblest wine of which it ever drank,
did grow upon a thorn. I know that the Christian Church has sinfully
and tragically failed to present Christ adequately to the world. But
for all that, 'Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord'; and nobler
manners and purer laws have come in the wake of this Gospel of Jesus
Christ. And as I look round about upon what Christianity has done in
the world, I venture to say, 'Show us any system of religion or of no
religion that has done that or anything the least like it, and then
we will discuss with you the other evidences of the Gospel.'
In closing these words, may I venture relying on the melancholy
privilege of seniority, to drop for a minute or two into a tone of
advice? I would say, do not be frightened out of your confidence
either by the premature paean of victory from the opposite camp, or
by timid voices in our own ranks. And that you may not be so
frightened, be sure to keep clear in your mind the distinction
between the things that can be shaken and the kingdom that cannot be
moved. It is bad strategy to defend an elongated line. It is
cowardice to treat the capture of an outpost as involving the
evacuation of the key of the position. It is a mistake, to which many
good Christian people are sorely tempted in this day, to assert such
a connection between the eternal Gospel and our deductions from the
principles of that Gospel as that the refutation of the one must be
the overthrow of the other. And if it turns out to be so in any case,
a large part of the blame lies upon those good and mistaken people
who insist that everything must be held or all must be abandoned. The
burning questions of this day about the genuineness of the books of
Scripture, inspiration, inerrancy, and the like, are not so
associated with this word, 'God so loved the world ... that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' as
that the discovery of errors in the Second Book of Chronicles shakes
the foundations of the Christian certitude. In a day like this truth
must change its vesture. Who believes that the Dissenting Churches of
England are the highest, perfect embodiment of the Kingdom of God?
And who believes that any creed of man's making has in it all and has
in it only the everlasting Gospel? So do not be frightened, and do
not think that when the things that can be shaken are removed, the
things that cannot be shaken are at all less likely to remain. Depend
upon it, the Gospel, whose outline I have imperfectly tried to set
before you now, will last as long as men on earth know they are
sinners and need a Saviour. Did you ever see some mean buildings that
have by degrees been gathered round the sides of some majestic
cathedral, and do you suppose that the sweeping away of those
shanties would touch the solemn majesty of the mediæval glories of
the building that rises above them? Take them away if need be, and
it, in its proportion, beauty, strength, and heavenward aspiration,
will stand more glorious for the sweeping away. Preach positive
truth. Do not preach doubts. You remember Mr. Kingsley's book
_Yeast_. Its title was its condemnation. Yeast is not meant to be
drunk; it is meant to be kept in the dark till the process of
fermentation goes on and it works itself clear, and then you may
bring it out. Do not be always arguing with the enemy. It is a great
deal better to preach the truth. Remember what Jesus said: 'Let them
alone, they are blind leaders of the blind, they will fall into the
ditch.' It is not given to every one of us to conduct controversial
arguments in the pulpit. There are some much wiser and abler brethren
amongst us than you or I who can do it. Let us be contented with, not
the humbler but the more glorious, office of telling what we have
known, leaving it, as it will do, to prove itself. You remember what
the old woman, who had been favoured by her pastor with an elaborate
sermon to demonstrate the existence of God, said when he had
finished; 'Well, I believe there is a God, for all the gentleman
says.'
As one who sees the lengthening shadows falling over the darkening
field, may I say one word to my junior brethren, with all whose
struggles and doubts and difficulties I, for one, do most tenderly
sympathise? I beseech them--though, alas! the advice condemns the
giver of it as he looks back over long years of his ministry--to be
faithful to the Gospel how that 'Jesus Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures.' Dear young friends, if you only go
where Paul went, and catch the inspiration that he caught there, your
path will be clear. It was in contact with Christ, whose passion for
soul-winning brought Him from heaven, that Paul learned his passion
for soul-winning. And if you and I are touched with the divine
enthusiasm, and have that aim clear before us, we shall soon find out
that there is only one power, one name given under heaven among men
whereby we can accomplish what we desire--the name of 'Jesus Christ
that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, and also maketh intercession for us.' If our aim is
clear before us it will prescribe our methods, and if the inspiration
of our ministry is, 'I determine not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified,' then, whether men will hear or
whether they will forbear, they shall know that there hath been a
Prophet among them.
[Footnote 1: Preached before Baptist Union.]