Every little while we hear anew the question, “Has the day of great
preachers passed?” Sometimes it is asked in a sincerely interrogatory
spirit. In other cases it is meant as an implication that the times of
great preaching are no more.
All keen observers of social and spiritual influences know that the
prophet is one of the most potent factors in the building of our
destiny, both as a nation and as a race. It is, therefore, important
that we should occasionally stop and take account of our situation as
to ministerial supply. The invoice should, of course, be qualitative as
well as quantitative. Especially do we need to do this in a time of
crisis and need like the present.
The past has indeed boasted some great preachers. Paul, Savonarola,
Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, Beecher, and Brooks—these are all men whose
names stand out upon the scroll of fame with a luster which any soldier
or statesman might envy. They will continue to occupy an honored place in
the memory of men when the names of many soldiers and statesmen have been
obscured by lapse of time.
There is no reason, however, why the average of ability should vary much
from one age to another. Changing times mold men into different types and
call for new forms of service, yet the force with which they rise to the
occasions that confront them is about the same in one period as in
another. The preachers and the preaching of one age measure with those of
another without much of discredit to either. They differ in type, but not
in ability or purpose. This being true, those of the present average
creditably with those of any period of the past.
Of course, this is doubted by some good and sincere people. A number of
things give seeming basis to their doubts. However, a second look at these
conditions is worth while.
First of all, we must recognize the common human tendency to glorify the
past to the disadvantage of the present. We all have reason to look out
for this disposition, but it especially besets older people. Something
about human nature makes it prone to live in the past. We are continually
hearing it said or suggested that the great statesmen, the great poets,
the great scholars, the great preachers, the great virtues, and the good
days are all dead and gone. One may read something of this sort in the
literature of ancient as well as modern ages. Yet the progress of the
world has gone right on.
The fact is that we quickly forget what the past actually was. When to-day
becomes yesterday, we forget its troubles and glorify its redeeming
features. It is well enough that we do, yet the habit often leads us far
afield of the truth. If people were really called upon to live again some
of the good old days they talk about so much, they might soon conclude
that the change was for the worse.
Next, we must remember that the standard of greatness constantly lifts.
It takes more to make a great man to-day than it did in other years. The
judgment of those who pass upon the question of a man’s greatness and
accord him his place in history was never so exacting. The Harvard of
Emerson’s day represented about the grade of scholarship obtainable now
in a good high school. What then was exceptional scholarship is now
commonplace. It is the same with statesmen. Men who were outstanding in
their day would seem altogether mediocre in the face of the demands of
this present period. In this time of widely diffused knowledge, it takes
more than it ever did before to win the name of greatness in the pulpit.
Next, we must remind ourselves that the minister occupies a very different
place in the community from that which he held in other days. He is,
therefore, judged by very different standards. Of old he was apt to be the
chief educator of the community, and was judged by his learning. That
place is now filled by the expert educator with the best equipment money
can place at his disposal. He was the chief commentator on current
affairs, and was judged by the wideness of his information. That place has
been taken over by the editor. He was often the only trained public
speaker in the town, and was judged by the polish of his oratory. Now the
land overflows with capable public speakers.
The conclusion of it all is that the work of the minister has narrowed
down to the one specific thing to which he is called, the specialized
service for which society must look to him alone. He is not to be judged
by his learning, his familiarity with public affairs, or his ability as a
speaker, altho he needs to possess them all. The one standard by which he
is measured is the question of his ability as an exponent of the
Christian religion.
Again, the greatness of the preacher as a prophet to-day must be in spite
of certain influences which militate against it. Strange to say, one of
them is the general economic development of the country, together with the
prevalence of ease and prosperity. Our ministers, as a rule, have come
from the poorer class of homes and from the more poorly developed sections
of the country, especially from the hills, plains, and deserts where
solitude prevails. One little hill section in the middle west has supplied
most of the ministers for its own and the surrounding States. There is a
reason. In fact, there are two.
One is the fact that in the poorer home and countryside there is not much
to compete against God for a boy’s thought and attention. Young people
brought up there do not enjoy many compensations. They have little to make
them pleasure-mad. They live in a very narrow world, and they hunger to
get out and do something worth while.
The other is the fact that the religious consciousness is best developed
in the solitudes. God has often to look to the hills and the desert for
men to be his leaders. Abraham learned to be a friend of God partly
because he walked so much in the vast silences. Moses met the great I Am
on the mountain side. It was in the hill country that Elkanah and Hannah
reared the little lad who was to be the successor of Eli. Our religion
itself was cultivated in one of the poorest sections of the old world.
With fertile river valleys all about it, barren Palestine gave us our
richest heritage of religious literature and leadership. The men living
in the richer sections might have done so, but they were too preoccupied
with wealth-getting. They had no time to listen among the silences for
the voice of God.
Unfortunately, the temper of the present age is not so conducive as it
might be to great preaching. There is a tendency to discount the value of
the prophetic function manifest even on the part of some quite religious
people. One may find in almost any current publication a statement or
inference that it is not the spoken word but the acted deed that counts.
The fact is that both count. It took both Moses, the man of deeds, and
Aaron, the man of words, to lead Israel to the realization of its hope.
It took both Ezra, the scribe, and Nehemiah, the cupbearer to the king,
to rebuild the walls and the temple of Jerusalem. It has always taken the
prophet and the toiler together to achieve human progress in the
best sense.
We have great preachers to-day. They have terrific competition to meet,
but when one closes his ears to the clash of the noises about him he can
still hear the voice of the prophet lifted clear and distinct. As of old,
there are small prophets and false ones. As of old, at the same time,
there are great prophets and true. However, if we are to keep preachers
and preaching great they must have every encouragement that can be
given them.