Ancient asceticism, in demanding for the ministry a hidden life of
communion with God, gave voice not only to one of the profoundest
intuitions of the Christian consciousness, but also to one of the
clearest teachings of Scripture. The men who deal with spiritual things
must themselves be spiritual. Our age, while rightly rejecting a
perverted asceticism, is tending to the opposite error. It is intensely
practical. "Action!" is its watchword. This practicalness often becomes
mere narrowness and shallowness. It overlooks the profounder laws of
the Christian life. Spiritual force comes from within, from the hidden
life of God in the soul. It depends, not on mere outward activities,
but on the Divine energies acting through the human faculties, God
working through the man, the Holy Ghost permeating, quickening all the
powers of the preacher, and speaking by his voice to the souls of the
people. The soul's secret power with God thus gives public power with
men, and the mightiest influences of the pulpit often flow from a
hidden spring in the solitude of the closet; for a sermon is not the
mere utterance of man: there is in it a power more than human. Its
vital force comes from the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: "It is not _ye_
that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you" (Matt.
x. 20). Its spiritual energy springs from something deeper than logic
and rhetoric. As Bushnell has well said: "Preaching is nothing else
than the bursting out of life which has first burst in or up from where
God is among the soul's foundations."
Such was the teaching of Christ. In His farewell words to His disciples
He promised "another Comforter"--one who should take His place among
them and abide with them for ever. As He had walked with them an
Instructor, Friend, Helper, so after His departure the Holy Spirit
should dwell among them, teaching, inspiring, guiding them, a true and
living Divine Presence ever with them and mighty to help. Blessed as
His own bodily presence had been, the presence of the Holy Spirit was
of still higher moment, for He declared that it was better for them
that He Himself depart and the Spirit come; for the Spirit, whose
office it is to take of Christ and show Him, should reveal the
Christ-presence within them in accordance with His promise: "He that
loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and _will
manifest Myself to him_" (John xiv. 21); "I will not leave you
comfortless; _I will come to you_" (John xiv. 18). Without this Divine
Helper He expressly forbade their entrance on the ministry, and as His
last charge before He ascended He said, "Tarry ye in the city of
Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke xxiv. 49).
At the Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended, and how marvelous was His
power! Plain as had been the words Jesus spake, the apostles yet
utterly misconceived the most vital truths; but when the Spirit of
truth came, the Gospel, in its grandeur and power, stood clearly
revealed before them. The men who before had timidly cowered in the
presence of danger now rejoiced that they "were counted worthy to
suffer shame" for the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts v. 41). They whose
selfish ambition had aspired to be "greatest in the kingdom of heaven"
now forgot their mean rivalries, and were inspired with single-hearted
consecration to the Master; and the multitudes who before had despised
and rejected their words, now convicted "of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment," bowed before this unseen, mighty Power, and cried out,
"Men and brethren, what must we do?" (Acts ii. 37).
Now, it is plain that the Holy Spirit, this special "power from on
high," was promised, not to the Apostles only, but to the ministry in
all ages. In the New Testament period He dwelt, a living, quickening
Divine presence, in all the servants of Christ, revealing truth,
inspiring faith, and making their words the power of God unto
salvation. They prayed in the Spirit; they spake in the Spirit; they
lived in the Spirit. The promise of Jesus was fulfilled: "Lo! I am with
you alway" (Matt. xxviii. 20); for the Christ-presence was continually
revealed in them--a revelation of Him, not, indeed, to the eye, but to
the soul, and unspeakably more blessed than had been His bodily
presence when on earth. Not the Apostle only, but every servant of God,
could say: "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20);
and in the hour of peril, when all men forsook him, the Christian
confessor triumphantly affirmed: "Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with
me and strengthened me" (2 Tim. iv. 17). In every subsequent age the
indwelling Spirit of God has been the fountain of power in the
ministry; and the mightiest men in the pulpit, renouncing
self-sufficiency, have confessed, with Paul: "Our sufficiency is of
God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament" (2 Cor.
iii. 5, 6). Conscious of need, they have turned their souls upward to
God, and this Divine Helper has entered and filled them; and all the
faculties and culture of the man, intellectual, moral, and spiritual,
have been transfused, elevated, enlarged, by this invisible but mighty
Power. It has been truly said: "The virtue of an electric wire is not
in the wire, but in its connection with the voltaic battery. The power
of the minister is not in the polish of his style, the pictorialness of
his illustrations, the fervor of his manner, the order and arrangement
of his discourse, but in his living connection with God and his
capacity to act as a connecting-link between God and the human soul. It
is God in the soul which is the secret of true pulpit power."
How, then, shall the pastor maintain an inner life such that he shall
be "endued with power from on high" and God shall speak through him to
the souls of men? In answer this I suggest as a means of chief
importance:
I. THE HABITUAL PRACTICE OF SECRET PRAYER.--For prayer is the bond
which links the Divine power with the human. It is the channel through
which God pours His life into the soul. It is the uplifted hand of
man's weakness taking hold on God's strength. It calls down from heaven
the sacred fire, which alone may kindle the preacher's sacrifice. It
has the most vital relations to the character and work of a pastor.
1. _The relation of secret prayer to the spirit and purpose of the
ministry._
Special dangers beset the pastor. The most sacred services, from their
frequent recurrence, may come to be performed in a perfunctory spirit,
and his life may thus degenerate into mere professionalism.
Unconsciously he comes to meditate, read, and even pray with a view
only to others and its effect on others. The sense of his personal
relation to God is lost. As a public speaker a desire for popularity
may unduly influence his preaching, and conspicuous position tempt his
ambition, obscuring his vision of the great end of his ministry--the
honor of Christ and the salvation of souls. The very respect which his
office secures may foster spiritual pride and make him insensible to
his defection in heart from God. Few men are environed by such subtle
and powerful seductions to a false life as a Christian minister, and
against these only a vivid consciousness of his high calling is an
adequate safeguard. He is God's ambassador, receiving his commission
and his message, not from men, but from the Sovereign of heaven and
earth. The souls of his congregation are entrusted to him, and the
words he is charged to speak are the words of God's saving power. "In
them that are saved" he is "a savor of life unto life," but "in them
that perish" "a savor of death unto death" (2 Cor. ii. 15, 16). If
faithful to his trust, he "shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament" and "as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. xii. 3); if
unfaithful, the blood of souls will be found on him in the day of God's
inquisition. Now, only a distinct realization of these responsibilities
as an ever-present, living force pervading his spirit will hold the
minister in his inmost life true to Christ and to his work.
It is here prayer has its mightiest reflex power. It gives a vital
sense of God and of spiritual realities. It lifts the life above the
control of lower motives to a loftier moral elevation, with a purer
atmosphere and a broader horizon. The whole man is elevated, ennobled,
transfused with Divine life, as he holds communion with God. When Moses
had been with God in the mount, his face shone with a glory such that
Israel could not steadfastly look on it. It was when Jesus was praying
that he was transfigured, "and His face did shine as the sun, and His
raiment was white as the light" (Matt. xvii. 2). God imprints His own
image on the soul that comes face to face with Him.
The inner life of a preacher always stands revealed in the pulpit; it
transfuses itself through his preaching. No mere declamation, no arts
of rhetoric, no dramatic simulation of emotion, can conceal the absence
of spiritual life. Moral earnestness can never be assumed; it is the
attribute only of a soul profoundly feeling the power and reality of
Divine truth. The man, therefore, who would speak God's Word with the
pungency and fervor of a Bunyan, a Baxter, a Flavel, or a Payson must,
like them, be constant and fervent in prayer. The springs of spiritual
life opened in the closet will pour forth never-failing streams of life
in the pulpit. Luther said: "Prayer, meditation, and temptation make a
minister." He himself is said to have spent three hours daily in
prayer, and those mighty words which thrilled the heart of Christendom
were the utterances of a soul thus glowing with the flames of devotion.
2. _The relation of secret prayer to the apprehension of spiritual
truth._
Spiritual truth is revealed only to the spiritual mind: "The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; . . . neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. ii. 14).
Spiritual susceptibility is the essential condition of apprehending
spiritual truth. A soul instinct with Divine life, sensitive to Divine
impressions, in sympathy with Divine things--this, and this only, can
enter in to a realization of those great truths which constitute the
Gospel. Without this the very message the pastor is charged to preach
he himself will fail to apprehend. He may, indeed, see the Christian
doctrines through the eye of an impassive logic, but such a lifeless
intellectualism, even when abstractly correct, has no power. The
theology of the pulpit is a theology vitalized by prayer and glowing in
the heart as a great, living reality. The hearts of men are most surely
moved by living truths vividly realized in the speaker's soul. The love
of God in the incarnation and death of His Son, the guilt and danger of
the souls of men, the glories of the saved and the miseries of the
lost,--these are not matters of cold intellection. To him who lives in
the atmosphere of prayer they stand out as vivid realities. Such men,
like Paul, "believe, and therefore speak;" and in words of burning
fervor they utter these great truths and press them on the souls of
men. Payson, on his death-bed, said: "Prayer is the first thing, the
second thing, the third thing, necessary for a minister." Whitefield
spent hours of each day on his knees with God's Word open before him,
and it was from the audience-chamber of heaven he went forth to speak
those marvelous words of power which stirred the souls of the
multitude. These eternal truths thus passed in him beyond mere
intellections; they took possession of the whole man, and he could but
speak with tender pathos and holy boldness, as he saw light in God's
light, and the spiritual world was thus all ablaze with light around
him.
Jesus Himself, the Chief Pastor, lived a life of ceaseless prayer.
Pressed under the burden of souls, he waked while others slept.
Sometimes He spent the whole night in prayer; at others, "rising up a
great while before day," He sought communion with the Father.
"Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witnessed the fervor of His prayer."
And if He, the Sinless One, the God-man, must needs thus pray, if
prayer was essential even to His inner life and to His power in the
work assigned Him, how much great necessity must press on His weak,
sinful servants! If communion with God filled so large a place in the
life of the Chief Pastor, it surely should not have less place in the
life of the under-shepherds.
II. THE HABITUAL SELF-APPLICATION AND SELF-APPROPRIATION OF DIVINE
TRUTH.--The habit of viewing truth objectively in its relation to other
truths or to other souls, rather than subjectively in its relation to
one's own soul, is one of the greatest dangers of the minister, because
his work tends directly to keep uppermost in his thinking the needs of
others. He may thus come to conceive vividly and to present strongly
the most affecting and stupendous truths of the Gospel without the
least thought of their relation to himself and their bearing on his own
life and destiny. Nor is he in this necessarily insincere. He has an
actual and strong conception of the truth and of its pregnancy with
weal or woe to others, and in pressing it he is true to his present
conviction; but his conception of it is purely in its relation to
others, and secures no application to his own spiritual wants. Now,
God's only way, so far as we know, of saving and sanctifying an
intelligent soul is through the truth; and this not truth conceived in
the intellect as a mere object of thought, but truth conceived in the
heart, entering into the center of a man's being, and acting as a
life-force in his deepest moral convictions and affections. "Born again
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Pet. i. 23),
"Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is truth" (John xvii. 17),
are passages which indicate an unvarying law of the Gospel. All
spiritual life comes from the Holy Spirit, acting through Divine truth
received into the soul. To this law God has not made the minister an
exception. The measure of religious life in him, as in every man, is
determined by the extent of this believing appropriation of Divine
truth and its consequent living power in him. He may be, therefore, a
learned theologian, holding in his intellectual vision a wide range of
truth, while yet, from failure in heart appropriation of it, he is a
dwarf in vital spiritual development, because Christian life grows not
from mere knowledge, but from truth believingly appropriated.
The pastor, therefore, should cultivate the habit of applying and
appropriating to his own soul the truths he preaches. He should
habitually look at them in their relation to himself and take them into
his own life by a distinct act of faith, which believingly, joyfully,
appropriates them as belonging to him. Every truth thus received will
become in him an added element of life, deepening and enlarging his
religious consciousness and imparting a richer and more blessed
experience. Then, from this fountain of life within, thus ever enlarged
and enriched, he will present in the pulpit, not a dead system of
doctrines, but a living Gospel which shall come with fulness of life to
the people.
III. AN HABITUAL SELF-SURRENDER AND CONSECRATION TO CHRIST AND HIS
WORK.--Selfishness, in its more insidious forms, endangers the life of
a pastor. Outwardly, by office, he is consecrated to the service of
Christ, and for this very reason he is less likely to detect, deep down
at the springs of his living, the presence and power of a self-love, in
the form of pride, envy, self-will, self-indulgence, and ambition,
which may be, after all, the controlling force in his inner life. The
danger is here the greater because, its growth having been unperceived,
the man is unconscious of its control, and because, with all "the
deceitfulness of sin," it lurks stealthily, but all the more
potentially, within the sacred forms and associations of a consecrated
office. Hence the necessity of frequent and rigid self-examination. A
man must interrogate himself, and with careful introspection seek to
detect the real forces that control his life. There should be pauses in
his career when he will stand alone in the presence-chamber of the
Omniscient One, and cry, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me,
and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24). The best lives
have found great value in such special seasons privately set apart for
fasting, prayer, and self-examination, as the navigator, in the perils
of his voyage, stops to take observation of the sun and stars and make
certain what is his position and whither the winds and currents are
bearing him. Then, with vision thus clarified, and in full view of his
real position, he should make a distinct renewal of self-dedication to
God, giving up himself, with all he is and has, unreservedly to Him.
Without this self-renunciation and self-devotion to Christ, as an
habitual fact, the inner life will be without spiritual power. Jesus,
in His promise of the Holy Spirit and of the Christ-presence, makes
this the one, essential condition: "If ye love Me, keep My
commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter" (John xiv. 15, 16). A true consecration of self to Christ,
therefore, assures the presence of the Holy Spirit as the revealer of
Christ within the soul. This was the habitual attitude of the apostle
Paul. He says: "The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal.
ii. 20). Self was nothing, Christ everything; for when confronted with
peril of death, he said: "None of these things move me, neither count I
my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy,
and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
the Gospel of the grace of God" (Acts xx. 24). Thus self-dedicated, he
received the promise: The Spirit wrought in him mightily, filling him
with Divine life and power. So utter was his self-abnegation, and so
all-absorbing his love of souls, that, like Moses of old (Ex.
xxxii. 32), he "could wish," were it right and would it secure their
salvation, to be himself "accursed from Christ" for them (Rom. ix. 3).
With like self-devotion to souls, Rutherford, the eminent Scotch
minister, while assuring his flock that they "were the objects of his
tears, care, fear, and daily prayers," said "My witness is above, that
your heaven would be two heavens to me, and the salvation of you all as
two salvations to me." A ministry thus self-forgetting is of necessity
a ministry of power; for God Himself works in it, as all history has
shown.
IV. AN HABITUAL LOOKING ABOVE FOR THE REWARD.--"Godliness" has "promise
of the life that now is" (1 Tim. iv. 8); and nowhere, perhaps, is that
promise more fully realized than in the pastorate in the present age.
In social relations, in opportunities for culture, in friendships
formed, in means of influence, in popular estimation, and even in
temporal support, few positions in life have higher advantages or more
agreeable surroundings. But, with all this, life, even in a faithful
ministry, is, on its earthly side, rarely other than a disappointment;
and the pastor who seeks reward in human applause or in any form of
earthly hope, not only thereby excludes the Holy Spirit from his life
but is also sure to find unrest and failure as the ultimate result. The
rewards of the faithful pastor are from God and are of special
magnitude and blessedness.
The rewards come, in part, in the present life. A faithful minister
finds them alike in a clear conscience and a sense of the approval of
God, and in his work itself and the blessed results following it. With
all its care and toil, the ministry, to the man who knows his call of
God to the work and devotes himself to it without reserve, is the
happiest work on earth. "Sorrowful" he is, "yet always rejoicing."
Henry Martyn said: "I do not wish for any heaven on earth besides that
of preaching the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ to immortal souls. I
wish for no service but the service of God in laboring for souls on
earth and to do His will in heaven." Dr. Doddridge: "I esteem the
ministry the most desirable employment on earth, and find that delight
in it, and those advantages from it, which I think hardly any other
employment on earth could give me." Rutherford: "There is nothing out
of heaven, next to Christ, dearer to me than my ministry." Brown: "Now,
after forty years' preaching of Christ, I think I would rather beg my
bread all the laboring-days of the week for an opportunity of
publishing the Gospel on the Lord's Day than without such privilege to
enjoy the richest possessions on earth." Such is the testimony of godly
ministers in all ages, even in periods of bitter persecution. The
conscious presence of Christ; the blessed privilege of declaring to
guilty men God's rich and free mercy; the delight in the work of saving
souls and of ministering comfort and strength and hope to the
sorrowing, the weak, and the despairing; the joy of communion with
saints,--all these enter into the minister's experience, and give to
his work even on earth an unspeakably rich reward.
But the highest reward of the ministry is reserved in heaven. There
they will "shine as the brightness of the firmament" "and as the stars
for ever and ever" (Dan. xii. 3). "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and
gathereth fruit unto life eternal" (John iv. 36). Every soul won to
Christ here will there be an occasion of eternal joy. Paul said: "What
is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even _ye_ in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?" (1 Thess. ii. 19).
Glorious beyond our thought is the reward set before every faithful
Christian: he shall receive a "crown of righteousness" (2 Tim. iv. 8),
a "crown of life" (James i. 12), "an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor.
iv. 17) and shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of God" (Matt.
xiii. 43); and all this intensified shall be the reward of the true
pastor, according as he is faithful to his high calling from God.
Let the pastor, then, seek most of all to be faithful to Christ and His
work. Let it be to him "a very small thing" that he "be judged" "of
man's judgment" (1 Cor. iv. 4) and let him ever cherish as of chief
moment a clear conscience, finding his highest comfort in the sweet
assurance of God's approval. Be it his to have "respect unto the
recompense of the reward," and so endure "as seeing him who is
invisible" (Heb. xi. 26, 27). Thus, will his life approximate that
grandest of merely human lives--the life of him who declared, "As we
were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we
speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts" (1 Thess.
ii. 4), and at the close of which it was said, "I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day" (2 Tim. iv. 7, 8).
When of old, at the Sea of Galilee, the Lord reinstated Peter after his
fall, He thrice with solemn emphasis proposed the question, "Simon, son
of Jonas, LOVEST thou ME?" He thus taught for all the ages that
personal love to Him is the primal condition for the sacred office.
Without this as the central, fontal principle in the soul the pastor's
life will fail of spiritual power, but with this as its impulsive force
he will be like the faithful minister seen by Bunyan's pilgrim: he "had
eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of
truth was written upon his lips, the world was behind his back; he
stood as if he pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over his
head."
+Transcriber's Notes.+
- Note about paragraph identification: The first new paragraph on a
page is "paragraph one." If a paragraph continues from the prior
page, it is "paragraph zero."
- Page 5, preface, second paragraph, apply Reverential
Capitalization (RC) to "Gospel."
- Page 7, TOC, Section i., apply RC to "Divine."
- The break between pages 7 and 8 is in a unit that style indicates
should not be broken: "5.|Preaching." The whole unit was moved to
the earlier page.
- Page 8, TOC, section iii., point 5 (2.), change the semi-colon
after "Exposition" to a colon.
- Page 11, TOC, Section xx., point 2, apply RC to "Divine"; point 3,
apply RC to "His."
- Page 13, Section i., paragraph one, apply RC to "He," "His"
(twice), "Divine," "My" (twice), and "Apostles."
- Page 14, paragraph zero, point 2, apply RC to "He," "Apostles,"
"Himself," and "His." Point 3, apply RC to "Divine," "His," and
"Gospel." Paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine" and "Gospel."
- The break between pages 14 and 15 is in the word "consciousness":
con|sciousness. In this and all subsequent cases the whole word
was moved to the earlier page.
- Page 15, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine." Paragraph one,
apply RC to "Divine" and "Word."
- The break between pages 15 and 16 is in the word "enthusiasm":
en|thusiasm.
- Page 16, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Point 2, apply RC
to "Gospel"; change "wo" to "woe"; apply RC to "Gospel"; point 3,
apply RC to "Divine" (twice).
- Page 17, point II, apply RC to "Gospel." Point II 1, apply RC to
"Christ."
- Page 18, paragraph zero, point 5, apply RC to "Word" and "Gospel."
- Page 19, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine." Point III, apply RC to
"Him."
- Page 20, paragraph zero, add comma to "prayer the." Paragraph one,
point 1, apply RC to "His." Point 2, apply RC to "Divine." Point 3,
apply RC to "Divine" and "Word."
- Page 21, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Section ii., part
I, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine" and "His" (twice). Point
I 1, apply RC to "Gospel."
- The break between pages 21 and 22 is in the word "evidently":
evi|dently.
- Page 22, point 2, change "centre" to "center"; apply RC to
"Apostles."
- Page 23, in-line note on "niggardly."
- Page 24, paragraph zero, change "practising" to "practicing."
Point 5, remove comma from "weeks, and." Point 6, change
"practises" to "practices."
- Page 25, point II 1, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 27, paragraph zero, add comma to "order for." Paragraph one,
apply RC to "His."
- The break between pages 27 and 28 is in the word "service":
ser|vice.
- Page 28, point 2, add comma to "activity a."
- Page 29, point 3, add comma to "failed and."
- Page 30, paragraph one, remove comma from "place, and."
- Page 32, point 1, remove comma from "choir, and."
- Page 33, point III, apply RC to "Word" and "Him." Point III 1 (1.),
add comma to "Thus a."
- Page 34, paragraph zero, point (4.), apply RC to "Word."
- Page 35, paragraph zero, remove comma from "Scripture, and." Point
(3.), add comma to "instances false."
- Page 36, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Word."
- The break between pages 37 and 38 is in the word "expression":
expres|sion.
- Page 37, paragraph one, change "exigences" to "exigencies."
- Page 38, paragraph one, point (1.), apply RC to "Divine."
- Page 39, paragraph zero, point (3.), add comma to "case there."
- Page 40, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine," "His," "Gospel," and
"Divine" (twice).
- Page 41, paragraph one, point 4 (2), apply RC to "Divine."
- Page 42, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine."
- Page 43, paragraph zero, change "moulded" to "molded." Point V,
change "centre" to "center"; apply RC to "Himself," "He," "Him"
(thrice), "Gospel," and "Word."
- Page 44, paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel" Point 1, apply RC to
"Divine," "Word," "Divine," and "Word." Point 2, apply RC to
"Gospel."
- Page 45, paragraph zero, remove comma from "life, and." Paragraph
two, point 1, apply RC to "Him," "His," "Divinity," and "His"
(twice).
- Page 46, paragraph zero, apply RC to "He," "His" (twice), "He,"
"Him," "He," "His" (thrice), "He," "Him," "He," "His," "Gospel,"
"His," "He," "His," "Himself," and "His." Capitalize "Fall." Apply
RC to "His" (twice). Change "centre" to "center." Apply RC to
"Him" and "Gospel."
- The break between pages 46 and 47 is in the word "possible":
possi|ble.
- Page 47, paragraph zero, point (2.), change "defence" to "defense"
and "imperilled" to "imperiled."
- Page 48, paragaph zero, apply RC to "Divine"; change "skilful" to
"skillful." Point (2.), change "mould" to "mold."
- Page 49, paragraph zero, add comma to "also in." Point (3.), apply
RC to "Word."
- Page 50, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice). Point (2.),
apply RC to "Him" and "His."
- The break between pages 50 and 51 is in the word "adoring":
ador|ing.
- Page 51, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him" (twice). Point (3.),
remove comma from "courage, and." Apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph
one, add comma to "subjects I." Point (2.), apply RC to "Divine,"
"Him," and "Divine."
- The break between pages 52 and 53 is in the word "discriminating":
dis|criminating.
- Page 53, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" and "Gospel."
Paragraph one, capitalize "Sermon on the Mount."
- Page 54, point (4.), apply RC to "Divine"; remove comma from
"theme, and."
- Page 55, paragraph zero, point 5, apply RC to "Word"; remove comma
from "effort, and."
- Page 61, paragraph zero, remove comma from "alone, and"; apply RC
to "Him."
- Page 63, paragaph zero, point 3, apply RC to "Him."
- The break between pages 63 and 64 is in the word "perhaps":
per|haps.
- Page 64, paragraph zero, change "exigences" to "exigencies."
- Page 65, paragraph two, point 2, apply RC to "Gospel" and "Word."
- Page 66, paragraph zero, add comma to "purpose have."
- The break between pages 66 and 67 is in the word "stubble":
stub|ble.
- Page 67, paragraph one, remove comma from "bear, and."
- Page 68, paragraph zero, point 3, change "centre" to "center."
- Page 70, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine" and "His."
- Page 72, paragraph zero, point 3, apply RC to "Divine." Paragraph
one, change "centre" to "center"; apply RC to "Him."
- Page 73, paragraph zero, capitalize "Passover." Remove comma from
"administration, but."
- Page 74, paragraph one, remove commas from "school, and,
believing."
- The break between pages 74 and 75 is in the word "well-filled":
well-|filled.
- Page 75, paragraph zero, remove comma from "schools, and."
Paragraph one, point 2, remove comma from "women, and."
- Page 77, paragraph zero, remove commas from "trashy, but" and
"directly, and."
- Page 78, section vii., paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine," "His"
(twice), "He," "His," "He," "Him," and "His."
- Page 80, paragraph zero, remove comma from "one, and." Paragraph
one, apply RC to "Him" and "His."
- Page 81, point I, paragraph two, apply RC to "Gospel"; change
"exigences" to "exigencies."
- Page 83, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice).
- Page 84, paragraph two, add comma to "reason it."
- Page 85, paragraph zero, add comma to "turn they." Paragraph one,
add comma to "rule a."
- Page 86, paragraph zero, add comma to "accessible and." Point III,
paragraph one, apply RC to "Word"; remove comma from "God, and."
- Page 87, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him." Paragraph one,
capitalize "Divine," referring to a churchman. Paragraph two, add
comma to "conversations new."
- Page 89, paragraph two, add comma to "week he"; remove comma from
"burnings, but."
- Page 91, paragraph zero, apply RC to "His" (twice).
- The break between pages 91 and 92 is in the word "circumstances":
circum|stances.
- Page 92, paragraph one, point 3, remove comma from "friend, and."
- Page 93, paragraph zero, add comma to "possible help"; apply RC to
"He," "Him," "His," and "Him"; change "Saviour" to "Savior."
- The break between pages 93 and 94 is in the word "everything":
every|thing.
- Page 94, paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel." Section viii.,
paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 95, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" (twice), and
"Gospel"; remove comma from "men, and."
- The break between pages 96 and 97 is in the word "religious":
re|ligious.
- Page 96, paragraph one, apply RC to "Him," "My," and "His."
Paragraph two, point 2, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 97, paragraph one, remove comma from "it, and"; apply RC to
"Gospel."
- Page 98, paragraph one, change "scepticism" to "skepticism."
- Page 101, paragraph two, point 2, change "centres" to "centers"
(twice).
- Page 103, paragraph one, point 1, remove comma from "teaching,
and"; add comma to "success the."
- Page 105, paragraph one, point 3, remove commas from "appears,
and" and "fact, and." Paragraph two, point 4, remove comma from
"watch, and."
- The break between pages 105 and 106 is in the word
"relinquishing": relin|quishing.
- Page 106, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Section xi.,
paragraph two, point 1, add comma to "then it."
- Page 107, paragraph one, point 2, remove comma from "indulged,
and"; change "offence" to "offense."
- Page 108, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" and "He"; remove
comma from "accidental, but"; apply RC to "He" (twice) and
"Gospel."
- The break between pages 108 and 109 is in the word "acceptance":
accept|ance.
- Page 109, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him" and "Gospel" (twice).
Paragraph one, point 4, add comma to "standing and."
- Page 110, paragraph one, point 5, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 111, paragraph one, apply RC to "Gospel."
- The break between pages 111 and 112 is in the word "contribution":
contribu|tion.
- Page 112, paragraph two, point 3, remove comma for "this, or."
- Page 115, paragraph zero, remove comma from "work, and."
- Page 116, paragraph one, point 4, apply RC to "Word."
- The break between pages 116 and 117 is in the word "eminently":
emi|nently.
- Page 117, paragraph two, point 2, change "defence" to "defense"
(twice).
- The break between pages 117 and 118 is in the word "evangelical":
evangel|ical.
- Page 118, paragraph zero, change "exigences" to "exigencies";
apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one, point 4, apply RC to
"Gospel"; change "centres" to "centers"; apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 119, paragraph zero, point (2.), apply RC to "Gospel" and
"Divine." Point (3.), apply RC to "Word."
- Page 120, paragraph one, remove comma from "country, and."
- Page 122, paragraph zero, point 3, remove comma from "discipline,
and." Point 4, change "pretence" to "pretense."
- Page 123, paragraph one, add comma to "Finally I."
- Page 124, paragraph zero, remove comma from "necessity, and"; add
comma to "certainly the." Section XVI, apply RC to "His."
- Page 125, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice).
- Page 126, paragraph zero, remove comma from "advisers, and." Point
4, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 130, paragraph zero, remove comma from "him, and." Paragraph
one, point 1, change "dulness" to "dullness."
- Page 133, paragraph zero, remove commas from "experience, and" and
"pulpit, and." Paragraph one, point 6, add comma to "it power."
- Page 134, paragraph one, apply RC to "Apostles" (twice) and
"Word"; add comma to "ministers we."
- Page 135, paragraph zero, remove comma from "membership, and."
- Page 136, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel"; add comma to "this
he"; remove commas from "spirit, and" and "life, or"; change "he
lose habits" to "he loses habits" and "fulness" to "fullness";
apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 137, paragraph one, apply RC to "Word." Point 1, apply RC to
"Gospel." Point 2, apply RC to "Gospel" and "Divinely-constituted."
- Page 138, paragraph zero, remove comma from "reason, and." Section
xvii., paragraph one, add comma to "respect they."
- Page 139, paragraph one, remove comma from "study, and."
- Page 141, paragraph zero, remove comma from "plan, and."
- Page 142, paragraph one, remove comma from "mill, but."
- The break between pages 142 and 143 is in the word "standpoints":
stand|points.
- Page 143, paragraph three, point 1, change "marvellously" to
"marvelously"; apply RC to "Word."
- Page 144, paragraph two, remove comma from "manhood, and."
- Page 145, paragraph one, point 4, apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph
three, apply RC to "Gospel"; and add comma to "Bible a."
- The break between pages 145 and 146 is in the word
"undiscriminating": undiscriminat|ing.
- Page 146, paragraph one, point 1, apply RC to "Word," "Divine,"
"Word," "His," and "Divine."
- Page 147, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 148, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Apostle," "Gospel," "He"
and "His" (twice). Of Paul, point 2, apply RC to "Divinely-called"
and "Apostle." Of Paul, point 3, apply RC to "Apostle" and
"Gospel." Apply RC to "Gospel." Of Christ, point 1, apply RC to
"His" and "He." Of Christ, point 2, apply RC to "His," "Divine,"
"He," "His," and "Word."
- Page 149, paragraph zero, remove comma from "it, and"; apply RC to
"Gospel"; remove commas from "text-book, and" and "thought, and."
- The break between pages 149 and 150 is in the word "formation":
forma|tion.
- Page 150, paragraph two, apply RC to "His" and "Gospel."
- Page 151, paragraph one, apply RC to "He" and "His." Point 1,
change "ch. iv. 9" to "Phil. iv. 9" for concreteness; change
"unblamably" to "unblameably"; remove comma from "pulpit, and."
- The break between pages 151 and 152 is in the word "proposes":
pro|poses.
- Page 152, paragraph zero, add comma to "evidently he." Point 3,
apply RC to "Gospel" and "He." Point 4, apply RC to "Gospel";
change "doest" to "dost" to match KJV quotation. Paragraph one,
apply RC to "His."
- Page 153, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" and "His."
- Page 155, paragraph two, apply RC to "Gospel" (twice); change
"exigences" to "exigencies."
- Page 156, paragraph two, point 1, remove comma from "franchise,
and."
- Page 157, paragraph one, remove comma from "life, but."
- Page 159, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one,
change "centres" to "centers."
- The break between pages 159 and 160 is in the word "ministerial":
min|isterial.
- Page 160, paragraph zero, remove comma from "household, and."
Paragraph one, point 4, remove comma from "innocent, but."
- The break between pages 160 and 161 is in the word "amusements":
amuse|ments.
- Page 161, paragraph one, point 5, apply RC to "Him" and "His."
Paragraph two, point 6, remove comma from "fact, but." Paragraph
three, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 162, paragraph one, point 1, change "dulness" to "dullness."
- The break between pages 162 and 163 is within a unit (a scripture
reference), "1 Cor. vi.|12." The whole unit was moved to the
earlier page.
- Page 163, paragraph one, point 3, apply RC to "Gospel."
- Page 164, section xx., paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine."
- The break between pages 164 and 165 is in the word "bursting":
burst|ing.
- Page 165, paragraph one, apply RC to "His" (twice), "He," "His,"
"He," "His," "Divine," "His," "He" (twice), "Himself," "Him,"
"His," "Me," "My," "Myself," "Divine," "He," "His," and "He"
(twice). Paragraph two, change "marvellous" to "marvelous"; apply
RC to "His" and "Gospel."
- Page 166, paragraph one, apply RC to "Apostles," "He," "Divine,"
"Him," "His," "Apostle," and "Divine."
- Page 167, paragraph two, point I, apply RC to "Divine" and "His."
- Page 168, paragraph one, apply RC to "Divine," "His" (thrice), and
"Him."
- Page 169, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Divine" and "Word."
Paragraph two, apply RC to "Divine" (thrice), "Gospel," and "His."
- Page 170, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Word"; change "marvellous"
to "marvelous." Paragraph one, apply RC to "Himself" and "He"
(twice). Poem, apply RC to "His." Paragraph two, apply RC to "He,"
"His" (twice), "Him," and "His."
- Page 171, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel"; change "centre" to
"center"; apply RC to "Word," "Thy," "Thy Word," "Gospel" and
"Divine" (twice).
- The break between pages 171 and 172 is in the word "applying":
ap|plying.
- Page 172, paragraph zero, remove comma from "himself, and"; apply
RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one, point III, apply RC to "His."
- Page 173, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Him." Paragraph one, apply
RC to "His," "Me," "My," "Himself," and "Gospel"; add comma to
"self-dedicated he"; capitalize "The" after the colon, because a
whole sentence follows the colon; apply RC to "Divine."
- Page 174, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Himself." Paragraph one,
point IV, remove commas from "life, but" and "God, and." Paragraph
two, apply RC to "Gospel" and "His."
- Page 175, paragraph zero, apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph one,
apply RC to "His"; remove comma after "2 Cor. iv. 17" reference.
- Page 176, paragraph one, apply RC to "His"; add right double quote
after "small thing"; remove comma after "1 Cor. iv. 4" reference;
add comma to "thus will"; apply RC to "Gospel." Paragraph two,
apply RC to "He" and "Him."